Coffee Knowledge Hub

Paul’s voice has that croaky sound which is the product of long hours of work at the expense of sleep. While the cafe has dominated his time, he has also needed to continue working on the core business and his additional coaching work. At least he is not bored :)

In this episode we talked about the first month of opening of the cafe. Did it go as expected? Were our predictions accurate?

This is the final part of our series following Paul's journey in opening the cafe. You can start at episode 1 of the series to get the full picture of what it is like to open a cafe. His journey is unique in that it is his business and his location, but it is not unusual to face all the challenges that Paul has had to overcome. If you are considering opening a cafe, you can learn from Paul's experience as he describes it here.

You can watch the video on the coffee knowledge here: https://community.coffeeknowledgehub.com/c/podcast/

For quick reference here is the series:

1. Episode 1 - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4KxgQt8U1QFkmAWbxCGj7y?si=933419074b40414a
2. Episode 2 -https://open.spotify.com/episode/11XWKFdAe9U3ROwgXQGS8y?si=b5eed848711349b5
3. Episode 3 - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Zp1zVKO2Wwq6umsWae7ke?si=a44ec30d77a44c42
4. Episode 4 - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ER1vGgDg7L3ZcWVK5IUuv?si=fe363cdf1fb344eb
5. Episode 5 - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1Zwvwm4TWhDoCuUEPZkXs8?si=446526a68bcc4564
6. Episode 6 - https://open.spotify.com/episode/3nWehMJLJ1AIfWIu2hWT9V?si=5f504c49c27c48db

Imagine going to a trade show on tractors and being served coffee that is better than any coffee you have had before. Or rocking up to a wedding in a field and being served coffee that is as good as your favourite local cafe. 

In this conversation with Esther Maasdam, co-founder of Manhattan coffee roasters and founder of her eponymous events business: Esther Maasdam coffee connoisseur, we talk about how she has been bringing specialty coffee to the people at events for the past 20 years. 

For many people operating coffee businesses, there are requests to serve coffee at events, but the reality of doing this versus the expectations of the customer are often completely misaligned. There is a specialist skillset to set up a bespoke coffee service, that incorporates events management but also the skills of a coffee technician, barista and cafe operator. It is no wonder, so few people and companies in the world can do this well. 

• Bringing great coffee to people
• Providing great work for baristas - fun, quality coffee
• Brand implications for Manhattan coffee at events - attracts baristas and promotes the Manhattan brand
• Resilience - the essential trait of an events coordinator
• Power of deduction
• Technical knowledge
• War stories 
• Pricing events
• Events is not about making the best espresso in the world, it is about getting people excited
• Recruiting baristas and skillset of an events barista
• Growing the brand - building from always present to entrusting others.
• Service models - speed and experience
• The menu at events
• Coffee on the bar
• A Manhattan coffee shop?

https://esthermaasdam.com

https://manhattancoffeeroasters.com

Since launching the sustainability reporting course from the Chain Collaborative we have been curious about the real world impact of sustainability reports. Why would a company invest time and money in creating one, what are the pros and cons of doing it. 

Micah Sherer, our friend at Skylark Coffee in Brighton, UK has been writing their transparency report since launching nearly 5 years ago and it has had a big impact on their growth and on communicating the mission and values of Skylark coffee to their community. 

This episode was co-hosted by Nora Burkey to bring subject matter expertise. Andrew’s research was all done by doing the course, so if he sounds like he knows what he is talking about, it is all thanks to Nora. 

We discuss:

• What are sustainability reports and their different variations - impact, transparency, sustainability
• Tangible benefits of reports
• Holding yourself accountable
• Where are the biggest margins in the coffee supply chain
• Who are sustainability reports for
• Considerations in data collection - transparency versus ethics in verifying supply chains
• How do you vet the ethics of the companies you buy from
• Skylarks growth as a result of reporting

Websites:

https://community.coffeeknowledgehub.com/c/sustainability-reporting-by-the-chain-collaborative

https://thechaincollaborative.org

https://skylark.coffee/pages/transparency

https://www.probaristas.com/

Social handles

https://www.instagram.com/skylark.coffee/#

https://www.instagram.com/thechaincollaborative/#

https://www.instagram.com/ProBaristas

Mentions:

Micah mentioned the charity under which Skylark operates - One Church Brighton. We also spoke with Ben Szobody about the great work that Pro Baristas do in episode 5 of this podcast. Pro baristas is one of the projects coordinated by One Church Brighton. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ENVmjgfVWI2XnvpDkVDqY?si=8bce5e1313c640e0

This is the last episode recorded before Paul opened the doors to his cafe for the first time on October 5. 

We discussed his menu, opening hours, vision for the cafe and its impact on different stakeholders and we did some predictions for sales in the first month. 

Tibor and Andrew have started sharing their reflections on the conversation after the recordings, so stay tuned to hear our post interview thoughts. 

In the 5th instalment of our podcast series following Paul Ross as he opens the bricks and mortar home of Special Guests Coffee, we hear about progress with recruitment and shop fitting. We now have a tentative opening date and the pressure is on to finish the build out and get all the equipment in on time. Will it be opening on International Coffee day, we shall have to wait and see. 

