Coffee Steeps in Value Marketing

Even Pricey Espresso Makers Are Touted as Cheap Starbucks Alternatives
By JULIET CHUNG
Wall Street Journal
January 15th, 2009

As the economic slump puts the brakes on discretionary spending, kitchenware retailers and coffee-machine manufacturers are plugging everything from coffee beans to gleaming, $3,000 café-style espresso makers as ways to save money.

"Did you know cutting just one of those typical 'tall' lattes a day and replacing it with a delicious premium organic coffee you brew at home can save more than $1,200 a year?" goes a recent pitch in a news release from New Jersey coffee roaster Good Earth Coffee.

Reduced consumer spending has spelled trouble for the big coffee chains. Among the Starbucks customers who plan to spend less at the chain, 43% say they plan to brew coffee at home more often, according to research by Larry Miller, a restaurant analyst at RBC Capital Markets. That spells opportunity for the home-coffee-brewing sector.

Bodum, which makes French-press coffee makers and accessories like milk frothers, recently sent out a pitch saying users could save more than $1,000 a year making their coffee at home. Sales rose about 10% in 2008, says Bodum USA President Thomas Perez.
Philips Electronics, meanwhile, is touting its single-serve Senseo machine, which makes coffee from capsules, as an alternative to takeout coffee. It says the Senseo could, over five years, produce enough savings for a car down payment or a chunk of college tuition.

Even those who sell coffee machines costing $1,000 or more are stressing value. Sur La Table, a gourmet kitchenware chain, says its employees strive to help customers find the machine that best meets their needs. The chain has drip machines that sell for $100. But it specializes in fully automated coffee centers starting at around $1,000. The staff is told that "it's OK to let a customer know that if they're buying coffee every day at a Starbucks on their way to work, that that can quickly add up," says Jacob Maurer, a Sur La Table buyer.

"Value" advertising has typically flourished in downturns, says David Court, leader of the global marketing and sales practice at McKinsey & Co., but it can be a tricky sell. "Advertising works best when the message is incredibly simple," Mr. Court says. "The concept of value is a more difficult thing for the consumer to understand than 'Get a brand I know on sale.' "

Sales of coffee machines fell in 2008, but retailers say they are a relative bright spot amid sluggish consumer spending, and some say they are seeing only growth in the area. At Amazon.com, sales of single-serve machines, like the Keurig and Nespresso, as well as espresso machines, were up last year and outpaced the overall growth of Amazon's home and garden store, says Chris Nielsen, vice president of the category.
And some retailers are discounting heavily. Shoppers can find some coffee machines 25% to 50% off at Macy's and 20% to 35% off at Bloomingdale's.

Bloomingdale's saw a "double-digit-plus increase" in sales of single-serve machines and espresso machines last year, says Joe Laneve, senior vice president of home furnishings. At in-store demonstrations, the pitch focuses on how easy it is to brew a perfect cup of coffee, Mr. Laneve says. But he says the follow-up is, "By the way, if you're going to drink two or three Starbucks a day, this is a good way to save."
New investment in home coffee-brewing machines could have a lasting impact on $3-a-day latte habits, says Mr. Miller, the analyst. "I think you're going to see some of these folks not return to buying coffee outside the home."

Deb Trevino, a spokeswoman for Starbucks, which sells coffee machines and prepackaged coffee in its stores, says the chain recognizes that making coffee at home is an attractive option for customers. But, she adds, "our customers find value in coming to Starbucks" for the convenience and ambience. Even so, Starbucks has rolled out a loyalty card and other promotions that offer customers cheaper drinks.

Those who make coffee at home say they like the savings. Caroline Kauffman of Denver traded her daily grande chai tea latte for a Keurig machine that makes single cups of coffee and other drinks from capsules. With coupons, she pays about 40 cents a cup for coffee. "I don't go at all to Starbucks now," she says.

Not everyone is sold. New Yorker Marco Barontini indulges in an espresso out every day. Mr. Barontini, an independent money manager, says he thinks buying an espresso machine would save him money in the long run, but isn't interested in making a purchase. "It's just easier to stop in and pick up a cup," he said recently while visiting a Starbucks. "I like my convenience."

