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COFFEE COMPANIES - DO THEY ADD VALUE?

ristrettoristretto
edited January 1970 in Coffee Industry related subjects
As a cafe owner and barista I am always surprised at how little attetnion many coffee companies pay to the quality of their product after it leaves their roasters.  They have advanced packaging methods, scientific methods of quality control, controlled environments etc etc yet when it arrives at a cafe the care factor decreases.

If I were a roaster I would work hand in glove with my account holders to improve the skills and passion of those producing the end product for the ultimate customer.  Do coffee companies want increased demand for their product or are they happy with the swill that their well roasted blends become?

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Comments

  • johnronchijohnronchi
    in fact i would consider changing to a coffee company that had the balls to REMOVE their product from a cafe what was not doing it justice.   Once the word got out that only QUALITY cafes were supplied with that brand, im sure the cafes would be running to them... but then..... Mabe we cafe owners have created this situation.... it seems that most cafe owners seem to be more concerned with what FREEBIES the company is going to give them rather than the support/trainng/ and QUALITY of the product... yet i find customers remember the brand of coffe in many cases as opposed to the cafe where they had the coffe, this may be due to the high level of branding by the companies. A customer goes to cafe 'X' and has a crap coffee with the brand 'y' on the cup.... they may remember the cafe but they are sure to remember the 'y' on the cup, and will most prpbable write it off as a bad product... ok im going now... :-X
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  • Unknown
    Coffee companies... having the balls to remove their product, not only breaking the trade practices act but involves them being proactive and spending time in the cafes they supply. You have got to be joking... More importantly why are these coffee companies taking on business they are not willing to teach, train and monitor???
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  • johnronchijohnronchi
    id love to continue this conversation gruvsta, sorry it took so long to respond... hopefully your not a one hit wonder... mail me at: [email protected]
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  • Dean_MorganDean_Morgan
    Why do you want a coffee company to add value?? As a cafe owner you are doing the value adding - taking a roasted product and making decent espresso, then you can add the soy. I would love to see the day when a cafe comes to ask for a fresh high quality product and will then use this from 4 - 12 days after roast, keep it in a cool dark place and treasure all the hard work that has gone into producing this product.Then instead of having a coffee company brand splattered all over your cafe, spend some money and market the product that YOU provide.. Get someone to roast your product under YOUR label. Demand the quality and training for your staff if you can not provide this, but put your product first.. See Ya CBD
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  • Emma_MWEmma_MW
    Well said CBD These are all things that I do, and strongly belive in. It is not so easy though to find near perfection in a cafe & a owner that gives a shit. Branding may be the death of coffee... Emma X Hey thats my logo you got man...
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  • Emma_MWEmma_MW
    Hey I never said NUTS!
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  • Unknown
    Roasters only add value if they do their job properly.  What does this mean ??? It means that they do their job properly if they roast the beans to their peak exactly the same way every time. If they do not do this then they are obviously adding some value but not the maximum value. Adding value ; 1.means tasting all the beans before they are delivered. 2. means checking the beans before they are bought and not relying on descriptors as to taste. For those who do not understand this it means not buying from a dealer who says this is Costs Rica Strictly High Grown from the Yarralumla plantation and has a sweet nutty flavour.  It means checking the sample before buying and tasting it at the roast colour you intend to sell at. 3 means checking the colour scientifically and checking the taste of every batch 4. means packing the beans so that they are fresh when they leave the warehouse and stay fresh enough for the cafe to use in good condition. There are more things but this is enough to distinguish the amateurs from the professionals. cheers, Ian Bersten
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  • Unknown
