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/60649
Balancing the beans beans and be trend setters, not followers. Doing both is a delicate balancing act. Specialty Coffee Retailer talked to roasters all over the country to find out how they decide how they do this. the cost in the current market. Consumers' tastes differ from region to region. At the same time, specialty coffee wholesalers are looked on to find the best How to roast a batch of beans is a big decision, especially considering BY PETER SUROWSKI WEST older-fashioned, he says: "I don't do light roasts. There's no market for it here. When he finds a great bean that calls for " a light roast, as a well-trained roaster and taster, he faces a dilemma: Does he cater to the demand, or roast a great coffee? He pointed to a Rwandan batch he got recently. It got great reviews, he roasted it light, it tasted great, but the quality was lost on most of his customers. "To me, that's kind of discouraging, he says. Since he runs a small operation—he " Big Creek Coffee Roasters Hamilton, Mont. Catering to customers' tastes is important, but nudging them in the direction of better coffees helps sell better roasts, says Randy Lint, the owner and roaster for Big Creek Coffee Roasters. "I do a couple of crowd-pleasers I wouldn't want to take home on the weekend," says Lint, "but I like to make it an educational process without being preachy. is dark, because that's what his clients want. "People are just really accustomed to that here, About 70 percent of what Lint roasts " a rural town of about 5,000 people. The demand for gourmet coffee is not as big as in metropolitan areas, and tastes are His roastery is in Hamilton, Mont., " he says. 26 | April 2012 • www.specialty-coffee.com roasts about 7,000 pounds a year on his Diedrich 10-pound roaster—he talks to his clients to educate them. His 600-square-foot shop is small Anodyne Coffee Milwaukee , Wis. and straddles the line between roastery and coffeehouse. Its acid-stained concrete floor and oak cabinets give it a sleek look, though he has only bar seating. His roaster sits in the center of the serving room next to piles of green beans in burlap. His customers are mostly wholesale Successful roasters do more than cater to demand—they set the standards for good coffee. Anodyne Coffee in Milwaukee puts little weight on what the customers say they want. Their roaster knows how to make great coffee, so that's what they do. "It all boils down to our experience in the cup," says wholesale manager buyers, but since his shop is on a major highway on the outskirts of town, his clientele of morning commuters is growing. He takes every chance to talk to them about his coffees. "As a small- time operation, I have a good position to lead customers along, the lighter roasts aſter a few chats and a few tasting sessions, he says. He oſten sees those customers buy " he says. Steve Kessler. There are few better judges of good coffee in the Milwaukee area. They moved several times during their 13 years in business, and today they take up a 2,500-square-foot space in a red brick building in the city's Bayview neighborhood, across the street from a church and surrounded by middle-class homes on shady avenues about half a block from Lake Michigan. The shop has a rustic, wooden feel, UPPER MIDWEST