Organizing Pre-Opening Activities

Opening a coffee and tea shop, or any business for that matter, is a great test of anyone’s organizational and managerial abilities. It is imperative that communication be maintained with your key personnel. 

The best way to do this is to keep a written record of the assignments that need to be completed, who the assignments are delegated to, and when they must be completed. Allow plenty of time for assignments and projects to be accomplished. 

Delegate responsibilities whenever possible, but above all else, keep organized! Maintain a collective composure, and deal with people and problems on a level and consistent basis, and you will be off to a great start.

First Priorities Suggested items that must be completed well ahead of opening date are: 

1. List the shop’s name and number in the phone book and yellow pages. 

2. Order and install an employee time clock or appropriate software. 

3. Allow shipping and lead time for nonperishable items: Coffee- and tea-making equipment including espresso machine, grinders, dosers, drip brewer, boilers, tea brewers, milk steamers, frothers, display equipment, etc. 

• • Cleaning, water treatment, and sanitation units 
• • Cash registers, cash-handling equipment, and accounting software 
• • Drop safe for office 
• • Coffee and teacups, teapots, other chinaware, and silverware, utensils, etc. 
• • Tables, chairs, drapes, linen, napkins, and table settings, etc. 
• • Staff uniforms 
• • Printing: menus, stationery, business cards, etc. 

4. Develop a list of all construction projects. It should include who is completing  them and when they will be completed, plus a list of materials needed. 

5. Set up a large calendar on the wall with deadlines, when deliveries will be expected, construction projects finished, equipment installed, meetings, and, of course, the opening date. 

6. Contact the art galleries or artists’ groups in your area. They may be able to supply you with artwork to be displayed in the shop on a consignment basis.

Additional Pre-Opening Activities—Payroll

Several people will be on the payroll before the opening date. You will need the assistance of personnel to assemble chairs, do odd painting, hang picture, and do anything required to be ready for the opening date. Many of these temporary employees may be used for various jobs in your shop after opening. 

A time clock certainly should be used during this period for better control. Overtime must be monitored carefully and, if possible, avoided. This will require a great deal of organization of assignments and scheduling. Many of these jobs will be boring and tedious. 

Compensate these employees well for their efforts. Having a free espresso would certainly be greatly appreciated! In most beverage outlets, an internal bookkeeper calculates and prepares the payroll. We highly recommend the use of QuickBooks computer software, Peachtree or other competing software for payroll processing. Additionally, QuickBooks will be very useful in other parts of your business and in your business planning. 

QuickBooks is located online at www.quickbooks.com, and Peachtree at www.peachtree.com. However, like many companies, you may prefer to use a computerized payroll service or your accountant. Using a computerized payroll service is highly recommended.

Pre-Opening Promotion

The most important part of your specialty beverage business venture, along with location and sufficient capital, is marketing your products and services. Your marketing and promotion plans for your coffee, espresso, and tea shop are an important part of your business plan. There is a definite distinction between promotion and advertising. Promotion involves creating an interest in a new project, usually at little or no cost.

As soon as possible, put up the new shop sign or a temporary sign explaining briefly the name of the new establishment, the type of beverage outlet, hours of operation, and the opening date. People by nature are most interested in what is occurring in their neighborhood; give them something to start talking about. This is perhaps the best and least expensive promotion you can do.

Described below are some pre-opening promotional ideas: 

• • Emphasize the benefits to the community of your new coffee, espresso, and tea shop. Meet with the advertising representatives for the local papers. Determine advertising costs and look into getting a small news story published describing the shop. 
• • Take a tip from the Starbucks ® professionals who, in the lead-up to the opening of a new outlet, always organize a “press preview” opportunity, and invite local politicians or media personalities to enthuse about their unique products and services. Follow their lead; encourage local dignitaries to try their hand at operating your state-of-the-art coffee- and tea-making equipment. 
• • Have plenty of the shop’s business cards on hand as soon as possible; they are a great source of publicity. 
• • Join the Better Business Bureau ® and the local chamber of commerce. Besides lending credibility to your organization, they often can supply you with some very good free publicity. 
• • When you place your employment ad in the classified section, always list the type of coffee and tea shop, as well as location. This inexpensive classified advertising will help spread the word. 
• 
  

Selecting a Site for Your Coffee, Espresso & Tea Shop

 After determining a likely area best suited for your coffee, espresso, and tea shop, be sure to obtain as many facts as you can about it; e.g, How many similar shops are located in the area? Can you find out something about their sales volume? Since retail specialty beverage establishments attract primarily local inhabitants, what is the population of the area? Is the trend of population increasing, stationary or declining? What do they do for a living? Are they predominantly highly educated, executives, clerks, laborers, or retired persons? Are they of all ages or principally older, middle-aged or young? Check whether your site is located near a large office tower, in a prosperous residential area, near supermarkets, service stations, a university campus or a health and fitness facility — all of which are likely to provide a regular source of customers for your coffee, espresso, and tea shop. 28 Also, the zoning ordinances, parking availability, transportation facilities, and natural barriers, such as hills and bridges, are important in considering the location of your shop.