Originally printed in WSJ.com
Write to Juliet Chung at juliet.chung@wsj.com

Hot Water

By Oliver Schwaner-Albright
New York Times - Times Topics
January 12, 2009

I recently came across a new product useful for those of us who brew coffee with a press pot, cone filter or Chemex: Breville’s variable temperature kettle [http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sku6925549/index.cfm?clg=1&cm_src=CQS&showsku=6925549&pkey=k1%2C6925549&directURL=Yes] ($149.95 at www.williamssonoma.com ). It heats water to a number of pre-programmed temperatures, including 200˚ Fahrenheit, which is ideal for coffee.

While not exactly a breakthrough, it’s an improvement over how most coffee is brewed. Water temperature is one of the four technical variables that shape a good cup of coffee (the other three are: amount, grind and time), and the rule of thumb is that coffee should be extracted at 200˚ Fahrenheit, or just below water’s boiling point. More often, water hits the grounds at a much lower temperature, and many standard home brewing machines are set by the manufacturer to a tepid 165˚ or 185˚. (A notable exception is the Technivorm [http://www.boydscoffeestore.com/brewing/index.php].) The drop makes a big difference. Unfortunately, you might not be getting the most out of your coffee.

For years I’ve made press pot coffee with water from a basic Breville electric kettle [http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/8283079/index.cfm?cm_src=cl]. It was left behind by a houseguest as a thank-you, for which I’m forever grateful. The Australian-made appliance has proven to be a workhorse, and quickly heats water to a rolling boil, which means a little bit of winging it to get it to the correct temperature.

But now there’s no need for guesswork. Press the 200˚ button and water temperature is no longer a variable.

Again, Oliver's original post can be seen at today's New York Times Times Topics entry (January 12, 2009).

A perk for coffee lovers: java may lower oral cancer risk

Katherine Harmon
Published in Scientific American January 7, 2009

Raise high the coffee bean! Good news, coffee-drinkers: a new study shows your beverage of choice may lower your chances of getting oral, esophageal and pharyngeal (back-of-the-throat) cancer.

Japanese researchers report in the American Journal of Epidemiology this week that people they studied who drank a cup or more of Joe daily had about a 50 percent less chance than non-imbibers of developing these cancers. The scientists based their findings on 13 years of data of some 38,000 people ages 40 to 64 with no history of cancer.

According to the study, coffee drinking lowered the odds of these types of cancer even in people with high-risk behaviors (read: smoking and boozing).

"Caffeine has been suggested to suppress the progression of tumor cells," senior study author Toru Naganuma, an epidemiological researcher at Japan's Tohoku University, told ScientificAmerican.com in an email. He noted that other studies have also linked moderate coffee drinking to reduced risk of liver cancer.

"The evidence is pretty strong" in this research, says Ann Gillenwater, a professor of head and neck surgery at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who was not involved in this study.

But that doesn't mean you should start downing double espressos hourly. Recent research suggests that too much caffeine can lead to insomnia, anxiety and might up the risk of miscarriage in the early stages of pregnancy.

Besides, the study authors point out, caffeine alone is not the answer, noting that "high-level consumption of fresh vegetables and fruit" have also been linked to lower cancer rates.

The upshot, says Gillenwater: to lower your risk of oral cancers, "you want to have good dental hygiene and eat fresh fruits and vegetables, and maybe [drink] coffee. Who knew?"

To visit Scientific American its original post: http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=a-perk-for-coffee-lovers-java-may-l-2009-01-07

Inspiration by Weston

 

Menu for Hope

Every year, Food Bloggers from all over the world join together for a fundraising campaign. They call it 'Menu for Hope'. Last year, they raised over $90K for the UN World Food Program.

This year Menu for Hope 5 again raises funds for the WFP's school lunch program in Lesotho, Africa. This is the second year they are supporting this program, which assist the WFP's efforts to supply the program by buying directly from local farmers who practice conservation farming methods. With this program, they help feed the kids (which keep them in school) and support their parents and community farming. This sustainable approach to aid is something we believe in and strongly support.

Together they come up with a great list of amazing food related prizes for this raffle. Click here to view the list of all the prizes. Each US$10 donation will buy you one virtual raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice.

CoffeeBuzz: A Twitter for coffee?

by Imran Ali

December 13, 2008 at 6:10 pm · Filed under Locative, iPhone



Yesterday saw the release of an intriguing iPhone app for coffee afficianados - Kisky Media’s CoffeeBuzz, inspired by the volume of Twitter users who like to share the fact they’re currently engaged in a caffeinated beverage.

