ORIGIN COFFEE <BR>Volume 1, Issue 3 NEWSLETTER Autumn 2001<BR>On a Personal Note<BR>Our first (and last) born and bred New Zealand baby, Jack William, was born on 14th December 2000 and behaved beautifully over the busy Christmas period while we rushed around getting out the Christmas orders. He did, however, delay the introduction of gift baskets. These are now ready to go so please 'phone or put a note on your order form if you'd like one. A breakdown of contents and prices is on the Specials page of this newsletter. We will be putting all the details plus photos on our website soon.<BR>Have a warm winter!<BR>Liz<P><BR>Special Welcome to our Newer Locations where you can find Origin Coffee<P>Vilagrad Wines: Rukuhia<BR>Pirongia Village Café; Pirongia<BR>Intermezzo Café; Center Place, Hamilton<BR>Cavelands Café; Waitomo Caves<BR>Ma Higgins Café; Milford, Auckland<BR>Frankton Junction Café; Frankton, Hamilton<P>LATEST NEWS FROM MALAWI<BR>Good news regarding the rains. Started on time, end of November, since have been consistent and are still going. For the majority of the Malawians, who are subsistence farmers, this will mean a good maize crop that will keep them going for the next year.<P>Coffee wise the plantations have recovered well from the dry season and the cherry fill is progressing ready for the first fly harvests in April. Therefore a high yield of good quality coffee is expected this year.<P>I've had a number of questions related to the chemical programmes used on the coffee. The best plantations use "Integrated Pest Management" (IPM). This limits the general effect on the environment as a whole by spot spaying the problem areas only. The method is based on intensive scouting of the coffee and only spraying when the pests in a specific area have reached a threshold. Although this is not "Organic" it is a long way in the right direction and healthier for the environment than the old-fashioned prophylactic blanket spraying.<P>An Independent Assessment of Origin's Malawi Coffee:<BR>Origin Coffee's light/dark roast is a coffee that brings a touch of the exotic to the espresso roasts that are currently available on the New Zealand market. It's a full bodied coffee that gives a sweet and lasting finish, and doesn't fall flat on the palate because of a lack of acidity that seems to be very common amongst a number of commercial roasts available here. There's a distinct nuttiness about it. Crema on producing a short black was excellent, and it didn't lose it's flavour when produced as a flat white and latte. It's a coffee that would be much appreciated as a café roast that gives a point of difference as a unique style coffee on the New Zealand market.<P>By Michael Guy from Café Magazine<P>Thankyou!<P>Important for RD address holders.<BR>Unfortunately we can no longer absorb the increase in charges by Courier Post for deliveries to RD addresses. These went up by $2 extra, for any size parcel, over 2 months ago. As such we are left with no other option than charging the extra $2 on the order for parcels going to a RD address starting 14th May 2001. Sorry for that!<P>WORLD COFFEE NEWS RELEASE<BR>The "retentive scheme" has failed to increase the World priced significantly and they remain low pushed by the supply and demand factors. Columbia's crop seems to be coming on well despite adverse climatic conditions over the last two years. Brazil has a policy in place where the lower quality coffees are kept for internal consumption with the better grades exported. Overall this has had an advantageous outcome and the other South American countries are looking to implement the same policy for the future.<P>The temporary shortage of good quality Kenyan coffee, due to climatic factors, has had a marked effect on the pricing and exposure of other African coffees. The Zimbabwe situation seems on the surface to have cooled down somewhat but who knows when it will rear its ugly head again?<P>The continued low price for coffee has the large plantation companies looking at cutting cost of production. The main area under consideration is the move to mechanical harvesting rather than the traditional method of harvesting by hand. In the long term this will reduce the quality of the washed arabica coffee produced and may increase the use of chemical hormones to force the coffee to ripen at the same time.<P>Events:<BR>Fieldays; Mystery Creek, Hamilton, June. As always we are looking forward to this event. Although extremely hectic it does give us a chance to meet a large number of you who, otherwise, we'd never meet face to face. I do promise to make sure we have some help on the stand this year so that I have more time to be able to talk "coffee".