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Random Picture Friday #2: Snap Cups

Snap Cups

(Via)
3 ounce ceramic cups with metal clothing snaps embedded in outer cup walls.

Extra snaps included to install cups anywhere: under your cabinet, by your desk, or to your bike handlebars. Neither microwave nor dishwasher safe; completely food safe.

Okay, these are pretty cool, albeit, not very practical.  There’s even an audio clip to hear what the “snap” sounds like on the website.  They probably wouldn’t get much use, but you could get a killer sculpture out of them, if nothing else.  And you just know some idiot would try to put a metal snap in a microwave to re-heat their double espresso, so of course they left the disclaimer.  What do you think?

Should I keep this “Random Picture Friday” thing going?  (click here for last week’s)

Leave your comments so I know whether you like it or not.

A Focused Approach for Tough Economic Times

As the recession continues to loom overhead, and even progress further down, it has probably become obvious to many that the sale of higher priced ticket items are on the decline as more people try to economize by sticking with the less-expensive brewed options.

While this may seem on the surface to be a negative hit to retailers, it does not have to be so.

When recessions hit, the smart investors start buying up stock, taking over other companies, and the likes as have been seen recently, as well as what happened in the Great Depression of the 30′s. SOMEONE stands to profit from it. The trick is learning how to work it to your advantage as well.

In the world of coffee retail, many many people have worked their tails off trying to educate their customers, trying to get them to try new coffees, trying to push the COFFEE, rather than the ‘recipe’. Consider the retail phenomenon we’re seeing as a golden ticket of opportunity. If you show your customers that your shop is trustworthy, and is looking out for their best interests, you can survive, and even thrive.

Roasting companies are doing pretty well in these times. That’s been the word from the roasters I have asked about it, and I’m assuming that goes for most others as well, assuming they are doing a decent job with their coffees.

How can a retailer profit from this? Sell more whole-bean coffees, offer different brew methods, hold free classes for consumers, and offer affordable brew-at-home equipment in your stores.

Brewing up batches of coffee is awfully convenient, but when the rush slows in the late morning and into the afternoon, how much of it gets thrown out? If the answer is “none”, is it because it’s not being refreshed with fresh brews, or is it because it’s being sold? If the answer sounds something like the first of those two, then it’s time to change something.

If you have been reading Texas Coffee People for awhile, you may remember our piece about Bottomless Coffee, and why it may not be such a great idea afterall.  If you have read that piece, then what you’ve just read may sound like a repeat of information.  It is.

I am reminded of one famous roaster/retailer’s Black Week, in which no milk-based beverages were served.  The customer response?  POSITIVE.  Here’s a question:  Are we selling coffee, or are we selling “concoctions”?  If you are spending what seems like a lot of cash for your wholesale coffee, then the odds are good that you are trying to sell coffee.  (and that’s as it should be in any “Coffee retailer”)

If you are confident that the coffee you are serving is of excellent quality, I feel safe in assuming that you have more than just a couple of coffees on hand.  Every coffee has its own unique flavor profile, and every roaster has their own unique expression of that flavor profile.  The phrase “taste the world” has been used over and over again to refer to the array of specialty coffee origins, but the fact of the matter is that it’s still true.  Except that most people are now more aware of the fact that there is substantially more to it than “what country it comes from”.

Customers will return to a company they feel they can trust as the experts in their field.  You and your staff should be those experts.  Anyone who has ever gone through any amount of Starbucks training has probably been told that the customers expect the barista to be their go-to advisor for all things coffee (in regards to consumption, anyway).  The independents don’t have the Starbucks image to fall back on, and it seems that’s a very good thing.

Hold customer education events:

Give a class on cupping, on brewing at home, on proper coffee storage, on the differences between origins, on anything and everything that you think your customer base might find interesting.  If you are effective, they will come back to you for advice (and coffee).

Embrace “cup at a time” brew methods:

Sample coffees to customers before they decide on a whole bean to buy.  Does this cost extra?  Sure.. but less than throwing out half of an airpot in the afternoon, and it’s good customer service.  Include proper instructions for brewing, and carry a Bodum C-Mill, at the very least, so your customers can afford to grind fresh, even if they can’t afford a proper burr grinder.  And while you’re at it, you might consider retailing French Presses as well as Melitta Pourovers and Chemex brewers.  Learn how to use them well, and teach your customers.  Check with your roaster to see if they offer any of these.  It’s better than the extra profit would go to a link in your chain, rather than merely to the parent company alone.  If you’d like to carry an electric grinder, I hear from several sources that Baratza is very easy to deal with for retailers to become distributors(not to mention, their products aren’t bad either).

