Kingswood Coffee
Reputable coffee roasteries treat coffee with respect.
Coffee roasteries are springing up like mushrooms after rain during a warm autumn day.
Kingswood Coffee, a Lincolnshire roastery no one has heard of, including me.
Many many problems with these coffee beans, shipped loose in plastic tubs to be scooped out and bagged, ideal for oxidising the beans, shipped in transparent plastic bags, sunlight will damage the beans, the bags heat sealed and cannot be resealed once opened, the beans over roasted.
Shipping beans in plastic tubs is fine to a local coffee shop where the beans will be used within half a day, not to a store, where occasionally scooped out and bagged for a customer. Each time the lid of the tub opened, air will get in and the beans will oxidise. No idea of roast date, though can ask.
The best container for beans, the bag they are shipped in, the bag is designed to keep the beans fresh. When opened and beans removed, squeeze the bag to eject the air, then seal the bag. Once opened, the beans will remain fresh for less than a week, will quickly oxidise and go stale.
Coffee bags have several different but related functions:
- Stop air getting to the coffee, to prevent it from oxidising and ageing.
- Allow CO2 to escape from the bag safely, a process known as degassing. Degassing is something that happens with coffee after roasting — it releases CO2. If the bag doesn’t have a valve, then it can go pop!
- Stop light from penetrating the bag, which will damage the beans.
The role of the bag the beans are shipped in is to keep the beans fresh.
Shipping beans in a transparent plastic bag, albeit compostable, is nigh on useless. Beans should be kept in a cool, dark place. The bags are heat sealed, impossible to reseal once open. The only advantage of the transparent bag, can see the beans are over roasted, thus best avoided.
Coffee in transparent plastic bags is like something out of Monty Python. Or Del Boy, our coffee bags are not like other coffee bags, our coffee bags are see through plastic so you can see the quality of the coffee. That’s right isn’t it Rodney?
There is a lot of discussion within speciality coffee on sustainability, reducing carbon emissions, reducing waste, whilst still achieving the primary objective of keeping the coffee beans fresh. There are no easy answers, no simple solutions.
Coffee capsules could be aluminium or compostable. Recovering aluminium from bauxite is very energy intensive, hence smelters located adjacent to hydro-electric schemes but the aluminium easy to recycle. Compostable pods, what is the material made of, where sourced from, how efficient at keeping out oxygen, will they compost on a home compost heap? With coffee drinkers living in apartments how many have access to a garden let alone a compost heap?
Nespresso was introduced in 1986. Not quality coffee, far from it. The patent expired in 2012, enabling independent roasteries to supply speciality coffee in aluminium or compostable Nespresso capsules. Opal One a superior machine to a Nespresso machine.
- The Underdog
- Kiss the Hippo
- Colonna Coffee
Compostable coffee cups, how many thrown in a litter bin? Reusable coffee cups are not the answer and should not be used during coronavirus pandemic.
Addressing symptoms, not underlying problems of throw away culture. Sit and relax in a coffee shop with coffee served in glass or ceramic.
Coffee shipped loose to zero waste stores, scooped out for customers, results in stale coffee beans.
I had a choice, El Salvador or a House Blend (Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador). I chose El Salvador, the best of a poor choice. The El Salvador, medium roast, only not, it was medium verging on dark roast.
When in doubt, I always seek a second opinion. I took a sample of 100g. Beans brewed as V60. Undrinkable. I poured down the drain.
As I write, a pleasant subtle aroma from bags of beans from Kiss the Hippo.
From Kingswood Coffee the El Salvador beans roasted maybe ten days ago, milk chocolate, nothing more.
Coffee has more flavour notes than red wine. These flavour notes are determined by variety, terroir, altitude, soil, rainfall, grown in the shade, processing of the picked ripe cherries. The skill of the roaster is to roast to bring out the inherent flavour notes.
Over roast, all the nuanced flavour notes are lost, replaced by that of the roasting. What should be a pleasant aroma from the beans, instead that of chocolate and dark roast.
A tragedy, what could have been excellent beans, sourced from Finca Bosque Lya, nestled in the foothills of the Ilamatepec Volcano, achieved international fame when it took first place in Cup of Excellence in 2004, destroyed by lack of knowledge of roasting.
Always respect the beans, the farmers who have grown and picked the beans.
With Kingswood Coffee we see no respect for the beans.
