JordanL

It has been three years since we moved to only using reusable cups for takeaway coffees in our shops. We had made the decision in 2021 and implemented it by March 2022. In the preceding years we had been looking to replace the paper cups that we were using at the time and in researching our options we discovered just how dysfunctional this area of recycling and composting was – and still is.

The takeaway hot drinks industry combined with the waste management industry has yet to really consolidate around a unified approach in which all cafes and similar companies can participate. Defra’s (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) mandatory takeback scheme, which was meant to come into force this year, came close but was officially scrapped at the end of last year. This scheme required all companies selling drinks made into paper cups, with more than ten full-time equivalent employees, to provide dedicated paper cup recycling bins. These bins would be collected by waste management companies and the cups sent to specialist recycling facilities. The bins need to be dedicated because paper cups are not recycled with regular paper or plastics and need to go into their own waste stream. If paper cups are put into mixed or regular recycling, they can cause the entire lot (this could be one full bag or a full lorry depending on interpretation and the sorting facilities) to be deemed contaminated. Contaminated lots are sent to landfill or incineration. It’s important to note that not all paper cups have the plastic (bio or regular) lining which prevents them from being recycled in a paper only recycling stream, but there aren’t many of them that don’t, and most waste sorters will treat them like regular paper cups.

Whichever paper cup is used, the problem is not the cup, the problem is then what happens to it – which maybe makes it the cup’s problem after all. Essentially, the number of coffee cups that are actually recycled is vanishingly small, and the current infrastructure cannot accommodate a good end-of-life solution for the volume of waste produced.

Reusable cups are also not without their own problems. Managing the stock and the washing of our reusable cups has been our biggest challenge over the last couple of years. Managing the additional load on our staff and equipment has taken some thought and this year we are installing a dedicated washer at our roastery specifically for the job. Winterhalter (manufacturer of commercial dishwashers and detergents) has been great in helping us find solutions over this time. There is also the question of how many times a reusable cup needs to be reused before it is considered climate neutral in terms of manufacturing and washing cycles. Ecoffee (the suppliers of our cups) has some interesting information regarding this on their website in their FAQs section.

Over the last few years, we have talked to many companies in our industry who are starting to launch their own reusable cups projects. And rather excitingly, some waste industry specialists are seeing the potential in a cups-as-a-service type scheme. We’re looking forward to seeing what comes of these over the next few years.

Remember your reusable or borrow one of ours for a fiver for as long as you want (refunded to you on return of the cup).

Monmouth x

Finca La Bolsa, Guatemala

While we enjoy the last dregs of winter it’s all go in Central America where the crop is coming in and in Costa Rica the farms are at the peak of their harvest. This is the busiest time of the year on the farm with coffee being picked, processed, and dried – all in a matter of around six to eight weeks. We’re looking forward to visiting all the farms from which we buy coffee in Costa Rica over the next two months to see how the crop is coming in and taste samples. Coffees will need to be rested, graded, and bagged before export, so we expect them to arrive in late Spring.
 
We have just returned from a visit to Guatemala, where we visited Finca La Bolsa, El Sendero Cooperativa, and Finca Bella Vista. The trees were all laden with fruit in the last stages of ripening. Guatemala will begin harvesting now and coffees will arrive in late Spring. We are especially looking forward to Finca Bella Vista arriving. This is a new coffee for us, and we are excited to share their story later in the year.  

La Divina Providencia, El Salvador

The teams at La Divina Providencia and La Bendición (El Salvador) are expecting a bumper crop this year and will be hitting the peak of their harvest over the next few weeks. They have had some interesting weather lately, including a cold and windy front from the north and occasional impressive downpours coming from the Pacific. This weather seems to have cleared and they’re expecting good conditions for drying. We plan to visit both farms and Malacara A in the next month or so.
 
In South America, post-harvest tidy up is in full swing and the last of the harvest is on its way. We’ve had shipments from Peru (Huabal, Finca El Morito, and Amoju) and Brazil (all our favourites including Fazenda do Sertão and Fazenda Irmãs Pereira) land recently. And our container from Bolivia which holds a range of washed, honey, and natural process coffees has just arrived. These will start to come onto our counter over the next few months. Our first container from the Huila main crop in Colombia has also arrived and we will finalise our second in March. The Nariño main crop will be harvested in late Spring to early Summer. Colombia is one of the few countries that has two main crops in opposite times of the year. This is due to their unique weather patterns which are affected by the mountain range that runs along the spine of the country.

