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  • Campos Superior Beans from Woolies

    Hi all

    As a Melbourne resident I'm currently stuck in lock down and struggling to find good beans to satisfy my caffeine addiction. I traditionally shopped with a private interstate roaster with a friend of mine making postage cost and order quantity worth while but because of this little pandemic this is no longer an option and since losing my job I am also no longer able to visit The Beanery at 14km away from me. So I've resorted to supermarket beans desperately trying to decipher their cryptic batch dates into roasted dates, most are yymmdd. I had some success at Aldi with a 1 week old batch of Lazzio dark roast, ok and drinkable but not exactly my palate and once it hit 4 weeks like clockwork the quality dropped almost over night. Now I usually use 500g in 4 weeks so a 1kg bag left me with just under 500g of undrinkable coffee, disappointing. To rub salt in the wound the now just going on 7 week old bags of Lazzio are still the same batch sitting on the shelf at my local Aldis (I'm between 2 stores).

    So my search continued and I found Campos Superior at woolies, no hard to decipher batch date just a plain old roasted on date and an expiry date worth ignoring. I also found that the 250g bags were only roasted 13 days ago so I figured maybe worth a shot, there was even a little medal on the pack claiming it won some award, looked promising, but at $14 I choked a little, $6 more would have fetched me a 500g bag of my favourite and after wiping away my tears (and drool) at missing my usual beans I grabbed the sucker.

    I must say I am very disappointed in this roast, it is worse than the Lazzio. After dialling in the grind and tasting failed shots in between the 7th espresso was on the mark (it had a tendency to channel so I played around with pre-infusion upping it a few seconds). The extraction was 29 seconds including pre-infusion and with 17g of beans I pulled a nice 32.4g shot. The crema was thin but there, the shot didn't channel starting out with a pre-infusion, quickly rising to 10 bar and then dropping back to 9.5 bar where it remained for the rest of the shot. I gave it a good slurp to see how it was but honestly the mouth feel had improved from my failed shots but not the flavour, it was, well, missing. There was little aroma as well, it honestly tasted a bit like nescafe blend 43 ( I even did an experiment with my house mate and while he could tell a small difference he couldn't pick the shot from the instant). You know when you make cordial a bit to weak and you just get a tiny taste of the flavour, that's what this coffee reminded me of.

    I will fiddle with the extractions later to see if I can improve on it but I don't hold much hope. Has anyone else had similar experience with this coffee? Am I missing something in my technique or does anyone have some suggestions on improving the shot? Perhaps these are just poor beans for espresso. In any case I welcome feed back (especially suggestions on getting some fresh beans, my next resort is to hit up the local cafes and see if they'll sell me a bag.

    Out of interest I'm in the Glen Waverley-Burwood East area if that helps with suggestions.

  • #2
    I've seen them at my Woolies in Bathurst but they've always been 2-3 months old each time I check so haven't tried them. I have used fresh Campos beans from a local cafe a few times in the past, very expensive and was never really a fan of the taste, especially for the price.
    They tend to be roasted on the lighter side, that could be part of your issues.

    With your Campos batch, it may have also been possible that there was a leak in the bag or the one-way valve had come loose so the beans were exposed to air. This would have staled them rapidly.

    Coles came out with a new line of beans, Daley St, they also have a roast date on the bag. I found the same problem as with the Campos though, roast dates are at least 2 moths old on each new batch that gets stocked. I guess it's just the logistical problems of living further away from a capital city.
    It may be worth trying one of them out though if your Coles has them within a reasonable date of roasting.

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    • #3
      I found myself between roasts, one past its best and the other not rested long enough so I lashed out on a bag of Campos from Woolies, roasted on Aug 21 2020. Mainly out of curiosity as I'd only tried it at a Cafe about 10 years ago. It wasn't bad but a bit underwhelming.

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      • #4
        The Lazzio from Aldi is actually roasted by Veneziano . Their single Os are not bad

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        • #5
          Hmm that's interesting Dazza... my experience with Campos has been awesome, and the coffee has been beyond exceptional every time. Superior blend included. Worked for a short period in a cafe using Campos beans and tasted it alot too along the way.

          I was rather shocked that they decided to get it in at Woolies... seemed a bit contrary to the ethos of quality specialty coffee, which includes it being freshly roasted. Everytime I went to Woolies I had a look, and each bag was about 3-4 months old. Of course it depends how much demand there is and the turnover. But anyway!

          I remember buying a bag a few years ago and I emailed them for tips on optimum rest and also on extractions and ratios. They sent this back: (also saying in cafes they generally are rested about 10 days)

          "For Superior we recommend:

          A ratio of 1:1.7@35s.

          More specifically, using an LM 21g basket we use

          Dose: 23g
          Yield: 40g
          Time: 35s

          You can adjust those specific numbers using that ratio to suit your basket size. Typically, the range to work with is +/-10% of the basket. So if you are using a 20g VST, you can work between 18-22g. We use a dose of 23g in a 21g basket for a full flavour, especially when splitting between two coffees and also for a greater structure and strength in the coffee puck during extraction."

          Worth a try. If possible to bump up the dose that might do something. Doesn't make sense that the coffee was underwhelming... perhaps the bag was punctured like mentioned...