The app enables users to…

* use the iPhone’s locative abilities (GPS, wifi, cell triangulation) to locate coffee shops in the vicinity, as well as share your favourite haunts.
* show what nearby CoffeeBuzz users are drinking.
* microblog your current location & beverage with other CoffeeBuzz users, or Twitter your beverage, along with location.

The user experience is surprisingly simple, requiring no complex configuration, letting users get straight to the fun in a weird inversion of the oft-quoted ‘locative coffee shop coupon’ example telco execs like to pitch! Though sadly, my favorite chai tea wasn’t listed in the available options :(

Like, Smule’s Ocarina, CoffeeBuzz’s ostensible playfullness belies a powerful network effect, some locative smarts and the potential for incremental revenues. Creators Katie Lips and Paul Stringer - also cofounders of Treasuremytext - hope that moving beyond the 99¢ price can make the app sustainable, even with a modest userbase, but that the platform opens opportunities to partner with coffee brands and coffee shop owners. SBUX anyone?

Like Treasuremytext, perhaps what’s more interesting than the app itself, is the story of the app’s creation. The team was recently commissioned - by Liverpool’s International Centre for Digital Content - to create an iPhone development training courss, sharing its insights in a 30-page report that covers concept, strategy, design, development, App Store deployment and marketing.



CoffeeBuzz is currently available for the price of a good latte, for $3.99 at the iTunes App store; also, The Making of CoffeeBuzz is freely downloadable as a 6mb PDF.

Coffee-Powered Cars

Waste coffee grounds can provide a cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel fuel, according to a study by researchers at the University of Nevada-Reno.

Coffee Grounds

With world coffee production at more than 16 billion pounds per year, the scientists estimate that spent coffee grounds could potentially add 340 million gallons of biodiesel to the world’s fuel supply.

For the study, the team collected grounds from Starbucks facilities in Reno. They used an inexpensive process to convert 100 percent of the oil from the grounds into biodiesel. The resulting coffee-based fuel—which smells like java—is more stable than traditional biodiesel due to coffee's high antioxidant content, according to the researchers. Solids left over from the conversion can be converted to ethanol or used as compost.

The researchers plan to develop a small pilot plant to produce and test coffee-biodiesel in 2009.

Ethiopia starts coffee exchange

Ethiopia, Africa's largest coffee producer, has started trading the crop on a national commodity exchange.

In a move aimed at both increasing quality and the amount farmers get paid for their beans, coffee is being traded on the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange.

Replacing the previous, more informal, system of sales through middlemen, farmers will now be able to get direct access to current market prices.

The exchange has set up a network of warehouses to collect the beans.

Dominant crop

The Ethiopian government, which is backing the move, hopes it will prevent fraud, such as traders passing off beans from a lesser growing area as being those from a higher quality region.

Although the largest growers and co-operatives will be able to continue to sell directly to the global coffee firms, everyone else will have to use the electronic exchange.

Set up earlier this year, the exchange already trades in maize, wheat, sesame seeds and haricot beans.

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee cultivation and the crop continues to account for more than a third of its export earnings.

It earned $525m (£354m) from coffee exports in the 2007-08 financial year.

However, Ethiopia still remains one of the world's poorest nations, and is ranked 170 out of 177 on the United Nation's Human Development Index.
Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/7760321.stm

Published: 2008/12/02 10:23:15 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Centam Coffee - US coffee roasters try growing the beans they sell

Reuters, Tuesday December 2 2008

By Brian Harris

RIO NEGRO, Costa Rica, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Some U.S. gourmet coffee roasters have come up with a new solution to the problem of guaranteeing consistent quality in beans they sell to top-end restaurants and coffee bars: buy the farm.

Coffee connoisseurs pay attention to where and how coffee is grown, just as lovers of fine wines look to certain grape-growing regions.

Brooke McDonnell, owner of the Equator Coffee company which imports, sells and roasts gourmet coffee, began to worry a few years ago about the supply of the rare "geisha" trees found in Panama's highlands near the border with Costa Rica.

The geisha's sweet jasmine flavors are prized internationally but only a few farmers grow the variety, which can fetch more than $100 a pound at online auctions.
Instead of scrambling with competitors to scoop up enough beans to keep her customers happy, McDonnell decided to grow them herself.

