mikemckim wrote:Jason:
Sorry for the delay in response, I was not able to log in after the HB server change.

You and me both . . . for a time. Then, I was out of the country for a bit, as well.

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.

Mike, I was just trying to make sure someone wasn't going to go after you! Glad you did your homework . . .

Hard to find, well-worth the search: Storrs Winery "BXR"

Cheers (and congrats!),
Jason

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.