Ah. The single shot of Segafredo espresso is kicking in as I sit on this comfy orange sofa-bench in Schiphol (Amsterdam) airport. No decaf espresso here. I asked.
Flight to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania departs in 2 hrs. Should be a fair crew of coffee folks headed to the EAFCA conference on that flight. Saw Anne Ottaway as I was boarding in Detroit. It's her 3rd trip to Africa this year already!
Flight over was pleasant. Met a charming Irish man living in Bergen, Norway. Cancer researcher. He showed me pictures of the beautiful landscape of fjords and mountains around his home. He's a bike commuter and cross-country skiier, too. Loves Norway. Discussion about Norwegian tax structure and culture was interesting. Would love to go there again. (It was 25 years ago that I backpacked there - yikes!)
Logging out now since it's 3 Euro for 15 mins in expensive Europe.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Packing, packing, packing
Can't write much. It takes so long to pack for these trips! "Take 1/2 the clothes and twice the money you think you'll need," is the old adage. I'm trying.
Business casual for the EAFCA conference - check
Casual but all skirts for the mission work in Meru - check
Hiking/casual for trips to coffee farms (3 planned) - check
Decided I can't take cupping equipment this time. I'll check out exactly what others bring for grinders and water heaters while I'm there.
The Aeropress is coming with! It will provide the delightful morning cup, I'm sure, for not just me but my teammates while in Meru. Surely at the EAFCA there will plenty of good coffee -- but I'll be very surprised if there's decaf.
Which coffee am I bringing? Kenya AA Meru-Riankune, of course. Regular roasted by Mighty Good and decaf roasted by Metropolis just 2 days ago!
Business casual for the EAFCA conference - check
Casual but all skirts for the mission work in Meru - check
Hiking/casual for trips to coffee farms (3 planned) - check
Decided I can't take cupping equipment this time. I'll check out exactly what others bring for grinders and water heaters while I'm there.
The Aeropress is coming with! It will provide the delightful morning cup, I'm sure, for not just me but my teammates while in Meru. Surely at the EAFCA there will plenty of good coffee -- but I'll be very surprised if there's decaf.
Which coffee am I bringing? Kenya AA Meru-Riankune, of course. Regular roasted by Mighty Good and decaf roasted by Metropolis just 2 days ago!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Getting ready for East Africa
The countdown is on -- 12 days until I depart for Tanzania and Kenya. I'll fly to Tanzania first, for 3 days at the East African Fine Coffee Association (EAFCA) trade show and conference in Arusha. This is supposedly "the place" to meet the East African traders, exporters, growers and everyone interested in East African coffee from around the world. Looking forward to the "coffee safari" that will take us to visit Tanzanian coffee farms and washing stations.
I'll take the short flight from Tanzania's Kilimanjaro airport to Nairobi on Feb. 19th and this will be my first time in Kenya! I'll spend the night at the Methodist Guest House and then the next morning, I get to do a "trek" out of Nairobi and through the bush to the "country", in particular, a town named Meru. Here I'll be meeting up with a group of 17 others from my church. We're a mixed bag group -- 5 teenagers, a physician, a pastor, 2 college professors, a successful IT entrepreneur, an organizational strategy consultant, several retired people and me -- a coffee importer/broker with an international development background. What can we offer to a high school in Meru? I don't honestly know. But I'm told we will learn to think on our feet and it will be appreciated. Watch this space. I plan to blog about it!
During the week in Meru, there's a plan that I'll visit the Riankune cooperative and mill. That will be fantastic if that works out. I would love to meet the growers from who Artisan Coffee Imports has already purchased coffee and establish an on-going relationship. One that is mutually beneficial and lasting.
At the end of the trip, Feb. 28th, I'm looking forward to visiting Dorman's in Nairobi and, you guessed it, another coffee farm. This time one in the Nairobi region.
Trying to figure out what to pack. It has to be very little. I've been warned that the minibuses for the group I'm with in Meru have very little luggage space.
I'll take the short flight from Tanzania's Kilimanjaro airport to Nairobi on Feb. 19th and this will be my first time in Kenya! I'll spend the night at the Methodist Guest House and then the next morning, I get to do a "trek" out of Nairobi and through the bush to the "country", in particular, a town named Meru. Here I'll be meeting up with a group of 17 others from my church. We're a mixed bag group -- 5 teenagers, a physician, a pastor, 2 college professors, a successful IT entrepreneur, an organizational strategy consultant, several retired people and me -- a coffee importer/broker with an international development background. What can we offer to a high school in Meru? I don't honestly know. But I'm told we will learn to think on our feet and it will be appreciated. Watch this space. I plan to blog about it!