Now she travels regularly from California to Panama to check on the harvest at a farm she bought a little over a year ago."It's a hands-on business," McDonnell told Reuters. "We view this as a combination labor of love and business venture."

Traditionally, coffee farmers and drinkers have been separated by a complex nexus of intermediaries, with coffee passing from growers, to local buyers, to exporters, to roasters, to cafe owners. More coffee exporters have begun selling crops directly from certain farms to particular roasters, locking in prices with long-term contracts to avoid the volatile coffee market. Only a few adventurous roasters have gone the more extreme route of becoming farmers themselves.

NOT WITHOUT RISKS

Texas-based Distant Lands, which owns a coffee farm in Rio Negro, Costa Rica and several others in Latin America, views the investment to grow and mill its own beans as essential to maintaining a reputation. Distant Lands looks for a specific flavor known in the industry as a "cup profile" for its coffee. By controlling the production of beans it cuts out the hassles of dealing with multiple suppliers.

The company uprooted parts of its 281 hectares of farms in Costa Rica to make sure only one variety of trees, known as "caturra," are planted and harvested.
"At this time we are looking for the cup profile that caturra provides us in this zone," the company's agronomy manager Jorge Jimenez said, looking at rolling hills covered with coffee trees.

But the risks and work of running a farm is not for everyone, especially now as some in the specialty coffee business worry that a slowing U.S. economy will hurt consumption of expensive espresso.

Jesus Mountain Coffee, headquartered in Stockton, California, started working in Nicaragua over a decade ago but has expanded with farms, roasters, and coffee shops in Hawaii."It is a tough business to make a profit," company founder Mike Atherton said.

* guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

Do Good Brew Good and Spend Mindfully this Holiday Season...

PRWeb October 30, 2008

* Original PRWeb article: Do Good Brew Good and Spend Mindfully this Holiday Season... Read the original story

- As consumers peer into their wallets and analyze their choices for gifting in preparation for the upcoming holiday season, San Francisco-based Citizen Bean (www.citizenbean.com) wins the trifecta of gifting options, scoring high marks for innovation, quality and social conscience - all in one clever package!

Now in its second successful year, Citizen Bean is an online, organic, subscription coffee-roaster-of-the-month club representing the very best in sustainable and complex roasts from small-batch 'specialty' roasters throughout the country. Coffee devotees are sipping the latest coffee varietals the way wine lovers sample new vintages and artisanal roasters are enjoying a surge in popularity as consumers search for the perfect 'just roasted' coffee experience.

Citizen Bean is an outgrowth of what is known in the coffee movement as 'The Third Wave,' which promotes the principle that coffee was introduced to America in cycles. There's the First Wave, which was the proliferation of consumer coffee in the mid-20th century--think freeze-dried Folgers. The Second Wave was the ubiquity of the espresso-based drinks in America, a la Starbucks, during the '80s and '90s.

The concept of the Third Wave is to bring coffee back to its roots--to let 'coffee speak for itself,' and although there is no official hard-and-fast manifesto, the Third Wave emphasizes two standards: One, nurturing direct farm relationships, mentoring its quality, understanding a coffee's origin and observing sustainability and organics; and two, highlighting the artistry and culinary aspects of coffee. The Third Wave makes a commitment 'from seed to cup' to nurture quality, sustainability and personal farmer relationships while elevating the complex, full-flavored, culinary appeal of coffee.

Dubbed 'coffee with a conscience' Citizen Bean's goal is to advance these ideals. Company founder Malcolm Stearns says 'our company is proud to celebrate the work of Third Wave roasters like Counter Culture, Stumptown and Intelligentsia, among others, by featuring a different artisanal roast each month.' 'With each gift subscription to Citizen Bean', Stearns continues, 'you will be presenting the coffee aficionados in your life with award-winning roasts of superior complexity and at the same time be contributing to a cause everyone can feel positive about supporting.'

With each one-year subscription to Citizen Bean, which features a full pound of freshly roasted beans from a different specialty roaster each month, one also receives an additional 'welcome' gift of a 4-cup French press, a timer and other special items for the coffee lover.

Just in time for this holiday season, Citizen Bean is also offering an 'espresso-only' option for those that prefer to make their own lattes.

