Your Customers Are Yelping. Are You?If you haven’t heard about Yelp yet, I think it’s time. Why? Because it’s FREE ADVERTISING for your coffee shop! …And because people are looking for local coffee shops like yours and they are finding them on Yelp.com or on a mobile device like the iPhone.Yelp is a place where people to go to find the best local businesses. The best local businesses are determined by the customer reviews. By posting your coffee shop to Yelp you will be found more often and by travelers as well as locals. If they’re on the web they can find you by zip code. If they have an iPhone or similar device, they can find the coffee shops closest to their location using GPS technology built into their phone.The real power of Yelp lies in the user reviews. Their slogan is “Real People. Real Reviews.” In short, here’s how it works. Your customers find you on Yelp, they log into their account and they write a review about your coffee shop. It’s simple, it’s effective and it’s an amazing way to get testimonials…and did I mention it’s FREE? Of course a customer can write a negative review also so you have to make sure you’re on your toes and give the best service possible.The bottom line is Yelp = Free Coffee Shop Advertising. Here’s what you get: a FREE listing on Yelp, the ability to upload a ton of information and photos of your coffee shop, a link to your website, and FREE customer testimonials!Here’s how to start Yelping:1. Go to www.Yelp.com and search for your business. You may already be there. If you are listed and didn’t set it up, you’ll have to unlock your page. Under your listing there will be a link that says “Is this your business”. Click on that. [If you are not listed on yelp, skip to step 4.]2. Next click on “Go to Step 1” to begin unlocking your page. You’ll need to fill out a quick form to setup an account.3. After you setup your account on Yelp, you’ll need to authenticate your account by phone. You will get an automated phone call and you will need to enter the provided pin number which will unlock your account. [Skip to Step 5]4. To setup a new account, go to Yelp.com/business and click on “Get Started” to setup a new account. Follow the step by step instructions for setting up your business page on Yelp.5. After adding or unlocking your account, you’ll be able to post all of your contact information, business hours, upload images, add menus, coupons, promotions and more. You’ll also be able to reply to customer reviews and will have access to traffic stats and graphs.Good Luck and Happy Yelping!!==========================================================================Aaron C. Daywitt is the President of Effective Media, Inc. and specializes in targeted online promotional product stores like Coffee Shop Promos where they provide quality printed coffee mugs to coffee shops all over the United States. For more information visit www.coffeeshoppromos.com or www.emipromos.com.
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For the past two years in the barista community, the constant buzz in terms of new equipment has rested in two places; controlling temperature/pressure and grind quality. It became apparent as Kyle Glanville walked into competition with a yet unnamed Mazzer doserless grinder that there was a new game in town; no more clacking and pulling; no more left dose and excess spillage. Since that time the Robur E has emerged with a glowing electric hopper lid and a not-so-glowing price bracket in the range of what one used to pay for a decent one group espresso machine. As expected, too, the market has followed suit with the development of doserless and doser-ed timer grinders such as Anfim and Compak's K8 Automatic.The most recent installment of the doserless timer grinder is an offspin of Compak's WBC edition K10 conic. It has a robust motor with low burr speed and a great quality set of conical burrs that produce low heat, high volume grinding with ease. I will note that I am using the K10's prototype and, thus, there are already planned revisions from some of the changes that really need to be made. Nonetheless, I will attempt to paint an accurate picture of the grinder as it stands now along with what you might expect in the future.Appearance: Little has been done aesthetically to the K10 that you might be familiar with. The grinder sent to us was the painted black casing identical to the previous doser grinders but different than the shiny competition edition. However, the removal of the doser leaves the bullet shaped grinder looking tall and aerodynamic (which might be useful if we were trying to beat land speed record or reduce drag on a porsche). The doser has been replaced by an elephant-like schnozz chute that slopes to meet a thin, sharp fork where the portafilter rests. The distance between the fork and the chute leaves a little issue with updosing, but i'll get to that later. The biggest change other than the doser to the look of the grinder is the addition of a digital timer neatly placed on the lower left part of the grinder body. It reads out in seconds, tenths, and hundredths of seconds in a bright green oel display.Design: The spout is shaped fairly well and flows freely when grinding, though there is a small amount of buildup at the end of the spout after continual use. I'm not quite sure if there is a slight lip or if the spout is just not smooth enough to pass all the coffee without resistance, but it can collect a gram or so after a dozen cycles. This seems to be exacerbated by the closeness of the fork to the spout. As I mentioned before, using dosages up to 21 g precariously place the piled coffee slightly into the dosing chute, causing excess buildup. I have been assured that this will be in the process of change when the completed