Coffey's Coffee

It’s been a month since I have come back from vacation near Daytona Beach and I haven’t reported on my trip. To be honest I have been quite busy roasting coffee, trying to decide if I should buy a new roaster and writing articles for my newspaper. I have been thinking about Florida this past week mostly because of the return of snow and below freezing temperature and remembered that I haven’t added anything to my blog about my trip, you know, bragging, with pictures. Well here it is, a picture of the beach in front of the condo where we stayed in Ormond-by-the-Sea.

The coffee in the area was a big disappointment. There was a Starbucks in Ormond proper where I had a cappuccino but other than that the best coffee I had was when I brewed it for myself with the coffee that I brought with me. I guess if I was only looking for good coffee I should have stayed home.

Speaking of coffee, I am changing my lineup a little bit. I am dropping the Galapagos Island San Cristobal and the Nicaragua Maracatu because of lack of sales. They are both excellent coffees but it just seems no one is interested in them. No sense in stocking them when I do carry lots of other terrific coffees.

I’ll let you know what I decide about the new coffee roaster. If I buy it I will take pictures and report on it the next time I write.

For the first time in about 7 years I am going to take a real vacation, and it doesn’t include any coffee related activity except laying back and enjoying a fresh brewed cuppa on a beach, or by a pool, or maybe in a quaint little ocean side coffee shop. I don’t know where I’ll be enjoying my coffee yet but just in case I am bringing my own to brew. The Conservatives are passing a back to work legislation to ensure that Air Canada will be operating this weekend so we’re good to go.

So for those of you who might be looking for some fresh roasted beans, you’ll have to wait until I get back from Florida on the 25th March. I know, it’s only one week and it shouldn’t be a big deal, but it’s my week off and I think it’s a big deal. This will be the first week in 2 years that I haven’t roasted coffee. I don’t think I will have withdrawal, but we’ll see.

Anyway if you really need some beans you can always make your way over to the Island Ink Jet in Cornwall and buy some of the beans they have in stock. Try some of their fresh brewed coffee while you are there. They usually have two or three varieties brewed to choose from.

The video above is hilarious. My business partner (from my other business) forwarded it to me and I just had to use it.

So my new coffee is a Bolivian Fair Trade Organic. I am just in the process of roasting some for retail but it is a very good organic coffee. A typical description is “The coffee is slightly spicy, medium to full bodied, with a mild acidity and a good balance. A well rounded coffee perfect as a single origin brew. Excellent for medium to French roasts.” I’ll do my own evaluation and tell you if I agree or not.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and have recovered sufficiently to face the new year with hope and resolve to succeed at life….and hope that the Mayans were wrong.  December was a nutso month for coffee roasting here at Coffey’s Coffee. On top of all my usual commercial and retail customers there were a bunch of people who were looking for stocking stuffers and treats for themselves. I was roasting just about everyday. I even roasted a batch on Christmas Eve for someone who had forgotten to order due to the shopping mania that happens the week before Christmas. At least I got Christmas Day off to sit down and relax.

A new year, a new coffee blend, that was my New Year’s resolution. So to fulfill my resolution I have come up with Caribbean Island Supreme. I decided on a delicious blend of island coffees featuring real Jamaica Blue Mountain as a major component of the blend. I’m not going to give away all of my secrets but this one is a winner at a more reasonable price than the straight Jamaican. I almost made another resolution to post comments on a more regular basis but I don’t like to make promises that I probably can’t keep.

New Coffee Blend for 2012

If you look at my price list you will also notice a slight price increase across the board (~4%). The price of the beans keep going up and my prices haven’t. Time to do something about that.

OK, first the book launch. I happen to be one of the authors of a recently launched book called The Perfect Mix. No it has nothing to do with coffee other than this Coffey wrote one of the stories. This was quite a thrill for me being a published author. We had a party and almost all the other authors were there including our collective groupies. That’s true, when you are published you get groupies, or entourage if you like. We had cake and wine and we signed each others book. I felt like Richard Castle having people come up to me to ask for my autograph, quite an ego trip.

The Second Story Is Awesome

And now for the high anxiety…..First off I did my monthly profit and lose statement and there was more lose than profit. I am looking at another price hike if the cost of my green beans doesn’t come down. I need to buy another roaster and do some renovations on my garage to accommodate it but I’m not making any money to pay for it. ARRG!

The second source of my angst is an unfortunate accident with a deer. My van suffered $8000 in damage and the deer died. I still don’t know if the insurance company is going to pay to have it repaired or if they are going to write it off. I would rather have it repaired. I’m not ready to buy another new vehicle yet. I still have to show a profit on my coffee. In the short term I’ll just have to cut back on all my expenses for the rest of the year to see if I can at least hit the breakeven point.

It has been a while since I’ve posted but I’ve been busy
deleting all the spam I get after I post a new commentary. I’ll try to catch
you up on the last two month’s activities here at Coffey’s Coffee.