Citizen Bean is a project of Bean Capers, Inc. of San Francisco. To learn more about Citizen Bean and its product offerings visit www.citizenbean.com

Contact: Beth-Ellen Keyes

World coffee consumption to touch 128 million bags in ’08

Jaishankar Jayaramiah
Originally Posted Sep 22, 2008 at 2258 hrs IST

World coffee consumption, both in producing and exporting countries, is likely to touch 128 million bags (60-kg per bag) in 2008.

According to recent statistics released by the International Coffee Organisation (ICO), the preliminary estimation of world coffee consumption in the calendar year 2007 stood at around 124.7 million bags, up by 2.9% from 121.1 million bags consumed in 2006.

"If current growth continues, world consumption could increase to around 128 million bags in 2008," said Nestor Osario, executive director of ICO in his latest statement.

Producing countries like India, Brazil, Mexico and importing countries like Spain, UK and Netherlands attributed to the growth in world coffee consumption in the last five years.

The consumption in India surged to 13.6 lakh bags in 2007 from 11.42 lakh bags in 2003, while Brazil's consumption increased to 169 lakh bags from 140 lakh bags and consumption in Mexico increased to 20.5 lakh bags from 15 lakh bags. Among importing countries, consumption in Spain increased to 31.98 lakh bags from 27.40 lakh bags in the same period, while the UK's consumption surged to 28.24 lakh bags from 22.36 lakh bags, while consumption in Netherlands climbed to 23.60 lakh bags from 17.43 lakh bags. Coffee consumption in Canada also increased significantly to 35.35 lakh bags from 21.46 lakh bags.

Among exporting countries, per capita coffee consumption stood high in Brazil with 5.29 kilograms (kgs), followed by Costa Rica at 4.21 kgs, Honduras at 2.43 kgs, Dominican Republic at 2.32 kgs and Haiti at 2.13 kgs. Among importing countries, Luxembourg maintained high per capita consumption at 16.65 kgs, followed by Finland at 12.01 kgs and Norway at 9.85 kgs.

Coffee drinkers: Do you belong to the coffee/good, or the coff

Coffee drinkers: Do you belong to the coffee/good, or the coffee/bad camp?

Originally posted September 20, 5:58 PM
Natalie Rotunda - Organic Food Examiner (sf examiner)


As one of those who chose to hop aboard the organic eating lifestyle, let me tell you that the best benefit, one of the things I appreciate most, is the means to eliminate pesticides from the foods I eat. But reducing or eliminating pesticides from what I drink is just as important.



For most of my life, sipping a cup or two of honey-sweetened coffee in the company of loved ones and friends has ranked high on my list of life’s simple pleasures. Maybe the origin of that pleasure dates back to a time when a loved one introduced me to the black brew. I was about four years old.



My Dad was a college professor in my hometown. In his office just down the hall from his classroom, he kept a percolator coffeepot and a can of famous-brand coffee on his desk. Every Saturday, Dad and I headed to his office, the site of the great introduction. Before he began the brewing process, however, we’d head down the street to a local bakery where I was allowed to pick out one or two goodies.



While we waited for the coffee to finish perking, Dad did teacher-type things and I did little kid things. To delight my little-girl heart, Dad had bought two sets of small china cups and saucers, beautifully decorated with flowers; one set in yellow, the other in blue. Into one of the cups, he poured a tiny amount of the fresh brew, then filled his regular-sized cup to the brim. He’d break out the goodies, and what took place next was a father-daughter kaffeklatsch regularly held in that second-floor office whose window overlooked a tree-lined street below. To this day, the aroma of fresh coffee transports me back to those very happy times.



Today, my parents, both coffee-drinkers extraordinaire, would be surprised to learn that there is such a thing as organically-grown coffee. It’s what I buy. Because it’s more expensive than the pesticide-laden brands that fill traditional grocery store shelves, admittedly, I’ve had to cut down on the quantity. The food coop where we do most of our shopping provides airtight bulk bins that keep the coffee beans fresh. Thus, we control how much we spend. Earlier this week, I bought six ounces of organic coffee, whose per-pound cost is $11.99, for 74-cents an ounce. Right now, a 13-ounce brick of a famous name brand goes for $3.99, or 31-cents an ounce. Really, it’s a difference I can live with.



For quite a while, a battle has raged between coffee/good and coffee/bad supporters. coffee/bad supporters. Thanks to evidence mounting on behalf of coffee/good supporters, I’ve been encouraged not to chuck my daily cuppa. What researchers are finding is that a cup-and-a-half of coffee supplies 1,200 mg. of total antioxidants that may be helping in the fight to reduce the risks of liver, diabetes and colon cancer. Whoa, now that’s news I can rejoice over!