<BR>We, along with Hunter Country Clothing, have a number of interesting ideas for this year's Fieldays, but the authorities have not passed these yet so I will not speculate. It will be great to see you there, make sure you come in and introduce yourself. The site will be opposite the Redvale Aeroplane as usual.<P>Keep an eye out for us at other shows and events as we seem to be called up at short notice for these although none have been calendarised as of yet.<P><BR>Overseas Orders:<BR>Through our website,www.OriginCoffee.com, we have created a large amount of interest overseas. Orders having gone out to the USA, UK, Australia, Austria and even the South Island! A number of these have now taking a regular order per month. Please look at our Special Offer section for a excellent rate to Australia.<P>PACKAGING AND MACHINERY RANGE<BR>We can now supply coffee, beans or ground, in a 1kg same style self-sealing, stand up pouch with a coffee valve. The valve allows the coffee to carryon releasing the natural gases but does not allow fresh air in thereby extending the shelf life by an extra few weeks. The dramatic increase in servicing cafes and restaurants as well as the increased popularity of the coffee overseas has made the use of this packaging more important. We will carryon the 250gm pouches for the mail order trade but please note: if you receive the pouch and it has become swollen it is due to the coffee being too freshly roasted and ground, still releasing large amounts of natural gases and not because the coffee has gone off.<P>We've had a number of reports back over the last month saying that the seal on the 250gm pouch has come away. Thankyou! This was reported to the supplier who has promised to do something about it. We have now returned the stock of these bags and they have replaced them with newly manufactured pouches. Please keep up the good work with the feed back and I'll hopefully be in a position to sort problems out quickly.<P>Trevi Automatica - This has proved to be a popular machine, at NZ$1200 normally retailed at $1500. With the press of a button the right amount of coffee is ground, tamped, water pushed through and the used coffee is automatically dumped into a bin within the machine. All you have to do is place a cup under the spout and select the amount. No mess and No fuss. This machine also has a frother wand for cappuccinos<P>Trevi Plus - This is the perfect domestic espresso coffee maker, small compact fits well in any kitchen. Fitted with the latest coffee technology creama diaphragm to produce the perfect espresso every time, built in frothing wand for cappuccinos. Price NZ$550.<P>Imex Coffee Roaster - The 125gm home roaster is for the pure coffee enthusiast. Roast your own green coffee beans as and when you need them. Roasting take only 9-14 mins depending on your taste. Price NZ$350<P>All prices Incl. GST and P&P<P><BR>For all your coffee related queries don&#8217;t hesitate to give us a call. Order form enclosed.<BR>Yours coffeewise, Roger and Liz<P>Newsletter Specials:<P>For the months of May/June 2001 only and only if you state when ordering that you've read about the special in the Newsletter, to make sure it is read and not just thrown into the bin.<P>Half Kilo Pack: NZ$ 17.00 (2x 250gm self-seal, stand up pouches) of the roast of your choice. This includes GST and P&P. Please note the extra charge of $2 for RD addresses. Normal price $18.00<P>Half Kilo Delivered to Australia: NZ$22.00 Now is your chance to catch up with friends or relatives across the Tasmin. Send a card for us to enclose or give us a message. Normal price $25.00<P><BR>Gift Baskets:<BR>We can now supply a range of Gift Baskets:<P>Photographs of which will soon be on our Products page of the Origin Coffee website <A HREF="http://www.OriginCoffee.com" TARGET=_blank>www.OriginCoffee.com</A> <P><BR>$50.00 incl. GST and delivery; 250gm pouch of Origin Coffee ground; Almond Buscuits; Shortbread and a Bodum 4 cup plunger.<P>$100.00 incl. GST and delivery; 250gm pouch of Origin Coffee ground; Chocolate Mint Thins; Chocolate Coated Coffee Beans; Bodum 4 cup plunger and 2 colourfully decorated coffee mugs.<P>$150.00 incl. GST and delivery; 250gm pouch of Origin Coffee beans or ground; Bodum 4 cup plunger; Chocolate Mint Thins; 2 colourfully decorated coffee mugs and a choice of either:<BR>i) a Braun Domestic Coffee Grinder or ii) a Glass Port Decanter, filled with quality Port<P>Note: all the above come in suitably wrapped and in a specially designed Gift Box. Please allow a few days for delivery.