Chicken Soup for the Coffee Lover's Soul

My dear husband gave me a thoughtful gift this Christmas -- Chicken Soup for the Coffee Lover's Soul. I haven't read all the sappy short stories in it yet, but I think I've already found my favorite. "The Truth About Coffee" shares the story of two couples, the author and her husband are visiting the author's brother and his wife for a weekend visit in Naperville, Illinois. They go for a chilly evening walk and chide each other about they need to get home before everyone's too tired for a game of Scrabble. It's like foreshadowing -- they get back and everyone is ready to call it a night. Except sister-in-law Trisha, suggests putting on a pot of coffee. Which they do. And then sure enough, they all perk up, play some games and talk about old times -- all the while remarking about how good it is to have coffee to wake one up.

The punch line (as you might have guessed) is Trisha laughing as she informs the other three of her discovery -- she unintentionally brewed DECAF coffee for them. This, of course, leads to the discovery decaf drinkers everywhere have made -- "it really wasn't the caffeine that kept us going throughout the years when we needed a lift. It was the camaraderie -- the closeness of family and friends... with tasty sips of coffee to hold onto for enjoyment or comfort."

Looking for some great-tasting decaf coffee for your next get-together?

Decaf Admired - Ann Arbor.Com Newspaper

My local newspaper, AnnArbor.Com, just published a touching review of coffee culture in our county - Washtenaw County, Michigan. From a 1924 Men's Morning Coffee Group, to Frank's and the S.S. Kresge, the article recounts the history of coffee in our community. Love the Steinbeck quote, "The hot bitter coffee scalded our throats. We threw the last little bit with the grounds in it on the earth and refilled our cups."

Now the coffee scene is diverse and offers a wide variety of quality choices. Love it that one of my favorites, Zingerman's Coffee Co., is called out with a quote from a decaf drinker -- "I only drink decaf, and their decaf blend of Americano is really wonderful," she said. She is so right. When I've ordered decaf Americanos there I almost always am stopped in my tracks for a few seconds thinking, "DANG, that's good coffee!"

Keep doing that decaf right out there, folks! And if you need a source for good decaf grounds, besides Zingerman's, I've heard of another local provider who has great-tasting roasted decaf coffee.

The Decaf Scene at CoffeeFest Seattle

On the decaf scene, the CoffeeFest Seattle crowd showed themselves to be exciting and distinctive!! Mercanta (an importer) had a direct-trade Honduran decaf on the cupping table. Cafe Umbria had decaf espresso to serve from their gorgeous espresso machine and luxus style booth. For the first time, this coffee-loving attendee was able to get a great decaf espresso at the show!

Roasters question: is great decaf really feasible?

"Is it really feasible for a roaster to offer a high-end decaf (i.e. Micro-lots/with certifications), when the demand for it is only part of an already small market segment (all decaf being 15% of total)?" This was on one of the great questions during the Q&A part of my co-presentation for the Roaster's Guild seminar on decaffeination at the SCAA conference in Anaheim. Reuben Mood of Signature Coffee was the "asker" and he was right on target -- this is also one of the most challenging and frequently asked questions I get as an importer of specialty green decaf.

My answer in brief, "niche marketing and niche pricing". One may ask a car manufacturer, "is it really feasible to sell an outrageously fast sports car with no room for luggage and only 1 passenger?" If your entire system is geared up to manufacture and sell low cost, high volume automobiles, it probably isn't feasible to add the high end, branded coup. But if your current business is selling high end SUVs (like Hummers), it might be a profitable expansion of your business to also sell high end sports cars. [Analogy; if you're already promoting high-end regular coffees that are selling for a premium, it won't take much to include high end decaf.]

To bring the analogy a little closer to home, I believe some crazy guys at Peet's wondered one day if they could build a franchise on coffee that costs $3 a cup instead of a $1 a cup. America was very used to $1/cup coffee. But here we are 15 years later with Starbucks on nearly every corner. They used marketing savvy and the let the consumer decide. The same will be true for decaf. Find a great decaf, promote it as premium and make sure you put a price on it that earns you, the roaster, a profit. Our data show that decaf consumers are extremely price elastic and loyal.

Stay tuned for the next question in this series...