But bear in mind two things: First, these goody benefits apply to drinkers of organically-grown coffee only. Second, moderation is the key. That’s why I can live with the higher cost of organic coffee---I shouldn’t be sitting down with a pot of coffee every day anyway, and the cost pretty well guarantees that I won’t



One more thing about drinking organic coffee---it really does taste better. I’m guessing that my palate has been re-educated to appreciate total coffee flavor that no longer has to compete with the nasty pesticides and their aftertaste found in famous-brand coffees.



For that and other reasons, I’m happy to leave the 13-ounce bricks of pesticide-laden coffee on the grocery store shelf.

Coffee may lower cancer risk

From correspondents in Tokyo | September 01, 2008

WOMEN who drink a lot of coffee may have less risk of developing cancer of the uterus, a Japanese study said today.

The study led by Japan's health ministry monitored some 54,000 women aged 40 to 69 over about 15 years, during which time 117 women developed cancer in the womb, according to the medical team.

The researchers at Japan's National Cancer Center divided the women into four groups by the amount of coffee they drank.

They found the group of women who drank more than three cups of coffee every day were more than 60 per cent less likely to develop uterine cancer than those who had coffee fewer than two times a week, the study said.

"Coffee may have effects in lowering insulin levels, possibly curbing the risks of developing womb cancer," the study said.

The medical team also studied the effects of drinking green tea, but did not find any link to uterine cancer.

According to the US Centres for Disease Control, uterine cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women.

Specialty Coffee Roasters Brew in New York

August 13, 2008

By PETER MEEHAN
New York Times
Correction Appended

NEW Yorkers see their town as the center of the universe. But despite huge strides by New York’s cafes over the last few years, the most respected coffee roasters are elsewhere. Now, some of the best are coming to town.

Duane Sorenson, who owns Stumptown Coffee Roasters, based in Portland, Ore., packed up a U-Haul last month and moved to Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, just a short hop from the coffee roastery he will soon open in Red Hook.

Once his two 1950s-era Probat roasters are running, he plans to open a cafe there and another at 29th Street and Broadway, in the old Breslin Hotel, which is scheduled to be reborn as the Ace Hotel later this year.

“It’s not just a business opportunity to me,” Mr. Sorenson said. “I want to hang out, live, eat and make coffee for people in Brooklyn and New York. I love it here.”

Mr. Sorenson is one of the people who have remade the coffee business, searching the world for the best beans, roasting them with exquisite attention and preparing them to order at his six cafes in Portland and Seattle, which will remain open while he is in New York.

He’s forged an outsider identity for himself and his company. He is both selective about and demanding of his wholesale customers, requiring training for anyone who will handle Stumptown’s coffee and commissioning the occasional unannounced spot check. And for a long time, if a Stumptown employee couldn’t drive your coffee to you from one of the company’s two roasteries, in Portland and Seattle, you were out of luck. (Mr. Sorenson broke that prohibition in March by supplying Ninth Street Espresso in the East Village.)

Another of the top independent roasters, Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters and Tea Traders of Chicago, is also getting in on the action.

Amber Sather, a barista who’s worked for Intelligentsia for six years, will open a training center for the company in an office space in SoHo next month, where she will hold coffee tastings and help prospective clients work on espresso machine technique.

“It’s a stepping stone to things like roasting and opening a cafe,” Ms. Sather said of the training center.

Doug Zell, the chief executive of Intelligentsia, says that he plans to open cafes and a roastery in New York in the next two years.

Andrew Barnett, who owns Ecco Caffè in Sonoma County, California, was in New York recently, scouting real estate for a roastery and cafe he hopes to open in the next 12 months.

“This is a great place to run a small roastery,” he said. “I feel like there is a very strong barista community, without the politics and divisions of other places.”

Blue Bottle Coffee Company, in Oakland, Calif., recently signed up its first East Coast account, Gramercy Tavern, which started serving Blue Bottle Espresso last week. And though Blue Bottle doesn’t have immediate plans to move here, James Freeman, the owner, said it was possible that his company could sign a New York City lease in the next 12 months.

