“The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.” — Confucius

mycuppa March 2020 Newsletter

On top of the recent natural disasters in Australia, our local hospitality industry continues to crumble with more closures of high-profile venues - an inevitable fallout of wage scandals, intermediary food delivery apps disrupting customer buying patterns, systemic price deflation in the food service segment over the last decade and recent threats of the coronavirus all combining to form a perfect storm.

It's easier to see a blue sky for hospitality with a significant reboot and pricing reform. Yet, operators continue to blindly race towards the bottom with cut-priced dark kitchens popping up everywhere (sometimes in less appropriate locations), offering multiple phantom brands feeding our growing demand for home delivery. It's not going to end well, I'm afraid, and the standards are declining along with the pricing.

February's Secret Label resonated successfully with our customers returning to ask for more. March's offering is different, with a lovely blend of 3 origins delivering dark plum, cherry ripe, poached pear, honey and milk chocolate - more than a mouthful.

This month, we also feature an additional coffee for a limited time. This superb fruity natural micro lot from Ethiopia is also certified FAIRTRADE Organic with excellent aromatics, blueberry, plum and dark chocolate notes with a delightful medium citric berry acidity. We love its lush, rich, heavy body with molasses and vanilla in the finish.

Perfect for a black coffee and in milk, there is surprising complexity.

We have delicious new gunpowder green tea in-store packed into resealable 250g and 500g rippa-zippa bags representing excellent value.

AusPost is at it again, creating new surcharges. This time, it applies to Express parcels only, and it's called a Security surcharge. It's related to the increasing costs of moving freight into and out of our airports due to compliance with security.

Customers will have noticed that the pricing of our certified FAIRTRADE coffees has changed.

This increase reflects higher input costs related to participation in the FAIRTRADE system. Inclusive of charges for licensing, limited sourcing, on-site auditing and the levy we pay on every kilo bought and sold.

We remain committed to the FAIRTRADE program as the only genuine system giving back to coffee farmers and their communities, and our offerings continue to be the most competitive in the marketplace. 

Ethiopia FAIRTRADE Organic - NATURAL

The wonderful thing about this big, diverse world of coffee is that there's no right or wrong, no black or white, just plenty of grey shades.

Coffee enthusiasts often rave about "fruit" when they encounter something deliciously complex and satisfying, particularly those that enjoy their elixir "au naturel", a.k.a. black.

But fruit can be a highly polarizing element - with every plead for a fruit bomb experience. There will inevitably be an equally opposite reaction from a chocolate lover going "what the".

We tend to play it relatively conservatively here at mycuppa when it comes to the fruit-tutti numbers for a simple reason: after being around coffee for more than 40 years, we get how it's the sensible middle where most people want to play - careful of not kicking own-goals or offending people in a selfish pursuit of generating truck loads of fruity coffees.

But of course, that doesn't stop us from trying or, at times, wondering and playing.

We do sneak in some fruity lots once in a while - just a few months ago, it was the delightful Sumatra Wahana Natural that so many people loved and came back to ask for more, but we still copped a few "did not like" feedback responses - which you have to guess is always going to happen with coffees on the edge of boundaries.

This month, it's time to jump on the fruity natural train with some seriously delicious coffee from our all-time favourite origin of those banging sweet, punchy, decadent, complex cups - a complete natural with powerful aromatics from Ethiopia.

As an extra benefit, it's fully certified Organic and FAIRTRADE.

Blueberry is such a rarity in coffees these days - even just the tiniest hint of blueberry will send me gaga.

It is a delicious coffee with plenty of choc notes, especially in milk coffees.

For black drinkers - yes, this is the coffee you need.

As a unique micro-lot with certification, there is a fixed limit on the quantity we have available - we don't think it will last the month, so if you are even just a little bit tempted - jump in early to avoid disappointment, it's a great cup with the added benefits of organic and supporting farmers in the FAIRTRADE system.

We love the intense aromatics, blueberry, plum and dark chocolate notes, and medium citric and berry acidity.

