The Coffee Connoisseur - Top Ten coffees of 2008

I thought this was a good chance to do a top ten of 2008 in the world of coffee.  2008 for me is the best ever year for great coffee.

So my top ten

1 Bolivia Machacamarca

I love this coffee great quality from a very small farm, on its way is the 2009-2008 lot for us I can’t wait. Exclusive also which is exciting.

2. Brazil Cachoeria 2008—2009

This farm is amazing and year on year it gets better. One of my all time favourites. This years is the best ever. My epiphany moment in coffee, truly special.
3. El Salvador La Ilusion

I remember trying this coffee this year and getting very excited. Ernesto is a good man, and I am looking forward to developments in 2009, I expect this to be even better this year.
4. Kenya Gethumbwini

An old favourite back to form, for a couple of years Gethumbwini has been good, but this years WOW I love it. I think we have one of the best farms in Kenya and one of the best lots so the best of the best.
5. Guatemala El Bosque
I’ve loved this coffee for years, its consistency is its best attribute.

6. Brazil Inglaterra  Canario

Came from left field but really good coffee, shame its such a small lot but right up there as one of my best coffee moments taste that pineapple cubes.

7. Costa Rican Licho
some will be surprised by this but this years licho rocks, I don shout don’t it as much as I should and for 2009 a resolution to make sure I do.

8. Indian Balmaddi Natural
Flying the flag for Asia this coffee is the most original coffee of 2008 and I liked it. With the descriptor of strawberry’s dipped in cow dung doesn’t do it any favours but seriouslt unique and seriously good.

9. Nicaraguan Limoncillo
Loved this coffee last year from the COE and it was close run between this and the pacamara, but I think the ‘normal’ limoncillo just wins. Toffee apple, caramel sweetness. Top draw stuff.

10. Nicaragua El Quetzal
Two Nicaraguan in the top ten, that shows the good things happening there. Close run thing again against the los alto but this is top draw again. Sweet nutty and rich.

Notable exceptions
Panama Esmerelda

Good put you know what, didn’t light my world up, was good but all ten of these I think are bette.r
Kenya Kariga
Were it not for amazing Gethumbwini this would have been top 5 but two kenyans come on!!!

Kenya Gethmbwini Peaberry
Same as above couldn’t have two Kenyan’s they are all great. But the AA gethumbwini is stunning.

Hawaiian Extra Fancy Smith Farm Kona 2008-2009

If we had had it a little longer it would have been in there. But its only been on sale for one week of the 52 of 2008, but a big contender next year.

Stephen Leighton

Has Bean Coffee

www.hasbean.co.uk

Tags: Food Bloggers, Wild Game, British Food, Food Blog, , Inn Keeper, Coffee Blog, Restaurant Blog, Drink, Pub Blog

The Inn Keeper - Customer complaints have now become childish.

Customer complaints are becoming more childish as we manage to reduce them.

“Our fish pie was too fishy….”

It is very rare we get complaints. We have over the last couple of years learnt from our mistakes so that we have managed out the little traps that get complaints from our customers. When things are running well there becomes a time when complaints are rare. Our operation has become professional enough to avoid complaints. It is my job to make sure my staff can deal with a complaint or avoid a potential complaint at source.

“Our sausages were too spicy – garlicky”. (When we investigated we found it was a mother complaining on behalf of her two-year old).

One way of avoiding complaints is to make sure we are flexible as customers are different. Some ask for items not on the menu or can they move to another table if it is not being used. As a true Freehouse - not branded - we should be able to accommodate them. We try to run the pub so the customer can relax and manage the appearance of no rules for them. As time goes on our customers work within our unseen rules anyway so service becomes easier for us. The pub is theirs and they should enjoy it as so.

Nowadays when we get a complaint they seem to be over not getting ones ways rather than about the food or service. Some customers behave like toddlers and are self centred. This seems to be a sign of the times.

As a business we must fill up our spaces to the best sitting layout we can on a session. Having 2 people sitting on a large table for 6 is financially nuts, especially when you have 6 people waiting in the pub for a table to have a meal. The bookings or table plan has to be managed so that you maximise the covers per sitting. Some people expect us to leave the space empty throughout the session so they can have a favourite space or room in the pub.

