A big part of our philosophy is that we love to collaborate with people who share our passion for coffee and have an innovative spirit in them. That’s why we’ve recently teamed up with Jack Wheeler-McMullen from Humdrum Espresso – to fulfill our long time dream of a signature coffee blend that hits the sweet notes just right.
As you’re about to learn, we’ve had this idea at the back of our mind since day one. So when Jack approached us one day with his wish of a sweeter blend that he can serve at his charming little coffee hang out in the heart of Eumundi, we were stoked. This is the story of our chase for the ultimate sweetness in a blend.
An idea that had to wait for the right timing
“I’ve really wanted Clandestino to have a blend that is focused on sweetness from day one. When we first started roasting in Noosa in 2010, people’s idea about coffee (including ours) was all about strength, not so much about flavour or sweetness,” explains Jaxon Taylor, who is the owner of Clandestino. The reason behind this was due to the Italian style of roasting which was abundant in Noosa up until the mid to late 2000’s. “The other thing that was working against this idea back then was that there just were not enough black coffee drinkers around. Milk can make flavours fade out to the point where the coffee itself cannot be appreciated to its full potential. Ideally, you want to come up with a blend that tastes really good black and with milk,” adds Jaxon.
To start serving a sweet, lightly roasted blend and hope for the best is just not the right way to do it. “Instead, we focused on educating the coffee community around Noosa – by gradually introducing more flavour and sweetness in coffee that we were offering and sharing our knowledge about it,” he adds. Fast forward a few years. Sunshine Coast is thriving with a diverse coffee scene and a healthy competition with a number of local roasteries, independent cafes and baristas skilled in alternative ways of preparing coffee. It has evolved so much that we felt like we were ready to introduce this style of coffee.
From coffee cart to co-owning a local hot spot
Humdrum Espresso, run by siblings Jack and Keisha, is definitely a spot to check out. We’ve been friends with Jack for years and it’s been great watching him going from humble beginnings serving our coffee from a cart in the park to moving into a busy establishment in the old butcher shop. Humdrum Espresso was one of the very first cafes we started supplying with our beans and it has flourished ever since. Jack not only asked us for a signature blend for Humdrum, but he especially requested a sweeter one – and it all clicked into place.
A blend that stands up to single origins
One of the best things about our newest creation is that it comes as a two bean blend – it can almost pass as a single origin. This is because you are still able to pick the original flavours of its two components. Back at out Clandestino headquarters, Ryan “Steg” Stegert who is our Head Roaster, talks about how smoothly the whole process went. “I knew the flavour profile we wanted straight away,” explains Steg. “The choice of the two beans for the blend was pretty obvious. We had our two main components already chosen, we just needed to play with the ratio so that they compliment each other perfectly.”
Josh Lazarevski, our Coffee Director whose years of experience as a barista and numerous cuppings of our beans made him the right person to be part of the developing team, adds: “We mixed a medium to high-bodied coffee with a low bodied coffee to give us the balance we needed for our customers”, Josh gives us a sneak peek into how the boys worked their magic, “both our Colombian and Ethiopian are high-scoring coffees and compliment each other perfectly.”
The Humdinger has landed!
All we needed now was a strong name. You know how the best things usually come naturally? Someone suggested the word “humdinger” and when we looked up the definition we realised we couldn’t have found a more fitting name.
Humdinger noun | hum . ding . er : a remarkable or outstanding person or thing of its kind.
Humdinger truly is a remarkable blend made out of our best high-scoring Colombia and Ethiopia beans available this season. It will seduce you with smooth flavours of ripe stone fruits, summer berries and butterscotch.
Welcome the Package Drop #1
Humdinger uses seasonal beans. The good thing about them is that you can be sure that we carefully selected the very best beans we could find. But this also means that their availability might be limited. That’s what makes Humdinger just a little bit more special. We will forever be chasing the optimal flavours of sweetness with its future batches. If you’d like to try this sweet blend with summer fruits, ripe stone fruit and butterscotch notes, it is now available in our online store. For more information contact [email protected].