Trabocca, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Lastly, to Ethiopia and Kenya. Ethiopia is at the very end of their crop with cherry off the tree and in its final stages of drying and processing. Once ready the coffee will be transported to warehouses in Addis Ababa where it will be rested, dry-milled, graded and bagged. We expect to taste pre-shipment samples from this crop in March. We are travelling to Kenya this month to visit farms and cooperatives and taste new crop samples.
 
Back in London we can expect a lot of changes coming to the counter in Spring as the new crops start to arrive. We’re also planning some storage solutions at our Dockley Road shop in Bermondsey, and a new cup washing area at our roastery for our reusable cups.
 
Monmouth x

We’re going to start 2025 off with a topic we don’t often talk about – the coffee futures market. You may have noticed over the last few months a fair amount of reporting on the commodity coffee market and its record prices. We don’t usually pay too much attention to the commodity market because it isn’t our area of expertise and as we buy all our coffees based on their flavour profile, and we pay a premium for the quality, the commodity prices don’t often factor in to our thoughts. However, 2024 saw record prices in both the Arabica and Robusta futures markets and to give the records some context it’s useful to go back to the frost of July 2021 in Brazil.

The July frost in Brazil led to an estimated 10% loss of production during the harvest and came at a particularly difficult time. The frost hit after a period of tricky growing and shipping conditions and caused a spike in the Arabica futures market. This has been followed by drought and wildfires during 2024. Brazil is by far the largest coffee producing country in the world and what happens there has corresponding impacts on all coffee markets. Commodity grade buyers found themselves priced out of the Arabica market and turned to Robusta coffee from Vietnam. Vietnam is the second largest coffee grower, and the largest grower of Robusta.

But over the last few years Vietnam has faced its own challenges. The country has shifted from the El Niño weather pattern to the La Niña pattern. This change in weather affected the Robusta crop, and by 2024, the harvest was estimated to be down by 20%. In our view, this decrease in production, alongside the problems in Brazil, has led to nervousness and speculation in the futures markets. Both the Arabica and Robusta futures markets are up by over 60% during 2024.

Many commentators in the industry consider the commodity markets to be overpriced but as there is a world of speculative trading that happens in the commodity markets, it’s impossible to know if that’s true. The next harvests from Brazil and Vietnam will show the extent of short stocks in coffee and if these price increases will feed into the specialty, quality-focussed areas of growing. As large buyers compete for Robusta coffee, some may be forced into the Arabica market, which may put further pressure on farm-gate pricing. This could be great for farmers who sell into the commodity markets – if they receive the increases. Most coffee farmers sell cherry. The price they receive has more to do with their local conditions, and whether the coffee cherry traders and cooperatives have buyers contracted and ready to fix their position. When the futures markets are high, these buyers often wait for a dip or correction before finalising their contracts.

We buy coffee and agree prices based on the quality of the coffee, costs of production, and local conditions. However, we are not immune to the impact of a frost in Brazil, a drought in Vietnam, or a run on the futures market and we may yet see the current conditions impact on the way we buy coffee over the next couple of years. Stability is highly valued in farming, and we will continue to value the relationships we have, some of which go back decades.

Best wishes for 2025.

Monmouth x   

Oh it’s an exciting month! Panettone from Pasticceria Triestina Ulcigrai have arrived and taken their place on the counter alongside chocolate-covered hazelnuts and chocolate bars (Öko Caribe and Maleku) from Chocolarder. Add in some of your own favourites and you have a solid sweet-treats-table for the season. You’ll need some coffee obviously and what better way to start than with our traditional Christmas choices. Remember you can sample any of the coffees in our shops, so if your favourite isn’t there, we can help you find your next. Online, feel free to chat to our real-live team during office hours, they will be able to help with a recommendation.

First up, no surprise we have Finca Malacara from El Salvador, and as a bonus we have two coffees from this farm on the counter this year. The first is the Red Bourbon which we have known, loved, and recommended for many years. And the second is the SL28, a new varietal on the farm which has notes of the sweetest persimmon and nougat. It’s a super choice if you’re looking for something the same but different and will go very nicely with a small (or big) plate of something sweet.

If you’re looking for a big, bold coffee that will get the job done look no further than Fazenda IP and Decaffeinated Fazenda IP from Brazil. The first will get you out of bed to walk the dog before the lunch preparations and the second will help, not hinder, the needed deep sleep afterwards.

