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Permalink Reply by Brady on September 10, 2008 at 6:22pm

One other question to add... how many shops here are using bean bins or jars for display?

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Permalink Reply by Alun Evans on September 10, 2008 at 9:22pm

Hello Brady. As a roaster this is a question I find pretty interesting, and quite relevant to where our company is today. Generally there are two types of roaster- the institutional/wholesaler providing blends under their own label to cafes and the roaster/retailer who may have started roasting to provide their own store(s) with coffee, but have expanded to provide other clients with beans as well.

We are the former and get requests often to roast/blend beans a specific way, for specific clients. In the early days business being business- we did this- ultimatley helping to build 3 of Indonesia's more successful cafe businesses. The problem is, as a roaster we get (got) very little from this- the chains in question obviously do not refer to us as being their roaster- marketing their own coffee, under their own label. Although we get revenue from this business stream, I feel in retrospect it was the wrong way to go. Fortunatley, in these cases, we came up with the blends and our clients actually have no idea what the blend cuts are.

These days we are trying to build awareness of our own brand, under our own labels- and we no longer create blends for clients. As a wholesaler our success is wholly dependent on the quality of our clients cafe set-ups (training, type of machines) and the amount of branding they allow us to display on site. I personally do not believe is plastering a clients cafe with branding- prefer a more subtle approach.

I am not sure how other roasters feel about this. I guess if you were buying from a roaster/retailer/cafe opperator, they probably would be pretty insistant about branding display and quite inflexible about allowing clients to blend instore, although I may be wrong.

I guess ultimatley you have to know what brings customers to your store to drink the coffee. Is it the type of coffee? Maybe, but I would suggest that it would in a large part be the coffee combined with the skill of your barista/baristi, your menu mix, your location and you yourself.

Most Indies in NZ and Australia do promote their roasters- either by selling retail packs, using grinders/espresso machines with the roasters logo displayed, cups (with logo), T/A cups... to the more extreme having umbrellas/awnings wth the roasters logo. However most of the Indpendents are, as mentioned above, fantastic opperations running on a foundation of a solid coffee roasters product, NOT a promotional prong for that roaster.

As for Glass Bean Dispensers/Cylinders- I see them often in countries where quality is not so much of a recognised issue, rarely in NZ or Australia. There are some cafe/roasteries in NZ that use them as display devices only, but not to sell roasted product from.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Dooley on September 12, 2008 at 11:22pm

Custom blending is a great option if your roaster will do that for you. Starbucks does a custom blend for a five star restaurant here in Seattle called Canlis. That same blend is their second most popular house blend.
I tend to buy a lot of different coffees based on how they are blended and roasted. I am a huge fan of the word "custom" and the great stories that accompany them. It shows that the roaster is really in touch with the individual customers needs to stand out. It's like getting your own logo'd cup...sort of a symbol that you have arrived. It also really engages the community in supporting your growth by purchasing through you rather then grocery stores.
I read somewhere that 70% of coffees used in the home are still purchased at the grocery store or even Ross, Cost Plus and Marshalls. These outlets don't always carry fresh products and the really clincher is coffee shops usually do. The customer visits you and average of three to four times a week and just doesn't make the connection that you can provide them with "ALL" their coffee needs.
Simple extraction methods like French Press, Melitta and stove top have really brought in an awareness of tasting coffees and they have a really fun entertainment factor.

Do you really play that alto in the picture?

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