If the United States Census Bureau has developed census tract information for the area in which you are interested, you will find this especially helpful; the Census Bureau website is located at www.census.gov. This information can be valuable in measuring your market or service potential. Use the score sheet on the next page to help in determine the best site location:

Competition

Once you’ve narrowed down your location choices, you’ll want to take a good, long look at the competition. Information on competition may be harder to access than demographics, but be creative here and you will probably end up with a lot of information. Your best source for information on the competition may be simply to visit competitors’ establishments. 

LOCATION ASSESSMENT WORKSHEET 

Circle your grade for each factor: “A” for excellent, “B” for good, “C” for fair, and “D” for poor.

PROPERTY LOCATION: 

1. Located in a good spot for the market                                                                                      A B C D 

2. Merchandise or raw materials readily available                                                                       A B C D 

3. Nearby competition situation                                                                                                    A B C D 

4. Transportation availability and rates                                                                                         A B C D 

5. Proximity to area attractions (hiking trails, Amish country, wine country, museums, etc.)        A B C D 

6 Quality of available employees                                                                                                  A B C D 

7. Prevailing rates of employee wages                                                                                         A B C D 

8. Parking facilities                                                                                                                        A B C D 

9 Adequacy of utilities (sewer, water, power, gas)                                                                         A B C D 

10. Traffic flow                                                                                                                               A B C D 

11. Taxation burden                                                                                                                       A B C D 

12. Quality of police and fire protection                                                                                         A B C D 

13. Housing availability for employees                                                                                          A B C D 

14.Environmental factor (schools, cultural, community activities, enterprise of businesspeople) A B C D 

15. Physical suitability of building                                                                                                  A B C D 

16. Type and cost of building/business                                                                                         A B C D 

17. Proven for future expansion                                                                                                    A B C D 

18. Estimate of overall quality of site in 10 years                                                                          A B C D

The Various Coffee Beans You Can Use

Before we start making drinks, we should learn a little bit about the various beans you can use, the type of equipment available for making coffee, and a few other useful tips that will help you do such things as keep your coffee fresh, grind the beans for maximum usability, steam your milk properly for cappuccinos, and prepare your iced coffee the right way. 

Coffee comes from the seed of a coffee plant, which is processed and then roasted according to various specifications. The best coffee in the world comes from the Coffea arabica plant, which grows at high altitudes throughout the equatorial regions of the world. 

Originally discovered growing wild in Ethiopia in ancient times, this plant was taken to Yemen by the Arabs and cultivated there as early as the sixth century. In the early 1700s, the Dutch began cultivating descendants of these original plants in Java, and from that time on, the cultivation of the C. arabica plant spread to many areas of Central America, South America, and Africa. 

Another species of coffee plant, Coffea robusta, is also grown commercially (primarily in Africa), but this plant is used mostly for the lower grades of coffee that are on the market today. Depending on where in the world your coffee is grown—from Indonesia to Central and South America to Africa and the Middle East—it will have its own distinct taste and body. Coffee from Java, for instance, is earthy tasting and full bodied, while beans from Costa Rica produce a lighter, more tangy cup of coffee. 

Columbian and Brazilian coffees are more middle-of-the-road types, providing a mild taste that can easily be blended with other beans. Coffee from Kenya, on the other hand, has a strong, winy taste. Indeed, coffee from various regions of the same country will have its own unique flavor, depending on such factors as altitude, rainfall, and soil quality—and coffee from different plantations within the same region will even taste different from each other. Therefore, today’s specialty coffee wholesalers and retailers send coffee tasters all over the world in search of the best-tasting coffee crop from each region. 

After the green coffee beans are shipped to the United States, they must be roasted. This involves heating the beans at around 400°F for about 5 to 15 minutes (depending on the temperature), while rotating them in large bins. Most beans are light or medium roasted, producing a light- or medium-brown color and mild taste. Viennese or dark-roasted coffee produces a darker brown bean and an almost burnt (yet tangy) taste. The darkest roast (called espresso, Italian, or French) has a dark brown to almost black color and a burnt to charcoaly taste. 

Coffee beans can also be blended to create desired effects. The combination of Mocha (a mild bean from Yemen) and Java, for instance, has become synonymous with the coffee drink itself. Other blends use a variety of different tasting beans from various parts of the world, along with a variety of roasts. Hence, an excellent morning-coffee blend might include a majority of Viennese roasted beans, along with half as much Mocha and a little bit of espresso roast just to spice things up. A good after-dinner blend, on the other hand, might include 50 percent Mocha-Java along with 25 percent each of Colombian and Costa Rican. The proliferation of specialty coffee shops over the last few years has produced another new trend—that of flavored coffee beans. 

Thus, you’ll find names such as Vanilla Nut, Chocolate Almond, and Irish Cream labeling bags of specially weighed and packaged coffees at your local shop. Of course, you can always add flavorings or extracts to regular unflavored coffee after it’s brewed, as the recipes that follow will indicate. 

Conversely, you may wish to use flavored coffees in any of the following recipes, being careful not to mix tastes that don’t go together well. In recent years, the quality of decaffeinated coffee has been rising significantly —at least on the gourmet level. Whereas in the past, lower-quality beans were commonly used for decaffeinated varieties, today there is no reason why you can’t find a good-tasting decaffeinated coffee at a specialty coffee shop or elsewhere. 