model goes to production. The pf fork is also a little of an issue as the metal seems to be thin enough to bend and bounce the portafilter. This leaves opportunity for the portafilter to jostle and bounce coffee out of itself during use. Again, the changes have been planned to make a more rigid resting spot.The timer is a real win for the grinder as it's exaction through fine tuning in terms of time leads to more costumizable and controllable dosages. Changes are simple and intuitive in terms of time adjustment. simply pressing the "P" button takes you into time programming mode. After holding the button down for a short time it jumps from changing hundredths of seconds to tenths. Holding it further for a few seconds will change whole seconds. Once you've made your adjustment you can simply press "p" again to save your settings. You can dose about 21 g in four seconds or so, which is a little slower than the E, but then the K10 does not have a burr auger.Wastage/Efficiency: Given that this grinder is optimized for efficiency, there a few concerns about its capability to follow through. The grinder does clump a little bit. Though not as bad as the old mahlkonig k30, which produces hard clumps, it does produce light clumps which tend to roll off a nearly full mound of coffee and spill on to the grinder's waste tray. That added with the obvious residual left in the chute when updosing adds up to relatively acceptable waste for most grinders, yet it leaves something to be desired in the pursuit for hyper efficienct grinding. The waste tray also leaves unnecessary mess for the user because the plastic removal plate sits lower than the grinder body, creating a gap for coffee to become wedged in. This can lead to coffee grounds spillage under the tray and around the base or under the base. this aspect could use considerable revision, though it would be less necessary if there were less wasteFunction: The time cycle is activated by pressing in a button located between the chute and the dosing fork with the portafilter. After considering how such a button might function after getting coffee grounds stuck in and around it (which was a problem with the automatic 8) they decided that the production model will be equipped with a finger activated dosing button above the spout to keep it more clean and functional. The huge improvement over the robur e in the production model will be the three way power switch. You can choose to turn the grinder off, place it on for timed dosing or switch it into manual position and dose by pressing the button once to activate and once to deactivate the dosing cycle. Because of the switch in tandem with a button independent of the timer, one can continue to use the grinder even if the timer fails for some reason, which has been a consistent question and concern for those who are looking at the robur e.In the cup: Though the K10 varies in dosing function, nothing has really changed in terms of consistent, low heat grinding. We put it through the ringer next to our other grinders at the coffee institute including the previous doser model of the k10 and it measure up confidently to the standards of espresso grinding. I will say that we did not have a robur e on bar to compare and contrast, so I am hoping to find someone willing to do a side-by-side evaluation. If not, look for a grinder showdown with pictures and a review after the great lakes jam this fall. We found great clarity in the cup with our standard dosing parameters and were very pleased with its consistent dosing in terms of controllable extraction.This is all preliminary in judgment, so don't assume my word as the end of it, but I do believe that Compak has done very well in producing a top of the market piece of equipment that rivals the best in doserless timer grinding, and at 1,700 a piece with the digital timer, it's a steal of a deal. You will also be able to buy a timerless model for a pricepoint well below that, though I have heard no confirmed prices. If you've had any experiences with thiis grinder, please share what you've found.
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The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) was established with an ambitious goal of eliminating food shortages and hunger in Ethiopia by creating an efficient marketing system for agricultural commodities. Barely two months after its launch, the highly praised exchange platform found itself caught in the midst of the complex global coffee trade, an undertaking that is entirely different and farther from its original vision of "revolutionizing" the inefficient domestic commodity market.In August 2008, the government enacted a new law that forces the trading of all of the country's coffees through ECX and ECX welcomed the decision. Since then, the government confiscated stocks of coffee from exporters and revoked licenses, filled in the vacuum with the Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise (EGTE), and sold Specialty coffees at commodity grade coffee prices.Following its first rough encounter, ECX is now engaged in talks with Specialty coffee buyers and faced with challenges of wining the hearts and minds of traders locally. But, the effect of ECX on coffee growers is yet to be noticed. This piece attempts to reveal the pitfalls of trading coffee through ECX and its impact on small-scale farmers.Learning coffee on the flyAs it has now become apparent, ECX was not ready to accommodate trading operations of a complex global commodity when it embarked on coffee export. This partly explains why ECX has had to run into problems as soon as it started its coffee trade.ECX was initially established to create a trading platform for domestic agricultural commodities, mainly grain. The ECX was created with