Sell whole bean coffee:

It’s cheaper for the customer, and it’s easy marketing for you.  Just because people are not eating out as much doesn’t mean they’re not getting together.  Wouldn’t you like the coffee being served to come from your store, with the answer to “ooo, where did you get this coffee?” be your company name?  The ecoomy is going to rebound eventually, and just like buying up stocks on the market while they’re cheap in hopes that they will yield a return, this is the time to buy stock in your customers in the prospect of future sales.  If you are like me, you get excited about new coffees, new flavors, and new brew technique discoveries or revelations.  Share this!  Wear your passion for coffee on your sleeve, ans share it with your customers.  (read: do not force it down their throats, but make it known and available for them to tap into)

Market events around the coffee:

Just like Tim Wendelboe held a Black Week, you too can hold a special event that focuses on a specific coffee, a specific region, or a specific brew method.  Keep it tight and focused.  Don’t wear out your arsenal of information on just one event.  Spread it out.  Spread the word.  This can breathe new life into your business, and spark new inerest in your customers.  Hold education classes, seminars, anything and everything to do with the coffee.

Do NOT try giveaway promotions:

Many people may be tempted to try to boost traffic by offering deals.  Like “buy 9, get the 10th free”, or the like.  This devalues the coffee, but more salient to retailers, it doesn’t do a thing for sales!  If it hasn’t become obvious by now, the key is to earn the business of your customers.  Not with freebies, but by honest customer service and education.  It’s simple.  If you invest in them, they will invest in you.  Win-Win.  Both parties are happy, and no-one is taking the hit.  The best marketing tool you have is Word Of Mouth.  This is how that investment in your customers pays off.

Invest in your business:

I have seen more than a handful of retailers eventually fail because they were not willing to give their business the extra financial push it needed in order to break through the line between “afloat” and profitable.  It’s scary, but so is entrepreneurship on the whole.  They don’t call them “risk takers” for no reason, but in a situation like this, it shouldn’t be too difficult to calculate the risk.  If you have a hard time stepping outside of the box when it comes to your own business, consider hiring a consultant to analyze the situation for you.  One of the surest ways to kill a business is to underfund it.  If new equipment is what you need in order to compete, then by golly, you should bite the bullet and take the debt to do what you need to do in order to stay afloat. (a word of caution:  tx-coffee.com, nor the author, can be held responsible for a lack of research or common sense or the results of taking advice from this, or any other article on the part of the reader)  As much as I hate the notion that “tools are to blame”, the fact of the matter is that in a business like this, you simply cannot perform without the right tools.  Whether what is needed is training, equipment(scroll down), more staff, or any combination thereof.. any educator will tell you that the smartest investment is an investment in yourself.  Well, I’d venture to say that the smartest investment your business can make is an investment in itself.

Know When to Cut Your losses:

Some businesses are too far gone to continue, and while a failure plan should have been built into the Business Plan, this is not always the case.  This is the time to go back through the books, and start documenting if you have not done so already.  As much as we don’t want to see any business fail, the fact of the matter is that some do, and it’s better to guide it down before the fuel tank is all the way empty than to keep fighting until the engines die and it crashes.  This is about the financial benefactor of the business, and their financial health, and not so much about the business itself.  Without financial backing, no retailer could get off the ground in the first place.

Hold on Tight:

Watch the market, but don’t listen to the pundits.  Their opinions are.. well.. opinions.  The newspaper doesn’t know which way the economy will swing any more than you do.. becuase they are written by other people.  Sure, there are “experts”, and many “experts” have been wrong.  Use your own sound judgement.  It’s the American way. (at least, it used to be)  It may be a bumpy ride, but hold on if you can!  We here at TX-Coffee.com hope this has given at least some insite or inspiration for ingenuity in surviving the economic recession as a retailer.  We’ve got more articles on the way.  Thanks for reading.

Cuvee Coffee Available at Whole Foods in Austin

As taken from a Facebook page update:

Good News for People Who Drink "Too Much" Coffee

Coffee Linked to Lower Dementia Risk

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Published: January 23, 2009

Drinking coffee may do more than just keep you awake. A new study suggests an intriguing potential link to mental health later in life, as well.   more…

…After controlling for numerous socioeconomic and health factors, including high cholesterol and high blood pressure, the scientists found that the subjects who had reported drinking three to five cups of coffee daily were 65 percent less likely to have developed dementia, compared with those who drank two cups or less. more…

As though knowing that brewed coffee is full of anti-oxidants weren’t enough!  (of course, the LDL cholesterol found in non-paper filtered coffee is supposed to be bad for you, but I suspect, and I am no scientist nor physician, that this is only an issue for those in whom high cholesterol is already a concern)

Funny.  Cooking acidic foods in reactive vessels (like aluminum cookware) drastically increases one’s chances of acquiring Alzheimer’s disease.  It seems drinking copious amounts of coffee has the reverse effect, keeping neurons properly “lubed up”, as it were.  I wonder.  What would happen if one were to brew a highly acidic or astringent coffee, like a too-light-roasted Costa Rican in an aluminum moka pot?  I kid, I kid!

