I received an unsolicted email from Unorthodox Roasters pushing one of their latest roasts called Candyland. It promised Almond, Pear and Dolly Mixtures. I bought three different bags in total. The first one I opened for the first time in a long time, after 5 attempts put them in the bin. To say they had no taste at all, and this was despite using my limited knowledge on varying weight, grind could get absolutely nothing from them as americano. So, I moved onto the much promised Candyland. The nuts are still on the tree, the pear has not ripened and the dolly mixtures, let us not go there. So, I emailed them politely, telling them the finished product was woeful @Systemic has seen the email and will vouch that I was not aggressive). The expected reply banged on about cupping and how great it was offering me a single replacement bag……that I refused. On the other hand though, the back drop story was amazing, shame the beans were shite

https://www.suddencardiacarrestuk.org/2024/02/thank-goodness-for-madeira-cake/

As the roasters get bigger, I think it’s more difficult with stock rotation and older coffee. This is because the business becomes such that they don’t really roast to order. This is especially true if they also have a large commercial customer base..

I think roasters that prosumers should use, are ones that have certain days they roast and don’t ship immediately, but collect the orders together and roast them on specific days. It might mean you have to wait even a week or more to get your coffee, but when it arrives….it’s been roasted only a few days before.

With regular subscriptions, there’s really no excuse.

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    DavecUK I think roasters that prosumers should use, are ones that have certain days they roast and don’t ship immediately

    Like Foundry Coffee Roasters :-)

    What I don’t get about DarkWoods is… If they struggle to rotate one of their blends to the point that this is 2.5 weeks old… Something is then not quite right?

        MediumRoastSteam What I don’t get about DarkWoods is… If they struggle to rotate one of their blends to the point that this is 2.5 weeks old… Something is then not quite right?

        It would seem that way.

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          I think it quite fair to publish the reply that I received.

          I appreciate your sentiment; I too like to know what is going on, particularly if something doesn’t live up to the standards we would like.

           

          The 500g bags you have bought are a bit of an anomaly in our retail range, as they originally were not designed for retail sale but for wholesale cafes etc.

          That is one of the reasons they have a different labelling system and packaged in the compostable bags. We do very few of these.

          Your concerns have flagged up that we need to look at how these are presented and controlled, as a retail product.

           

          I know your intention was not to get a refund, but I have processed this for you. This would automatically have been done with any damaged packaging anyway.

          The good news is the coffee should be good to drink as well. These sort of processing methods luckily produce coffees with big bold flavours that maintain their impact.

          https://www.suddencardiacarrestuk.org/2024/02/thank-goodness-for-madeira-cake/

          Your kitchen towel manufacturer of choice is plenty?

          Ade Smith. ACS Evo Leva v2. Kafatek Flat max 2, ssw 2024. Mazzer Philos, Craig Lyn HG-1 prime., WW key mk1.

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

            Ade Smith. ACS Evo Leva v2. Kafatek Flat max 2, ssw 2024. Mazzer Philos, Craig Lyn HG-1 prime., WW key mk1.

            About Me

              dfk41 yes!!

              I could only see differences, small to large….

              Or maybe they’re all medium roast 🤔

              Ade Smith. ACS Evo Leva v2. Kafatek Flat max 2, ssw 2024. Mazzer Philos, Craig Lyn HG-1 prime., WW key mk1.

              About Me

                  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 ?

                    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 replied to this.

                        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

                        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.

                          9 days later

                          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.