Tag Archives: specialty coffee

Hayman Coffee Review

Hayman Coffee is a London roaster that currently offers four coffees for purchase on their website: Jamaica Blue Mountain, Hawaii Kona, Panama Geisha, and their Award-Winning Brazilian coffee. When they asked me to review their coffee, I’ll admit that I was a little hesitant. A cursory glance at their website showed me that they offer Nescafe coffee pods as a purchasing option. I’ve wrote extensively about how I think coffee pods should die, and (in my experience) when a company offers them as a way to experience their product, what they’re really saying is “our coffee isn’t that good.”

Not only did Hayman prove me dead wrong, but they impressed me with an elegance not often found in American specialty coffee.

The Snapshot

Hayman Coffee is based in London, England and has been around since 2014. On their website they don’t say a ton about themselves, electing to instead educate customers on what Third Wave Coffee and specialty coffee is, and why that matters. I actually appreciate this; some companies get so caught up in “their story” that they tend to forget how they fit into the larger coffee community. This doesn’t seem to be a problem for Hayman.

Hayman Coffee’s selections are few in number, but great in price. As noted above, they offer just four coffees for purchase. As of the writing of this review, three of these four are available as whole bean, ground, and coffee pods. Notably, their Award-Winning Brazilian is only available in pods. You can purchase their Jamaica, Kona, and Panama Geisha in two sizes: 85g/3oz or 190g/6.7oz. Prices vary by coffee, but generally speaking its $35-$40 for the 85g size, and $50-$60 for the 190g size.

Keep in mind that a standard bag of coffee contains about 12oz, or roughly 340g of beans. A 12oz bag of Stumptown’s Hair Bender costs $15, while a higher-end specialty coffee like Onyx’s El Salvador Finca Santa Rosa Honey is $22.50 for a 12oz bag. You could buy two bags of Onyx beans and pay less money than for one 6.7oz portion of Hayman’s Jamaica Blue Mountain beans. That’s a huge gap, and it means most people wouldn’t be able to afford buying Hayman’s products regularly.

Hayman does score points in the presentation department. The coffees they sent me were packed in nice little boxes complete with cards outlining specifics about each coffee (growing altitude, tasting notes, etc). The coffees themselves were in inflated plastic tubes, likely filled with nitrogen (as this helps coffee stay fresh longer). I really enjoyed the elegant presentation, and it helped establish the kind of company Hayman is in my mind.

Hayman set a high bar for themselves to live up to; a premium look and price better come with a premium product. So how does their coffee taste?

The Coffee

I was sent Hayman’s Hawaii Kona and Jamaica Blue Mountain for this review, and in my tests both coffees completely lived up to the specialty standard. With that being said, they were not the kind of coffees that I would pay $60 for. I enjoyed both coffees, but I likely won’t be purchasing more for my weekly habit.

I brewed both coffees using a variety of methods, but focused mostly on the Hario v60, Chemex, and Clever. Here’s the breakdown:


Hawaii Kona

Elevation: 550-700m

Processing: Wet

Acidity: Low/Med

Aroma Notes: Sweet, smooth, balanced.

Tasting Notes: Cereal; Malt, Cocoa; Chocolate, Nutty; Almond.

Review: Because of previous experiences with Hawaiian coffees not living up to the hype, I expected to hate this coffee. I liked it. I didn’t love it, but I liked it. It had the earthy, buttery, and chocolatey notes that I would expect from an island coffee, but it also had some muddy malt notes that weren’t as pleasant. It’s a washed coffee, so any more exotic flavors were probably muted in processing – still, it’s a balanced cup with low/medium acidity that’s pleasant to sip on.

Purchase Link for Hawaii Kona


Jamaica Blue Mountain

Elevation: 900-1700m

Processing: Wet

Acidity: Med/High

Aroma Notes: Sweet, nutty

Tasting Notes: Nutty; Hazelnut/Walnut, Brown Spice; Clove

Review: This was a delicious coffee. It had pleasant acidity, and while there were no fruit/berry notes, the acidity worked well with more nutty/brown spice flavors. Brewing in the Hario v60 brought out some really interesting light floral notes which were especially noticeable closer to the roasting date. I preferred a 1:16.5 brew ratio to get great clarity out of this coffee.

Purchase Link for Jamaica Blue Mountain


Both of these coffees are from well known islands that have adapted over time to meet tourist demands for coffee. Today, you can find both Kona beans and Jamaican beans that run the gambit from terrible to absolutely incredible. I’m happy to say that the beans Hayman sent me are closer to the “incredible” side of that spectrum.