During the week in Meru, there's a plan that I'll visit the Riankune cooperative and mill. That will be fantastic if that works out. I would love to meet the growers from who Artisan Coffee Imports has already purchased coffee and establish an on-going relationship. One that is mutually beneficial and lasting.
At the end of the trip, Feb. 28th, I'm looking forward to visiting Dorman's in Nairobi and, you guessed it, another coffee farm. This time one in the Nairobi region.
Trying to figure out what to pack. It has to be very little. I've been warned that the minibuses for the group I'm with in Meru have very little luggage space.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Decaf Kenya AA to shout about
OK. Maybe shouting would be a bit extreme, but an enthusiastic blog is certainly in order! Artisan Coffee Imports has just decafed a fine microlot of Kenyan AA from the Meru region - Riankune cooperative. This coffee was bought at auction in Sept. 2010, so it's fresh crop. It landed in CA Dec. 10 and was decafed the second week of January 2011 at Coffee Process in Houston (solvent method with very careful and precise handling - i.e. original flavor preserved as much as possible.)
CUPPING NOTES:
It offers an enticing dry aroma of chocolate and casis berries. From the surface of the wet grounds a bursts a joyous combination of sweet honey and nuts. The first flavor has that carmel-cashew baked brownie taste with a medium acidity. The aftertaste lingers on the palette with soft tones of citrus and toasted bread.
ORIGIN NOTES:
Artisan President and Founder, Ruth Ann Church, will be traveling to Kenya in February 2011 and plans to visit the Riankune cooperative. This will be in conjunction with a Millennium Development Goals project where she helps support education for low-income children in the Meru community. Meru is one of Kenya's premier coffee-growing regions, but it harvests the little known "fly crop", or "second-season" of Kenyan coffee. The people of Meru are also generally from the less privileged tribes of Kenya's complex history of colonialism and post-colonialist economics and politics. But now I'm venturing into areas where I really know very little (and it probably shows...)
Back to coffee:
19 bags still available for sale from the Annex (Bay area, CA) and a warehouse in South Bend, IN. Samples available from Artisan Coffee Imports (call 734-717-6278, or email rachurch@artisancoffeeimports.com).
CUPPING NOTES:
It offers an enticing dry aroma of chocolate and casis berries. From the surface of the wet grounds a bursts a joyous combination of sweet honey and nuts. The first flavor has that carmel-cashew baked brownie taste with a medium acidity. The aftertaste lingers on the palette with soft tones of citrus and toasted bread.
ORIGIN NOTES:
Artisan President and Founder, Ruth Ann Church, will be traveling to Kenya in February 2011 and plans to visit the Riankune cooperative. This will be in conjunction with a Millennium Development Goals project where she helps support education for low-income children in the Meru community. Meru is one of Kenya's premier coffee-growing regions, but it harvests the little known "fly crop", or "second-season" of Kenyan coffee. The people of Meru are also generally from the less privileged tribes of Kenya's complex history of colonialism and post-colonialist economics and politics. But now I'm venturing into areas where I really know very little (and it probably shows...)
Back to coffee:
19 bags still available for sale from the Annex (Bay area, CA) and a warehouse in South Bend, IN. Samples available from Artisan Coffee Imports (call 734-717-6278, or email rachurch@artisancoffeeimports.com).
Monday, January 10, 2011
Measuring decaf sales and gross margin
Discussions with roaster/retailers inevitably seems to come to a point about how decaf is such a small part of the business. X, y and z just don't make sense. X being a focused marketing promotion, Y being a prominent place on the menu and Z being a pricing strategy that ensures good margins, etc. etc. The list could go on with other things that companies routinely do for other product categories, but not decaf coffee, because decaf is "only" 9-12% of the business.
Usually I end up agreeing. My partner in such discussions has usually been in the business 10+ years and certainly knows what he/she is talking about, right? And, unfortunately, I don't have numbers to back up my argument. But then I think, "wait a minute, do they have numbers to back up their argument?"
I would invite anyone who has some numbers for either side of this argument to comment. First, have you measured carefully what % of your revenues comes from decaf? Or is it just an estimate? Do you have costs and revenues for decaf and regular coffee split in your accounting system, so that you can measure your decaf margins separate from the margins you're achieving on regular coffee? If anyone is doing this, it'd be very interesting to hear what you're typically seeing...
Please share!
(or contact Ruth Ann Church, President at Artisan Coffee Imports by going to the website.)
Usually I end up agreeing. My partner in such discussions has usually been in the business 10+ years and certainly knows what he/she is talking about, right? And, unfortunately, I don't have numbers to back up my argument. But then I think, "wait a minute, do they have numbers to back up their argument?"
I would invite anyone who has some numbers for either side of this argument to comment. First, have you measured carefully what % of your revenues comes from decaf? Or is it just an estimate? Do you have costs and revenues for decaf and regular coffee split in your accounting system, so that you can measure your decaf margins separate from the margins you're achieving on regular coffee? If anyone is doing this, it'd be very interesting to hear what you're typically seeing...