Amongst other things in this episode we discussed POS systems, POS stands for point of sale. There are a lot of systems on the market with POS and it is an important consideration in a cafe space because it directly impacts the customer experience, administration burden, reporting and timeliness of information. At the same time, many systems have more features than a cafe actually needs. 

Bonus video on the coffee knowledge hub - sneak preview of the cafe

www.coffeeknowledgehub.com

Our conversation includes insights into:

1. Growing from one to three cafes.
2. The benefits of co-roasting
3. The Importance of systems and processes

The theme that runs through the interview is people - designing an experience for all the people who are touched by the business, whether it is the people from whom Dagger coffee source products, to the way people are recruited and supported who work in the business and also the customer experience. It is evident that everything is designed as a personal experience.

This was a lovely conversation with and , we hope you enjoy it.

A bit about Dagmar:

Dagmar Geerlings is the founder of Dagger coffee in Utrecht, Netherlands, which she started in 2017. 

She found her way into coffee during her undergraduate studies in User experience design. Then had a gap year in Melbourne, Australia where she worked at Seven Seeds, a highly regarded café and roasting business, before returning to the Netherlands to complete a Masters. Her masters in the multisensory experience of taste, exploring how sound impacts taste and her undergraduate studies have influenced her cafe business in multiple ways. 

Dagger coffee, has 3 sites and source and roast their own coffee which is also available via their webshop. 

Find out more:

https://www.instagram.com/daggercoffee/?hl=nl

https://www.facebook.com/Daggercoffee/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dagmargeerlings/

Major Cohen grew up with coffee, was a passionate consumer and hobbyist, mentored by George Howell in the 70's and went on to have a 25 year career with Starbucks from the age of 45. He subsequently left Starbucks during the pandemic and wrote the essential foundational coffee book - Coffee for Dummies.

Join Andrew and Tibor in this conversation with Major. His experience with Starbucks is full of valuable lessons and gives us a fascinating insight into the incredible growth of Starbucks from 100 to 25,000 + stores.

In this episode we cover:

• Trends in coffee
• Importance of vision and mission in managing change in dynamic organisations and industry - how do you adapt as a professional
• Influence on Starbucks on 3rd wave and vice versa - coffee as a taste experience
• Reserve program
• Reserve Roastery - keeps Starbucks grounded in coffee
• The miraculous element of great training
• Employee engagement in scaled businesses
• The challenges of training
• The importance communicating on people's level
• How Coffee for Dummies can be used by coffee professionals

Coffee for Dummies by Major Cohen

https://www.dummies.com/book/home-auto-hobbies/food-drink/coffee-tea/coffee-for-dummies-282727/

Tibor and Andrew had a catch up chat after World of Coffee in Copenhagen to discuss trends they saw and how they relate to the wider cafe industry.

We dig deeper into the question of how do you decide which products to put on you menu using the operational complexity and profit margin matrix.

You can see the matrix here: https://community.coffeeknowledgehub.com/c/trending/which-products-to-sell

Episode 4 in the series following the opening of the Special Guests Coffee cafe in Marlebone, London. Join us as we hear more from Paul Ross about opening his cafe. There are valuable lessons for anyone thinking about getting into the cafe business or for people already operating cafes. 

In this episode we catch up on progress with the cafe build out and what Paul has been up to since our last interview in April. We discuss, pricing and pricing strategies, customer journeys, competitive advantage, and new launch dates. 

0.00 Highlights from WOC

3:10 Recap of events since our last call - delays in the build out

7:54 Pricing and product differentiation

10:52 pricing with cost plus percentage or cost plus amount

13:32 Pricing and value

15:45 High end coffee pricing

21:15 competitive advantage of special guests

22:01 - differentiator - not just coffee quality - total customer experience

27:53 Customer journeys - the ‘flat white’ customer and ‘pour over’ customer

34:00 pricing based on competitors, or not.

38:40 Business ecosystems - Importance of a diversified business model for resilience

47:08 Net revenue modelling and indicators for projecting revenues

55:22 - new opening schedule

57:30 Preview of the golden tickets launching soon - get an off menu coffee. Find out how.

This was a short episode continuing our series with Paul Ross. 

This episode touched on some aspects of the business fundamentals of running a cafe, but we will go a lot deeper into this in future episodes. As Tibor alluded to in his question, there are many first time cafe owners who do not have a good knowledge of targets such as labour and cost of goods sold as a percentage of net revenue. Pricing is based on what a customer is willing to pay, but it needs to cover purchase costs, wastage, and contribute to labour, rent, rates and other overheads. So, often that high quality cake with a healthy 50% margin is losing you money, because it should have a 100% margin, but your customers won’t pay that price for it.  

Since this episode was recorded in early April and it is now July, a lot has happened with the Special Guests cafe, but builders have only just gone on site, So it is well behind schedule. 

Thanks for listening to the Coffee Knowledge Hub podcast with Tibor and Andrew. Please rate us/like us and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And share this series with anyone you know who is thinking of opening a cafe.