PODcast #34 : Espresso Pods News

Welcome to The PODcast, PodMerchant's newsletter of espresso pod tips, news, education, and deals. Back issues of The PODcast are available online. This newsletter is published in HTML with images and styled text. If you are reading the "text only" version, you are missing much of the content.

Espresso Elucidations

"Best Before" Dates

This is a different sort of topic for our monthly "Elucidations" article, but I wanted to explain a bit about how we work to keep the coffee that we sell as fresh as possible.

First off, when a pod is made, it is stamped with a "best before" date. It might also read something like "best by" or "use by". This date is generally 18 months after manufacture. I have had espresso made from pods that were well over 2 years old and they were still excellent — pods stay fresh a long time. The process of manufacturing pods allows very little oxygen to touch the ground coffee. The coffee is ground, formed into pucks, sandwiched in paper, and then sealed in metalized plastic envelopes — all in a nitrogen atmosphere. There is little oxygen available to oxidize the oils of the coffee and cause spoilage.

So right off the bat, you've got a product made to have a long shelf life. We know, and understand, that customers do not wish to receive product with a "best before" date in the past, or even in the near future. But without adequate safeguards, it is easy to happen. A case of coffee that is in the back of a stack might get more new product placed in front of it and sit on the shelf until it's too late. To prevent this we take great pains to rotate our inventory — just like the way they put the newer milk behind the older milk at the grocery store.

In addition to the roaster's date, we date-stamp all inventory when we receive it. We also inspect the roaster's date to insure that our distributors aren't trying to palm off old coffee on us (coffee that we import directly from Italy never has this problem). PodMerchant will never knowingly sell coffee past its "best before" date. I can't claim that we've never sent out old coffee, but it was never intentional, and we have always refunded the customer's money or exchanged the product when it was discovered. These experiences led us to institute rigorous procedures aimed at preventing old stock from being sold — and we've been entirely successful at this for some time.

If you decide to buy pods from retailers other than PodMerchant, you might inquire first on their policy and practices on selling fresh coffee. This is particularly important when dealing with eBay sellers.
 

Coffee News

Funny Coffee News

Is it something in the water?...or perhaps the coffee. Now there are two incidents of police threatening Starbucks baristas if they didn't get free coffee. I detect a pattern emerging. Tooooo muuuuuch caffeeeeeeine!

In Daytona Beach, Florida, police lieutenant Major Garvin was fired over accusations that he threatened slower emergency response times if he was not given complimentary Starbucks coffee. Garvin was said to frequent the store 6 times a day. He is also said to have "requested" free coffee when not on duty.

Just remember: "I'm the difference between you getting a two-minute response time ... or a 15 minute response time."

Garvin was fired, but officer Barbara Nevers of Chicago got to keep her job. The Police Board ruled that 55-year-old Nevers intimidated Starbucks employees by screaming at them and flashing her badge, handcuffs or gun when they wanted her to pay.

Next time you want free Starbucks, just shout: "GIVE ME MY COFFEE! Don't you see this badge!?"

There are times when I'm glad I'm selling coffee from the other side of a computer screen rather than the other side of the counter. Those threats won't work at PodMerchant.

PodMerchant News

The big news: PodMerchant is now selling our own private label blend and decaf pods. I am really excited about being able to offer this. Even before opening PodMerchant's virtual doors, roasters have approached us about selling their coffee under the PodMerchant name. Problem was, the coffee was never good enough. I'm not going to put the PodMerchant name on a coffee for which I have to apologize. When you taste PodMerchant's House Blend Espresso and Decaf Espresso, you'll know that no apologies are needed. This is great coffee and I'm proud to offer it under the PodMerchant name. The PodMerchant House espresso is a Neapolitan roast — my favorite style. I hope it's your's too. Of course, the purpose of a house label product is to be able to offer it at price below name brand products. The PodMerchant blend is our least expensive offering, coming in at 35¢ each in cases of 150 and 44¢ in bags of 20 (compare to illy's MSRP of 61¢ each in cases of 180 and 67¢ each in tins of 18). All orders for the last few weeks have gone out with free samples of PodMerchant House espresso, so hopefully many of our readers have already tried it.

Compagnia dell'Arabica is back on the shelves — and flying right back off! Our sea shipment from Italy arrived a couple of weeks ago and we now have good stock on CDA products — with the exception of Biologica. Pent-up demand was so strong for it that we've been nearly wiped clean. I expect we'll have to place an order for Biologica by air-freight before our next sea shipment.

Prices: Some up — some down. A recent recalculation of prices raised some brands and lowered others. Note lower pricing on Amigos Blue, Attibassi, Dock (by lots), and Segafredo.

HandPressos are still not available. As reported last issue, HandPresso has chosen an official U.S. distributor and will no longer sell directly to retailers. Word from the distributor was they would have first stock arriving in late August (which is now). So hopefully soon.

PodMerchant Coupons

PODcast subscribers get a 10% discount coupon with each issue. Just enter the code below on the Shipping Selection screen during checkout.

• Only one coupon per subscriber per issue.
• Coupon expires when the next issue is published, or at the end of the next month following publication of the issue, whichever comes first.
• Coupons are only valid for PODcast subscribers — we check use of coupons against the subscriber list.
• For more information, please see our PODcast Coupon FAQ.

For 10% off your next order — Enter code: XXXXXXX (note, that is "P-C-Zero") and please press the "Redeem Coupon" button or the coupon will not be entered.

That's all for this issue of the PODcast.


Kevin Garrett, The PodMerchant.