“There are no leases signed but, if this goes well for us, I’d much rather buy a Probat and a Sprinter” — that’s a brand of roaster and a brand of delivery truck — “and get a lease in the boroughs than ship coffee across the country. It’s a more interesting way to roast coffee, and it leaves a less intrusive footprint.” Some locals are taking a do-it-yourself approach.

Harold Butler started out selling tiny batches of coffee roasted at his apartment in Brooklyn to a few restaurants around the city. He’s moved his start-up operation, called Brownstone Beans, to a commercial space in Bushwick, and expanded into retail, selling his beans to the Williamsburg specialty market Urban Rustic.

Caroline Bell, an owner of Café Grumpy (which operates cafes in Chelsea and Greenpoint, Brooklyn) says her company will start roasting at a location in Bushwick this fall, and will open a cafe at the same place around that time.

“Most of the people who work for us want to learn more about coffee,” she said, “and this is a great way to explore that: where’s it’s from, what the roast does to it. We’re going to keep our wholesale business very small.”

Jamie McCormick and Amy Linton, two of the partners behind Abraço Espresso, a nook of a coffee shop that opened in the East Village in October, would like to open a roastery, though Mr. McCormick said it would take “at least a year.”

Right now they use beans from Counter Culture Coffee, a company based in Durham, N.C., that roasts much of the coffee featured in many of the city’s better cafes (and one that plans to open its own training center in Manhattan by the end of the year).

Ken Nye, owner of Ninth Street Espresso, said he's paying a premium to ship Stumptown beans to his cafes now and can't wait to eliminate that cost and the quality-depleting vagaries of cross-country shipping when Stumptown opens here. But he said he ultimately decided not to try to roast coffee for his cafes.

“The big problem if you’re a small guy just starting out,” he said, “is sourcing good coffee.”

By that, Mr. Nye means buying the best beans. The best roasters travel frequently to coffee-growing countries, developing relationships with growers and buying there.

“You have to be totally immersed and dedicated,” he said. “That’s not a problem if you’re a Stumptown or an Ecco. If you’re running three cafes and managing 20 kids, how do you do it? There’s a big bridge that needs to be crossed, and I don’t know how to do it.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 20, 2008
Because of an editing error, an article last Wednesday about coffee roasters coming to New York and working with local cafes and restaurants misstated the plans of a local cafe owner, Ken Nye, of Ninth Street Espresso. Mr. Nye will continue to use beans from Stumptown Coffee Roasters, the Oregon company that is opening a factory in Brooklyn. He does not hope to roast coffee.

originally published by the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/dining/13coffee.html?scp=6&sq=coffee&st=cse

Independents’ love-hate affair with Starbucks

Cafes find ways to compete by focusing on what giant can’t or won’t do
updated 9:51 a.m. PT, Sun., July. 27, 2008

In July 2004, Kinley Pon was throwing his annual block party at his El Paso, Texas, coffee shop, Kinley's House, on the same day that a Starbucks across the street was having its grand opening. Pon, 51, says he had planned the party for months — a day-long event with musicians, belly dancers, and local law enforcement intended both to promote his business and to raise awareness about drunk driving. Pon was surprised when an employee from the new Starbucks store walked across the street and started passing out Starbucks promotional cards to customers — on Pon's own patio.

A spokesperson for Starbucks couldn't cite a specific policy regarding the distribution of promotions on a competitor's premises. "They did it for a week," says Pon. "But I allowed it to occur, because my reasoning was that they were going to pass them out anyways."

There's a love-hate relationship between Starbucks and the thousands of independent coffee shop owners in the U.S. For years, the Seattle-based chain has brought coffee drinking into the mainstream and revitalized the business of java, yet its ubiquity has also made survival more difficult for mom-and-pop coffee houses.

In 2007, there were roughly 26,300 coffee cafés, kiosks, and carts across the U.S., and about 60 percent of those were independent, according to Mike Ferguson, the marketing communications director at the Specialty Coffee Association of America. On July 1, Starbucks announced it would be shuttering 600 locations. On July 17, it listed the names and locations of the 600 specific stores it was planning to close of its roughly 11,000 U.S. stores. The closures prompted the question: What have independent coffee shops been doing to compete with the $9.4 billion company, the largest coffee retailer in the world?

Many cafes have survived by serving coffee differently from Starbucks. Skip DuCharme, who has run his 27-employee Lakota Coffee Co. in Missouri since 1992, says that the store's most popular drink is a latte served in a signature large green bowl that requires two hands to hold. A Starbucks opened down the street from DuCharme's place in January 2006, and since then, DuCharme says, his tactics have helped his business create a more at-home atmosphere than his competitor's.