Of the two coffees I tried I much preferred the Jamaica Blue Mountain. As a fan of higher acidity, this coffee spoke my love language. It had some subtle floral notes every once in a while, but was dominated primarily by a beautiful mix of nut and sweet spice flavors. This coffee was delicious in both the Clever and Hario v60, but I only ever experienced floral notes when brewing with the v60.

The Hawaii Kona coffee was good, but it wasn’t great. It did completely exceed my expectations, however, and for that I was happy. With deeper, chocolate flavors to compliment smooth, balanced aromatics, I was never disappointed when brewing this coffee. I preferred this in a Clever – letting the beans steep a little gave some complexity to otherwise flatter flavors.

Time-lapse of brewing with my Hario v60.

Final Thoughts

There’s no doubt that Hayman sells quality specialty coffee. The beans spoke for themselves – I enjoyed every cup I brewed. They’ve also nailed presentation: their packaging was pristine and their brand just gives off a premium vibe. Where they fail, however, is with the price.

I don’t have any insights as to what kind of profit Hayman makes on their coffee – I know that great beans from Hawaii and Jamaica can’t be cheap to import, and I imagine that’s one factor for raising the price. Still, charging $60 for 190g of coffee is just too much for too little. If I’m the type of person who would pay a premium for great beans (and I am), I’d much rather purchase a couple bags of 12oz beans for $40-$50.

I recommend trying Hayman Coffee if – and only if – you have some extra money to burn. They roast and sell high quality coffee that I really enjoyed drinking. I think you’ll like it too, even if your wallet doesn’t.

Colin

Episode One: Japanese Coffee

In this first episode of Coffee Canon, we take a look at Japan: a culture rich with history and tradition. Today, Japanese people love coffee – they’ve invented entire brew methods that the rest of the world adopted – but it wasn’t always this way. We study how and why Japan went from rejecting coffee outright, to embracing it completely. We discuss the people, companies, and timeline that pushed Japan to becoming a leader in specialty coffee – and we hear from some coffee experts along the way.

Enjoy the episode, and feel free to check out the sources below if you want to read more. To continue the discussion, hit me up on Twitter or Instagram.

Colin

Episode One Sources:

 

Episode One Transcript:

Continue reading Episode One: Japanese Coffee

S3 Episode 1: Cities And Their Coffee Cultures

Welcome back to The Boise Coffee Podcast! In this first episode of Season 3 I discuss how a city’s culture influences their coffee culture, then I give some tips on how to find great coffee when you’re visiting a new city. Here’s a quick rundown of those tips:

  1. Do your research. Try Googling the name of your city + specialty coffee (for example, “Phoenix specialty coffee”), and then begin narrowing your search terms accordingly. I like to copy the names of coffee shops that look interesting and paste them into the notes app on my phone, that way I have a running list.
  2. Prioritize your list of shops based on how close they are to wherever you’re staying (hotel, AirBnB, etc). You don’t want to get your hopes up about a cool looking cafe, only to realize it takes a 45min drive across town to get to.
  3. Check out online reviews of the shops that look the most promising. I like to use Foursquare, but any similar service like Yelp or Google Reviews will work just as well.  I find that Foursquare has less paid reviews and better reflects local favorites, but your milage may vary.
  4. Be respectful to the staff of the coffee shop you choose to visit. If their coffee doesn’t quite live up to the hype, don’t throw your coffee in their faces – just make a note of it for yourself, and enjoy the caffeine rush.
  5. Leave a review using whatever app/service you looked the shop up on. This will help other coffee junkies, and it will leave you a digital paper trail to follow the next time you’re in town.

This episode of The Boise Coffee Podcast is brought to you by My Espresso Shop. Use offer code BOISECOFFEE to receive 10% off your order of any espresso machine or grinder. You’re not gonna find a better deal than this, so if you’ve been looking at a new piece of equipment now is the perfect opportunity to grab it and save some money! Head over to MyEspressoShop.com now!

I hope you enjoy the first episode of this brand-new season! You can look forward to the second episode in just one week – following that, I’ll be reverting back to the normal bi-weekly schedule. Thanks for listening, and if you like what you hear please leave me a review on iTunes!

Colin

Check out the full episode transcript below.

Continue reading S3 Episode 1: Cities And Their Coffee Cultures