The idea of coffee as a “specialty” beverage is a driving force of many coffee shops today: serving beverages that are crafted with knowledge and care from quality ingredients, served to a customers who appreciate what they’re getting.
The point, too, of specialty beverages is often to highlight places of origin: the lands and people who grow and tend the plants that find their way into our cups. We have begun to tell the story of coffee well and clearly,
By now, for coffee professionals and café owners, there is a better than likely chance they’ve heard the phrase “Coffee is 98% water.” Does this really mean anything? If so, what action does it illicit from people?
As the Specialty Coffee representative for a commercial water treatment manufacturer, I work with café owners, coffee roasters, coffee equipment manufacturers, equipment distributors, service techs and baristas every day. Without question, the single largest problem I find across all of these groups is the negative side effects that water has on their equipment and coffee.
It’s seven in the morning. You are tired, as you have every right to be at this hour. Maybe you’re a little grumpy, but you’re at your favorite coffee shop so you are happy anyway. You’re about five people back in line and you want this coffee. In fact, you need it. Slowly you make your way closer and closer to the register and your mouth is watering as you imagine how delicious that first sip is going to be.
From Seattle to New York, Chicago to Houston, and numerous cities in between, specialty coffee has enjoyed tremendous growth in market-share over the past decade. As public interest continues to soar in American cities, more and more young, creative, and incredibly driven people are becoming passionate about coffee. These days it’s not uncommon to meet people who have followed this passion and made a career for themselves as a barista, even with bachelors and masters degrees hanging on their walls.For many,
Starting a new business is an act of creation, an act of design. Even if you are pursuing a business model that has been “done before” and therefore proven, the myriad of decisions that you need to make when planning for a new business is mind-boggling. Still, being able to recognize which of those decisions will potentially have the greatest influence on the success or failure of your venture is a skill unto itself.
This is particularly true in the case of starting your own coffee shop business.