Based in Seighford, Hasbean roasts blends and dozens of single origin coffees from around the world. Ever since reading Coffeeographer, written by the founder of Hasbean, Stephen Leighton, I have been fascinated by this business. Out of curiosity, I emailed Roland, the Sourcing and Production Manager at Hasbean, who kindly answered a few questions about coffee roasting. Formerly a hands-on roaster, Roland shared many insights that answered my questions. Our chat is below.

Note: I wrote this blog post before Christmas 2020 and never got around to publishing it at the time.

If you walk around the City of Edinburgh, there's a chance that you run into at least one police box, a large metal box formerly owned by the police that were used for communication by police officers. Portable radio communication and modern technology rendered these police boxes much less useful than they were before, leading them to be sold off. Now, a few passionate entrepreneurs are running cafes in these former police boxes.

Photo credit: Carolyn West.

A barista in one of the Nomad Coffee shops in Barcelona was wearing a shirt that said “Be nice. Drink water. Smile.” earlier this week. I love shirts that have little kind messages like this. The last one I saw was in an airport. I cannot recall the exact words that were on the shirt, but I know that seeing the message made me smile.

Do you know that feeling when you know you are exactly where you should be? When the mind can’t possibly imagine one detail to change. When you are elated; joyful.

I am presently sitting in Nomad Coffee, a speciality coffee shop in the heart of Barcelona. When I arrived, the coffee shop was devoid of customers (although I arrived almost exactly at opening time, eager to get my coffee fix before the start of the day.)

For a while, I have promised myself that I would not get stuck down the espresso rabbit hole. I have been making filter coffee at home since August last year and I have been happy with the coffees I have made. But now I feel like I am ready for a new challenge. My previous reservation about espresso was that getting into espresso was expensive so I would have to spend a lot before deciding if home espresso was right for me. Fortunately, I discovered the Flair Espresso company and noticed that their entry-level NEO was 125 pounds, much less than an electric machine.

While on vacation this week in Barcelona, I went to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. I did get on an underground tram that went in the opposite direction, but I managed to get there on time (in my defence, who doesn't find underground tram maps confusing?). The plaques in the museum were striking. The variety of words made me reflect on what it means to see a word for the first time, or to become more aware of a word for the first time.

In my last blog post, I said

Yesterday I purchased a new espresso grinder: the REMI hand grinder by Option-O. I chose the REMI after much research but what sold me on the grinder were three factors: the aesthetics, the espresso-oriented burrs, and James Hoffman's review of the Helor 101 in his grinder video (the Helor is the predecessor to the REMI). My research indicated that the REMI was a solid choice for espresso.

I sometimes brew coffees for myself and another member of my household. Up until I got my Chemex, I would brew the two coffees separately. I know you can brew two cups of coffee with the Kalita Wave and the V60 but for some reason I have never given it a go. Perhaps I have a subconscious preference for brewing two separate cups because that way I can spend more time brewing coffee.

In a few days, I shall share a three-part series on my battle trying to find a recipe that worked well on my V60. I call this a

Yesterday two upgrades to my Flair NEO arrived: the pressure gauge and the bottomless portafilter. I purchased these accessories a day or so after buying my NEO because I had found in my research that the bottomless portafilter was the way to go to make better drinks. Perhaps I should have waited but now the components are here I cannot help but use them.

NB: This post is about two months old but I did not schedule it for publishing.

NB: This post is about two months old but I did not schedule it for publishing.

Manually grinding coffee at home is a lot of work, both in terms of time and energy. I can grind 14g of beans—the amount I use to brew an Aeropress—in less time than it takes to boil the requisite water, but there are other things I could do with that time, such as prepare my equipment (which I used to do before grinding).

Sheldon Cooper, a character in The Big Bang Theory, had a recurring mini-show within the show called Fun with Flags wherein he shared facts about flags, often with props. If you have seen the television show, you can perhaps hear the words of Mr. Cooper echoing in your head at present.

I am in Berlin for the Beyond Tellerrand conference. The hotel at which I am staying offers continental breakfasts.

This article is a few months old and has been in my drafts for a while. I think there's some interesting insights in this post so I thought it would be worth publishing this article.

I like to end the day with watching comedy. Yesterday evening I was watching Seinfeld, one of my favourite television shows, and started noticing little details that call back to previous jokes in the show. I didn't know the term for this, if there was one, so I turned to Google. My query was

When I went to purchase my coffee of

I talk a lot about Steampunk Coffee, a coffee roaster based in North Berwick, Scotland, both on this blog and in general. Their cupping session gave me an opportunity to refine my cupping skills and taste five excellent coffees. Not only that, but they've been authoring coffee-related content that has caught my attention, from insightful blog posts to their podcast.

Up until now, I've experienced fruity, chocolatey, and nutty coffees.

I've started drinking a floral coffee, Bale Mountain from Steampunk. I wrote in my review that I do not have a wide palate when it comes to floral notes. This is down to my relative inexperience with floral notes in comparison to other flavours, such as cherry, blueberry, and chocolate. I have avoided some coffees described similar to teas and plants because I do not have many points of comparison.

As I sat to enjoy my coffee this morning, I looked out the window and saw snowy rooftops and a clearing sky. It has been snowing on and off all morning. While this moment was wonderful in itself, the coffee did add to the experience. I was drinking Jamila Abakeno, an Ethiopian coffee purchased from The Good Coffee Cartel.

I haven't written about coffee for a while but I can assure you that I still drink coffee regularly. I am presently drinking Bale Mountain, this year's harvest of the same coffee that blew my mind last year and expanded my perception of what was possible in coffee. I love drinking coffee, talking about coffee, and meeting people who also like coffee. Recently, however, I have reduced my consumption to two cups per day, down from my usual three.

Happy New Year! Did you stay up last night to see the change of years? As always, I did. I stayed at home but ITV was broadcasting one of my favourite James Bond movies, Spectre, so the evening flew by. We're now in 2022.

Image sourced from the BBC website.