I won’t go into to much detail but Toby’s Estate Coffee, Australia, took a camera along and got some great shots and talked to some great people!

Happy Xmas in July?

Warning this post did start last night as just the video above, but after a few beers the post meanders on a tad…

It was very interesting to see the opposite end of the Micro Mill revolution in Costa Rica. It is not what we (specialty Coffee) might deal with but you know what, families are being fed…

We did how ever talk with the farmers that just because their coffees are fetching a better price, this does not mean that they should rest on their laurels. For the first time in 15 years or so we may find ourselves paying more for lesser quality, this alone hurts, as we are and for a long time have always been, prepared to pay more for quality.

Conversely for the first time in years the farmer has more money on hand to re-invest, learn and make his farm even better equipped to handle the inevitable drop in prices as people replant over the next 3 years or so. I truly hope that the farmer sees this as the time to make a better business,  a better farm, maybe mill themselves and take control. Imagine if they all did, where would coffee be in the years to come if the bar was truly lifted? If farmers took ownership like vineyard owners and told the market, no, this is how you should represent my coffees.

What will happen to the farmers who don’t care about quality, who don’t taste their coffees, who don’t feed their soils, have a sustainable re-planting procedure in place when the prices drop in a couple of years? They will again be on the back burner when prices drop and may well be the first to claim “hard times” and “foul play” and be planting other cash crops…

It can be seen happening already, farmers are becoming famous like their vineyard partners and soon, will be able to direct the end market a lot more. With knowledge and understanding of what their soils/ plants need, better processing and ultimately knowing what their coffees taste like and how to make them taste that way, they may well hold the upper hand. Imagine what a producer could achieve with this knowledge, backed up with the software prowess of programs like Cropster they could have a lot more influence in a better coffee world.

I believe that even though this is hard times for some in the specialty coffee industry, if climate change does not screw us entirely, we may, with smart producers be tasting much better coffees in the near future.

Just a thought…

Deaton

A crazy man walks into the roast works at Intelligentsia and soon takes control of the show…

One is the more common way of service;

Guy walks into a espresso bar, Guy heads straight over to the till, Guy orders milky beverage from POS staff, Guy pays, steps away or sits down and waits for his coffee…

The second scenario is what I like to call classic bar service;

Guy walks into a espresso bar, barista engages Guy, Guy orders straight from the barista, Guy hangs at bar and waits for his beverage to be prepared, has an opportunity to chat with barista, Guy receives beverage with a nod, Guy pays and walks away.

There are pros and cons with both styles of service some pros for scenario one is;

1. Speed of service?
2. High turnover
3. More consistent (though I don’t believe that as I type it, i want to delete it but don’t because the twittersphere is communicating that)

Cons

1. Little interaction with Barista if any
2. No daily recommendations from the barista who is dialling in coffees (what a shame)
3. As money is exchanged already customer is trapped in cafe until beverage is served
4. If coffee is taking its time to be made, the dynamic in the cafe changes as people get angry when in a rush and can’t leave
5. Grumpy customers = grumpy staff = grumpy customers
6. Baristas = coffee robots

Senario two;

Pros

1. Speed of service?
2. High turnover (believe me I’ve seen the numbers)
3. Interaction with Barista
4. Customer is in a rush, feels empowered to leave
5. Barista is control of his/ her environment = more positive attitude toward work (I hope)
6. Customer feels just a little bit more happy with customised, personal service

Cons

1. Customer is empowered to leave if service is slow
2. Loss of sales if slow

So it is pretty easy to see where I am leaning on this topic and even as I type this I am engaged in a conversation on twitter about it.

The thing is, we are all going to have to wait for the coffee to be served to us, do we want to wait in a line and get served by the Barista or do we want to wait in a line, pay at the POS then sit down and wait for the coffee. To me it is all waiting.

I have seen it to many times when you are in a cafe and it is getting slammed, there are people getting angry because they have to leave but they don’t have there coffee yet and they’ve paid for it! For the most part people will not go back up to the POS and ask for their money back. They will sit and wait full of tension biding time and we all know how tension is contagious, right?  Will that person come back? Most likely not with the thought of, ”I paid $$$ for this coffee then sat there for 25 minuets before the coffee actually came out to me”!

I like the idea of empowering the customer. Customer walks by and sees a huge line, looks at his watch and says;

“You know, I am in to much of a rush for this today, I will try again later”.

Or

“I have been here for 15 minuets already and the line is not moving, next time”…

I will finish in saying it was rare to see irate customers in the cafes that provide that type of classic bar service, it is more common to see angry customers in the first scenario, and I’ve seen it affect the whole mood of the cafe.

One more thing, if you were to walk up to a bar and order a beer at a POS, you paid your money then had to stand back and wait for that beer to be yelled at you, wouldn’t that make you feel weird? I would hate that, so I don’t know why we do it in coffee…

Feel free to comment.

Deaton