There are two basic types of decaffeination processes: one uses a solvent (most commonly methylene chloride) that clings to the caffeine and is then flushed away; another (the Swiss water process) uses repeated flushings of water to wash away the caffeine. The first process is generally acknowledged to produce a better-tasting cup of coffee (with virtually no chemical residue), while the Swiss water process is becoming increasingly popular because it uses no chemicals.

Skinny Peanut Butter Mocha Recipe

 

Makes: 1 

Preparation Time: 5mins 

Total Prep Time: 5mins

If you need a quick pick me up then this peanut butter, protein-packed mocha is the way to go.

Ingredient List: 

- ¼ cup skim milk 

- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder 10 

- 1½ teaspoons organic peanut butter 

- 8 ounces freshly brewed hot coffee 

- 1 packet stevia sweetener (optional)

Instructions: 

1. In a large glass bowl, whisk the skim milk together with the cocoa powder. 

2. Transfer the bowl to the microwave and microwave for 30 seconds. 

3. Whisk well until incorporated. 

4. Add the peanut butter, stir, and if necessary return to the microwave until melted.      Pour the mixture into a mug. 

5. Add the hot coffee, sweetener and serve.

SKINNY HAZELNUT ICED COFFEE RECIPE

 PREP TIME: 8 HOURS 

TOTAL TIME: 8 HOURS 

SERVINGS: 16

INGREDIENTS 

- 1 pound Ground Coffee go for the good quality!

- 8 quarts Cold Water 

- healthy splash of International Delight Sugar Free Fat Free Toasted Hazelnut Creamer per submitting I employd Approximately two tbsp per tall glass

- sweetener of your choice if you want 

INSTRUCTIONS 

- In a big container (I employ a big tupperware), Beat ground coffee with water. OverLay and allow to sit at Approximately 25 °C overnight either for a minimum of 8 hours. 

- Rain the liquid through a cheesecloth lined strainer in a pitcher. You’ll want to Put the grounds that collect in the strainer to get the last amount of liquid through. Discard the grounds. 

- Place coffee liquid within the refrigerator and allow to cool down. 

- Serve top ice and Beat in creamer to your liking. 

- (you’ll also Place sweetener supposing you want! I prefer my coffee a bit on the strong side so I thought this wAs plenty sweet with Simply the creamer...but dress yours up the way you love it!) 

- Enjoy!

THAT COFFEE WAS EATEN BY AN ANIMAL?

THERE ARE TIMES IN LIFE WHEN YOU WANT CONFIRMATION THAT THE CONTENTS OF A PACKAGE REALLY MATCHES WHAT IS ADVERTISED ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE PACKAGE. 

IS THE OLIVE OIL REALLY FROM ITALY? IS THE SPARKLING WINE REALLY FROM CHAMPAGNE? IS IT TRULY MANUKA HONEY? THE REASON WE WANT TO KNOW THESE THINGS IS BECAUSE THESE PRODUCTS ARE ALMOST ALWAYS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN THEIR ALTERNATIVES. 

Thus, if we’re going to pay more for them, we want to be sure we’re getting exactly what we pay for (the issue of whether they taste as good as they’re supposed to is a topic for another section). How do we prove the product is what it claims to be? Is the coffee really from Kona, Hawaii? In a perfect world, rare, special, or expensive coffees would taste so different that we’d be able to verify their origins upon tasting them. 

But, being able to taste with that level of precision is difficult and it requires extensive knowledge of coffees from all over the world. Moreover, every coffee grown within a particular place must have a shared and globally unique taste. Well, these prerequisites are never all met simultaneously, so, using taste to confirm the origin of a coffee will never work. Alternatively, a government can establish rules and laws for packaging and labeling and expect its citizens to follow them. Most governments do this and they do their best to enforce them with the limited resources available to them. 

However, there are always clever miscreants, and a government’s power doesn’t exist past its borders. What is needed is an objective, product-based method for determining where a coffee was grown. All one has to do is discover the right chemical or combination of chemicals that will fingerprint a growing location. 

If every fingerprint is unique, then one just has to analyze any sample, match it to a fingerprint, and voilà! Sounds easy, right? The actual lab work is usually fairly easy but discovering a fingerprint is incredibly tricky. Many scientists, including this author, have worked  on this problem. Nobody has figured it out yet. 

There are two big hurdles to this problem. One is settling on the right fingerprint and the other is being able to properly analyze the data to ensure everything works correctly. Scientists have tried all kinds of different analytical techniques and markers to build the fingerprint: near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), solid phase microextraction— gas chromatography—time of flight mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-TOF-MS), brewed coffee volatiles, stable isotopes, elemental content, molecular compounds, and who knows what else! The aim has been to find a very quick, cheap, reliable method that can detect the right markers. 

Most of these methods and chemical markers suit this purpose well and much of the data is very promising. The data is promising because many of these methods allow the detection of many signals or markers rather than a small handful. They can be 2,000 reflectances of light at different wavelengths, hundreds of volatile compounds, or dozens of molecules. The more markers one has to create a fingerprint, the more likely that fingerprint will be unique. Moreover, the current state of computer power and statistical software packages allows for adequate analysis of all the data, so building a fingerprint and testing its efficacy is relatively simple. 