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          • #6
            Originally posted by kike10 View Post
            The Lazzio from Aldi is actually roasted by Veneziano . Their single Os are not bad
            I heard the Lazzio are roasted by Black Bag Roasters in Melbourne?

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            • #7
              I follow Campos on Facebook as they have a place in my heart, being responsible for starting my journey to snobbery when I was a weekly visitor to the Missenden Road cafe/roastery in Newtown around 15-20 years ago. When they announced the distribution deal with Woolworths earlier this year, I queried how they would manage post-roast freshness on their Facebook post and received the following response:

              'Hi Brett! Thank you so much, we're so excited to be able to deliver fresh roasted coffee for all Australians to enjoy. We have worked closely with the Woolworths supply chain and distribution teams to ensure that our coffee as fresh as can be when it hits the shelf and we will monitor this very closely. We will continue to roast fresh for every order placed as delivering high quality coffee for all Australians to enjoy remains our obsession. We proudly include the 'Roasted On' date on every bag of coffee as well as a 'Best Before' date.'

              I have no need to buy beans from a supermarket and don't often go to Woolworths so I can't say I've seen their product on the shelves as of yet.

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              • #8
                simonsk8r I tried your recommendations from Campos this morning but I am becoming increasingly convinced that these beans are stale. Despite it being only a couple of days since buying them, to hit that 35 second mark this morning I had to up dose to 18g and reduce my grinder to mark 7 (usually 14 for fresh and 9 for stale beans is sufficient). I still had issues with channelling, although it was occurring at the 15 second mark in the shot, something I had not previously experienced with any beans. I've had a good look at the bag and did a blow back on the valve and it seems like it was good, unless there was a small hole in the part of the bag you remove above the snap seal.

                After a bit of research I must say Campos should be tasting much better than what I'm getting. In the mean time I picked up some illy coffee beans from Coles, and while no good for espresso ( I imagine, haven't actually tried) it's nice enough in my french press with a splash of cream. I only have enough beans left for maybe 3 shots so I'll be trying something different on Monday. The search continues...

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                • #9
                  I was excited. Perhaps I should temper that unless I know someone at woolies with staff discounts. Checked our local Woolies a few times recently and found roast date 15/5/2020. Nitrogen flushed for freshness? Four months post roast. Superior blend and a few single origin options. Still smelling better option than most other bags there. Maybe customers will try and catch on.

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                  • #10
                    I have been getting campos delivered to Darwin for a couple of years now.
                    I quite like campos superior and this is what is used in some of the better cafes here.
                    My results are very much to my liking when the beans are fresh, with postage times I get it at about day 10.

                    I recently bought a bag of coffee from mansfield coffee merchant - they roast at the cafe in this little country town ... I have a connection to the town and was trying to support a victorian business given the Covid situation there. anyway they shipped the same day they roasted, I got the coffee at about day 8, it was actually very good ! They deliver 1 kg for free so it is now going to be my regular... for a while at least. I had Buellers blend - anyway ... give delivery a go.

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                    • #11
                      Got a fresh bag of Campos Superior from Woolies last month and made a couple of coffees with it. The pleasant aroma and taste reminded me of the last time I had a coffee from them a couple of years ago at their Newtown bar.

                      Consistency of flavour. A berry punchy chocalate caramel bomb. Like everything, it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

                      Will happily get some more sometimes at the office. Hoping a friend at Woolies wants to buy some on staff discount.

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                      • #12
                        Due to the rain in Sydney recently and the fact I roast outside, I had to resort to supermarket beans as a last minute pickup.
                        Managed to get some Campos Superior Blend only 7 days past roast, which I was pleasantly surprised at.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Machvayne View Post
                          Due to the rain in Sydney recently and the fact I roast outside, I had to resort to supermarket beans as a last minute pickup.
                          Managed to get some Campos Superior Blend only 7 days past roast, which I was pleasantly surprised at.
                          I got the same yesterday, 7 day old superior blend from woolies, wasn’t a big fan of the taste, but have only pulled one shot so far, will try again over the next few days

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                          • #14
                            Work picked up another 500g bag today pretty fresh. Tasty cups for all and and tempting our neighbours at the dentist with the aroma coming out of the shared kitchen. Hand grind 16g in the LIDO3 and then shots from Cafelat Robot and Breville Milk Cafe for the milk drinkers. Keep forgetting to take in the WPM Steamer. Hands free while hand grinding or pressing the Robot. ? Thought I’d grow tired of hand grinding three lots of coffee but the lido makes reasonably short work of things when on an angle. Seems to be a few single origin options for sale under Campos Sacred Grounds branding. Good luck to them. I’m sure it is probably a “fun” game getting products in to either Woolies//Coles.

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                            • #15
                              Dazza, I sympathise with your difficulties.
                              My "local" here is a Cafe that uses Campos bean in it's two outlets.
                              I regard Campos as the best tasting coffee available in this city.
                              I have in the past bought a bag of Campos from the Cafe and it was almost 3 weeks old at purchase (the freshest they had) and it made excellent coffee on my Diadema, and up to 8 weeks after when carefully stored in the fridge. I do not know if what I bought was the same as what you purchased from Woolworths but I cannot see why the coffee 'in-cafe' and in their bagged coffee would be great and the beans sold in Woolworths would be bad other than being stale due to being stored way too long in a very unfavourable environment.

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