This is a seriously delicious coffee, still vibrant and full of pink grapefruit, crisp apple and berry notes.

Like the Seasonal Espresso, there were areas of the label we felt had been successful and others we wanted to improve on.  One thing we wanted to do was to standardise the information on the labels a little bit more.  We also wanted to give a little more space to the name of the coffee – the most important thing on the bag in our opinion.

We’ve kept the colour scheme from before.  Coffees with the red label like this are roasted to be enjoyed as brewed coffee, rather than espresso. For the single estate espressos we’ve tried to make things clearer again, and the switched colours carry over from the previous labels.

Finally there is the decaf espresso label which is still just black and white:

We’ll keep using the blue label for special coffees like Cup of Excellence lots or other unique coffees.

We hope you like the changes and we hope you keep enjoying the coffees!

With the move away from the individual seasonal names we wanted to look at where we thought we had succeeded with label and where we wanted to improve it.

The core of the idea was to try and increase the transparency behind the creation of the blend. Rather than filling the label with lots of data we wanted to show the breakdown of the components visually, and then explain why we had chosen each component and what it brings to the espresso.

Blending has long been marketed as a dark hidden art, full of proprietary recipes. Our approach has been different but we thought it would be fun and interesting to break down what goes into our espresso a little more.

We’re always open to feedback, and while there is a little less data on the label itself there is still lots available on the full information sheets.

We hope you like the label, and that you love the espresso too!

In an effort to better reflect the diversity of coffee, and to better match the blend changes to the arrival of newly harvested coffees, we’re dropping the individual season names.  The new name is Red Brick, which was chosen to reflect the changes in our own company – we recently moved our location to a red brick building.

The philosophy behind each new blend remains the same, and it is likely those changes will follow a similar time frame to the old Seasonal pattern, but not quite as regimented.  We still plan to enjoy the full spectrum of what great Seasonal espresso blends can be throughout the year.

We’ve also changed the labeling to better reflect what is most important to us about the blend – the transparency of the components and to better explain why each is present in the blend and what flavours and qualities it contributes.  We look forward to your feedback and we hope you enjoy the first incarnation of Red Brick.

Red Brick Seasonal Espresso – £7.50 per 350g

Due to the bank holiday on Mon May 30th, this webshop day will roast/ship Tues May 31st instead. June subscriptions will go out a couple of days earlier than normal, either May 31st or June 1st.

Due to the upcoming WBC in Bogota, webshop will be CLOSED Thurs Jun 2nd and Mon Jun 6th, then resume as normal Thurs Jun 9th.

We apologize for any inconvenience, and wish our John Gordon best of luck at the WBC!

The webshop will roast and ship on the following days:

Monday December 20th – OPEN – WEBSHOP AS USUAL

Thursday December 23rd – OPEN – WEBSHOP AS USUAL Please note that while Royal Mail are delivering on the 24th, only Special Delivery orders are guaranteed to be delivered before Christmas.

Monday December 27th – CLOSED – NO WEBSHOP

Thursday December 30th – CLOSED – NO WEBSHOP

Monday 3rd January – CLOSED – NO WEBSHOP (Public Holiday)

Tuesday 4th January – OPEN – We will be roasting and shipping what would have been processed the day before.

Thursday 6th January – OPEN – Webshop resumes normal scheduled service.

We’ll try to keep on top of any enquiries between Christmas and New Year so if you have any questions just drop us a line at webshop@squaremilecoffee.com

Have a great Christmas!  We’ve some very exciting coffees coming up in the New Year that we’re really looking forward to sharing with you!

The idea was to blend for a different reason – to see how far we could go, to see how much sweet delicious fruit we can cram into a cup.  Some may say there is too much in here – for us there’s never enough!

The blend takes three of our favourite coffees – each capable of a different range of vibrant sweet flavours – and blended them together in equal parts.  Some may be nervous about the acidity in the espresso but these coffees are roasted very careful to showcase their sweetness above all else.  (Though if you prefer low acidity espressos then this probably isn’t for you.)

The recipe is:

1 part Kangocho AA (Kenya)

1 part Tegu AA (Kenya)

1 part Yirgacheffe (Ethiopia)

In the cup look for notes of:

Refreshers, pear drops, cola cubes, blackcurrant fruitella, cherry lips and sherbert lemons. This is an intensely fruity espresso blend, very sweet and with a balanced and pleasing acidity.

(click for full size  -  and you can expect a t-shirt of this very soon too!  Artwork courtesy of David “El Grifo” Gibbons)

A few very important things – please read before ordering:

We are roasting a limited amount of this on 31st of August only.  If you place an order for Sweet Shop that has other items the whole order will be held until that date, then fulfilled.

As we say above – this is a limited run.  We expect to sell out of it in the next week, as it has been available to pre-order already to our newsletter subscribers and over 70% has already gone.  (We like to say thank you however we can!)

Sweet Shop Espresso – £9.00 (350g)

Sorry for any inconvenience caused!

Fazenda Capao – £7.00 (350g)

You can see the full Hario range here.

Expect some videocasts soon covering a few of the brewing methods, and if you’ve got any questions do please let us know!