So, where’s the problem? The problem is twofold. One, there are never enough samples in a dataset to build a truly robust fingerprint. Two, any given bean is, well, complicated! Large datasets are important for statistical power and simply being able to paint the right picture. The statistical analysis used in origin discrimination work requires many samples for the analysis to work well. 

Many studies do the analysis with too few samples and the numbers crunch well, too well, really. The end result is too perfect because so many markers are being used to describe a small set of samples. The data is overfit. Painting the right picture is just as important. If you want to be able to tell a Hawaiian coffee from a Costa Rican coffee from a Rwandan coffee, you need many samples from each location to capture the variation from that location. Now, with eighty-plus countries in the world growing coffee and each country having many individual regions, acquiring enough samples to paint the big picture is daunting. 

As for coffee being complicated, there are just so many things that influence coffee’s chemical composition. These include, but are not limited to, year of production, the genetic makeup, the climate in which it grew, the nutritional health of the plant, the fertilizer regime, ripeness at harvest, cherry processing method, storage of green coffee, age of the green coffee, roasting, blending, and freshness. 

In order for a geographic fingerprint to work, it must be able to account for all these compositional influences every year across many locations! I believe we have the knowledge and capability to build a geographic indicator system. It may never be perfect but it probably could be effective a very high percentage of the time. All we need are time, manpower, and adequate resources. In the meantime, how do we know where the coffee in our cups is actually from? Trust. Trust in all the people whose hands touched that coffee and belief that they acted with integrity.

CARAMEL FRAPPUCCINO RECIPE

 

PREP TIME: 5 MINS 

COOK TIME: 5 MINS 

TOTAL TIME: 10 MINS 

SERVINGS: 2

INGREDIENTS 

1. 12 ounces strong black coffee chilled supposing probable (but if you want supposing you're in a hurry!) 
2. half cup Sugar Free Caramel Creamer 
3. half cup Almond Milk either Skim Milk 
4. 3 cups ice more either less depending on how chilled you want your frappe 
5. Sugar Free Caramel gravy for topping if you want 
6. Fat Free Whipped Cream either Cool Whip for topping if you want 

INSTRUCTIONS 

1. In a big blender, Beat coffee, almond milk, ice, and creamer. 

2. Top with whipped cream and caramel supposing desired. 

3. Enjoy!

COFFEE ETHICS

America is just one of the countries with an industrialized economy that consumes coffee like . . . well, the delicious drug that it is. In the past ten years, our consumption of coffee has more than doubled. 

But most coffee comes from countries with developing economies in Asia, South America and sub-Saharan Africa. It’s a labor-intensive product produced by smallholder farmers who often don’t break even—thanks, for the most part, to fluctuating world market prices. 

Coffee production for the mass market is associated with exploitative child or forced labor practices. But there is a way to enjoy your coffee without it leaving a bitter taste. 

Ethically produced coffee is guaranteed to have come from farms where workers are paid and treated fairly for their labor. It also refers to coffee that has been produced in a way that’s sensitive to the surroundings, with respect for the local environment. 

There are a number of certification agencies setting basic standards and monitoring the activity of its members, but the nature of specialty coffee almost defines it as being ethically produced. Roasters and buyers partner with farmers to produce a high-quality product that most often only comes about from improved, sustainable farming and processing methods.

Fairtrade 

Fairtrade is a nonprofit commercial trading partnership and certification program established to ensure that growers receive a fair price for their coffee. Fairtrade does this by helping growers form co-operatives that then sell to traders who are certified to pay the Fairtrade Minimum Price—a price set by their co-operatives that covers the cost of sustainable production— or the market price, whichever is higher. 

The system protects individual growers from fluctuations in market prices and establishes growers in a robust supply chain. There’s also the Fairtrade Premium, which is paid above and beyond the coffee price. The grower’s community receives this additional amount to fund better farming and community development programs. 

Direct Trade 

“Direct trade” refers to the relationship between roaster and grower, which is mutually respectful and beneficial without there being any official certification attached. It means roasters scoot off overseas and visit farmers with some regularity. They discuss processes and practices, adjust methods if it’s possible to do things better and pay a fair price. It benefits the quality of the coffee, the environment, the farmer and their employees.  

Rainforest Alliance 

Rainforest Alliance is an international nonprofit organization that works to conserve biodiversity and promote the rights and well-being of workers, their families and communities. Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee farms or groups of smallholder farmers are audited annually against comprehensive social, environmental and economic criteria and must commit to a process of continual improvement. Rainforest Alliance certification also promotes decent living and working conditions for farm workers, access to education for their children and gender equity. 

Cause Coffee 

This is when a roasting company and/or retailer establishes a relationship with a particular development project (or cause) to which it gives a percentage of the purchase price. For example, Café Feminino in Vancouver (Fairtrade and organic to boot) promotes autonomy for women in Peru by being a business that’s entirely run by women. 

