Dog and Hat Blog

Welcome to the latest selection of Dialled In coffee for you to enjoy over the festive period.

Once again, our festive selection has a distinctly Yorkshire feel to it as we look forward to our annual trip around the local roasteries to wish them a merry Christmas and pick up the coffee.

We have two new roasters joining us this month - Dark Woods and Bean Brothers both from the Huddersfield area in West Yorkshire - who are joining returning favourites North Star in Leeds and Heart and Graft in Manchester.

Click the link to see the Dialled In December Coffee in more detail.

Some month's go by and you get some fairly easy to understand tasting notes - Chocolate, Cherry, Red Berries, Caramel, maybe even Blueberry.  This month is not one of those months - so be prepared to open you taste buds to some new and exciting flavours including Rhubarb and Persimmon.

This month we welcome back some firm Dog and Hat member favourites - Craft House Coffee and Horsham Coffee Roasters, both from sunny Sussex alongside Manumit from Cardiff.

Then, making their first appearance in the subs we have Caravan Coffee Roasters from London.

Click the link to see the Dialled In November coffee in more detail.

This month we have a coffee that is exclusively available through Dog and Hat, two new origins (Panama and India), one new roaster (Grumpy Mule) and three returning favourites (Neighbourhood Coffee, Quarter Horse Coffee and Artisan Roast).

It's going to be another epic month!

Reuse...

For International coffee day we have teamed up the Urban Vintage Affair to discuss the use of vintage item in the coffee world. It's my (Su’s) passion that we re-use items that have an interesting story behind them.

You can find our friends here https://theurbanvintageaffair.com/ and they focus on the reuse of antiques for every day use - it's well worth a look and the coffee spoons are particularly immense! 

Click the link to see the Dialled In October Subscription coffee in more detail.

This month we have a Scotland vs Yorkshire theme including two new roasters joining the Dog and Hat family.

Your new roasters for this month are:

• Chris, Neil and the team at Unorthodox Roasters in Kinross
• Zach at Chipp Coffee Co in Leeds (and a little bit in Edinburgh too)

Your returning favourites this month are:

• The Daves and team at Rounton in North Yorkshire
• Matt and team at Fortitude Coffee in Edinburgh

Click the link to see the Dialled In September subscription coffee in more detail.

This month we are showcasing four roasters of a very specific type – the Coffee Shop / Roaster combo - and we have three new roasters and a returning favourite for you to enjoy.

• Jens and the team at Mok Speciality Coffee all the way from Leuven in Belgium
• Henry and the team at Gentlemen Baristas in East London
• Dean and the team at Curious Roo in West London

The returning favourite this month is also a first for us... not just a returning roaster but also a returning coffee (but from a new harvest): 

• Paul and the team at Vagabond in North London and the returning coffee is Ricardo Canal’s La Lomita from Colombia 

Once again we are bringing you two new roasters - Monsoon Estates Coffee in Straford-upon-Avon and Ineffable Coffee from Seville in southern Spain.

The returning favourites that are gracing the subs this month are Pharmacie Coffee down in Hove and Casa Espresso in Bradford.

There's also the rare opportunity to get hold of a bag of coffee all the way from Cat and Cloud in sunny Santa Cruz, California.

People often ask us how we go about profiling and dialling in a new coffee for the subscription.  Below is a quick recap on how we dialled in June's Amoret Coffee El Salvador on filter to get the Dialled In settings that we publish for each subscription coffee each month.

We have two new roasters joining the Dog & Hat family this month - Climpson and Sons and Sendero Coffee, both from London.

Climpson and Sons are a staple of the London speciality coffee scene having been around since 2002.  Sendero Coffee are experts in coffee sourcing and travel the world looking for more obscure origins and coffees.  They have partnered with our good friends Pharmacie Coffee down in Hove to bring their coffee vision to life.

Returning to join the newbies this month are Heart & Graft from Manchester and Dusty Ape from Wiltshire.

This month sees the return of two roasters that first graced the Dog & Hat subscriptions way back in October 2017 for Edition #1… we always reserve a very special welcome for Ste at Django Coffee Co. in Southport and Lisa and the crew at Dear Green in Glasgow (who have just organised yet another triumphant Glasgow Coffee Festival).

Returning to join these perennial favourites are Dave Stanton at Crankhouse Coffee in Exeter and Sadiq Merchant from Amoret Coffee in Notting Hill.

We've just got back from the 5th edition of the Glasgow Coffee Festival (GCF), that was organised by Glasgow's hometown roaster Dear Green.  It was a whirlwind day full of fantastic coffee competitions, cuppings, coffee, coffee, more coffee and even included a conversation about tiny little farmers milking a pea.

Obviously you now have your pick of coffee festivals to visit and geography is likely to be the primary  factor as to which one you choose.  However, there are a couple of things that we think really set GCF apart from the crowd and make it worth a visit. 

We've always been interested in the science side of coffee here at Dog & Hat.

As we've just completed the SCA Brewing Professional accreditation we thought we'd write a blog series on some of the more important parts that relate to coffee brewing to help you get the most out of the Dialled In Filter Coffee Subscription.

This first part focuses on the science of the coffee bean.