Chock up another big “+1″ for coffee!  I love it when a Monday starts out with good news.  Who’s with me!

Random Picture Friday: Keyboard Snack Tray?

I guess at some point, someone thought it would be a good idea to keep your cup of coffee (and a snack) directly OVER your computer keyboard.  A sign that maybe we should be looking for ways to STOP working rather than continue perhaps?

Apparently, this is from Yanko Design, but the product cannot be found anywhere on the website.  Apparently, they realized that this was a horrible accident in “potential” form, that was bound to eventually take the leap into “kinnetic” form.

This has been TX-Coffee’s random picture Friday.  We’ll see if this trend continues.

(via)

Free Americanos at Kick Butt Coffee (Austin, TX)

To celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama, Kick Butt Coffee will give out free Americano coffees.  To take advantage of the promotion, which will run till the end of the month (January 31st), you need only to enter Kick Butt Coffee and say, “Yes we can!” to a barista (bartender). You will be able to walk away with a free Americano coffee.

-as seen in a kick butt coffee email notice

Double Espresso Poll (and a new feature)

On your left, you’ll see a poll that asks how many grams of coffee you would normally dose for a double espresso.

This is just to get an idea of which direction we are headed.  More coffee per shot.. or less coffee.

And, if you’ll look to your right, you will see a mobile barcode.  This barcode can be read by your SmartPhone, iPhone, or Picket PC (when equipped with a bar code reader.. which can be downloaded to work with your phone’s camera, if your phone does not include one from the factory).  Just scan it, and it will pop up tx-coffee.com, so you can grab the URL for your phone without having to go through the hastle of typing it out on tiny keys.

And just a reminder, be sure to try out the Internet Coffee Database (also known as the internet encyclopedia of coffee(LIVE)) hosted here at TX-Coffee.com.  And use the contact form if you think we are missing a website or blog that should be included in the search database.

And, the last of this tx-coffee news update, there is a new t-shirt style available in the TX-Coffee Gear store.

“Roots” E-61 T-shirt

Owl Tree Roasting (and Taos experiment results)

There s a new roaster in Austin called Owl Tree Roasting.  Thanks to Dan Streetman for the heads up.

A collaboration between Travis of Austin Java and Joshua of Progress Coffee, Owl Tree is another quality-focused roaster fresh on the scene.  Having not tasted it, I cannot give a full report, but I expect good things from OTR, all things considered.

You can find them at their website, or on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/owltreeroastingaustin

Owl Tree Roasting has been added to our List of Roasters.

If you read the last article where I questioned my previous advice about stressing the importance of fresh-ground coffee over evenly ground coffee (in an hierarchy of importance), I am afraid I have to report an exception to the general rule.

It turned out that evenly ground coffee just a few days off roast, ground 24 hours before brewing yielded a better cup than coffee fresh-ground from a blade grinder just seconds to a minute before brewing.

Why?  Well, while the result was still fairly under-extracted, it was evenly under-extracted.  So, despite the fact that it was under-extracted, it was at least an even extraction, which is the most anyone can hope for.  Even extraction simly isn’t possible from a blade grinder, and while I have had some coffees where I enjoyed the unevenly extracted cup more than the evenly extracted version, I think it would be safe to say that this curious occurance is specific to that one coffee and its roast profile.

In this particular case, where an even extraction is desirable, if you are going to be brewing with less than ideal thermal energy, then it is probably best to get an evenly underextracted semi-stale cup rather than an unevenly extracted very fresh cup.

That having been said, if your options are to either have your pound of coffee ground at the shop before taking it home, or grinding with a blade grinder fresh every day, I will still say that the blade grinder is preferable over pre-ground coffee.  (remember, the experiment was run using coffee that was ground one day in advance, and it was degassing the entire time until brewing, which implies that it was not fully stale by the time it was hit with hot water.) It should be noted that I used a #2 Melitta pour over brew method.

