Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/41387
Jack'sBlend Jack Groot owns JP's Coffee in Holland, Mich. He also provides coffee business consulting and training through the Midwest Barista School (MBS). Check out Jack's new blog, "Jack Groot's blog — confessions of a coffee shop owner" at www.coffeegroot.com. Jack can be reached at jack@jpscoffee.com with "Jack's Blend" as the subject line, or at (866) 321-4MBS. O n our most recent family vacation we spent a number of hours in the car. Conversation subject matter bounced all over the place, and at one point I found myself explaining caffeine to my wife and boys ages 13 and 15 (job hazard). Today's kids are offered caffeinated beverages in increasing numbers— both the number of caffeinated beverages available and the amount of caffeine per beverage—so I rattled off facts on coffee and caffeine. Caffeine and the drinking public I crack up when soda-drinking parents scoff at me force-feeding my kid coffee (I'm a coffee shop owner. Sue me). The "soda parent" feeds their child caffeine and high amounts of sugar. My kid only gets caffeine. My kid stays awake, gets straight As and will someday run a multimillion-dollar company. "Soda parent's" kid has bad teeth, will develop diabetes by the time he's 30 and probably end up in jail. I especially love telling "soda parent" they take caffeine out of coffee and put it in their kid's pop. Kinda poetic, don't ya think? Caffeine has varying effects on people. Dosage, concentration (how much caffeine per ounce of liquid) and even the setting in which it is consumed will all affect how caffeine affects people. For some, caffeine is almost intolerable, making their heart race or giving them an upset stomach. In others, it is a sedative and has a calming effect. But for the average Joe, caffeine is a mild stimulant, mood enhancer and euphoric, and gives a general feeling of well-being. Opiate of the masses, I say. Is this facial cream decaf? Although caffeine is also made artificially, much of the caffeine pulled from green coffee is sold to pharmaceutical, diet pill and cosmetic companies, not just the beverage industry. There are many caffeine-enhanced cosmetics, including body washes, soaps, lip balms, facial scrubs and lipsticks. Caffeine is also found in facial toners, de-puffing eye creams and hundreds of other face and body creams, many of which claim to give bodies a liſt or improve contours. Recent testing on animals shows that caffeine even protects against sun damage when applied directly to the skin. (Wow, maybe I should take 12 | September 2011 • www.specialty-coffee.com my spent grounds and sell it to customers to rub on their skin, or their dog's skin. Another profit center maybe?) I don't want chemicals in my coffee Most of you have had customers come into your store and say, "I want decaf coffee, but I don't want chemicals in my coffee." If they are willing to listen to an explanation of the decaffeination process, you can share with them the following facts. Caffeine is removed from coffee in a number of ways. The main three are direct solvent, CO2 and water process. (To learn more about these and other decaffeination methods go Wikipedia. org and look up "decaffeination.") If your coffee is water process, chemicals have not touched it. Same with CO2. Direct solvent method uses methylene chloride, coffee oil or ethyl acetate. The "worst" of these would be considered the methylene chloride. Methylene chloride, a potentially dangerous chemical, evaporates at 170°F. Coffee is roasted at temperatures of 350° to 450°F and brewed at 180° to 212°F. Coffee decaffeinated with methylene chloride tests at less than one part per million every time (USDA allows 10 parts per million). Also according to a report published on August 9, 1985, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, "studies of rats fed regular and decaffeinated coffee (at doses equivalent to 70 or 80 cups of coffee per day) or fed methylene chloride in their drinking water (at doses equivalent to 125,000 to 6,250,000 cups of decaffeinated coffee per day) showed no evidence of carcinogenicity…Hence, scientific evidence suggests that methylene chloride is safe for use as a solvent in decaffeinating coffee." Interesting. Though some would love to demonize coffee or the caffeine it contains, studies in favor of moderate coffee consumption always seem to win. Alertness, migraine suppression and improved brain function top the benefits list, with cancer-fighting antioxidants right behind. And I thought I was just enjoying a beverage. Vive la coffee!