What is Manchester Coffee Archive? 💾
Manchester Coffee Archive is a crowd-sourced collection of high quality coffees, vacuum-sealed and frozen to preserve their flavours. Freezing allows us to almost halt the ageing process, enabling us to share curated coffee lineups at any time - no matter how long ago the coffee was produced or roasted. The driving force of the Archive is our communal curiosity and desire to share. We aim to provide coffee tasting experiences and opportunities for everyone - coffee pros and novices alike - to learn about and discover great coffees.
With your help, this growing body of carefully catalogued coffees brings to life a whole host of interesting possibilities: from delicious side-by-side tastings and public events, to research projects aimed at specific areas of interest within the coffee community.
Coffee Tasting Events 🥄
We share the coffee archive with the local community by hosting coffee cup tasting events for anyone who is interested in participating. If you haven’t been to a coffee cup tasting (or “cupping”) event before, don’t worry: Manchester Coffee Archive events are inclusive of all levels of coffee knowledge and experience.
How Can I Get Involved? 👐
The most direct way to get involved is by submitting a sample (13g or more) of single origin coffee, within 30 days of roast, which will be added to the Archive. You can share your coffees you are enjoying by post or bring them to the next event.
FAQs
What happens at a coffee tasting?
A selection of coffees are brewed in small bowls, and participants take a spoon and take a little bit of each coffee to compare and enjoy them all side-by-side. If you haven’t done it before, it might sound weird, but It is a low-fuss way of tasting a large number of coffees side by side. Cupping is used in the coffee industry to assess the quality and grade of individual qualities, but MCA events are focussed on tasting for the love of tasting.
Do I need to know anything about coffee?
We welcome anyone who is interested in attending and participating in the tasting. There are no right answers; there is no test; we aim to provide a learning exchange inclusive to all levels of knowledge and the Archivists will happily answer any questions you may have along the way.
What kind of coffee can I contribute to Manchester Coffee Archive?
Any tasty single origin, whole bean coffee that you want to share with the coffee community. We would ask that you please submit your coffee sample within 30 days of roast, and as close to the roast date as possible. No blends please though: blends can be great for sure, but the aim of the events will be to focus on the individual characteristic of the coffees so don’t quite fit with the aim for the cup tasting events.
How much coffee do you need for each sample?
13g is plenty for use in one event so this is all we need. However, if you can submit 26g it will allow us to use the coffee twice.
If I bring a coffee along to an event, can I put it out for the tasting on the day?
At some events we will provide an opportunity for on-the-night submissions, but get in touch beforehand if you want to get involved in this way.
I’m a coffee roaster/importer, how will I know when you use my awesome coffee?
All events will be shared via Instagram, so we’ll be sure to tag and credit all submissions featured at events. If you want to be there is person, let us know and we’ll give you a heads up when your coffee will be featured.
Can I bring my own cupping spoon?
Only if you want to look super-cool. 😎