On a Sunday when there is a heavy demand for our tables we book sittings so that we can turn the tables over. The benefit to walk - in customers is that we can normally give them a table within 20 mins. The benefit to booked customers is that they will get a table and managing the covers benefits us as we serve more customers. I have seen (normally managed chain) pubs leave the booked tables empty or unused for 2 hours and turn down customers who had just turned up in the hope of finding a table.

We got this complaint recently from a new customer who did not get the table they wanted. We had an office party booked for 20 that had reduced to 15 so we sat them over two other tables next to each other, though not the ones they had requested originally. We resold the large table for another 20. The organiser went ballistic when they arrived and selfishly asked for the other party of 20 to be moved, even though they had started their meal. We said no that would not happen. They had to sit on the tables we gave them and we gave out 4 bottles of wine as a “sorry we moved you”(£50 worth.) We also made sure they really got the best service that evening because of their earlier disappointment. When they time came to leave they all said it was wonderful and the organiser said she was happy.

Four days later we got an email – still angry that they did not get the other table and said we did not apologise. We did and gave them the wine. The organiser also said they had to wait outside for their taxis to turn up. So I wrote saying we did apologise and gave them wine and perhaps she should look at her taxi company for not turning up on time. And I said her complaint was not valid.

She wrote back “Yes the food and service were good on the night but that was not the point.  You potentially ruined our company Christmas night out!…. I am truly surprised at you response and will never recommend your pub to anyone again in the future -  in fact I feel a letter to the local press may be in order. “

Amazing!

Matthew O’Keeffe

www.rsoe.co.uk

Tags: Wild Game, Recipes, Drink, How to Cook, Coffee Blog, Food Blog, Food Bloggers, Kitchen Blog, Pub Blog, Restaurant Blog

The Game Chef - Game the facts and the fools thoughts, hanging

on the subject of game cooking you can tell in four questions how much anyone knows about the whole topic,

1) what is the your favorite venison dish? if the person fails to give different cooking methods to different species of deer then be worried, the term venison is not used by anyone who has a good knowledge of game cooking.

2) how do you cook a rabbit? if the reply does not discuss soaking in salt water or mentions pan frying then your are dealing with a fool

3) how do you cook a widgeon? if the answers is they are inedible or fantastic you are talking to someone with no experience 4) how do you like you game hung? if the answer is a week, you are talking to someone who is recycling popular misconception as fact.

it is on the last topic i wish to say a few words, as i have a particular bee in my bonnet at the moment about it. i had an excahnge of words the other day with someone who said “game was tough if is was not hung properly.” he refused to listen to my opinion but took some note when i explained that i hung and cooked over 50,000 birds in my career so had some idea.

this is wrong on so many levels, if it has gone tough you have over cooked it that is the problem, nothing and i mean nothing to do with hanging. cooked properly any game bird, from “just shot” to a week in the fridge can be cooked so it is perfectly tender. The cooking of game is something i can teach you in a day, if this is level one of what i do hanging in level 20.

hanging is a complex issue as when hanging game you have two process, the first is hanging a process where by the natural fires of protein that are fused together due to riga mortis are broken down. this process is hardly affected by temperature

then there is the second process known which is decomposing, here the bacteria break down the meat changing the flavour and making it more forgiving in cooking, this process is massively temperature responsive. to make matters worse people who talk about game that  is well hung are actually talking about game that is decomposing (in the most part).

if like me you have a palate, and wish to taste the flavour of the bird rather than revolting flavour of decomposing birds here is how you get them perfectly “hung”. after they have been shot, place them in a fridge strait away, this will cool the core temperature of the birds (48 degrees c for a pheasant) and stop the bacteria in the guts from growing too quickly. this will allow the bird to hang (not decompose) a little known fact it is that after 3 days of hanging the bird will not become more tender as it is hung. job done, finished. those who profess to to love their game hung for a week in the garage cannot possible like it like that  for two reasons. Firstly the temperature of the garage varies during the course of the year. due to the way bacteria grow, (doubling every 8 min at optimal conditions) the resulting level of decomposition is very very different from a week at 0 degrees c and a week at 10 degrees c, suggesting a lack of experience from the person making this claim.

secondly i don’t believe that that is a flavour profile any one can enjoy, unless they are the sort of person that buys the hottest curry on the menu to hide there manhood issues. nothing holds back the popularity of game cooking more than the myth that it has to be rotting to be enjoyed so could all these people who are propagating this myth resolve their man hood issues by buying a sports car and not making my job of promoting game more difficult.

kind regards mark

www.GameForEverything.com

Tags: Inn Keeper, Drink, Coffee Blog, Kitchen Blog, Food Bloggers, How to Cook, Pub Blog, Restaurant Blog, Wild Game, Italian Food Blog

The Inn Keeper - Pub Tie & Rent –Lease Landlord is Over a Barrel

How to skin a cat in a tied pub company.