Organic 

Organic basically means that no chemicals were used in the growing and processing of the coffee. That means no synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. While the certification involved in auditing an operation’s methods to ensure they comply with the guidelines of organic production will differ slightly between agencies, you get the gist: no chemical intervention

Business Plan: The Management Plan

 

Managing a business requires dedication, persistence, the ability to make 19 decisions, and the ability to manage both employees and finances. Your overall management plan, along with your marketing and financial management plans, sets the foundation for the success of your business. 

Your employees are your most important resources and will play an important role in the total operation of your business. 

Consequently, it is imperative that you know what skills you do and do not possess since you will have to hire personnel to supply the skills that you lack. Additionally, it is important that you know how to manage and treat your employees. Make them part of the team. Keep them informed of any changes and ask for their feedback. 

Employees oftentimes have excellent ideas that can lead to new market areas or improvements of existing products or services that can improve your overall competitiveness. Your management plan should answer questions such as: 

• How does your background/business experience help you in this business? 
• What are your weaknesses, and how can you compensate for them? 
• Who will be on the management team?  
• What are their strengths/weaknesses? 
• What are their duties? 
• Are these duties clearly defined? 
• If a franchise, what type of assistance can you expect from the franchiser? 
• Will this assistance be ongoing? 
• What are your current personnel needs? 
• What are your plans for hiring and training personnel? 
• What salaries, benefits, vacations and holidays will you offer? If a franchise, are these issues covered in the management package the franchiser will provide? 

If your business is a franchise, the operating procedures, manuals, and materials devised by the franchiser should be included in this section of the business plan. The franchiser should assist you with managing your franchise. Take advantage of their expertise and develop a management plan that will ensure the success of your franchise and satisfy the needs and expectations of employees, as well as those of the franchiser.

Business Plan: The Marketing Plan

 

How well you market your coffee, espresso, and tea shop, along with a few other considerations, will ultimately determine degree of success or failure for your business. 

The key element of a successful marketing plan is to know your customers — their likes, dislikes, and expectations. By identifying these factors, you can develop a marketing strategy that will allow you to arouse and fulfill their needs. Identify your customers by their age, gender, income/educational level, and residence. 

At first, target only those customers who are most likely to visit your shop. As your customer base expands, you may need to consider modifying the marketing plan to include other customers. 17 Develop a marketing plan for your business by answering these questions (potential franchise owners will have to use the marketing strategy the franchiser has developed). Your marketing plan should answer the questions outlined below:

• Who are your customers? Define your target market(s). 
• Are your markets growing? Steady? Declining? 
• Is your market share growing? Steady? Declining? 
• If a franchise, how is your market segmented? 
• Are your markets large enough to expand? 
• What pricing strategy have you devised? 
• How will you attract, hold, and increase your market share? If a franchise, will the franchiser provide assistance in this area? Based on the franchiser’s strategy, how will you promote your sales?

The Competition 

Competition in the specialty coffee and tea segment of the beverage service industry is fierce. Because of the volatility and competitiveness in this area of the beverage market, it is vital that you know and understand your competitors. Questions like these can help you stay ahead of the competition:

• Who are your five nearest direct competitors? 
• Who are your five nearest indirect competitors; for example, gourmet coffee, and tea retail stores? 
• Are their businesses steady? Increasing? Decreasing? 
• What have you learned from their operations? From their advertising? 
• What are their strengths and weaknesses? 
• How does their menu or service differ from yours?

Create a file on each of your competitors containing examples of their advertising, promotional materials, and pricing strategy techniques. Review these files periodically, determining when and how often they advertise, sponsor promotions, and offer sales. Study, for example. Is their copy is short, descriptive or catchy? Do they reduce prices for certain promotions?

Pricing and Sales 

You can use your pricing strategy to improve your overall competitiveness. Get a feel for the pricing strategy your competitors are using. That way you can determine if your prices are in line with your competitors and if they are in line with specialty coffee and tea service industry averages. Pricing considerations should include:

• Beverage and food menu cost and pricing 
• Competitive position 
• Pricing below competition 
• Pricing above competition 
• Price lining 
• Multiple pricing 
• Service components 
• Material costs 
• Labor costs 
• Overhead costs

The key to success is to have a well-planned strategy, to establish your policies, and monitor prices and operating costs constantly in order to ensure profits. Even in a franchise where the franchiser provides operational procedures and materials, it is a good policy to keep abreast of the changes in the marketplace, because these changes can affect your competitiveness and profit margins.

Advertising and Public Relations 

Many owners of retail beverage outlets operate under the mistaken concept that the business, its products, and service will promote itself, and end up channeling money that should be used for advertising and promotions to other areas of the enterprise. 

Advertising and promotions, however, are the lifeline of a business and should be treated as such. We have devoted a whole chapter to marketing and promoting your coffee, espresso, and tea shop ( see Chapter 16: Internal Marketing: 

How to Keep Customers Coming Back to Your Establishment ). Develop a plan that uses advertising and networking as a means to promote your specialty beverage business. Create short, descriptive copy (text material) that clearly identifies your beverages, services, prices, and your shop’s location. 

Use catchy phrases to arouse the interest of your readers, listeners, or viewers. In the case of a franchise, the franchiser will provide advertising and promotional materials as part of the franchise package; you may need approval to use any materials that you and your staff develop. 

