FCP WRAPPED
We’ve reached the end of our first year at FCP Roastery, and what a year it has been! A second year under a pandemic, having closed the FCP Cafe for 3 months to prevent staff and customers alike being put at risk, we saw massive swings in our production volume.
We had set a lofty target of roasting 3 tonnes of coffee in our first year; this was our original projected break-even point and thought that if we could hit this in our first year, on our sub-1kg roaster, we’d have really accomplished something magical.
January through March, the cafe was closed meaning we’d dropped almost 30kg of roasted coffee per week in volume from the roastery. Customers were incredibly supportive during this period with no real drop in retail sales of coffee, it was just transitioning to bike deliveries rather than in-store pickups and impulse purchases in the cafe.
Thanks to the wonderful support of our customers both retail and wholesale, we were not just able to hit our target but far exceed it: we hit just shy of 3.25 tonnes of coffee, selling 5,630 250g bags throughout the year. We couldn’t have done it without our customers and we’re forever grateful for the wonderful support we’ve had.
We’d love to share some of our statistics from the past year by ripping off everyone’s* favourite format. Here’s FCP WRAPPED 2021.
* not a guarantee.
CUSTOMER’S TOP 5:
1st - Villamaria Decaf* - Natural Colombia
2nd - Maria Consuelo Cuervo - Washed Colombia
3rd - La Esperanza - Washed Guatemala
4th - Pena Colorada - Washed Mexico
5th - Dhilgee #3 - Washed Ethiopia
*Villamaria Decaf has been the only coffee we’ve kept as a main-stay for the full year, buying the coffee in both its 2020 and 2021 harvests.
YOUR TOP REGIONS:
Customers have been able to purchase 69 different coffees this year across 18 different origins, with Colombia being our top origin at 19.7% of coffees.
Those with a weekly subscription that started in our first week will have tried 52/69 of our available coffees!
The average price paid by FCP per kilogram of green coffee was £8.47 (excluding the Yemen Auction Lot & transportation costs)
PROCESSES:
There was a clear favourite in terms of process. Washed processed coffees made up 47% of our offering, the real surprising statistic is seeing that anoxic natural processed coffees made up a bigger spread than honey processed coffees.
NO PROFFY COFFEE
No Profit Coffee was our way of giving back. It was a tough year for many, from some being refused furlough wages to redundancies. This pandemic has taken a financial and mental toll on lots of people.
We believe that speciality coffee should be expensive, to guarantee that everyone in the value stream is paid fairly. There is a coffee price crisis and lots of producers are forced to sell their product well below the cost of production. However, we realised these prices were not feasible for everyone.
Baho was an old crop coffee, which means it can often lose its abstract value within the speciality market. We wanted to show that this shouldn’t be the case and that these coffees are perfectly drinkable. Although we might not have chosen this coffee for our regular lineup, we know that it still has inherent value and is not to be overlooked. Older crop coffees regularly get sold at lower prices to larger commercial operations, often roasted to a profile that may not consider the inherent characteristics of process, variety, and terroir.
Raw Material generously sold us this coffee at their cost price, so the difference in its FOB price and the price that we purchased it for accounted for transportation and financing.
The price we set for Baho covered the cost of the postage, packaging, and green coffee only removing roasting costs, labour, and our set profit margin from the £3.15 (posted!) price.
We hope to be able to do more things like this in the future, as it was incredibly well-received and we hope it helped those who wouldn’t have been able to access coffee without it.
FCP FAVOURITES:
Chris:
Favourite FCP Coffee - Trengelling - Wet Hulled Indonesia
Favourite Guest Roaster - Finca Chelin Gesha - Honey Mexico - Curve
Mat:
Favourite FCP Coffee - Trengelling - Wet Hulled Indonesia
Fency:
Favourite FCP Coffee - Trengelling - Wet Hulled Indonesia, Ngewa Komothai - Washed Kenyan & Familia Diaz - Honey El Salvador
Favourite Guest Roaster - Alaka - Natural Ethiopia - Origin
Laurence:
Favourite FCP Coffee - La Danta AA - Washed Peru
Favourite Guest Roaster - Bensa Segera - Natural Ethiopia - Candy Cane
Rosy:
Favourite FCP Coffee - Ngewa Komothai - Washed Kenya
Favourite Guest Coffee - Bensa Segera - Natural Ethiopia - Per Nordby
Sean:
Favourite FCP Coffee - Miraflores - Anoxic Natural Colombia
Favourite Guest Coffee - Strawbs - Natural Brazil - Cuppers Choice
Charlotte:
Favourite FCP Coffee - Genji Challa - Washed Ethiopia
Favourite Guest Coffee - Finca Chelin Gesha - Red Honey Mexico - Red Bank
Jonny:
Favourite FCP Coffee - Trengelling - Wet Hulled Indonesia
Favourite Guest Coffee - AB Gulmarg - Honey Kenya - Newground
Highlight Coffee of the year: Trengelling
When cupping the offering Sucafina sent us from Indonesia this year, we wanted to make sure we purchased a good spread; unfortunately, many of the coffees we went for were already sold out. The coffees that remained were the washed coffee from Asman Arianto and a Wet Hulled lot which Mat and I had picked out purely out of curiosity and wanting to purchase a Wet Hulled coffee.
The coffee purchased was Trengelling, a regional lot from across Indonesia, and if you had told me when we purchased this coffee that this Wet Hulled, relatively cheap lot from Indonesia would end up being not just my coffee of the year but most of the employees’ at FCP I’d not have believed you, but then it arrived.
I was a little worried about roasting this, as I’d never roasted a Wet Hulled coffee before and had no idea how to roast it. I tend to use the water activity and moisture of the green coffee to begin initial profiling. It was nothing particularly out of the ordinary so I made a rough roast plan and approached it; the roast went according to plan, so usually I’d cup the coffee, see how the initial profiling went and go about changing it from there according to how it tastes. It’s incredibly rare it’s a one and done, but Trengelling would be the exception!
We cupped the Trengelling and I cannot wholly explain the excitement from the first taste. It was complex, sweet and a truly delightful acidity, unlike any Wet Hulled Indonesian coffee I’ve tasted, and despite trying to chase more out of it, the original profile would end up being the profile the coffee was roasted to throughout. It’ll be a coffee I’ll remember for the rest of my coffee career, and then some.
Once again, thank you all for your support throughout 2021, I hope to continue to bring you a wonderfully diverse selection of coffee to you throughout 2022, here’s to trying to hitting 100 in a year.
- Chris.
