zin1953 wrote:Mike,

A winemaker CANNOT just decide to call a specific wine "Meritage."

Meritage® is, in fact, a registered trademark of The Meritage Association. Because it is a registered trademark, in order to use that word on their label, the winery:

• Be a member of the association;
• Must produce a wine that is in accordance with the definition of the term;
• Must get approval from the association to use their registered trademark.

Just askin' . . .

Cheers,
Jason

Jason:
Sorry for the delay in response, I was not able to log in after the HB server change.
Thanks for the note. If I were making wine instead of coffee I would be a bad, bad boy (if I did not pay the fees). Since I am using the word for our coffee, I am in no violation. I did my homework 7 years ago, with the help of 2 CA winemakers, contacted many people and made sure that I would not be getting any letters from lawyers if I used the words Meritage or Cuvee (I actually have a list of 12 wine related words I checked on). I am not sure if that is where you are going with this or if you were just wanting to get some info to me, but either way I appreciate you taking the time to send that over. I saw that you sent it as a pm and I hope you don't think I was ignoring you. Once again, I was not able to log in to get the message nor could I get on the forum.

All this talk about wine makes me want to find a great Meritage this weekend...any suggestions?

Cheers,

mmc

Decided to try an Americano today. It came out pretty darn good. The acidity is all gone and I get a nice "salt water taffy" taste. The body holds up really well in the Americano. My recipe for this one - 18gr Meritage, 25 sec pour at 94C, 4oz hot water just off the boil, pull the shot on top of the water - stir in - sweet!

Cheers

Ian

Mike,

Good job adding the roasted date to the bag. I always gave the Medici guys hell for not knowing when it was roasted.

Glad to hear Cuvee is printing roast dates! Is this for mail-order only or will we see roast dates on the shelf at Caffe Medici? Last time I came through Austin I picked up some Brazil beans at the Guadalupe location that were a bit past their prime for espresso.

I'm all about rest time and I don't feel the need to have beans that were roasted yesterday. But it *is* helpful to know whether I've picked up beans that are 6 days old or 16 days old.

Roast dates are now on all 12 ounce bags, including Caffe Medici and Whole Foods (just went on the shelf this morning)! I am listening to all the feedback so keep sending it. Feel free to email me directly any time.

Cheers,

mike
mikemckim@cuveecoffee.com

mikemckim wrote:Whole Foods (just went on the shelf this morning)!

That's a milestone. For the first time ever, coffee with a roast date on it... at the GROCERY STORE. I think my brain just blew a fuse. Congratulations, Mike & Co.!

shadowfax wrote:That's a milestone. For the first time ever, coffee with a roast date on it... at the GROCERY STORE. I think my brain just blew a fuse. Congratulations, Mike & Co.!

Not quite. Terroir has had roast dated bags at Whole Foods in New England for awhile now & you can figure out the roast date on Peet's coffees by looking at the last 4 digits of the code on the side of the bag. If I get bored while out grocery shopping with my wife I'll check out the dates on the Peet's in our local supermarkets. I've found bags of ground coffee over a year old! One time I called Peet's toll free number & told them how old the coffee was in one local market. They asked for the name & location of the store and sent me a free lb of freshly roasted coffee.

Thanks for clarifying, guys. I guess my shock is from living in Texas and Oklahoma. I guess this is old news in the civilized world... Apologies.

Roast dates are now on all 12 ounce bags, including Caffe Medici and Whole Foods (just went on the shelf this morning)! I am listening to all the feedback so keep sending it. Feel free to email me directly any time.

This is good news Mike. I'm one of the people who have been requesting this for quite some time. You can tell Medici that I will be back now

Mike,

I want to commend you on your choice to engage the Home-Barista community. It's a riskier type of marketing because you are basically throwing your product to the lions... but in my experience your product is worthy of praise and I was happy to see it discussed here. ... Even if I wasn't the beneficiary of any free beans

This in combination with your new website design, success at the SCRBC, Whole Foods distribution, and most crucially your new roast-dating policy, tells me you guys are stepping up your game. Exciting stuff.

Hope you will continue to visit these forums and solicit feedback.

Ryan

I'm thinking of ordering a 2lb bag of the Meritage blend based on the good reviews here, and the resonable cost with shipping.
I assume you roast to order, so i won't get a bag that is 5 or 6 days old + shipping time? I like it as fresh as possible, so i can vac pack it and freeze quickly.

just wonderin'.

thanks

Jason,

yes we roast to order, and based on the shipping estimator in our online store it should take about 3 days for you to receive your coffee. In real terms that means if you order Monday by noon, your coffee would be roasted and shipped on Tuesday and you should receive your coffee on Friday. At that date it would, for our coffee, just be beginning to lose it's freshness edge and start being drinkable. I usually find it is better on day 5-7 though.

Ryan,

glad you enjoy our coffee, and have recognized our efforts. We are always looking for ways to "up our game." It is always rewarding to hear positive feedback. Especially from "the lions"

hah, i forgot to ask my main question!
I assume you date stamp the 2lb bags as well for roast date?

thanks
i'll order some today, so hopefully it'll roast and ship monday?

anyhow, looking forward to it.

Jason:

Normally we don't date the 2lb bags. The only reason for that is that we are a fairly small company with a good amount of wholesale so date stamping 2lb bags would create a bottle neck in production. That being said, we talked with Clancy and what we are going to do is date stamp all 2lb "retail" orders. I don't think that this is going to cause any slow down. Another way to know is look at your packing list and the ship date & roast date are always the same. This is how we instruct our wholesale customers to manage inventory. I do plan to look into a bag sealer that prints the date on the bag, but that is going to have to wait as we have just invested quite a bit into our recent expansion. I think that this should be an acceptable solution, but please let me know if you see any problems with this. Please do enjoy the coffee.

Cheers,

mike

thanks for the info. If the roast/ship date are the same, that works for me.

Looking forward to getting my coffee!

Just pulled a few shots of my Meritage blend. Tasty!
I pulled with 16g in a double basket, on an Isomac Tea. Temperature was about 201, volume was about 1.5 oz.

I can't identify various flavors, but i do taste berries, and faint nuts. It's fairly bright and tangy, do i might try taking the temperature up just a little.
I'll also try pulling it with 20g, as everyone recommends. It's very different to my normal rotation blends (Toscano, aficionado, Omar's organic), so i like it for a change. It's much....livelier, if that's word for espresso.

And thanks for hand dating my bag!

Ok, at 202-203, 16g, 1.75 oz. it becomes too leathery and flat...no likey.

Tried the Meritage blend at 20g, 201 deg. and i didn't like it as much as with 16g. It became much thicker and richer, but to me lost the appeal that makes it different from many other US blends, the bright fruity berry.
I pulled the same volume as i did with 16g, in about the same time.