primary purposes of eliminating the archaic marketing system whose inefficiency, according to ECX's founder, Eleni Gebre-Medhin, are in part responsible for the recurring food shortages and hunger in parts of Ethiopia, and increasing the value of the domestic grain. Dr. Eleni described her vision in June 2007 at TED Talk as:"Ethiopia's domestic market is about $1 billion of value and we feel over the next five years, if Ethiopia can capture even 40%, just 40% of the domestic market and add jut 25% value to that market, the value of the market doubles. ECX, moreover, can become a trading platform for the Pan-African market in agricultural commodity. Ethiopia's agricultural market is 30% higher than South Africa's grain production; and, in fact, Ethiopia is the second largest maize producer in Africa."This ambition is founded on plausible assumptions about domestic grain trade but it did not take into consideration the state of coffee trade. Because the market system was designed to bring about changes in the grains trade – not in the coffee sector – ECX ended up further complicating the problems facing coffee growers when it suddenly decided to take on coffee trade.Mandatory exchangeBy requiring 100% of coffee trade be conducted through ECX, the government eliminated direct trades. The government says that was necessary in order to improve the sector and prices. This is frivolous.Unlike grains, coffee trade is characterized by unregulated supply, market monopoly by a few multinationals companies, and stiff competitions among producing countries. Coffee is a global commodity. It is the world’s second most traded commodity next to oil with its prices determined at the New York exchange market. The trade is largely controlled by the world's biggest coffee buyers. Five multinational companies, Nestlé, Philip Morris, Procter and Gamble, Sara Lee, and Kraft Foods buy about 70% of the world’s coffee and play pivotal roles in setting world coffee prices. Coffee growing nations do not have a say in this unregulated global market.To mitigate the burden, other coffee growing countries are resorting to creating differentiations and to find a place in the Specialty niche market. The direct trade relationship with Specialty coffee buyers gives these nations a relative stability, premium prices, and incentives to increasing quality standards.ECX, on the other hand, adopted a strategy of forced bulk trading through a warehouse receipt system and eliminated direct trade. Still, it hopes to improve prices and the sector.Underestimating Specialty coffeeThe global coffee industry is increasingly moving towards greater transparency of coffee origins and differentiation but the ECX system is heading in the opposite direction. Ethiopia is naturally endowed with the variety of coffees demanded by the Specialty coffee buyers. The fine quality of its coffees and the distinctive features of the sector, including its genetic resources, abundance of wild coffee trees, and the organic coffee production, earned Ethiopia a unique place in the global coffee marketplace. Ironically, instead of capitalizing on these unique attributes, ECX aims at bundling all of the coffees into commodity grades.One possible explanation for this absurd strategy is ECX's underestimation of the importance of Specialty grade coffees. “The “specialty-plus” market segment is only 3.7% of the total coffees exported, with the remainder to be considered as commodity coffee," says ECX in its whitepaper titled What is in a Bean?This unsubstantiated analysis has led ECX to a mistaken conclusion, thus its decision to neglect the Specialty market and focus on aggregate coffee production. ECX's estimation is flawed and can be proved wrong by the following cursory appraisal of empirical evidences.In 2008, Starbucks, the world's largest Specialty coffee buyer, bought 192,500 tons of Specialty coffee, of which 5-10% (the company’s official numbers always fall within this range) was directly sourced from East Africa. (The major coffee growers in East Africa are Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda.) Since Ethiopia is the largest exporter of Specialty coffee in Africa, and, given Starbucks' long history of close relationship with coffee growers in the country, it is reasonable to assume around 3% of Starbucks' purchase (or about 60% of its East African purchase) comes from Ethiopia. Meaning, around 5,775 tons of Starbucks’ 2008 purchases is practically from Ethiopia. Since Ethiopia’s export during that year was 170,888 tons, Starbucks’ purchase only represents 3.4% of Ethiopia’s export.So, if at least 3.4% of Ethiopia's Specialty grade was directly sold to Starbucks, one can imagine how the number can easily jump to a range of upper teens to twenties when the quantity that Starbucks bought through Germany (Starbucks buys most of its coffee from Germany which is also one of Ethiopia's major export markets) and the coffees directly sold to other small buyers through direct trade.It is thus extraordinary that ECX diminishes the roles of Specialty coffee in Ethiopia. Furthermore, it is unbelievable that ECX failed to see the fact that Specialty coffees drive the global coffee trade.Marketing experts agree that the prestigious coffees such as Sidama, Yirgacheffe, and Harar serve marketers as ingredient brands. The prominent Oxford Professor Douglas Holt defines ingredient brands as: “brands that are used as one component “ingredient” of another branded product or service. Gore waterproof fabric and Intel computer chips are classic examples."Dr. Holt argues, “Consumers view the ingredient’s inclusion as a distinctive and valuable addition to the offer. The ingredient is revealed to end-consumers through some sort of distinctive mark (name, logo, etc.) so