Even if this is not the case, as a courtesy, allow the franchiser the opportunity to review, comment on, and, if required, approve these materials before using them. Make sure the advertisements you create are consistent with the image the franchiser is trying to project. Remember, the more care and attention you devote to your marketing program, the more successful your coffee, espresso, and tea shop will be. 

Is Specialty Coffee Worth It?

 

Okay, so obviously engaging with the world of specialty coffee takes a bit of extra effort. 

You can’t just pick it up at the supermarket; you have to go to cafés or roasters, and you’re expected to taste and consider the flavors to find what you like. 

So is it worth it? The answer is: it depends on what you want to do with it. 

As specialty coffee tends to be a bit pricier than what you might call “commercial” coffee, if you’re going to splurge and buy a fancy single-origin Kenyan, you want to be brewing it in a way that gets the best from the bean. 

If you’re not interested in this side of coffee drinking then you’re better off going for a more commercial bean, which might be half the price, meaning you can skip straight to the roasting and the brewing and stress less about your beans. 

But as proven by the growing hordes of coffeelovers around the country, if you give the world of specialty coffee a try you might find yourself loving the added awareness it can bring to your brewing

ICED COFFEE RECIPE

PREP TIME: 30 MINS 

COOK TIME: 8 HOURS 

TOTAL TIME: 8 HOURS 30 MINS 

SERVINGS: 4

INGREDIENTS FOR THE ICED COFFEE: 

• 8 ounces dark roast coffee grounds 
• 4 quarts filtered water either tap water

FOR THE SWEETENED HOMEMADE CREAMER: 

• half cup heavy cream either half and half 
• half cup sweetened condensed milk

IF YOU WANT ADDINS 

• coffee syrups 
• sugar 
• caramel 
• chocolate 
• syrup cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE COFFEE: 

1. Rain half the water in two half-gallon pitchers. Strew 4 ounces ground coffee top the water in both pitchers. OverLay and allow sit 30 mins; when 30 mins, stir. 
2. OverLay again and allow sit at Approximately 25 °C overnight. 
3. Line a fine mesh strainer with a double stratum of fine cheesecloth either a coffee StraIn set top a big bowl either pitcher. Rain the coffee mix through the strainer and allow the liquid to run through. The coffee mix can Take several mins to strain, and can must to be done Approximately two cups at a time. Simply As finished, discard the coffee grounds. 
4. Rain the strained coffee in a covered container within the fridge till cooled.

FOR THE HOMEMADE SWEEtenED CREAMER: 

1. In a pitcher either bowl Beat along the heavy cream and sweetened condensed milk. 
2. Keep within the fridge in some airtight container till ready for employ.

TO ASSEMBLE YOUR ICED COFFEE: 

1. Fill a glass with ice (or better yet, coffee ice!). Rain three-quarters full with coffee. Fill the remaining One-quarter with the creamer mix. Supposing you prefer a sweeter and creamier iced coffee you’ll Make equal parts instead. 
2. Add in if you want add-ins supposing desired. 
3. Enjoy!

COFFEE CAN RUST?

 

WHEN THINGS RUST, IT IS ALWAYS METAL THINGS—IRON, ACTUALLY. PLANTS CAN’T RUST AND COFFEE IS NO DIFFERENT. COFFEE LEAVES, HOWEVER, CAN TURN RUST COLORED AND WHEN THAT HAPPENS, IT’S NOT A GOOD SIGN. 

WHEN COFFEE RUSTS, IT IS BECAUSE A FUNGUS, HEMILEIA VASTATRIX, HAS ATTACKED IT AND THE FUNGUS IS SPORULATING, OR PRODUCING SPORES THAT WILL MOVE TO OTHER LEAVES AND INFECT THEM.

There are many diseases that infect coffee, but none are as prevalent and difficult to control as this one. (Coffee Berry Disease is pretty horrible, but it is still contained to the African continent.) Almost every coffee producing region in the world has Coffee Leaf Rust ( roya, in Spanish), and they all struggle with controlling it. The rust attacks the leaves and turns off any activity in a leaf where it touches. Very light infections simply reduce the photosynthetic ability of a leaf. As infections become more intense, leaves die.

If many leaves on a plant are heavily infected, then the plant can lose all its leaves and any fruit that is maturing since there are no leaves to sustain the fruit. The fungus doesn’t actively attack the coffee we drink, it just prevents us from ever  having coffee to drink. 

There are some fungicides that can be used to combat the fungus. However, they are expensive and have to be applied multiple times throughout the season. For small farmers (which make up the vast majority of coffee farmers worldwide), the cost alone can be prohibitive. For farmers with larger tracts of land, the cost is not inconsequential.

Moreover, many farms are planted on steep, mountain slopes that are difficult to walk on. Imagine the difficulty of walking on a steep slope and spraying a pesticide at the same time! With fungicides being a poor option, the best solution is to plant varieties that are (at least somewhat) resistant to the fungus. 

Unfortunately, there are no pure arabica lines that are resistant. In the 1930s, by a highly unlikely fluke of nature, a natural cross between C. arabica and C. canephora occurred, producing the offspring known as the Timor hybrid. This plant, having genetic lineage of both species, was resistant to the rust. Once it was discovered, it became the center of several breeding programs around the world. 

