The latest McIvers Price List is available for download here.

August, 2011Earlier this year we made a direct contact with our Fairtrade tea suppliers which allows us to drop the prices of our Fairtrade teas quite substantially. So far the average savings to customer is about a third. It is exciting as this brings the prices almost in line with our other teas and helps to create a larger market for what can be quite an expensive product.

The demise of the Haitian Coffee allowed us to bring in another coffee to fill the gap. At the moment it is the Ipanema Peaberry. It is a little bean and very dense. Most coffee beans come in twos. They are a pair of seeds in the coffee cherry. The Peaberry is a single seed. Hence it's different shape. We find that it needs to be ground a little more coarsely than your standard coffee. It is sweet and thick. Not a great plunger coffee. It loves the domestic espresso machine. We were running through different coffees but this is the one that seemed to stick. For now anyway. It is nice to have at least one rotating coffee to keep our interest.

Our vanilla importer stopped by to say that the village in Bougainville that supplies the vanilla beans just bought a truck with the proceeds of their sales. That was nice to hear. The importer brings it in and sells it on without taking any profit. He is very pleased.

May, 2011Well the Haitian Coffee is gone for now. The supply chain is broken. It was much loved and will be missed. We sold over 600 kilos and so donated over $1200 to Partners in Health, Zanmi Lesante. http://www.pih.org/pages/haiti/. We are thrilled with that.

And on the brighter side the Cuban is back and bloody gorgeous. It is so chocolatey and nutty. Often I think people try the Cuban because it sounds romantic but they keep drinking it for it's smooth, syrupy flavour. It is also our most aromatic coffee.

Last year we reworked our Vanilla tea. It is now a blend of New Guinea Highlands Tea and Vanilla pods from a small grower in Bougainville. We have done this for two reasons. We are trying wherever possible to blend our own tea and not use teas with flavourings. All Vanilla Tea from the major blenders has flavouring.

The New Guinea Highlands tea is fantastic for blending because it does not become bitter with overbrewing. Coincidentally when we were working on this someone made contact with us about buying vanilla direct from PNG. Obviously this was meant to happen. The new blend is a lot more subtle. Instead of having the immediate “pot pourri”, overwhelming aroma of vanilla the flavour is released in the cup. This is due to the nature of the tea which is a CTC – very fine cut. All of the aroma is absorbed into the leaves and released on infusion. It is warm and comforting winter treat. It has the added bonus of being much more local. All of the ingredients are shipped directly to us.

We have also added Organic Moroccan mint. Our own blend of organic spearmint and China Gunpowder teas. Traditionally it is brewed with sugar which makes it sparkle but it is beautiful without also. I now understand why everyone who came back from North Africa and Spain were looking for it.

McIver's Teas are now available at:
The Bean Barn- 217 Sturt St in Ballarat www.thebeanbarn.com.au
Deli Chi Chi - Shop 3, 102 York St, Sale
The Nut Union, Union Square, Brunswick West
& Nut Stop, Keilor Rd Niddrie

And finally, if you come to the shop and we charge you 20c for a biodegradable plastic bag don't get upset. It has worked like a charm. From July of last year until the beginning of April 2011 we have only given out 850 bags. That is a fantastic result and shows that charging works as a mechanism for lowering bag use. The 20c per bag translated into $170 for the Borneo Orangutan Society's good work. http://www.orangutans.com.au/ Please go to their website and watch the smile video. It will make your day.  

April, 2010Last year I heard a report from Haiti talking about a population so hungry they were eating mud cakes. Chris from Paradiso who roasts some of our coffees and I decided to investigate importing Haitian coffee. A country in such severe melt down could do with some trade and we could donate some of the profits to a small organization that could hopefully do a lot with a little.

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. It has been almost totally deforested due to the use of charcoal as a primary source of fuel. It has faced four hurricanes in the last 2 years. Now an earthquake in a country that was already a disaster area.

There is no social safety net and nobody with any money invests.

We will donate $2 from each kilo sold to Partners in Health, an organization who have been working in Haiti for 25 years. They are well placed to provide immediate aid and care. Not such a small organization as we originally envisaged but appropriate for the circumstances of the moment.  

November, 2009 We have finally sourced some good Fairtrade branded tea.  It has taken years.  We found a really strong ctc Assam as well as the more traditional leafy variety.  Also a 2nd flush Darjeeling and a green Darjeeling.  They are not particularly cheap but they are good drinking.

We have also added an organic Pu-erh to our list.  According to studies Pu-erh lowers cholesterol and aids digestion.  We like it's earthy musky taste.  Re steep it as many times as you like.  It is perfect for the bottomless pot.

For more information on Pu-erh you should go to http://www.teatips.tv/products/episode-08-pu-erh/
This is my new favourite tv show…

And finally, the annual Cuban coffee drought is off for this year.  Each year we run out. Cuba is a small island and the competition for supply is fierce.  Miraculously this year we got our hands on an extra shipment.  Joy.