mycuppa December 2014 Newsletter

Xmas Trading Hours

The mycuppa store will remain open 24/7 to accept orders throughout the entire Xmas and New Year period.

 

However, please be aware NO freight services are operating during this period.

• Last Parcel dispatch: midday Tuesday, 23rd December 2014.
• First Parcel dispatch: Monday, 5th January 2015.
• Orders placed after midday 23/12/2014 will be sent on the first available dispatch - 5/1/15.

Note we will stop roasting on the morning of 23rd December and resume again on 1st January.

 

 

We picked up a couple of medals at the recent Golden Bean coffee roasting competition.

 

Bronze medal in the Milk-based Espresso for our eponymous Suuweet and another Bronze medal in the Single Origin for our Ethiopia Yirgacheffe.

 

Both these categories are the most contested sections of the competition. 

 

Australians love milk-based espresso, as around 92% of all beverages have milk added. 

 

Similarly, the fascination with single origins ensures there are hundreds of entries.

 

Overall, the competition attracted more than 1000 entries - a testament to the fact it remains the most competitive coffee roasting event in the world - there is nothing like it in scale.

 

We already knew Suuweet was a top performer - it is, without doubt, our most popular coffee and the same coffee we always put forward to new customers as a recommendation.

 

Suuweet has exceptional balance - clean, rich caramel with a long, syrupy toffee and vanilla finish. It's a very rewarding coffee.

 

In 2014, we received ten varieties of Yirgacheffe coffee in our warehouse, reflecting both design and chronic shortages of good Yirgy's.

 

We set out again this year to play around with some natural Ethiopians - they provide such intense flavour, sweetness and cup character, but at the same time, they can be quite challenging to roast. 

 

Of course, we continue to purchase many quality washed Yirgy's as the staple for our customers.

 

The natural Yirgy's were delivering wild apricots and fruit notes unseen previously. 

 

For this reason, we loved those naturals, and some of our Roaster's Choice customers were fortunate enough to enjoy these fruit bombs.

 

Supply lines for Yirgy's remain tight, and prices are very high.

 

So, what's going on with coffee prices?

2014 has seen some big recoveries in the price of raw coffee.

 

It's not quite hitting the peaks of mid to late 2010, but there are still dramatic jumps and rollercoaster rides.

 

Earlier this year, we experienced that type of "perfect storm", with coffee pricing spiking up 64% in 3 months due to supply challenges in the world's largest producing origin, Brazil.

 

Combined with a Roya (coffee leaf rust) outbreak in Central America and a 3rd straight crop of lower yield harvests in Sumatra, we now see the effects of a falling Aussie Dollar playing out as the importing brokers enforce further price increases.

 

This week, the brokers decided to add $0.40 a kilo to the price of all coffees due to currency weakness - all coffees are traded in US dollars, so we are facing a price spike of $400 a pallet.

 

For us, this means our general consumption rate of around 2x pallets per week adds another $800 per week to the cost of our coffees.

 

Despite a competitive domestic market in Australia, this cost increase will play out in revised retail coffee pricing.

 

It is interesting to note that the retail price of roasted coffee beans is largely disconnected from the actual cost price of raw coffee.

 

Some of this is inventory lag, but the majority is competitive forces - an over-supply of sellers all fighting for the customer's order/$$.

 

In terms of forecast, you can expect the price of coffee to rise at least $1 a kilo in 2015.

 

 

We are moving a lot of coffee every day.

 

It's quite amazing to see more than a pallet getting loaded into the freight vans each afternoon.

 

We also have many cafes and private label customers to service that take another pallet every day.

 

Every customer is equally important, regardless of whether they purchase 500g or 500kg.

 

 

One benefit of turning over all this volume is our freshness promise target becomes so easily achieved.

 

Most of the coffee is less than 6 hours old when it leaves our facility and nothing more than 48 hours old.

 

What makes it worth the long hours and efforts are the wonderful customers we have @ mycuppa.

 

Every day, people place a nice "thank you, we love your coffee" note in our order comments area.

 

That makes us happy and gives us the energy and enthusiasm to achieve more.

 

Over the last 14 months, we have been through a very intensive review period.

 

As a roaster, you never stop learning - new beans, new thinking, new ways.

 

We have implemented a lot of improvements to how we roast coffee. 

 

It's never about churning out brown beans - every batch needs to be a winner, and you are only as good as the last batch of coffee beans roasted.

 

In many respects, we have gone back to smaller batch sizes to generate higher qualities - this costs us more in terms of energy (power and gas) and labour, but the result is genuinely worth it.

 

We have purchased another new roaster - #4. 

 

After a very detailed 12-month evaluation period, our new custom-designed roasting platform is currently being built overseas, and we will commission the new system in March-May 2015. 

 

The reason we have purchased another roasting platform is that we need to move premises (which is also another major six-month project).

 

The only way we can achieve a relocation is to install a new plant and become operational before we move in - such is the challenge of a 24x7 business like mycuppa.

 

We can't schedule downtime and we must build an entirely parallel operation before switching across.

 

Our new facility will raise the bar regarding product quality as we implement some systems our competitors need to use.

 

These are substantial investments that we know will return the benefits over the long term.