    Someone in one of these Crema forums seemed to be lamenting the absence of input from so called major players in the market..well if that meant more input required from the roasting side of business, the following should be of interest. The answer to the question about adding value is, that most right thinking business people (yes roasters are business people) try to add as much value as they can, depending on the individual client, and the constraints of running their businesses. You do the best you can to keep your customers, but ultimately it goes like this. Those with delicate dispositions may prefer not to read on. Unlike in Europe where owning a cafe is a serious "profession" carried down through generations, cafes here are a growth industry for all and sundry untrained "investors" to dream about getting into. Cafe owners and staff who have no training or interest in the chosen "profession" of the moment need to reflect inwardly and stop blaming their suppliers for problems that are ultimately their own responsibility. A car commpany will sell you a car but it's not up to them to teach you to drive. You should be required to know the rules, before you can go out and break them. Some common home truth / cliches to reflect upon: The would be cafe owner / manager who starts the conversation with the "what are you going to offer me" routine, and that's before they've even introduced themselves; This is generally followed by the "I'm playing my cards close to my chest" syndrome, when they wont tell you where they're opening or what their contact details are. (For goodness sake do they honestly think you are going to tell the competition you might have a potential sale?); The would be cafe owner / manager who grandly announces "I know coffee"; The would be cafe owner / manager who tries to abdicate reponsibility by grandly announcing "I dont drink coffee"; The would be cafe owner / manager who announces "I've run over budget and overtime, have run out of money and need a.....coffee machine....and proceeds to look at old or well used second hand machinery because its cheap (and because you weren't offering to "help" with a loaner; The espresso machine operator who is advised to wipe the steam pipe after use and replies "we're far too busy to do that and do it at the end of the day"! Espresso machine operators who cant adjust the grind and call their supplier out to fix it after they fiddled with it (of course, it was the "phantom"); Espresso machine operators who call you out to readjust a supposedly incorrectly dosing grinder but when you get there you find that someone put the double filter into the single filter holder....and it was "the phantom" again; Espresso machine operators who roll comments like "the coffee is bitter" and "the coffee is burnt" off the tongue like there's no tomorrow, blaming it squarely on the blend supplied instead of checking their own level of competency, technique and equipment first; These are the clients who always know more about coffee roasting and blending than you, and will not accept your input on what they are doing to sabotage your product and your good name. The cups of course are branded, because the market dictates... These are also the clients who send disinterested staff who dont listen along for you to train, and they've left two weeks later anyway. The number of man hours wasted on constant non chargeable service calls to hold the hands of those who should understand and be able to make their own adjustments is mind boggling, wasteful, and extremely expensive for roasters. Roasters compete in a market where many companies buy market by giving lots of stuff away and training the clients to be more and more demanding. The "on cost" of running a roasting company is very expensive, and with the level of demands being trained into clients by the competition, it can be a very one sided supplier / client relationship. All the above is tantamount to wanting to go into the taxi business, then trying it on to see if the petrol supplier will give you a car to use and if not, going to a wrecking yard to get one, and hiring drivers who dont know how, then blaming the petrol company when the car is driven up the gutter. For goodness sake the sign above the door says...Cafe. They should buy their own new or very late model equipment, hire quality staff only to work the machine and get right into training and development. And they should work with, instead of against their suppliers and pay their own way like every one else. You can blame the "freebie" mentality for all the above, and perhaps that is why some cafe proprietors are starting to shun freebie equipment and look for a better quality service from smaller roasters and pay the price. So the level of after sales service offered is extremely important, and ultimately the coffee rep needs to be the kind of individual who can develop relationships with clients who are willing to open up a bit and go down the path of the two way street again. Yes you can surmise that all the above is the best reason why coffee roasters should add value to their product after it's been sold on to the client, but I'm afraid the discussion then turns full circle and you have to go back to the top of the page and say, you do the best you can to keep your customers.
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  • Espresso_AmoreEspresso_Amore
    Here Here Coffee Roaster,  True words and statements right down to the last character. If the cafe' owners want that european style of coffee experience in their cafe's/coffee's they should learn the art of coffee, inevitably it is the art of keeping customers happy. If they shun the european way, then why do so many cafe's have italian/european names !!!  
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