Conclusion:  There are always exceptions to a general rule, but the general rule will still apply in most cases.  “Grinder First”

To The Mountains.. of New Mexico

I am leaving for Taos tomorrow morning, and the mystery plagues me as usual.

The mystery of how to get a propper extraction from a non-pressurized brew method when the boiling point is ~199F, which means that by the time it hits the coffee, it’s probably closer to 190, if you’re lucky.  If you don’t have the luxury of having a means to actually get your hands ON boiling water, it becomes even more of a challenge.

Last time, I brought a whirly blade grinder.  I suppose this isn’t much of an issue for most parts of Texas, but it’s early ski season, and if anyone else will be making a trip to the rockies, it might be useful to know how to prepare.

This year, I’m going to pre-grind my coffee.  Yes, terrible, I know, and in direct contradiction to the article below.  The problem that I had on the last trip, was that the blade grinder left the average particle size being much too large for adequate extraction, especially considering the amount of heat energy we were working with in the solvent(water).

So, I’m pre-grinding the coffee at roughly an espresso setting into individual zip-top bags in hopes that it won’t be TOO far gone by the time we get to brewing.

This may beg the question.  Is freshness king?  Well, in a case such as this one, unfortunately, the answer appears to be “no”.  If I can get a properly extracted stale cup of coffee, or a horribly extracted fresh cup of coffee, it seems I would tend to prefer the former.  I can deal with stale coffee, provided it’s good coffee, and I am hoping that pregrinding tomorrow morning coffee that was roasted on the 13th to be brewed the next day at roughly 7,000ft. will not have lost all of its CO2 aromatic luster.

Stay tuned.  Reports on the findings to come next week.

Have a great weekend!

Wisdom for home enthusiasts: Grinder first.

When budgeting for an espresso kit for home use, keep one thing, and one thing only on your list.

The grinder.

Nothing can have as great an impact on your entire coffee experience at home than this often overlooked piece of equipment other than the coffee itself, with water as the next in line.

Too often, I hear and read people who are just starting out asking which machine they should buy, and neglecting to even consider purchasing a grinder, let alone wondering if the quality of the grinder is of much concern.

Here’s an easy rule of thumb to consider when it comes to the importance of variables (it’s not absolute, and it’s not 100% accurate, but it works on a broad spectrum for this purpose).

Consider the order of events and what tools are used along the way in preparing a cup of coffee.

The first thing you grab (1) is the coffee.  Then the coffee is ground (2) in a grinder.  Then the water (3) is heated.  Then the two are combined for a certain amount of (4) time. Then the saturated liquid is separated from the grounds (5).

(1) coffee
(2) grinder
(3) water
(4) coffee/water dwell (contact) time
(5) brew method/filtration

Following this logic, step one would be to buy fresh coffee.  Do not pre-grind it.  Honestly, it would be better to dose the whole beans into a zip-lock and stomp on it with the heal of your shoe than to start with pre-ground coffee. (this includes buying whole beans and having your neighborhood coffee retailer grind them for you.  Don’t do it!)  If you honestly cannot afford a decent grinder, go to your local discount store and buy a $10 whirly-blade “coffee grinder” that looks something like this:

No, the grind quality will not be as good, but if you have it ground at the store, your wonderfully fresh coffee will be fresh no more by the time you get it home. (not to mention, by the time you brew a cup the following morning)

If you are allocating a certain amount of dollars for a brewing setup, please consider this:  You can brew a wonderful cup from a $4 Melitta pourover that, while less convenient, will trump any cup made by an average automatic drip coffee maker off of your favorite department store’s shelf.  Consider also that the grind quality will be the most important factor following the coffee quality (coffee quality includes freshness, or days since roasting).

If money is tight, and you don’t mind things lacking in convenience, you can always look for a used Zassenhaus hand grinder on e-bay, get ahold of Brown for their Hario hand grinder, or try getting a grinder made from Texas Coffee Grinder Co. (in order of least to most expensive).

Of course, if you choose to go the electric burr grinder route, do NOT buy the grinder without first taking a good look at the burrs.  They should be sharp.  Rub the back of your fingernail against a sharp burr edge.  If you don’t end up with a thin shaving of fingernail (ignore the gross factor), it’s not sharp enough.  And if the grinder isn’t conical, and the flat burrs don’t come close to resembling this: 

…then don’t buy it.  You would be better off saving your money and getting similar grind quality from the $10 blade “grinder” we mentioned earlier.

Regardless of which grinder you choose, please… buy your beans whole from your favorite Texas coffee roasting company.  They’ll be glad you did, and your cup of coffee will see a considerable improvement.

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