Most Pub Companies’ fully repairing tied leases must be the worst deals in Britain. And yet there still is a queue of people with a nest egg that still want to sign up with their “Mephistopheles Pub Company”. They are not duped, they sign up to change their life for the better. They have dreams and good intentions. They want to be their own bosses and keep the fruit of their own labours. This is their goal. The ideal chocolate box pub when trading well full of customers it is one of the best places to be in – they are fantastic, there is no doubt about that.

These wannabe landlords do not have enough money to buy a pub mortgage so they see a lease as the way in. From a Mephistopheles Pub Company view there are many innocent lambs carrying a lump of cash willing to handover by signing a lease. The Pubco can gain twofold, once by signing up a new lessee and secondly, by having a successful lessee who can double the turnover within 2 years or less. The pubco wants people like that as they improve their pub for them and will pay more through rent and beers sales. However, not all pubs are in good locations and not all pub landlords are brilliant.

There are too many pubco lease-holders who are struggling to make a living or a loss. The new duty on beer is causing customers to stay at home. These were also probably smokers. It strikes me that there will be more pub closures within the leased pubs sector this coming new year. Will any good come from this for the nation as pub customers? Will 2009 be the year of the break from the beer tie? Will rents drop?

Currently the Mephistopheles Pub Companies do not seem to support their existing leaseholders, unless you have a lease from the smaller regional Little Devil pubcos. As these pubs go bust then another wannabe lease holder appears with their small sum to try their luck. . They tend to approach the pub trade as a life-style starry eyed way of life. They will invest in a dead business without realising it, keeping it alive longer using their savings or taking on a second job.

When a new lessee takes over a new pub they spend their own money refurbishing the pub belonging to a Mephistopheles Pub Company , which in turn when the this lessee fails and another good intentioned guy rolls in with their investment and the merry dance continues.

They also sign leases that are “fully repairing” –here the new lessee signs up to be liable to pay the costs of maintaining the building fabric and in some occasions this is where they lose their deposit, because the pubco keeps it for maintenance when they leave. Pubcos use this money for their own pub stock improvement.

If you want to become a pub landlord then a safer way is to take a traditional tied tenancy not a full repairing tied lease and learn the job for 2-3 years– look to it as a stepping stone to get your own place. This will also give you the knowledge when considering a lease. Can you double your new pub’s turnover before the Mephistopheles Pub Company can catch up with it’s annual rent increase?

Searching for the new pub you must know what the turnover was for the last 3 years. How can you judge what a fair rent should be if you do not know how much income you’ll expect if you changed nothing when you take over a leased pub? Do not get clobbered for rent on your potential business and work – that belongs to you not the pubco. Rents should not be more than 10% of turnover otherwise you will be signing up for cash flow problems and potential debt. Do not sign up for a higher rent you cannot deliver in turnover.

When negotiating with a Mephistopheles Pub Company rep ask for the turnover in writing and in money figures – you may lose your dream pub by asking this – they seem to be reluctant to offer and frankly unprofessional.

“Barrelage” is bollocks and one sided– ask for a cash turnover.

Within my sales last year I sold 20% draught beer. My wine sales were 10% and my food sales 60% of my total turn over. The nature of pubs have changed so potential lessees with a strong food offer can sign up by being tied to beers - they will make their money on food. That leaves the poor old corner pub or small village pub to rely on drink sales in a declining drinking market. (Reasons-Tax, duty and rise of supermarkets, sterile under invested pubs etc.)

So if the pubco says a pub took 100 barrels what does that mean? This pub previously bought 28800 pints in a year These will cost the new lessee about £33k or £1.10 a pint to buy from the pubco. So you will have to pay £33k a year for beer plus your rent from one source. And pay to fix the leaking roof.