that the inclusion of the ingredient increases the perceived value of the offering."By undermining the roles played by Specialty coffees to promote the sale of Ethiopia's aggregate coffee export, ECX's bulk trading system poses a threat to commoditizing some of the distinct coffees in the world. Farmers that grow some these finest beans expect their produce to fetch them a price better than that of the run-of-the-mill beans. The lack of incentive for their hard work may have adverse effect on the country's Specialty coffee production. As quality deteriorates, the country’s prestigious brands water down as well.Unfair competitionWhen responding to criticisms about its position on direct trade, ECX cites as an example the cooperatives and commercial farms that are directly selling Specialty coffee outside of the ECX system. This is true but the problem is, by allowing selected group of growers to have access to the Specialty market, ECX leaves out the smallholder families that are not organized in cooperatives. This practice deprives farmers of the privilege of establishing business relationship with external buyers.In addition, the current ECX system also subjects small-scale farmers to a potential market monopoly by a few exporters. Farmers are not represented in the ECX Board of Directors, a body that currently comprises three major coffee exporters, including Berhane Hailu, General Manager of EGTE, and seven government officials. This degree of power imbalance puts farmers at a disadvantage.Coffee trade under current ECX system is far from being a level playing field. It is difficult to imagine a marketplace that is fair to farmers in a setting where the government owned enterprise, EGTE, working to maximize profit and ensure uninterrupted inflow of foreign exchange also directs ECX. As far as small-scale coffee growers are concerned, ECX has so far not been “fair, independent, and free.”If ECX were to be of any benefit to the poor farmers, it should create an environment where the bulk trading system functions alongside a direct trading system for Specialty coffees and other certifications such as Bird Friendly, forest, and organic coffees. This is a lifeline for many smallholder farmers and that is where they have comparative advantage over competitors.
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¡Noe Castro Cacao visits El Salvador, Central America!Noe Castro Cacao, International Barista professional, with more than 8 years experience, came to El Salvador and trained Zegsa Inversiones S.A. de C.V.'s personnel.La Libertad, El Salvador, Central America, Friday 31st of July 2009 – Zegsa Inversiones S.A. de C.V. is preparing to open the doors of its new Coffee Shop in El Salvador, Central America. “ We’ve put a lot of effort into this project and have decided to open in September 09. We’ve been training almost 8 to 10 hours daily for 4 months now. Our main objective is to serve our clients the best cup of coffee they’ve ever tasted, without having to rely on only one Barista serving it,” confirmed Mr. Jonathan Rodríguez, President of Zegsa Inversiones S.A. de C.V.Noe Castro Cacao, prestigious Barista, with more than eight years experience, known worldwide for his numerous jobs and almost 5 years experience in national and international competitions, was invited over by Zegsa Inversiones S.A. de C.V. to El Salvador, Central America. During the week of July 27th 09, for four exhausting and consecutive days, Noe trained the Baristas for opening day. “We had the honor of meeting Noe on a business trip in his natal country, and for the first time we are pleased to have him visit El Salvador,” says Mr. Rodríguez.“Barista Coach” nicknamed by Zegsa’s personnel won the 2006 Barista Championship of Guatemala and had the amazing experience of representing his country for the World Barista Championship held that same year in Tokyo, Japan. He had to compete with almost 45 Baristas from different nations! In 2007, during national competition, he won the title for “Best Espresso”.During the intense Barista training of four days, Noe shared all of his experiences, motivations and knowledge, of more than 8 years fully into and passionate about this industry. “Noe is an authentic professional, we wanted to discover our potential and it was him who woke it up out of each and every one of us, we are glad he could join us and are thankful for everything he’s done.”What motivated Zegsa Inversiones S.A. de C.V. to invite Noe to El Salvador was the need to reach their main objective. “ With Noe’s help, we reached our goal!” said Mr. Rodríguez.The name of the new coffee Shop is a surprice to be revealed later and over the Internet in Facebook or Barista Exchange. However, Mr. Rodriguez did tell us, it would be located on the secondfloor of Centro Comercial Plaza Merliot, (Plaza Merliot Mall) at La Libertad, El Salvador.Mr. Rodriguez did not forget to mention, “It has taken us more than 8 months of trainings, searching for the right information, being patient and preparing the right way to reach the level we are at right now, we're making sure to be different. We will always support El Salvador’s Coffee and its going to be our only ingredient, for any coffee beverage our Baristas prepare our clients.”To be one of the first to find out the latest Coffee News, publications and be able to meet the Salvadoran Baristas who will work in Zegsa’s New Coffee Shop, or if you want to know more about what happened during training with Noe Castro, look for them in Facebook or Barista Exchange as Barista-Pro and add them as friends.Zegsa Inversiones S.A. de C.V., formally invites everyone to await our news of the upcoming events for opening day; 100% made in El Salvador.
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