Arriving on the counter this month we have the new crop from Nariño, Colombia. Perla del Valle and El Troje both have classical Nariño profiles of fresh-fruit notes and a pleasing acidity. We have been buying from Perla del Valle for over ten years now. They were one of the first coffee farms we bought from in Nariño, and it feels like a nice celebration to have it available for Christmas.

If it is natural funk you’re after try Finca La Llama, or if that runs out before Christmas its replacement La Linda (Bolivia). Both have heavy, dried-fruit notes, which along with some boozy acidity make a stand-up addition to the Christmas pud.

For us it’s not just any regular Christmas this year, it’s also the opening of our new shop in Dockley Road, Spa Terminus – Bermondsey. Keep an eye on @monmouthcoffee on Instagram for the opening days and times. The team have done a wonderful job getting the site ready and open for Christmas. Special thanks to Ross, James, Sam, Tom, Dom, and Serge for putting in the extra effort to make this happen for us.

That’s it! Happy Christmas and may all the good coffees come your way.

Monmouth x

Last month, we had the great pleasure of welcoming Mike Longman and Becca Lazar from Chocolarder (Falmouth, Cornwall) to our roastery for a staff evening which began with a chocolate and coffee pairing. The two products have so much in common at farm level and it was great fun seeing how different flavours can match or complement each other. Who doesn’t love a sip of the good stuff while eating the good stuff! Afterwards, we sat down to hear from Mike and Becca how the company started, what makes them different in the world of chocolate and their current projects and challenges.
 
Mike is a chef by training. From working in some of the best and most rigorous kitchens, he developed a love for making everything from scratch from the most local ingredients possible. Obviously, with chocolate the two raw ingredients of cacao and sugar are not local, but all the additions and flavour combinations are sourced as close to the chocolate factory as possible. Chocolarder is one of the very few small-batch, bean to bar chocolate makers in the UK. There is a difference between chocolate makers and chocolatiers. Chocolate makers make chocolate from the raw ingredients, making their own cocoa butter and cocoa solids from cacao beans. Chocolatiers source those ingredients pre-processed into large slabs and then work them into chocolate bars and confectionaries. The distinction is important in the world of chocolate. By having complete control of the entire process, Chocolarder can celebrate and highlight the flavours of each farm and areas from which they buy.
 
Chocolarder are equally enthusiastic about their machinery. From the beginning, they have sourced and repurposed antique equipment, which is all held together it seems by sheer will and inventiveness. The machines are all individually named, from Mr McKracken the cocoa bean cracker to Enzo the chocolate bar wrapper. Enzo is a masterpiece of traditional engineering (long before the days of CAD drawings and computer algorithms) with 980 moving parts that are serviced and maintained by the Chocolarder team. Asked how they keep such individual machinery running (long after they were stopped being serviced let alone manufactured), the answer was “Cornwall”. Mike and Becca have a super team of makers and engineers around them that help keep the equipment running and the chocolate pouring.
 
We covered a lot of ground over the evening and spent some time talking about the challenges growing cacao and the cocoa industry. The botany and agronomy side are particularly interesting. It is a bit of a bonkers crop to see growing. The cacao pods grow from the trunk of the tree and vary in size from a small rugby ball to a larger one. They ripen to various deep yellows, reds, purples, and all the shades in between and each pod contains 80 to 100 beans. The beans are encapsulated by shells, which are held together by a sweet, white pith. It is this pith that is fermented off the shells. Fermentation can take around a week and is followed by drying. The pollination of the flowers for the following crop is extraordinary; each bean is individually pollinated which means there can sometimes be up to eight or nine different varietals in each pod.
 
We could go on, but let’s enjoy the truffles we have on the counter and anticipate bars and chocolate-covered-hazelnuts for Christmas! See Chocolarder.com for more information.
 
Monmouth x

Autumn is a busy time for the green team at Monmouth as we make final preparations for coffees arriving at the end of this year and the first few months of the next.

Last month in Brazil we completed our buying from the new crop. We travel each year to Carmo Coffees in Minas Gerais where we select coffees for our counter, and the Brazil component of our Monmouth Espresso. Brazil is the largest (in size and volume) coffee producing country in the world. They typically account for around a third of the world-wide crop and news in coffee in Brazil will impact the entire industry. Post-harvest, Brazil is going through an extended dry spell which may delay flowering for next year’s crop. We are anticipating that this might mean a late crop next year but there will be a lot of weather between now and then, so this isn’t certain.