While the disease resistance was a nice inheritance from its canephora parent, it also inherited some of the undesired taste attributes. So, the breeding programs tried not only to improve its agronomic traits but its quality traits, as well. 

Over the years, other hybrids were discovered or made. These hybrids were, over many generations, bred with pure arabica lines to further improve their taste. Now the world is populated with many of these breeding program offspring. 

The taste of these offspring has never managed to equal that of a pure arabica line, no matter how many backcrosses have occurred. Still, these offspring are rightly called arabica varieties because so much of their genetic material comes from the arabica species. Currently, there are some recent releases that show a great deal of promise in offering rust resistance and desirable quality.

Unfortunately, as with any disease, resistance is not a cure. The fungus is constantly mutating and adapting. Many strains now exist that can attack not only some of the hybrids but pure C. canephora lines, as well. 

So long as coffee is a crop, we will be in constant flux with this and other diseases. It isn’t particularly fun or joyful, but it is the way of life. 

It was a hybrid featuring the genetic lineage from both Arabica and Robusta plants that became the savior for breeding more rust-resistant coffee plants.

Business Plan: Description of Your Coffee, Espresso & Tea Shop

In this section of the business plan, provide a detailed description of your shop. Ask yourself, “What business am I in?” and “What makes my coffee and tea shop special?” In answering these questions, include your products, market and services, as well as a thorough description of what makes your coffee, espresso, and tea shop unique. 

As you develop your business plan, be prepared to modify or revise your initial questions. The business description section is divided into three primary sections: 

Section 1 actually describes your business; 

Section 2, the product or service you will be offering; and 

Section 3, the location of your business and why this location is desirable (if you have a franchise, some franchisers assist in site selection). 

When describing your coffee, espresso, and tea shop, you should explain:

• Legalities. Business form: proprietorship, partnership, or corporation. What licenses or permits you will need? 
• Business type 
• What your product or service is. Perhaps sample beverages and food menus could be included.  
• Type of business. Is it a new independent business, a takeover, an expansion, a franchise? 
• Why your business will be profitable. What are the growth opportunities? Will franchising impact growth opportunities? 
• When your business will be open. What days? Hours? 
• What you have learned about your kind of business from outside sources (trade suppliers, bankers, other franchise owners, franchiser, publications)?

Cover Sheet 

Place a cover before the description. Include the name, address, and telephone number of your shop and the names of all principals.

Description 

In the explanation of your business, describe the unique aspects of your shop and how or why they will appeal to consumers. Emphasize any special features that you feel will particularly appeal to customers and explain how and why these features are appealing. The description of your business should clearly identify goals and objectives. It should also clarify why you are, or why you want to be, in business.

Products and Services 

Try to describe the benefits of your products and services from your customers’ perspective. Successful coffee, espresso, and tea shop owners will have carefully researched what their prospective customers want or expect from them. This anticipation can be helpful in building customer satisfaction and loyalty. And, it is certainly a good strategy for beating the competition or retaining a competitive edge. You will need to describe: 

• What you are selling — include your beverage and food menus here. 
• How your product or service will benefit the customer 
• Which specific products/services are in demand and whether these products or services can maintain a steady cash flow 
• What is different about the product or service your shop is offering. 

Location 

The location of your coffee, espresso, and tea shop can play a decisive role in its success or failure. Your chosen location should be customer-centered; the location should be accessible and provide a sense of security. Consider these questions when addressing this section of your business plan: • 

• What are your location needs? 
• What kind of space will you need? 
• Why is the building or area desirable? 
• Is it easily accessible? Is public transportation available? Is street lighting adequate? 
• Are market shifts or demographic shifts occurring? 

Finally, make a checklist of questions you identify when developing your business plan. Categorize your questions and, as you answer each question, remove it from your list.

What’s So Special about Specialty Coffee?

 

Specialty coffee is about honoring every one of the many stages coffee goes through, and all the people involved in its production. It’s about finding the very best beans and trying to unleash their full flavor potential at every stage of the process, from planting through to brewing. 

“Specialty” is also much more than just a marketing term. There are organized specialty coffee associations that formally track, test and set world standards. 

Among them are associations of America, Australia, Japan and Europe that hold competitions, certification courses and symposiums to promote and regulate any coffee being called “specialty.” 

By competitions, we’re talking world-class events with specialized categories, like the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship for boozy brews, with fifteen pages of rules and regulations. It’s serious business. Considering the long trip a coffee bean takes, and the many hands that help get it to your kitchen, regulation can take out a lot of guesswork for coffee-makers. 

With specialty coffee, baristas know the origin and quality, so it’s easier to predict the taste. From there they can test, taste and blend away to bring out the most complex flavors.

The Persnickety Process of Specialty Coffee 

Every individual stage of the process of converting fruit to bean can influence the flavor of the roasted and brewed coffee. Suppliers of specialty coffee tightly control every step of the process to ensure theirs is of the highest quality. 

They start by choosing beans by their origin: ensuring they know exactly where and at what altitude the beans were grown, as the particular geography of a place imparts flavor. 

