We live in a society of abundance and endless supply. Ran out of toilet paper? Go to the store and buy some more. Need oil for your car? Pick some up on your way home from work. Even our food sources seem to have an endless supply because of canning and freezing and importing from other countries when the food is not seasonally available here.
The bottom line is that we are used to buying more when we run out.
That's why it comes as a surprise to some Joe By Schmo customers when a coffee they love is all gone and I cannot reorder more. When I say it is gone, it is literally all gone.
Why does Joe By Schmo run out of coffee?
When you buy high quality, single-origin coffee you are purchasing coffee from a particular country, from a particular region, from a particular plantation or farm and from a particular harvest. Other roasters are purchasing the limited quantities of these rare and incredible coffees while our roastery is. We buy our quantity after the harvest arrives state-side. But, there is a high chance by the time our inventory is running low, our importers have already sold out of that lot.
So literally when it is gone, it is gone. There is no more of that variety available. Perhaps there will be more available next harvest, but for now it is gone. Even when we get to next harvest, climate differences between growing seasons can affect the flavor profile from year to year.
What can I do?
Figure out what you liked about that coffee and try something similar.
For example, take Guatemala Huehuetengango - El Injertal. This coffee has flavor notes of cherry, milk chocolate, and hints of lemon. At the moment, we still have this coffee in our store. But if we should run out, you might want to try Kenya Nyeri - Ngandu which has cherry, cocoa, and raspberry flavor notes. The flavor notes are not exactly the same, but they are very close. Give it a try and you might find a new favorite!
To make a flavor comparison easy, if you click on any coffee in our store and scroll down to the bottom and click on one of the pictures of the flavor notes and you will be given a list of other coffees in the store that have the same flavor notes.
If you are totally at a loss or don't have time to search for similar coffee, I would love to give you a recommendation of something similar. Just shoot me an email or social media message and I'll find a coffee that is similiar. Connect with the roastery on Facebook or Twitter
Why don't the big coffee brands run out?
Big coffee brands like Folgers and Starbucks don't run out because they offer blends. When one lot of coffee that they purchased to use in their blend has run out, they just purchase something similar to add into your coffee. You won't really notice a difference in taste because of how many different coffees are blended together and because the coffee has been roasted so long ago by the time you drink it that the source of the beans doesn't matter much at that point.