Staff cupping with the guys from The Barn is the favourite part of our job. We get to savour all the beautiful flavours in their specialty coffees.
This week we welcomed Alex who talked us through all the latest beans from The Barn which we will now have in store for you.
Specialty coffee is a constant learning process and with Ralf and the team from The Barn, we get the best training and refresher courses in everything from selecting farmers and growers to importing beans to roasting them and finally to brewing them for you.
And we love to share too, so if you have any questions, just ask your Joe’s barista . . .
Karla got a bag of coffee from Sumatra and she prepared it on her french press and drank it. The next day her friend Laura asked her "Karla, did you like the coffee?" and Karla said to Laura "Not really, it was bitter, the only way I kinda enjoyed it was when I added a lot of milk and five spoons of sugar"*
If this has happened to you before, then this course in our specialty coffee shop in Arnotts Dublin is for you. Come and join us, it will be fun, you'll learn how to use your french press, how to prepare a tasty coffee at home, plus you'll get 20% off any coffee equipment you buy!
It's a complimentary session, and the good news is that if you can't make it to the first session at 10:00 am then you can book your seat for the second session at 17:30! No need to attend both sessions since we will be covering the same information in both of them.
It’s free but secure your spot here on Eventbrite as spaces are limited.
Thanks so much to all who came along to our home-brewing workshop on Monday in Arnotts Department Store. It was a great success and you were all lovely. Great to share our passion for specialty coffee with you and to taste some of those wonderful beans from The Barn!
And sorry to all those who missed out, but the GOOD NEWS? We'll be doing more! Watch this space . . .
We are delighted to have completed another step on our sustainable journey! As you know, Joe's has recently joined the Conscious Cup Campaign! We now offer a 10 cent discount to customers who bring their own reusable cups into Joe's.
And now, Joe’s - and our sister companies in the Itsa group, including Alchemy Juice Company - has removed all single-use plastic bottles from our production. For the whole group, this will equate to 1,600 single-use bottles having been removed or 40kg of plastic . . .
We love these photos of Ralf from The Barn in Berlin with Hanka, manager of Joe's specialty coffee shop on Montague Street and Leeson Street in Dublin 2. They were taken at our recent coffee cupping here in Dublin . . .
We are running a special MARCH MOMENTS coffee competition on our Instagram account for the month of March. Just take a cool photo of a coffee you got in Joe's and then post it to Instagram, tagging joesdublin.
At the end of the month, we'll choose the best one and that person will win a supercool coffee prize: an AeroPress, filters, a bag of beans from The Barn and a bar of gorgeous Hazel Mountain Chocolate!
Usual Ts & Cs apply. You can enter up to three times! Here are some examples . . .
We had a great cupping this week of new beans in from The Barn in Berlin, our main specialty coffee supplier. It took place among staff from the four Joe’s coffee shops in Arnotts in Dublin 1, from Dundrum Town Centre and from our Montague Street and Leeson Street shops in Dublin 2. Really gorgeous tasting notes from the cupping session!!!
For more on The Barn Coffee Roasters, go here: https://thebarn.de/
As part of the Arnotts Department Store 175th birthday celebrations, we're organising a special bean and coffee equipment sale for our coffee shop at the Liffey Street entrance on Thursday, May 10th. We'll have discounts of up to 30% on brewers, grinders and other equipment as well on our specialty coffee beans.
The sale is on from 5pm until 8.30pm and all are welcome!
Folks, we are delighted to announce the first of our kit and bean sales taking place in our Montague Street shop on Saturday, April 14th from 10am to 3pm. We have some amazing gear in stock at the moment and we will be offering up to 30% off all retail items at the sale. Bags of coffee beans from The Barn will also be available to buy at a special discounted rate on the day.
Our staff will be on hand to talk you through the different brewers, grinders and other kit so we can help you to find the best one for your homebrewing needs. We will also do demos of how to use the gear most effectively so you can see them in action before making a purchase. And we will be doing a cupping every hour throughout the day so you can taste the different specialty coffees we have and see which one you like the best.
This will be a day all about specialty coffee, homebrewing and getting some pretty tasty coffee deals. No booking required! Just drop in any time between 10am and 3pm.
We are delighted to have a range of new specialty coffee beans just arrived in from The Barn Berlin, our partner roaster. These are really special . . . as always. You’ll find them in our specialty coffee shops on Liffey Street in Arnotts in Dublin 1, in Dundrum Town Centre and in Kildare Village Retail Outlet as well as in our two shops on Montague Street and Leeson Street in Dublin 2.
We have the following:
Marcos Limongi out of Brazil: Almond. Mandarin orange. Silky.
“Limongi´s relentless dedication matched with an incredibly steep terrain both challenges manual work while nestling the trees among mountainside crevices. This creates for an ideal habitat for the trees with more shade and cooler breezes bringing out an incredibly diverse cup profile.”
El Diamante out of Honduras: Dark grapes. Red apple. Silky.
“Coffees from Honduras can be amazing when they are from the right places and are processed well. They often have more complexity, depth and richness than most other Central American coffees. El Diamante is a small farm in the Western part of Honduras. The cup has notes of dark grapes, red apple, almonds and florals. The mouthfeel is buttery. Francisco Alvarado is part of a new movement of small farmers who invest in owning micro mills to process quality coffees on their farms. Rather than just selling cherries to traders. The coffees are handpicked, separated by varietal, washed and dried slowly on raised beds.”
La Isla out of Costa Rica: Pineapple. Guava. Vibrant.
“Laszlo Banyai originates from Hungary and has a background in wine. He applied his wine experience to Specialty Coffee and we are proud to present the result of his hard work. This honey processed coffee is a tropical experience: Strong flavours of pineapple, guava and papaya. High sweetness and an exciting acidity. Laszlo acquired two farms in Costa Ricas famous West Valley five years ago, La Isla and Lourdes. We are proud to offer our first season from La Isla. Costa Rica is known for clean processing and its different types of honey coffees. We will do processing experiments with La Isla and grow our partnership with them.”
Mahembe out of Rwanda: Sweet cherry. Chocolate. Black tea.
“Rwanda has a long tradition of growing coffee but only recently saw strong uplifts in processing quality. Mahembe is located in the Western Province near Lake Kivu. This coffee is the most interesting one in the region. Notes of caramel chocolate, morello cherries and black tea add to the complexity of this cup. Justin Musabyiama returned to his homeland after the 1994 Genocide. He started Mahembe washing station in 2008. With a strong focus on quality and community building Justin now produces 75% of A1 grades and takes a top five position every year in the Cup of Excellence (CEO). He offers health insurance, school fees and cows as premium payment to his farmers.”
Here are a selection of photos from our Umami Workshop with Susie Kealy of The Barn Berlin which took place in our specialty coffee shop on Montague Street in Dublin on January 23rd, 2018. It was a great night with a fab crowd. We had lots of fun but we also learnt a lot about coffee beans, grinding, cupping and the different flavours our mouths can detect, from sweet and sour to salty and bitter and, of course, umami.
Huge thanks to Susie for being such an informative host for the evening!
We are hosting a very special coffee brewing workshop on the 22nd of February from 6pm in our specialty coffee shop in Harvey Nichols in Dundrum Town Centre.
This workshop will showcase the wonderful new Wilfa grinder and brewer and will be a great opportunity for enthusiastic home brewers to improve their coffee knowledge and bring their brewing skills to the next level.
The event will include a talk about specialty coffee and home brewing, tasting a variety of coffees, demonstration of the use of grinders and home brewing equipment and a quiz. The winner of the quiz will take home a brand new Wilfa grinder worth €125.
Snacks and refreshments will also be available during the event.