(Chain pubs - Managed houses buy their beer for about 30p less a pint). A Freehouse gets on average a 35-25% discount off the book price. Why do brewers have a book price?

Do supermarkets have a book price of £1 for a bar of chocolate? When you buy some do you have to bargain with the store manager to pay .55p or 48p each if you buy 10 bars?)

You still sign up with a Mephistopheles Pub Company lease because you know you can make a good business within the pub you have selected? Unless you have a good cash flow you will struggle to pay for your beer from the pubco -as in your lease agreement. Pubcos normally want to be paid prior to delivery of beer order – so do not look for good cash flow here. No payment no beer to sell. And if you fail to pay the rent they will not deliver you any beer - as in your lease agreement. They will have you over a barrel.

I have a freehold Freehouse pub, but my interest is that if all pubs were given a chance to thrive- this means released from big companies- then whole nation will use the pub as they used to in the past. Good pubs are good for the nation. Cheers.

Matthew O’Keeffe

www.rsoe.co.uk

Tags: British Food, Tea Blog, Recipes, , How to Cook, Restaurant Blog, Pub Blog, Coffee Blog, Food Bloggers, Food Blog

The Traiteur - Joyeux Noel!!

Last blog before the New Year!… I hope I have bought something of interest to the rest of you that have been making lots of effort too! I must say I always like to check everyones blog for ideas…creativity I was not blessed with.

Going into 2009 we are going to put some of what I have talked about into action! Including a home delivery service… For you guys that means I can give you weekly updates on my traumas, trials and successes with hopefully some good news as well!!

Happy Christmas and I hope you all rest like we shall be!!

Bring on January and happy blogging…!

Tags: How to Cook, Restaurant Blog, Italian Food Blog, Drink, Recipes, Inn Keeper, , British Food, Wild Game, Food Bloggers

The Wine Merchant - Buy Local Buy Quality

In these turbulent times hopefully people are starting to look at buying more local produce, especially when buying wines for Christmas.

Champagne on Christmas morning is a norm in our house, as it is with many people. This year however we have decided to promote local wines, especially our very own …

Tags: Coffee Blog, Tea Blog, Italian Food Blog, British Food, Food Bloggers, Wild Game, Drink, Recipes, How to Cook, Inn Keeper

The Traiteur - Working together with Family…It can work! (sometimes!)

If you have taken any interest in some of our bloggs you will have picked up that some of my family are involved in running Madame Gautier… The first confession I have to make is that I am not the person on the picture!! In fact I am Mark’s daughter Liana and I have been given the enterprising role of each week telling you a little more of our never ending story; as Dad somewhat struggles with the on off button on our PC!

For nearly 5 years Dad and Corinne (my wicked step mother!) have developed a fantastic business that I can say I am very proud to be part of!  My dad the Chef has covered all aspects of the food spectrum from working in some 3* Michelin restaurants to teaching at Westminster.  Corinne…. well she has just had the very vital job of holding Dad and everything else together!  For the first two years we were based at home cooking and finding space wherever we could.  As the markets started to expand myself and my brother Guy got roped in to lending a hand at weekends and Guy started to take after Dad with his culinary skills!!

We bought our unit in West London nearly 3 years ago and to start with wished we hadn’t!! It felt like just a bottomless pit for money with a full refurb to be done and an industrial kitchen fit for a king to be installed.  As soon as we finally got on our feet Dad employed 3 lads as apprentices who have been with us ever since.  From knowing nothing, they are now fully on the ball and always eager to take our new ideas into action.

In the last year or so myself and Guy have become more ‘actively’ involved I think they call it, with myself being able to take control of our sales arm and Guy overseeing some our major events!

Times have been hard and with months of working non stop, emotions run high and tempers can definitely fray, especially when we are all so alike - and the problem of Dad not having a day off since August can often be a bit uncomfortable!!  But what we do have now is a team that works to a system,  adapted to our day to day runnings, weekday markets, home deliveries, the cookery school and the odd last minute canape party!

I haven’t written this to brag, but to try to express that when all links of your company have the passion and dedication to make things work then you will succeed….even with family!!

