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Permalink Reply by Greg Hill on July 10, 2011 at 7:40am

our top 5 are consistently week to week:

1)cappuccino

2)small latte

3)small iced mocha

4)small hot mocha

5)large iced mocha

 

regular drip coffee is always a contender,as well as medium lattes and iced lattes. the top 5 account for over 80% every week.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Williamson on July 10, 2011 at 12:14pm

For almost anything other than a concept shop, I'd say the essentials are:

 

Espresso

Americano

Brewed coffee (not necessarily an auto-drip)

Macchiato

Cappuccino

Latte

 

If you're main focus is gonna be high end coffee, those should have you pretty well covered.  If you don't have qualms with adding flavors, then simple options like vanilla, mocha, honey and caramel are good choices.  It's always easier to add to the menu rather than take away from it (trust me, customers will get pissed if you delete things from the menu).  Those 4 flavors will give you the options you want while clearly and non-offensively iterating that you are about the coffee (if in fact you are). Plus it's a heck of a lot cheaper to buy those flavors rather than a dozen bottles of each of 20 flavors, it saves on storage space, etc.

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Permalink Reply by lance battenfield on July 12, 2011 at 5:29pm

need more details:
1.what is the climate like?

2.is it urban or rural?

3.what age group are you trying to market to?

4.are you a frozen yogurt bar serving coffee or a coffee bar serving frozen yogurt? (pick one, not two)

5. are there people who 'understand' coffee there?

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Permalink Reply by Steven Graig on July 12, 2011 at 8:21pm

1. Right now very hot & humid.

2. kind of in between, on the outskirts of Memphis

3. 18-50

4. yogurt bar selling coffee

5. yes, Starbucks on the opposite corner of intersection.

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Permalink Reply by James Doyle on July 13, 2011 at 10:01am

If Starbucks is across the street you need to run a different game than what they are offering. I would keep your menu as simple as possible (see something like 9th Street Espresso's menu: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yehwan/283326423/lightbox/) and focus on making your simple menu as high quality as possible. If you want to offer a sweet treat, perhaps you could add an affogato-like concoction with frozen yogurt, but I would try not to get into the candy-bar latte business and offer tons of flavors and blended beverages.

 

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Permalink Reply by lance battenfield on July 14, 2011 at 2:07pm

I'll have to agree with James on giving the customer something that bux cant offer. Run a simple high quality operation but do your research and find out what customers want; dont limit yourself too much. if you were a coffee bar mainly i would not offer blended, but b/c ur a frozen yogurt shop offering coffee i would say go for it and use yogurt in the blended beverages with your coffee as a binder for the ice in the drink. use flavors that the competition cant compete with and be creative and original.

Steven Graig said:

1. Right now very hot & humid.

2. kind of in between, on the outskirts of Memphis

3. 18-50

4. yogurt bar selling coffee

5. yes, Starbucks on the opposite corner of intersection.

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Permalink Reply by lance battenfield on July 14, 2011 at 2:11pm

Also b/c are marketing to an older crowd also i would find a simple high quality way to offer drip coffee. maybe a pour over would work well. if you have an espresso machine make sure ur staff knows what they're doing and get them the materials they need to learn.

lance battenfield said:

I'll have to agree with James on giving the customer something that bux cant offer. Run a simple high quality operation but do your research and find out what customers want; dont limit yourself too much. if you were a coffee bar mainly i would not offer blended, but b/c ur a frozen yogurt shop offering coffee i would say go for it and use yogurt in the blended beverages with your coffee as a binder for the ice in the drink. use flavors that the competition cant compete with and be creative and original.

Steven Graig said:

1. Right now very hot & humid.

2. kind of in between, on the outskirts of Memphis

3. 18-50

4. yogurt bar selling coffee

5. yes, Starbucks on the opposite corner of intersection.

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Permalink Reply by Melanie Logan on July 16, 2011 at 6:24pm

One of the great desserts--affogato...espresso over ice cream.  No reason this wouldn't work well with frozen yogurt.  Maybe even add a little cookie for crunch and sell at a premium price.

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Permalink Reply by MOCAFE™ on July 20, 2011 at 7:35am

We'd love for you to give consideration to our product lines. Easy preparations will simplify your startup processes, plus, they are simply tasty.

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