"In Starbucks, everything is based on 'to-go,'" he says. "We give [our customers] real latte mugs."

Other stores give customers free refills on coffee — a strategy Starbucks tested in select stores in January. "A free cup of coffee goes a long way," says Theresa Tocio, co-owner of Tocio's Sunburst Café in Naples, Fla., that offers customers unlimited refills for the $1.50 they pay for a 12-ounce coffee.

When a Starbucks opened inside a Target next to her shop, Tocio and her husband offered free coffees to Target employees on break, since she says the workers weren't offered Starbucks discounts.

"The independents that are successful are really serving a different type of product," says Andrew Hetzel, a coffee industry consultant. "They have their own unique style and brand."

For some, that means selling food or drinks that Starbucks doesn't have. Many stores that begin as coffee-and-pastry shops evolve into full-scale food cafés, giving customers more choice than chains can offer. At Jammin' Java, a coffee house based in Fayetteville, Ark., customers can buy everything from breakfast burritos to turkey sandwiches along with their coffee.

"I started to see that I was doing almost as much business at lunch as I was doing coffee in the morning," says owner Brandon Karn, who launched the store in 2002. Since a Starbucks opened nearby several years ago, Karn has also expanded the menu to include beer and wine.

"That has taken off real well," he says.

Having a nimble management team enables cafés to implement changes more quickly than bureaucratic corporations, says Jean Bernstein, owner of Albuquerque-based Flying Star Café and Satellite Coffee, which started up in 1998.

"We keep changing things to constantly offer something fun and unique," says Bernstein, who first started competing against Starbucks when one opened near the Flying Star in 1996. She says she picked up on several of Starbucks' shortcomings ("their tea drinks were weak") and responded by offering blended concoctions to complement her store's coffee drinks. One is a homemade lemonade mixed with ginger, and another is a blend of herbal teas, cranberry juice, and mint.

Independent coffee shop owners say that Starbucks has gradually drifted away from the high-quality coffee that first made it successful, focusing instead on swank marketing campaigns or coffee drinks blended with milk or caramel.

"They've basically become a sugar-and-dairy company," says Arne Holt, owner of Caffe Calabria in San Diego. Says coffee consultant Hetzel: "Starbucks decisions aren't coffee decisions, they are big public-business decisions."

That's why many entrepreneurs can differentiate their coffee shops by paying meticulous detail to the coffee itself. Holt, for instance, grinds coffee beans at different settings, based on the amount of moisture in the air, since water passes through the grounds differently when the humdity is higher. Starbucks and other big chains rarely change the grinding settings on their automatic espresso machines, he says. "It's like McDonald's," he says. "It's not the best hamburger, but it's consistent."

The roughly 11,000 Starbucks stores across the country get their beans from the company's three major U.S. roasting facilities—in Nevada, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Smaller roasters can deliver a fresher cup of coffee, says Gina Nasson, who owns the Farfalle Italian Market in Concord, Mass., with her husband.

Nasson's café gets its beans from a roastery about 11 miles away, she says. "When we order coffee, we don't order tons."

Smaller coffee stores also work to create loyal customer bases by emphasizing local ties. Karen Anderson, whose husband's family was among the first English settlers in Concord centuries ago, says their Main Street's Market & Café resonates with the town's historic atmosphere.

"If you sit here and have a cup of coffee," she says, "you'll hear guys in their 80s and 90s just reminiscing." Red brick walls, pickle barrels, and 1930s-era photographs give the store a different feel from the surrounding Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks stores.

Mary Allen Lindemann and her husband, who run Coffee by Design in Portland, Me., sponsor local arts organizations and offer a grant each year to a Maine artist (last year's grant was $2,800). It has given the store a unique following among local artists.

The bottom line? The relationship between boutique coffee shops and Starbucks has helped bolster the overall coffee market and cultivate unique ways to serve customers. For local coffee shops, many of which are worried that a Starbucks slowdown could curtail overall coffee spending, competing against Starbucks simply means taking an approach that Starbucks hasn't.

"Focus on making your product, your brand, and your experience as good as it can possibly be," says consultant Andrew Hetzel. "You can't look to what Starbucks is doing as your barometer."

This article was originally published on MSNBC's website.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25835910