It’s the terroir concept, also used when describing wine or some cheeses: soil and climate in partnership with both the specific cultivar of the plant and the unique farming practices express a particular character of place. 

Specialty coffee is selectively hand-picked so that only ripe cherries are used: these are more fragrant, smooth and mellow. Ripe beans are most often wet processed and sorted by hand. Specialty beans can be sorted two to three times, with any impurities like twigs or hulls removed, and any dud beans ditched

WHY DOES A COFFEE PLANT PRODUCE CAFFEINE?

 

Discovered in 1819, by German chemist Ferdinand Runge, the caffeine found in the coffee plant plays a useful role, just not a critical one. 

SO MANY OF US LOVE COFFEE BECAUSE OF WHAT CAFFEINE DOES FOR US. WITHOUT THE CAFFEINE, HUMANITY MAY NEVER HAVE CONTINUED CONSUMING COFFEE AFTER THE FIRST INITIAL TRIES. 

(WHAT REASON WOULD WE HAVE HAD FOR STUMBLING ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PROCESSING, DRYING, ROASTING, AND BREWING?)

BUT, WHAT DOES CAFFEINE DO FOR THE COFFEE 38 PLANT? AFTER ALL, IT DOESN’T MANUFACTURE THE STUFF FOR US AND IT REQUIRES ENERGY (AN IMPORTANT COMMODITY FOR ANY LIVING ORGANISM) TO PRODUCE IT.

Caffeine is considered a secondary metabolite. As opposed to primary metabolites, secondary metabolites are not essential for plant growth and development. Rather, they play some useful role, just not a critical one. Caffeine is found in all parts of coffee, from the roots to the seeds and even in the xylem, the upward-elevator organ in plants. 

A number of hypotheses have been posited for what caffeine can do for the coffee plant. It could be an allelopathic agent, an anti-herbivory agent, a form of nitrogen storage, and/or a pollinator stimulant. Allelopathy is plant chemical warfare against other plants. Some plants produce chemicals that can harm or kill seeds or plants, typically of other species. These compounds, spread by the decomposition of leaf litter or exudation by roots and seeds, influence the population dynamics of plants within a community; not all allelochemicals kill all plants. 

Many researchers have demonstrated that caffeine is toxic to a number of different plants. However, nobody has demonstrated caffeine’s efficacy in a natural setting. Thus, just because it can kill some other species, there is no guarantee that it would kill competitor plants in the forests of Ethiopia (where it evolved). 

Caffeine is incredibly toxic to some insects and fungi (humans, too, in a high enough concentration). So, it often argued that it is a defense mechanism from critters. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that caffeine is produced in young, developing organs that are more susceptible to insect attack. 

This is a logical hypothesis but it is incredibly difficult to prove. To prove it inconclusively would require two nearly identical coffee plants, with the only difference being that one produces caffeine while the other one does not. Unfortunately, we are technologically incapable of producing these conditions, so the experiment will have to wait awhile. If caffeine did evolve to protect against insects, it was probably targeted against specific African insects. If it had been successful in defending against them, then they are probably so inconsequential as pests that they haven’t ever caught the attention of researchers. 

Since caffeine has been found moving up through a plant and it contains four nitrogen atoms, it is thought that it may simply be a way to store nitrogen until needed for a specific purpose. What little research has been done on this hasn’t successfully demonstrated this function. Lastly, caffeine may be an incentivizing treat for pollinators, particularly honeybees.

Research has shown that honeybees’ long-term memory is improved after having caffeine. Presumably, this would help the bees remember the flower they were enjoying and be more likely to return to it in the future, thus helping the plants to crosspollinate. 

While this is promising research, it has yet to be tested outside the laboratory. In addition, it wouldn’t explain why caffeine is synthesized in all the organs in the plant. We will probably never know why coffee first developed caffeine. If we’re lucky, we’ll find out why it has continued to do so. Of course, from the coffee’s perspective, caffeine production has been a huge success. After all, because of that molecule, the human species has spread the seeds of the plant to nearly every place on the planet in which they could thrive!

FRENCH VANILLA ICED COFFEE RECIPE

 

PREP TIME: 5 MINS 

COOK TIME: 15 MINS 

TOTAL TIME: 20 MINS 

SERVINGS: 1

INGREDIENTS FOR THE HOMEMADE VANILLA SYRUP 

• 1 half cups water one cup granulated sugar 
• one cup dark refined sugar 
• 1 vanilla bean split down the middle 
• half tbsp real vanilla extract

FOR THE VANILLA ICED COFFEE

• 1/8 cup Homemade Vanilla Syrup see above 
• One-quarter cup Lactaid Whole Milk 
• one cup strongly brewed coffee chilled 
• 2 cups ice 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE HOMEMADE VANILLA SYRUP

1. Warmth water, sugars, and vanilla bean in a small saucepan top average high heat. Bring to a seethe and then Decrease to a simmer. Stir As this simmers occassionally. 
2. Allow to simmer for 5-8 mins, then Take away from heat. 
3. Stir in vanilla extract and allow to cool down. 
4. Keep within the fridge (up to 1-2 weeks) in some airtight container till ready to employ.

FOR THE VANILLA ICED COFFEE

• Rain all ingredients top ice. 
• Stir and enjoy!