It's funny how things are interconnected, and the topics almost float in the air. You can almost believe they're out there, in the common space, and anyone can just reach out and...
I was getting to a point today, due to the complex combination of events and thoughts about them, and I'm currently reading that there will be a webinar tomorrow more or less on what I was thinking. :)
So…
On Monday, I read a comment about a coffee shop, and I thought it was incredibly funny. I mean, it almost brought me to a state of ecstasy, and I'm not even kidding. XD
It was something like, “Good food… attentive staff… nice location… and they have a La Marzocco that serves mostly medium roasts.”
I made some attempts to make a joke about it with my colleagues, but not successfully XD.
My failed attempts made me realize that the phrase sounds funny only to me, because I'm working with coffee, while it doesn't to them. To me, it sounds something like, "They have a barbecue that serves medium-rare meat," or "They have a machine that makes yellow lemonade."
So I was in seventh heaven, thinking, "This sentence is perfect." Because it seems like it contains a lot of important details and information, but in reality, to someone who knows about coffee, it says almost nothing.
Think about it.
"They have a La Marzocco." Okay, they have an espresso machine, which is a very well-known brand. That's it. It doesn't necessarily mean the coffee is good. It doesn't mean you can have a coffee there and say, "Yes, this coffee is made in La Marzocco, I can taste it clearly!" No. But, attention, the client said it.
The next is "medium roast." This is also fantastic, because it really means "the coffee you're serving isn't very light, but it's not burnt either—it's somewhere in the middle." For today's roaster, or anyone involved in roasting, hearing "medium roast," or "French," "full city," etc., will mean almost nothing, because they're operating with different criteria, monitoring roast color on colorimeters, and operating discharge temperatures. For them, for us, there's an eternity within the term "medium roast," and one medium roast will be different from another. But, once again, it wasn't the coffee specialist who said that, it was the customer.
So what does that really mean? Am I being followed?
While as coffee specialists we are becoming more precise in roasting, brewing and sensory evaluation, most of our customers are paying attention to the brand of equipment we are using, the cups we have chosen, and whether the coffee is light, medium, or dark roasted, whether it is from Colombia or Brazil. And that is the reality.
And it's not our clients who are going to learn our language; it's us who must speak both languages well. And everyone knows it.
The topic I would like to start with, and leave it to your discretion, is the following.
As I mentioned before, I can't even count the times customers walked by and stayed just because "it's La Marzocco," because they recognized the brand of espresso machine. Simple as that.
The reality of coffee industry brands, and their popularity and recognition among both coffee specialists and enthusiasts of all levels, leads us to a situation where specialty coffee shops are becoming increasingly similar to one another. I mean, it's not just me; you've noticed it too, right?
I bought some Acme, La Marzocco (ok, Victoria Arduino, Nuova Simonelli, Opera or Spirit), EK43, Peak or Super Jolly mugs, Hario, V60, Chemex, Kalita, BUNN, OCD dispenser, Acaia scale… Did I forget anything?
But you can see where I'm going. Add the trio [macchiato/cappuccino/flat white] to the menu, add a couple of single origins, make a special house blend, add chai latte and matcha. Start serving brownies and croissants, don't forget the avocado toast, and there you have it, the recipe for creating a specialty coffee shop.
I don't know. I understand it's a business. But isn't it a bit boring in most cases? Repeating, repeating, and repeating the same structure, while simultaneously insisting on how different you are from your closest competitor? Who uses the same business model, by the way, and roasts the same natural Ethiopians from the same importer...
Of course, sometimes it's good to play it safe, but haven't we gone too far as an industry?
I wish we would focus on bringing more creativity to our coffee shops, more "personality." We would focus on finding the perfect balance of having key pieces of equipment that tell our customers we're serious about what we do—speaking their language, but having our own recognizable voice.
I say this both as a customer who would like more options, but real options, and as someone who works within the industry and sees the enormous importance of innovation at all levels.
I see it as something to think about.
Be well!
A hug
