If you grind your own coffee beans then these are a must have for you. From a boutique coffee grinder in Co Meath - who also does Temple Bar food market every Saturday morning.
Michael Kelly loves his coffee. That comes across from chatting to him on Saturday mornings - and also from the consistent quality of each of his beans which can be sampled from his stall.
Yet somehow I have never tried the Achill expresso blend - always managing to pick something else on my infrequent visits to him (I live in Kilkenny). Happily I passed his details onto Padraic in the Gourmet Store in Kilkenny and he is now stocking a supply. From where I bought the Achill blend.
Gorgeous smell, yummy taste and consistent creme - these beans are one of the best I have used. The only thing bringing them down from a 5 to a 4 star rating is the lack of Fairtrade and Organic certification.
Michael does buy directly from growers so he pays a higher than market rate for the beans. And there are many small operations like him who are definitely fairtrade’ish - yet have not taken the bother or expense of obtaining certification.
He also does pre-ground packs for those of you without grinders.
keith
Comments 2
Hi
Michael here from Ariosa coffee.Just read the comment re.my sourcing policy.I am not going to go on too much re.this subject of ethics but to say i have’nt botherd certifing myself is incorrect.I am a certified organic coffee roaster through the organic trust and my sourcing policy is more complicated than simply buying a “fairtrade Brand” which is all people seem to associate with ethics.There are many ways to buy coffee ethically e.g (utz kapeh) (Cup of excellence) (rainforest alliance) and several others.I dont buy “fairtrade brand as it simply is not good enough for what i am after.I am an artizan producer in Ireland and quality is the number one priority of my business.I will not have a symbol eg. Fairtrade associated with my company unless it is good enough.My sourcing goes way beyond that of fairtrade as we deal directly with farmers who are committed to growing the best coffee in the world.These people are not looking for charity but have the same attitude of any of our top farmers in Ireland.Fairtrade is a symbol of ethics not quality so for that reason i had to look beyond that and try and find someone who had a similar attutide to myself and i was very lucky to find a company in london who source the worlds best coffee and who pay some of the highest prices in the world “directly to the farmers”.I explain this week in week out to people in the farmers market but the Ariosa philosophy is about educating people about every aspect of the coffee sector.so to finalise i would like the Ariosa symbol to represent ethics and fairly traded coffee so people can feel assured when the see the logo and if they have any other questions they can contact me directly.
regards
Michael kelly
Posted 28 May 2007 at 10:01 am ¶Thanks for that Michael. My confusion arose because there are no certification logo’s on the coffee beans I have here - the Achill Blend. I know you certainly refer to your ethical sourcing - and it is great to read the additional detail that you gave above.
From 4 to 5 star then!
keith
Posted 28 May 2007 at 3:51 pm ¶Post a Comment