Must go now as being shouted at from the kitchen!

Tags: Wild Game, Food Bloggers, Pub Blog, Recipes, Inn Keeper, Italian Food Blog, Coffee Blog, Tea Blog, Food Blog,

The Inn Keeper - Government taxes pubs to subsidise House of Commons Bar

Public House think Public School the Government Gentrification of pubs continues.

Last year we the taxpayers subsidised the drinking MPs £5.5 million in the Commons.

My customers have just had another increase in beer duty with another to come next year. Is it the Governments policy to price customers out of the pub so they become haunts of the rich?

I fear the death of our pubs at the hands of the British Governments and a continued lack of support and hindsight from our MPs over the last 30 years. An underclass has been created through benefits culture – where people do not know how to work anymore. They stay at home which in turn feeds the growth of the supermarket monopoly in the UK. They have targeted the stay-at-homes with cheap take away food and drink for socialising in front of the plasma TV. The Government have increased more public jobs – paid by our taxes - to watch the people who don’t work- also paid by us. We do not have the sense of community anymore. Where I believe our pub culture had this community spirit.

Successive Governments –left and right - have raised duty on alcohol that now makes it expensive to drop in for a pint anymore. This threatens the existence of the local social network. For my daily regulars who drink 3 to 4 pints a day now have to pay more than £200 a year since last week. A daily regular will spend about £4000 - £5000 a year coming to the pub every day. Government figures report that the average price of beer in a pub is £2.57 – this is not the case for my area in the Home Counties. MPs pay 2.10 a pint in one of the 12 bars in the Commons. This is a subsidised saving of 95p a pint compared with my pub. And of course, they can put the bill through on MP’s expenses so taxpayers pick up the whole whack.

For my customers, we sell our cheapest pint for 2.80 which comprises 37p VAT and 39p Excise Duty. The pint costs 89p my profit is 1.52. For large pub companies, they can buy beer at about 30p per pint cheaper than I can. They are able to get a volume discount and can make a larger 1.80p profit. We roughly have the same running costs but with less profits - this squeezes independent publicans.

My customers want me to sell beer for as low as possible. I’ve now arranging a better deal with a national brewer, to delay this gentrification by tax. I have to put more business with the major national brewers because they can undercut the local craft brewers, whom I want to support and have regional differences.

If I do not get cheaper national beer brands to sell then I have to go up-market instead. And in using national brewers it will make a pint cheaper, but this is short sighted in the long run, you will end up in the big brands squeezing the little brewers out. This does not help the small local craft brewers and restricts choice for my customers. Our small businesses are being squeezed slowly by the Governments beer tax policy.

British Pubs are the rightly admired all over the world. They have been exported to foreign cities. Pubs were created by the people who use them as customers over the centuries. Every village or town corner had their local pub. Everyone went to the pub for news and a gossip. Here you meet the local plumber or bank manager under one roof. The pub was as popular with the workers as much as the toffs. The Pub is where most people find their future partner or meet new friends outside work or college. The pub was the local communities’ parlour. The pub is the hub – a social centre for locals to mix and thrive - good fellowship.

The pub is not about binge drinking, it is about conversation, exchange of ideas, a place to meet friends and in good pubs helping the neighbours. Good pubs care for the community – the best ones tend to be independent – even managed houses know the benefits of the informal local social network.

The general decline in society and pub starts and finishes with the Government’s policies. The big pub companies adapt to new taxation and regulations so they become unintentional governmental agents of death to the local pub – They create anesthetised soulless places where salaried managers cannot be hospitable. These managers can become company drudges without the wage budget to do a good job of service - for fear of giving something for nothing. The public stop going to the pub as a result and the supermarket chains step in with cheap take home drink and the accompanying ready meal.

Is there a political policy of making pubs middle class? Do MPs meet in a pub to discuss parliamentary business or politics? No. Do they do it on expense accounts in restaurants? Yes. Does anyone in Parliament go to a pub regularly anymore? The bars inside the House of Commons are busy and they are heavily subsidised. A reality check is needed here- we need to stop MP’s their getting subsidies and stop their expenses at our cost.

Manufacturing industry has fallen to 4% of total UK jobs and now the Government is killing off the pubs where the workers used to relax and socialise. Good bye to the traditional Celtic pubs where the old boys lined up against the bar would growl at each other with a pint a dram and a cigarette. Everyone knew everybody in these pubs.