There has been a trucker’s strike in Colombia which has meant delays in shipping our final containers from the main crop in Narino, and the mitaca crop in Huila. The government announced an increase in diesel prices which prompted the trucking companies to protest. Goods, agricultural and manufactured, are mostly transported by truck in Colombia. It is a huge industry and increases in costs mean increases for everyone. The Colombian government argue that diesel has been subsidised for too long and that it is unsustainable. Removal of the subsidy is part of a wider group of economic decisions that are proving to be unpopular. The truckers are also protesting at general conditions and safety on the road.

We have selected our new crop coffees from Bolivia and Peru. Coffee in these two countries is usually harvested around a month or two later than Brazil, so are only now being hulled, rested, graded and readied for export. We are pleased with the selections we’ve made and look forward to seeing these coffees on our counter in December and January.

Over the next month or so we will finalise our shipments from South America and organise delivery into the warehouses. Our next buying will be in Huila, Colombia where the main crop will be harvested from November to January. After which we will be heading straight into the Central America harvest season which starts early in the new year. Most of the farms in Central America have finished their in-between crop tidy up and projects.

Descamex (the company which decaffeinates our decaffeinated coffee) have begun building a new plant in Brazil. This will mean that from mid to late 2025 Decaf Fazenda IP (Brazil) will be decaffeinated in Brazil rather than Mexico. Our La Bolsa Decaf (Guatemala) will continue to go to Mexico for processing. This is an exciting project for Descamex, and we look forward to visiting the new facilities when they are open.

Our Dockley shop project continues, at time of writing Tom the carpenter has been working on the oak table and a reformatted counter. We have had to adjust our plans to accommodate a new boiler for our filter coffees as the model we have been using for possibly two decades is no longer in production. The oak table is coming along nicely. It is being made from salvaged oak pews and will run to three meters long. They don’t make trees like that anymore, that’s for sure.

Monmouth x

Over the summer we have been getting started on this year’s big project. Those of you who shop at Spa Terminus may have seen a very discrete sign in the new build of Dockley that says Monmouth Coffee – 2024. Now, whilst we are not entirely sure about the timings, we are sure that we will be moving our current Discovery shop to the Dockley units as soon as we can.

We have looked around for several years now for a location for another shop and have seen many fantastic sites during these years, but they have all been missing the something that we have managed to find right under our noses. We wanted to open a six-day-a-week shop somewhere around other specialist food stores, maybe close to a Saturday market, certainly close to a serious food shopping destination. Hilariously it took walking around the new site at Dockley with some prospective tenants to really open our eyes to the possibility not only on our doorstep, but also part of our Spa Terminus project alongside Neal’s Yard Dairy and Matching Green.

We have taken the lease on Units three and four Dockley Estate, ripped out the wall between them, and are now putting up walls for the loos and a staff room. We’ve pretty much finalised our plans for where the coffees, grinders, filter rack, espresso machine, and croissants will go. Over the next few weeks, we are concentrating on first fixings for plumbing, electrics, and planning for the ventilation units. Light shades have been ordered, chair samples are en route, and the floor finish has been chosen. As we will be closing the Discovery shop when we relocate to Dockley, we have been able to reuse many of our fixtures and fittings so there isn’t much in the way of new counter tops and equipment to organise.

The new site is big; it has a bigger floor space than our shop in Covent Garden (although that doesn’t take much) and bigger than our shop in Borough Market. It will have a large sharing table (like our one in Borough Market), and a low-level leaner section will run almost the entire length of the shop, so there will be plenty of inside seating and room to spread out. We also have plans for outside bench seating depending on council permissions.

Planning and building out our new site is really a group effort. We’re very much old-school when it comes to drawing up plans and much has been done with some graph paper and a 1:10 scale. Our maintenance team are organising all the building work and our carpenter (Tom) with whom have worked for decades, is doing all the cabinetry and oak work. He will be disassembling the counter units from Discovery and putting them back together in Dockley, if, in his words, he can remember how they were put together.

Let’s hope.

Monmouth x

On our counter, we are halfway through the current crop of the coffees from Bolivia. In Bolivia, the new crop has been harvested and processed. It is now being graded, tasted, and organised for export. The new crop will be on our counters in December.

Earlier this year we were delighted to have Pedro Rodríguez and Dani Rodríguez from Agricafe visit our shops and our roastery. It is always great fun to have them with us and we enjoyed a super evening of tasting coffee and talking with the team.

Pedro told us about his entry into the coffee industry in the 1990s and the challenges that he faced in Bolivia at that time. The challenges continue for the coffee industry in Bolivia as the number of people farming coffee decreases, and the crop size along with it. In a dwindling producing environment, Agricafe have specifically concentrated on producing specialty coffee, using their own farms as laboratories to discover the best varietals and methods in the various conditions they have. This knowledge has led to an agronomy programme that other producers have joined called Sol De La Mañana. The programme helps some sixty farms increase both the quality and quantity of coffee produced, which helps increase their income.

