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/58144
pan demetrakakes, editor remember if that was the exact word he used, but it describes a trend that I've seen consistently to this day: Growth is usually strongest at both extremes of the quality/price spectrum. Consumers either go for the gourmet, high-quality, high- priced stuff , or they want to save money and are prepared to overlook (or at least deemphasize) quality. In other words, the cliché applies: Th e middle of the road is where you get run over. Th is had (and still has) obvious negative implications for Kraſt , which built its W money and reputation on middle-of-the-road foods. But how does it apply to spe- cialty coff ee? Fundamentally, of course, the whole concept of specialty coff ee is based on top quality. But paradoxically, its very growth has, in some people's opinion, distorted the quality/price spectrum. Simply put, as demand zooms, the defi nition of specialty coff ee has been stretched to the point where some coff ees of dubious quality are getting labeled as "specialty," "gourmet," etc. Th is is partly opportunism, and partly a matter of the supply of top-quality coff ee not keeping up with demand. Th is sets up an interesting possibility: Could it be that specialty coff ee, which aſt er all is supposed to occupy the top end of the quality/price spectrum, will itself be spread along its own spectrum? Will we see a specialization of specialty coff ee, where consumers who are willing to pay top prices for the highest of the high-end stuff constitute a growth market? Th is possibility extends to brewing methods as well. One of the hottest trends is brew-by-the-cup, which is labor- and time-intensive. Time is money, as they say, al- though the four minutes or so it takes to brew an individual cup of coff ee amounts to small change. But the point is, consumers who are willing to wait several minutes for something that is usually served in seconds are consumers who are invested in quality. Now from the New York Times comes word of a still more exotic brewing method. Th e Blue Bottle, a small franchise that started in San Francisco, recently opened its fi rst Manhattan location, with its signature brewing method: a halogen-powered siphon system. Th e halogen is an extra-precise way of heating a water-fi lled glass globe that is topped with a tumbler fi lled with coff ee grounds. As the water fi lters through the coff ee and cools, it trickles back into the globe, from which it is served. Th is is pretty much the same principle as your average coff eemaker, except for the same vessel being used to hold both the cold water and the fi nished coff ee. Th at, plus the retro-cool look of the globe and siphon, make for an impressive experience. Exotic brews and brewing methods: Will these become the specialty end of spe- cialty coff ee? And accordingly, will there be a low end of...what? Better-than-average, aff ordable "specialty" coff ee? It would be an interesting reordering of the price/value spectrum. And if it happens, retailers will have to pick a side. 4 | March 2012 • www.specialty-coffee.com The specialization of specialty coffee hen I started covering the food processing industry almost 20 years ago, a guy from Kraſt Foods told me about consumer polarization. I can't EDITORIAL OFFICE 1030 W. Higgins Road, Suite 230 Park Ridge, IL 60068 • (847) 720-5600 Visit us online: www.specialty-coff ee.com E-mail: specialtycoffee@m2media360.com EDITORIAL STAFF Editor PRODUCTION STAFF Art Director Production Manager CIRCULATION STAFF Vice President of Circulation & Collateral Services SALES STAFF Sales Manager List Rental & Reprint Services EXECUTIVE STAFF Group Publisher CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ed Avis, Jack Groot, Maura Keller, Caroline Rath, Alan Richman, Brenda Russell, Peter Surkowski EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Jason Burton, lab5702 Desiree Farden, Big Train, Inc. Jack Groot, JP's Coff ee And Espresso Bar Wes Herman, Th e Woods Coff ee Meghan Hubbs, Equal Exchange Rob Jeffries, North Atlantic Specialty Bag Craig Min, LAMIL Coff ee Lon LaFlamme, Dillanos Coff ee Roasters Kate LaPoint, Sound Provisions, Inc. Joe Monaghan, La Marzocco Tom Palm, Design & Layout Services Steve Schnitzler, Port City Java® Andi C. Trindle, Atlantic Specialty Coff ee Bill Waddington, TeaSource Corporate Offi ce: 1030 W. Higgins Road, Suite 230 Park Ridge, IL 60068 PRESIDENT/CEO VP FINANCE & OPERATIONS VP OF CIRCULATION & COLLATERAL SERVICES PRODUCTION & OPERATIONS DIRECTOR SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION AND REQUESTS Phone (845) 856-2229 Marion Minor Gerald Winkel Joanne Juda-Prainito Mary Jo Tomei Fax (845) 856-5822 Subscriptions: $39 for one year, $61 for two years, U.S.; $48 for one year, $72 for two years, Canada; $110 for one year, all other countries (includes airmail postage). Single copies $10 each; Annual Buyers Guide $25. Payable in U.S. funds only. Customer Service: (847) 763-9565 PRESS RELEASES: Press releases on supplies, services and new products are welcomed and encouraged. Direct them to Specialty Coff ee Retailer. Color print photography is preferred, slides and transparencies are accepted. Specialty Coff ee Retailer reserves the right to edit all submissions. Pan Demetrakakes pan@m2media360.com Britt Menendez Madeline Minor Joanne Juda-Prainito Brian Grau (314) 487-6568 Cheryl Naughton (678) 292-6054 Charlie Forman cforman@m2media360.com Membership applied for July 2010 Specialty Coff ee Retailer (ISSN 1077-3460) is published monthly by Bev-Al Communications, 1030 W. Higgins Road, Suite 230, Park Ridge, IL 60068. Copyright© 2012 by Bev-Al Communications Inc. Postmaster please send address corrections to: Specialty Coff ee Retailer, P.O. Box 4290, Port Jervis, NY 12771. Periodicals postage paid at Port Jervis, NY and additional mailing offi ces.