At this point, I am not going to name names, but I will. I have ordered some beans from a new roaster to me. Having sort of enjoyed them I thought about ordering some more, but before I did, I emailed them to ask why they did not put a 'roasted on' label/stamp when that is the sort of info the home user likes. I received a long winded reply telling me all about food labelling requirements, part of which I paste here: **'We did contemplate putting both dates on a bag, but this confuses many customers. (In our early days, some of our coffees just used to have the roast date on and some customers complained as they thought it was a “expired” best before date!) The compromise we came up with is to comply with the law but make it clear how this relates to the roast date.'** I quite naturally replied saying that might be as it may, but I am not talking about fulfilling legal requirements. I am talking about a firm claiming to be specialist roasters giving their customer base the type of information they require. I placed my next order, it turned up and I have just opened it. Of the two bags, one has neither a best before date or a roasted on date. The other has no best before but a roasted on date of June 5th making it already more than 3 weeks past roast. In addition, the bag has two small holes in it. Since the owner did not bother replying to my second email, then I can only think of two scenarios. A genuine set of mistakes or he somehow mistakenly thinks he can take the pi$$ out of me. Neither scenario is acceptable, to me anyway

> @"dfk41"#p68981 In addition, the bag has two small holes in it. Name them.

@"MWJB"#p68983 - @"dfk41"#4 - I agree with Mark in this instance. I think it’s best for you to name them, or people will start making assumptions about who the roaster is by looking at your previous posts - as I had and made “educated” guesses, but there’s no way to know for sure. I think it’s best to be very clear in this case, and naming seems to be the right approach, to me at least.

I have never believed in "keeping quiet", it doesn't benefit us, or the businesses that serve us. I have worked with many companies and never stopped or restricted people making negative comments about them. I only ask people keep it factual and don't use hyperbole. You owe it to other forum members to simply name them…then they can decide whether to avoid the roaster or not. I found their reasons interesting for not including roast date on the bag, something I believe at the very least is a huge mistake. There should also always be a batch number on coffee.

@"DavecUK"#p68989 [URL=https://i.imgur.com/YPcL7bN.jpeg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/YPcL7bN.jpeg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=https://i.imgur.com/HQ2wyna.jpeg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/HQ2wyna.jpeg[/IMG][/URL] I did not want to come on and do a hatchet job. I have emailed them. Will update accordingly

@"dfk41"#p68990 - thanks DFK. My assumption was correct, unfortunately. 😭 It’s a shame as many in this forum seem to like them. And it would be great if they could do the job properly. Others do it, so can’t see why they can’t.

I've had loads of shite coffee recently Makes me just want to sell up and not bother

> @"Cuprajake"#p68993 I’ve had loads of shite coffee recently The truth and factual feedback is the way everything improves, including roasters. The first route to roasting better, is to have an open mind so you are able to question how you are doing things.

Yeah orrr they just fob you off🤣

I'm getting very wary of packaging as a whole, I often make small orders, so I can get coffee in 150g tins rather than bags. I had a compostible bag from Origin that was clearly always open at the side pleats at the top, Skylark's coffee came in an un coated paper, non-resealable bag.

A word of caution

dfk41

Adrianmsmith Yep, but what was it called when it first came out?

Adrianmsmith

A brand name still pretty much around and one I do not like as I don’t like coconut 🤭

dfk41

Adrianmsmith correct, now back to the beans!

Adrianmsmith

dfk41 yes!!

I could only see differences, small to large….

Or maybe they’re all medium roast 🤔

dfk41

Adrianmsmith Well, it just seems odd that three completely differently advertised beans, are so similar in appearance and equally tasteless

Elcarajillo

With inferior eysight but using a large screen. The beans to the right appear to be a lighter colour also they appear to contain more elongated beans, both others look more rounded ?

dfk41

Elcarajillo There are slight differences Frank, but the probably wrong suggestion by me, is that it seems strange 3 blends from different countries all being roasted to within seconds of coming out the same…….it is almost as if they only have one program on the roaster!

profesor_historia

MWJB I am not sure it works like this, the cupping is supposed to be done before starting to sell the coffee, they profile it and then roast it and sell it, do you think they try every batch they roast?? It’s not like this, believe, I know a few roasters in Spain and they work on the profile before starting to roast big batches.

MWJB

profesor_historia I know it’s not like this generally, but my point is when paying high costs for high quality coffee, shouldn’t the roast you actually buy be QC’d. The ‘story’ on the label is nice but doesn’t ensure quality.

profesor_historia

What I know for sure is that expensive coffee doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get an excellent cup, and I don’t think I should feel guilty that maybe I didn’t use some very expensive grinder or some special water or the advices of some very known influencer etc, or that maybe I got the temperature wrong…this is not enjoying coffee

MediumRoastSteam

MediumRoastSteam Got a reply. They will send a new one out, and they apologise, essentially saying that it has slipped through the net. I, however, am not convinced. I bet they just try it on… But that’s the cynical in me.

Quoting myself here to continue the thread. As I have faith in people… I ordered again. And guess what? The exact same happened. At this point there’s been too many slips through the net, and I really do think, specially now, that those are cheap excuses making me start to question their practices. I have actually asked them if it’s their common practice to ship three week old coffee - something which they denied and said it was a mistake.

Got a reply: same old story.

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