First, the market at Long Sault is turning out to be even
better than the downtown Cornwall market. I am selling more packages of coffee
but not so much cups. It could be that this summer has been so hot that the
last thing someone wants on a Friday afternoon is a hot cup of anything. That
brings me to the iced coffee adventure. I thought that because I think my iced
coffee is so fantastic that everyone would flock to my booth and beg me for a
cup of iced joe, again, not so much. While there are several people who have
asked for it, it’s not worth the effort to mass produce fresh cold brewed
coffee, this year, but maybe next year?

My big news is that I now have a limited stock of Jamaica
Blue Mountain Wallensford Estate coffee. I have been asked frequently if I
carried any so I jumped at the chance to stock some. This is a good news and
bad news situation though. The good news is that it is a really terrific coffee
and it has brand recognition. The bad news is that it is extremely expensive
and I haven’t sold any yet. I have roasted some to brew at the market to try
and hook real coffee drinkers on such a fine brew but I haven’t had any bites,
yet. I am only going to roast it on demand. I don’t want to have to stale date
$40 /lb coffee. More bad news is that I really like the coffee myself and I can’t
afford to buy coffee from me.

I have just come across a couple of web sites/blogs about
coffee and coffee production that are really informative and entertaining. I
hope you click on them and become really informed and develop into a coffee
snob and buy some Jamaica Blue Mountain from me.

Coffee: Greatest Addiction Ever

How to Make a Great Cup of Coffee

Well, actually it’s not a toy but a cold extraction column for coffee. It is supposed to product cold coffee to make ice coffee. I can’t tell you yet how well it works because I am just in the middle of producing my first batch. I can tell you that it is slow and would not be practical in a retail environment, at least not at this size. It brings me back to my analytical chemistry days. It is basic column chromatography. Add water slowly and you will extract the most soluble compound. In this case it is the coffee flavour.

And now for an update on the new farmer’s market in Long Sault…………

I like the hours. Friday afternoon at 1 AM works just fine for me. Actually the market officially opens at 2 PM but people start driving in just as we are setting up and we deal with them as best we can. It’s been two weeks and it is encouraging. People have stopped making a wide berth around my booth and are actually talking to me. My sales doubled from the first week. The only problem I had was my tent blew over and a piece of the framework broke. It was a lesson learned. Always tie down the corners of the tent even if there is no breeze. It only took one quick gust of wind and off it went.

I expect minor problems like that. Life is full of little vicissitudes but even these small problems can be a source of fun. I laughed like a fool while I was chasing my tent across the parking lot.

Times change and in keeping with the times, it was time for a change. My previous market presence was not valued enough by the new market managers (or the City for that matter,) so yes, Coffey’s Coffee is moving. I will now be appearing at the Long Sault Farmers’ Market at the Long Sault Plaza. There are no fancy city sponsored wooden pergolas here, just  hard working local vendors with their trucks and tents offering good deals on local products. I made my commitment and have even bought a new blue vendors pop-up tent. I hope it doesn’t get crushed by the rain like my other tent did.

Coffey’s Coffee at the Market

One of the reasons for the change, other than the new management change for the Cornwall market, is that the hours of operation are from 2 PM to 6 Pm on Friday afternoons. Yahoo, no more getting up at 5:30 AM to be at the market for 7 AM to have coffee ready for the rest of the vendors and early risers by 8 AM. If you are one of those early risers then you know I am not a morning person.

For all of you who for the last two years came to buy some fresh roasted Coffey’s Coffee on Saturdays, not to worry. You can still get your coffee fix at Island Ink-Jet and Laser Toners on any day of the week except Sunday and of course you can always order your coffee right here by sending me an email or, if you are local, you can call me.

Here it is Easter already and it’s been over a month since I’ve written anything on this page. The price of coffee is still rising but there are signs that it may have reached a plateau. Sales have been sluggish since I was forced to increase my prices on March 1^st. I have been reluctant to buy more coffee because every time I order my costs increase.  I’m trying to weather the increases and hopefully get coffee at lower prices later in the year.

My big news right now is that I am going to be dabbling in selling tea. Yes, you read right, tea. I’m picking it up tomorrow in Montreal  and I will be adding a Tea page to my web site. I’m starting with one black orange pekoe style tea and one Chinese Sencha tea, both in nylon biodegradable bags. I have discovered that Cornwall generally is not a loose leaf tea kind of town so custom packed tea bags just may sell.

The Light Side

The South Stormont Chamber of Commerce trade show is on this coming weekend and I’m once again going to have a booth. Actually I have booked three booths but two of them are for recent entrepreneurs graduates from the Self Employment Assistance program sponsored by the provincial government. I am subsidizing them at 50%.  I want to promote both the SEA program and the trade show.

The Cornwall DBIA Farmer’s Market is in the planning stages as well.  I had planned on attending as a vendor once again but there has been some management changes and now I am unsure. We had made some progress in planning how we were going to improve and promote the market but then the city appointed new managers and so far they seem to be dragging their heels. Oh well, there are other markets but if worse comes to worse then maybe I’ll take the summer off and play golf. I’ll let you know what happens.

I Don't See Any Coffee