Costco No Longer Carrying Central Milling Flour in California

The saga of the search for organic bread flour continues but comes to a happy conclusion though slightly more expensive.

From the original post:

Costco is no longer carrying Central Milling Bread flour in California and the Southwest. They are continuing supply in the Northwest. Instead they're offering plain all purpose organic (unbleached) flour supplied by Ardent Mills (two 10# at ~$10 and change). It does not contain diastatic malt. So for many of us another, too good to be true supply situation has come to a slippery end.

I am now completely open to any and all ideas on an alternate supply chain arrangement. One is to make runs up to Keith Giusto in Petaluma for a couple of 50# per trip.

 From "Things Did Not Go Well post...,":

No, I haven't tried it yet and no I am not sure about whether it will perform to my standards.

I've had my source change several times before. Supply of organic bread flour is in truth a lot more complicated than most bakers realize. I've had this occur several times before with mediocre to disastrous results. The worst result had my Dachshund tossing the piece of proffered bread over her shoulder - though quite comical I trust that nose more than my own. The other point is that Central Milling has established a consistency of their flour for nearly five years now and I am wont to leave them if it is at all possible to re-establish the supply chain, direct or otherwise.

Ardent Mills is a Miller-as-a-Service entity. Trying to find "anyone" in the organization that actually connects with a line of trust through to the actual grower does not exist. This leaves questions of liability of reference regarding their supply network of thoroughly vetted, trustworthy and independent growers. Without personal reference of an individual (or individuals) who take ultimate responsibility for their product is still something that I highly respect personally and in business operations. Corporate spokespersons are not known as being responsible for anything other than reading a script.

Costco now does over $4 Billion in organic food alone and has gone into the business of providing loans for land and equipment so that farmers can increase their "organic" supply base - I am concerned over conflict of interest issues as they begin to monopolize this market segment all in the name of lower prices for the consumer.

Excerpted from this post, "Test Coupons and Paying the Piper":

[A "Test Coupon" is a test build from the assembled ingredients to insure that they meet specifications. The practice began in the welding industry but has now spread throughout high tech and is now used to describe a common practice to insure compliance.]

The implication for business and baking is to sample the bulk flour before committing to a large buy. I just completed the test coupon for Costco California's "new" supplier for organic flour Ardent Mills, according to their corporate website, "A company that offers the industry’s broadest range of flours, mixes, blends and specialty products, customized to meet your needs and backed by unrivaled technical support, customer service and the supply assurance of a coast-to-coast network".

The two test loaves came out well in physical appearance but failed taste (low complexity with loss of the pastry aftertaste) and storage abilities (staled out in under two days). I exercised Costco's return policy on the two ten pound sacks minus that used for the test loaves which sold for $10.99.

Taking David Snyder's advice:

An order was placed with Central Milling, Petaluma, CA for a 50 pound sack of their "Organic Artisan Bakers Craft Plus" flour. This is the same flour as used in all the foremost artisan bread bakeries in Northern California. The price was $38.71 for the flour and $18.49 Fedex ground - total cost came to $57.20 - (~ $1.14/lb). Costco was charging $13.99 for 20 pounds for Central Millings Organic AP malted flour (~ $0.70/lb). A trip to Petaluma would have raised the delivery costs to over twice the Fedex ground charges (also this does not include personal travel time) thus cancelling this as an option. The loss of Costco's buying power comes to $0.44/lb (though this is somewhat offset by the fact that the new flour just ordered from Central Milling is higher in protein and contains diastatic malt). The order was placed on Thursday afternoon and was delivered on Saturday Morning.

Takeaway:

Costco's Ardent Mills Organic Flour offering failed to fulfill my requirements. In fact the taste was highly inferior and the keeping ability did not last through a second day. The search for a replacement flour led directly back to Costco's original supplier Central Milling in Petaluma, California. I think the biggest takeaway is the "hollowing out" of the organic flour market by corporate entities that have no deep empathy for artisan bread and their products only proved this out. 

Wild-Yeast

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21720/availability-central-milling-co-flour

I'm not sure this is still valid though.

A trip to Petaluma is a great idea.

Wild-Yeast