Today has been one of those days.  It started way too early, with a fund raising breakfast, and since then, things have piled on.  One of the big stressors today is the news that our Christmas order of Technivorm's is doomed to delivery after Christmas, if we ship by way of ocean freight.  The production run from Technivorm in Holland was scheduled a tad bit late (this week) and when you are not shipping full containers, the freight forwarders take up to 10 days to consolidate.  The bottom line is a shipment that won't come before Christmas, unless I employ an airplane, which guarantees that the shipping cost per unit doubles.  Have I said how much I hate international shipping.

So, we are proposing to ship a minimum of 100 brewers via air freight, and unfortunately pass this cost onto our customers.  It will likely mean an increase in shipping costs of $20 to guarantee delivery for Christmas.  Apart from this solution, I am not sure what else to do, other than buy my own boat and start to row.

If you read our blog, you know that we are constantly searching for better coffee.  The truth is that it is harder to find great coffee than it should be.  We get sent coffee to sample which often surprises me, in terms of its quality.  And while I would love to run only 90 plus point coffees, it is not realistic in terms of overall price point in our current market place (namely Edmonton).  Take for example our yet to be roasted Cup of Excellence El Salvador #4 which will retail for $42 per pound.  Is the coffee worth $42?  Absolutely, just like a 2005 Chateauneuf-du-Pape is worth $100 plus.  But, just because the product is worth it, doesn't necessarily mean that people will be happy to shell out $42 for a pound of coffee.  Why?  Well partly because some won't appreciate the value in that more expensive coffee, and won't understand the quality associated with it.  And on one level I understand that.  I don't drink $40 bottles of wine every day ($15-$20) but I will drag one out of the cellar on a regular basis if I have a reason to do so.  The same is true for coffee.  Our Kenyan Pea Berry is a great example of everyday drinking coffee at a mere $18 per pound, so to is the Panama Finca Santa Teresa Lot 87.  These coffees are amazing value at that price point.  Our new COE El Salvador #30 is a great deal at $20 per pound.  We will have some new Brazil Daterra coffees in the next couple of weeks which will delight your palates too.  All of this to say that we have some great new coffee in the cue, and will have more on the way, so gear up, and set your expectations higher, as we cycle out some of the older selections and make room for coffees with more personality.

For a full list of what is currently offered, check out our fresh roasted coffee page.

I am listening to Seth Godin's audio book, "Tribes" and it has sparked a few questions for me.  He articulates that we all want to belong to a tribe, many tribes in fact, where we are known and have an association with the activities of the tribe.  Every tribe is different, and every tribe offers its members something distinct.  As I have been listening to him read excerpts from his book, I have been struck by the fact that Transcend is in fact a tribe, and that we have some amazingly loyal members.  As I thought more about this, I realized that I am the de facto chief of the Transcend tribe, which actually causes me to pause, as Seth says that as leaders we are supposed to lead the tribe, to cause a ruckus, to stir things up.  Well, given that this seems to be the case, I thought I would throw out a quick post to those few who follow, to see what you think.  Do you agree with me, is Transcend a tribe, in a modern sense.  And if it is, and you consider yourself a member of the Transcend tribe, what would you like us, me, to do for you.  Is providing amazing coffee enough?  Or is there more that you would like to see Transcend provide?  In all honesty, I write these posts and wonder whether anyone actually reads them.  Occasionally someone comments, which gives me hope that my ramblings are not simply junk in the nether world.  But seriously, I would love your feedback, what would you like more of from Transcend.  We are constantly growing, searching, maturing, and though it all, we would be nothing without our faithful followers.  Seriously, this is a chance to give the chief a piece of your mind.

Who took the Mo' money?


It was a sad day for humanity today when we noticed that someone had swiped our Prostate Cancer Fundraising Tin. So we now implore you to reach deep into you pockets and raise us out of adversity and rekindle our faith in personkind. Perhaps, given our experience, the best thing to do would be to donate to The Sausage Lattes online at http://ca.movember.com/donate/index.php or come in and donate to our more discretely located fundraising tin. Just 2 weeks left to do a months work!  (Thea Moss)

Well, it has almost been two weeks now, since I have endured my infuriating handicap.  No, I haven't lost a leg or a kidney, I have lost at times, and have had a severely handicapped sense of smell and taste due to my son who so generously passed along his cold to me.  There is nothing like a robust virus to cramp a coffee guy's style.  It is amazing how much both coffee and wine and food, for that matter, have tasted like the handle bars on my old bicycle.  Each time I run a coffee tasting, I stress how much our noses are part of our ability to enjoy the diverse world of coffee flavours.  These two weeks have simply galvanized that for me, as I have suffered for too many days, the monocrome and bland world of taste.  Some days I think I could handle a black and white visual world far better than I could a bland tasteless world.  People often ask me jokingly whether I plan to ensure my tongue, ala Gene Simmons.  It's a question which I regularly laughingly pass off without much thought.  That is until now, after two long weeks of severely limited taste, I now may give that tongue insurance policy another glance.  OK, enough about that.  Seriously, the point of this post (yes Virginia, there is a point) is to encourage everyone to revel in the flavours of your daily world.  Do not take for granted the vast diversity that you can experience through your nose and mouth.  So many of the simple pleasures of life are available to us through our mouth and nose, but in order to fully appreciate this world, we need to pay attention.  In other words, it is important to STOP and SMELL the roses, the coffee, the herbs, the bread, the vegetable and to log into memory both the fragrances and the associated words, so that the next time you come across that same aroma, you will know it, own it.  OK, maybe I am being a bit edgy, but then again, I haven't really had the use of my faculties for two weeks.

Since my first meeting with Luke Harris at Transcend, and our passionate discussion about green storage, I have been ruminating on changing things at the shop.  Well it has finally happened.  We have made the leap to storing all of our green coffee in 5lb black zip lock bags which are intended to preserve the moisture in the bean, keep it away from light, dust and any other possible contaminating substances.  We haven't initiated climate controlled storage as of yet, that is likely in the works, but this initial step will go a long way in preserving the quality of the green that we import.  Everything is now packaged in 13 pound batches, which makes it easy for our roaster Chad to just grab a bag and dump it into the roaster.  Most coffee is stored near the coast and as such is used to a much higher degree of humidity.  Alberta on the other hand is quite dry in comparison, and as such, we have been a bit concerned with our green loosing valuable moisture.  We trust that our new storage system will go a long way to minimizing any moisture loss, and should we move to climate controlled storage in the near future, we will have an even more stable environment for our green coffee.  Just one more way that Transcend is working towards the highest possible standard for quality.

One of the hard things in the world of specialty coffee, is getting the media and food critics interested in coffee like they are in wine and food.  On one hand, I can understand their reluctance, as for so long in North America coffee was simply a tasteless brown liquid consumed for its caffeine effect.   Things have changed a bit though, from the days of percolated (over-extracted bitter) coffee and nowadays we have so many more options.  And while we are having success educating our customer base, it is still hard at times to convince the media and food types (including restaurant owners) that specialty coffee has rightful place along side the great wines and foods of the world.  Thankfully Liane Faulder of the Edmonton Journal doesn't fall into the category I just described.  And while she would likely admit that she doesn't know a whole lot about the world of specialty coffee, she is open to learning more, and in participating the process of raising the profile of both those who excel in the world of coffee, and the world in which they strive.  Kudos to the folk like Liane and Marina Michaelides at City TV who have allowed coffee to have a spot in the lineup of things that are worthy of our attention.