Please share!
(or contact Ruth Ann Church, President at Artisan Coffee Imports by going to the website.)
Monday, December 20, 2010
Caribou: "We don't like to punish our decaf customers."
I had the chance last week to chat with Brett Struwe, fellow Roasters Guild member and Director of Coffee Operations at Caribou Coffee Co. The topic was Caribou's relatively unique and ground-breaking move 5 years ago to upcharge $.1o for a cup of decaf coffee. It says it plain as day on each menu board. Decaf whole bean bags get an upcharge of $1.00.
I asked Brett why. He answered that there was a strategic decision made at the time that they would upgrade the quality of their decaf offering. To them, that meant serving only water-process decaf and toll-decaffeinating green coffee they sourced from trusted vendors (i.e. instead of buying "off the shelf" decaf from a decaffeinator). To cover the costs of this quality upgrade, they had to charge more. A standard "upcharge" per cup and per pound seemed simplest. "Seems to be working, or we wouldn't be doing it, " Brett said.
He commented further on how they are dedicated at Caribou to offering a certain level of quality, even if it means they lose a percentage of the market. Then he made the comment that was so perfect I had to ask if I could quote him in my blog, "we don't like to punish our decaf customers."
Thanks Brett and the crew at Caribou!
I asked Brett why. He answered that there was a strategic decision made at the time that they would upgrade the quality of their decaf offering. To them, that meant serving only water-process decaf and toll-decaffeinating green coffee they sourced from trusted vendors (i.e. instead of buying "off the shelf" decaf from a decaffeinator). To cover the costs of this quality upgrade, they had to charge more. A standard "upcharge" per cup and per pound seemed simplest. "Seems to be working, or we wouldn't be doing it, " Brett said.
He commented further on how they are dedicated at Caribou to offering a certain level of quality, even if it means they lose a percentage of the market. Then he made the comment that was so perfect I had to ask if I could quote him in my blog, "we don't like to punish our decaf customers."
Thanks Brett and the crew at Caribou!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The magic of pour-over
If attendance at Coffee Fest Seattle seminars was any indication, pour-over service for brewed coffee is a very hot trend. All three seminars (there was one each day) sold out faster than any CoffeeFest seminar in its history. Speculation abounds about why this trend is here now - is it because owners and consumers loved what the Clover machine did for single-serve brewing, and have been trying to replace it ever since it was acquired (and subsequently shelved) by Starbucks?
Whatever the reason why, it is good for decaf drinkers. First, the quality of our "freshly brewed coffee" really is on par with the regular coffee the cafe is serving. No more getting the stuff that's been sitting in an airpot, or worse yet, on a burner, for hours. Second, there is suddenly potential for soon seeing more variety and quality in decaf offerings on the menu. Since cafe owners no longer have to squirm as they pour gallons of un-consumed, expensive decaf down the drain, they can start using that money to invest in buying, storing and marketing higher quality and more variety.
It made sense in the 24-cup brewer world to limit a cafe's decaf offering to one, generic, crowd-pleasing decaf coffee. In many cafes, it was the only way to economically offer decaf at all. But now with pour over, the beans aren't brewed, they aren't even ground until someone is about to drink them. So why not buy 2 or 3 different types? Why not go for quality in the cup that equals the quality of the regular coffee? Store the little gems in pre-measured, sealed cups and they'll be fresh for a few days.
Need ideas of where to get high-end great tasting decaf? Green sources include Artisan Coffee Imports, Shrub, Cafe Imports, Royal and others.
Whatever the reason why, it is good for decaf drinkers. First, the quality of our "freshly brewed coffee" really is on par with the regular coffee the cafe is serving. No more getting the stuff that's been sitting in an airpot, or worse yet, on a burner, for hours. Second, there is suddenly potential for soon seeing more variety and quality in decaf offerings on the menu. Since cafe owners no longer have to squirm as they pour gallons of un-consumed, expensive decaf down the drain, they can start using that money to invest in buying, storing and marketing higher quality and more variety.
It made sense in the 24-cup brewer world to limit a cafe's decaf offering to one, generic, crowd-pleasing decaf coffee. In many cafes, it was the only way to economically offer decaf at all. But now with pour over, the beans aren't brewed, they aren't even ground until someone is about to drink them. So why not buy 2 or 3 different types? Why not go for quality in the cup that equals the quality of the regular coffee? Store the little gems in pre-measured, sealed cups and they'll be fresh for a few days.
Need ideas of where to get high-end great tasting decaf? Green sources include Artisan Coffee Imports, Shrub, Cafe Imports, Royal and others.
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