Successive Governments are forcing these local pubs to evolve into a more expensive form of pub - the gastro pub or American restaurant chain. These type of pubs do not normally have a group of local regulars. Will it be only the well-off who come to our pubs in the future? MPs need to be made to feel the cost of their beer tax policies on my customers and the effects on society. The pub is a place that has been an institution long before costly subsidised Parliament existed.

Tags: , Tea Blog, British Food, Kitchen Blog, Coffee Blog, Food Bloggers, Wild Game, Italian Food Blog, Restaurant Blog, Food Blog

The Inn Keeper - Lunch more tax less - Britons eat themselves out of recession.

A VAT cut and compulsory 2 hour lunch would get us out of recession.

The British government has recently cut 2.5% off VAT to get the Brits to spend themselves out of recession. It would be much more effective if they dropped the amount of tax for lunching or dining out to the French level. Cut VAT by another 10% for eating out.

When I go to France with my friends for a short classic car tour we always stop for lunch. Between 12 noon and 2pm the roads empty and we know its time to look for a place to eat. Being France you can almost stop anywhere a roadside inn - Auberge -knowing the food is going to be good quality and terrific value if you go for the plat du jour or fixed price menu – normally 3 courses.

We always say  we wish Britain had the same passion for food as in France. The French respect food, eat well, have great markets and they food shop for the day - This food culture supports their food business economy and pushes the quality up. Most of the Auberges and restaurants are privately owned and run by chef patron. The French Councils support their local food markets and the Government helps the catering businesses by keeping the sales tax or VAT to only 5% (10% less than in the UK).

We don’t all have to go shopping for goods at 2.5% less VAT to help the recession,  but we all need to eat and it is something all of us can do. So a cut in VAT for eating out is one step.  However the biggest step will be in changing Britain’s food culture - to encourage or legislate a compulsory 2 hour lunch break. This would change the economy overnight.

Having a compulsory 2 hour lunch would boost the catering industry. This would create more jobs in a recession as caterers would take on more staff. This would make us all more sociable as we would share our lunch time with fellow workers every day, or bond families at the table at home like we did 50 years ago or still happens in less industrialised countries.

School children would get their 5 a day with properly cooked meals being provided – which would educate them about real food like the French children – and less obesity.

Overall the quality of our food culture should increase because the children would learn from school lunch and would have their expectations and range of diet increased, hopefully they’ll get better home cooked food from their parents – see the efforts of chef Jamie Oliver who has recently been through this process to improve school diets and home cooking.

Our local farmers would get more demand for their products if people stopped for a compulsory 2 hour lunch. With more demand for lunch there would be more care and effort into what is served so that we would eat the whole animal instead of just the choice cuts which are wasteful and not good for the environment. Local diversification and a rise in quality - instead of international produced mass burgers flying in from outside the country.

Could our Government realistically make lunch compulsory? –Britain is not France and the private small business sector may not want it. However, I would make the public sector take a 2 hour lunch – the government pays them and they are now the biggest employer in the country. They could add half an hour to each end of the working day.

We all pay too much tax for all of these civil servants, why not get them to start the boom the country needs in its economy rather than a cost on us. Over time the long lunch will become the norm and our domestic food quality would rise, at the very least we may get the French visiting us for lunch in their classic cars.

Tags: British Food, Food Bloggers, How to Cook, Tea Blog, Food Blog, Italian Food Blog, Wild Game, Recipes, , Pub Blog

game the facts and the fools thoughts, hanging

on the subject of game cooking you can tell in four questions how much anyone knows about the whole topic,

1) what is the your favorite venison dish? if the person fails to give different cooking methods to different species of deer then be worried, the term venison is not used by anyone who has a good knowledge of game cooking.

2) how do you cook a rabbit? if the reply does not discuss soaking in salt water or mentions pan frying then your are dealing with a fool 

3) how do you cook a widgeon? if the answers is they are inedible or fantastic you are talking to someone with no experience Read more

Tags: Food Blog, Inn Keeper, British Food, Pub Blog, Kitchen Blog, How to Cook, Wild Game, Tea Blog, Italian Food Blog,

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