Heavy body, carries a molasses and vanilla finish.

March Secret Label

Last month's Secret Label resonated well with our customers- a big thank you to all the customers who provided feedback.

We must listen to our customers - moments like those with February's Secret label loved with a genuine passion inform us how and where to act. Hence, we will.

Whilst the lots used for that coffee are not readily available now, it has inspired us to re-think one of our existing blends to re-engineer it around a theme of February's stunning success.

Like every new month, we aimed for something a little different for March.

There's no point repeating the same format just because it proved popular, so we pulled coffees from 3 origins to create a blend with a unique style and distinct attributes - setting it apart from everything else.

We love the flavours of dark plum, cherry ripe, poached pear, honey and milk chocolate - a cup of rich, layered textures with soaring sweetness and a long, clean finish.

For a limited time only - we are ending before the end of the month.

 New Security Surcharge for AUSPOST Express parcels

AusPost is at it again - inventing new surcharges to increase its revenue from its captive, monopoly market - residential freight.

Around 18 months ago, they did it by adding a new fee called fuel surcharge when the price of diesel jumped a bit, and it's now a mandatory part of their monthly charging.

Over the last few years, there's been a merry-go-round of new Executives running the show with careers in logistics and experience working for other couriers, so dreaming up new surcharges is something they are well adept at managing.

Surcharges are a secondary thrust intended to give AusPost some "breathing space" against the backlash of rate rises on zones. Still, it's effectively enabling them to double how they can lift prices via zone increases and surcharges.

So the bean counters at Australia Post - allegedly battling against the weak excuse of rapid declines in high margin letters business invented this new surcharge called "Security Management Charge", and it's proposed to only apply to Express services.

It's explained that the costs for moving freight through Australian airports have risen dramatically due to higher levels of compliance required for security.

It's almost a believable story they spin, except for the obscure reasons it does not entirely make sense given their volumes of freight are astronomical and growing (you would think they should be able to enjoy the benefits of economies of scale and efficiencies that come with such books) and let's also not forget that long-term besties Christine (Holgate, CEO AusPost) and Alan (Joyce, CEO Qantas) recently consummated a new mega deal that gives Qantas even more of the AusPost cargo capacity, so the extra surcharge it adds to each consignment is an excellent revenue machine for AusPost.

We have regularly criticised AusPost's Express performance - to the point that we sometimes switch it off to avoid customer heat, mainly when we see the freight network showing signs of meltdowns - generally around public holidays.

Express never achieves 100%, and stats (unavailable on demand) show it's closer to 92% than 100%. In performances, we cannot distinguish between proper delivery and lazy carding for collection - a significant problem.

Our customers must also remember that AusPost does not guarantee delivery of Express parcels sent from merchants like us and the other 100,000 businesses in Australia that use this same service. 

AusPost limit guarantees to consignments using official AusPost branded merchandise purchased over the counter in licensed AusPost outlets - the devil is in the details.

Our advice to customers remains the same - Express is faster than standard road service, but it's never guaranteed, and we are certainly not in a position to have the resources available to navigate the problematic and inefficient engagement methods of dealing with AusPost on every single service performance failure - however, customers are more than welcome to take up the challenge directly with AusPost - as it should be, given the merchant has no value to add in a service failure investigation or remediation - don't fall for the false promise of contacting the sender for a refund - because they off use this Teflon response to deflect.

Christine Holgate (CEO AusPost) is trying to improve the performance of Express by reducing the reliance upon sub-contractors handling the last leg of the journey - apparently, they are letting the team down and gaming the system (gee, what a surprise - subcontractors sabotaging the delivery metrics!).

You will have seen those cute Swiss-made electric vehicles used by posties replacing the Honda motor scooters - this effectively loads up posties to deliver express parcels more promptly. Still, it will be a long, slow reform as the Post's business is a labour-intensive operation with entrenched cultures of working to a fundamental rule and a history of militant unionism.

As much as we push AusPost to perform better, we are stuck with them and from our end, we do everything we can to ensure the freight performance gets off to a great start.