A few weeks ago I asked a selection of independant coffee nerds to review our coffee beans. Here's just one of the many positive reviews that we got back:

Chris Wood

We've had a little time to work with Royal Mail's price increases and thankfully there is some silver lining.

The cost of sending one pack of coffee has gone up by 20p. However, because Royal Mail have also increased the threasholds for the next weight bracket, sending two packets of coffee 1st class now costs exactly the same as it does to send one packet (£2.70).

So to summarise, it's much more cost effective for customers to buy two bags of coffee at a time, rather than one.    

Hope that helps 

Chris :-)

There are two main types of coffee supplier, specialty and commodity. Let's quickly look at each one...

Specialty coffees are well prepared and freshly roasted. They are sourced from premium crops which demand a high price on the open market. They are hand roasted in small production runs. Each coffee will have its own strengths and characteristics which make each coffee brilliantly different. Specialty coffee roasters offer a wide range of choice for coffee connoisseurs.

The opposite of specialty coffee is 'commodity coffee' which is sourced from low quality and low cost crops. They are then typically roasted and packaged in large production facilities by big brand names. They have big advertising budgets and are focused to sell to the mass market. They offer cheap prices and convenience but have only a limited selection of poor quality blends that have potentially been sitting on the shelves for years.

Smokey Barn only sells fresh roasted specialty and small batch coffees. We offer a great selection which is growing all the time.

If you want to start drinking amazing coffee, then your fresh roasted beans must be ‘fresh ground’ too. I hate coffee snobbery, but having your own grinder is coffee basics. It’s the most important piece of equipment in your coffee making setup. A big shiny expensive espresso maker will only be as good as your grinder.

Don’t have a grinder? Ok it’s going to be costly, but having your own is the most effective way of improving the taste of your coffee. The flavors and aromas contained within the beans will quickly fade once they’ve been ground, so buying pre-ground coffee is not a good idea!

Besides the quality aspect, having a grinder allows you to adjust the size of the grind to suit particular brewing methods, for instance espresso coffee needs to be ground much finer than for a cafetiere.

Smokey Barn have sourced a selection of grinders which you can find in the Brewing Equipment shop. As the old saying goes “you pay for what you get” and grinders are no exception. We would recommend spending at least ¼ of your total espresso machine budget on a grinder. So if you buy a £300 espresso machine – spend at least £100 on a grinder to go with it. A good quality coffee grinder should last for many years if looked after properly.

Here is a quick list of things to look for when purchasing a grinder:

Burrs – The components that do the 'grinding'. We only recommend buying a burr grinder. Blade grinders 'chop' at the beans and leave an inconsistent finish which will spoil the brew method. Burrs actually ‘grind’ and have much more even finish. Blade grinders can also burn the coffee because they generate a lot more heat than burrs. Expensive grinders often have high performance burrs, such as being made from ceramic material or having a ‘conical’ shape.

Dosers – Are mostly used for espresso shots in cafes. The ground coffee is fed into a small hopper which has multiple segments in the bottom. When the operator pulls the lever, a measured dose of coffee is dispensed from the hopper (like a revolver). Not really essential unless you're making several drinks at a time.

Hoppers – A large hopper is not really required for home use. They are also not air tight, so storing your beans in the hopper is a bad idea. Keep your Smokey Barn coffee in the sealed bag provided and only use what you need.

Stepless - Most domestic grinders have a certain amount of grind settings, ranging from coarse to fine. A stepless grinder is a turn dial that allows for infinite and minute adjustment.

We often get asked: "Why are some coffee's 'Fair Trade' and others are not?"

Well the simplest answer is this: Raw coffee is bought in lots from auction. Low quality coffee does not reach a high price on the open market. Farmers producing these coffees consequently suffer from low incomes.  'Fair Trade' is a small charitable donation that is paid by the exporter to the farmer and the cost of this donation is passed down the chain, ultimately to you, the consumer. It's not a lot but it's something. The donation was first devised to help these low grade coffee farmers live above the poverty line.

'Fair Trade' or not, we only bring high quality coffees to our roastery. Our cost price for raw coffee is many times higher than that of the low quality grades and the charity donation becomes insignificant in comparison. We pay a high price for superb coffees which enables adequate funding for the farmers health, working conditions, pay and education.

The great thing about this is the end consumer gets better coffee and the farmers earn proper money (and not a charity handout). This then encourages  farmers to produce better quality crops and we get even more great coffee. Great!