The programme Agricafe runs is unique in many ways. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects is that they start with a nursery on every farm. Starting with establishing a good, productive nursery may seem obvious from the outside, but with the initial part of the project taking around three years, the farmers must take a leap of faith that the results will be productive. It is at least ten months before the seedlings can be planted out, and then another couple of years before the first crop is harvested. Farming is always an exercise in hope, but a three year wait for a result is a bit jangling on the nerves. It helps that Pedro’s own farms do so well and the participants can see the potential upside for the effort they put in.

Alongside establishing growing protocols and a good agronomy practice, Pedro has looked to the wine industry for advice and inspiration. Coffee and wine are often compared and the input that has come from wine makers has been invaluable. Some of the big changes that Agricafe have implemented directly from the wine industry have been in the processing stages. All fermentation (the process by which the fruity pulp is removed from the parchment-covered bean during the washed methods) is now done in stainless steel tanks and more strictly controlled. This enables repeatable results in fermentation time and outcome which leads to more consistency in flavour in the cup across the harvest. Having more control at this stage means results are more repeatable across the years giving a consistency in flavour year to year that is remarkable. Traditionally, fermentation has been a rule-of-thumb kind of process and while this can produce wonderful results, it can leave a bit to chance so anything that can reduce the risk to some extent is welcomed.

Agricafe is a small coffee company in a small producing country, but they are right at the front in the work that they do and the quality of the coffee they produce. It is a pleasure to work with Pedro, Dani, Pedro Pablo, and the team, and wonderful to have their coffees on our counter.

Monmouth x

Last month we had the delight of hosting Tesfaye Bekele and Genet Shibru from Suke Quto in Ethiopia, and Wim van Kooten from Trabocca in Amsterdam. This visit had been some time in the making, and we were really pleased it could happen.

Tesfaye and Genet were with us for three days. We showed them how we roast their coffee and make and sell it in our shops. We caught up with the work they are doing on the farm and tasted through the new crop coffees from Suke Quto before a staff meeting where Tesfaye and Wim talked to us about all things Suke Quto and Ethiopian coffee generally.

Trabocca are the importers that help us ship coffee from Suke Quto. They introduced us to Tesfaye’s coffee and help to export the coffee to us in the UK. We have mentioned the great work that Trabocca do before, essentially helping us buy with transparency and consistency in quality in Ethiopia and Kenya. Tesfaye also told us of the work Trabocca do in Ethiopia, helping him and other farmers with specific projects to increase and maintain the coffee quality.

The real highlight of the meeting was hearing first hand Tesfaye’s journey into coffee farming and the continuation of the work he is doing. We visit Tesfaye fairly regularly, but that is usually just one or two of us; Tesfaye captivated the whole team with his story and urged us to continue with the work that we are doing to get his coffee to our customers. Tesfaye does not call himself a coffee farmer, and it is not his life’s purpose. He proclaims ‘I am not born for coffee; I am born for nature. If I have nature, I have coffee.’

Tesfaye was trained and works in Natural Resource Management (Forestry) for the Ethiopian government and fell into coffee farming as a means to help replant native forest and secure an income for the people in the Guji area after three years of significant forest fires in the late 1990s. Tesfaye, with the help of local government, organised the replanting of native trees, along with coffee to provide a future income for the local area. The coffee seedlings selected were also indigenous to the area. The local farmers were reluctant to take on the coffee though – income would be too slow to arrive (three to four years before a crop) and coffee is labour intensive. So, in the early 2000s Tesfaye and Genet set out a plan to establish a model coffee farm to help show that coffee was a viable crop and would also help restore the forest lost in the fires. This was the beginning of Suke Quto.

In 2007 Tesfaye found himself with three containers of coffee to sell and knew he would need international buyers to make the project work. He set about researching and contacting everyone he could about his coffee and sending samples. Solberg and Hansen (a large and older-than-us roaster in Norway) and Trabocca were his first customers, and through their initial support, Tesfaye was able to grow Suke Quto, while providing coffee and shade-tree seedlings to small-holding farmers. We have had coffee from Suke Quto on our counter and in our Organic Espresso since 2016.

We learned a great deal from Tesfaye over the evening and after twenty harvests as a coffee producer he says he is still ‘nature first’.

Monmouth x