Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

We like to be in control. The shop is your baby and you have all the authority in the world to assert yourself into the operations and correct things you see that are off. Trouble is that this is not always helpful and often can create more problems and confusion. Today on shift break we will be discussing the need to exercise self control and create structured communication in order to effectively solve problems, address concerns, and support your staff.

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"Vietnam is the future of specialty coffee!" Today we are going to unpack this statement and discuss how the Vietnamese coffee movement is creating opportunity for a marginalized coffee variety and people with our very special guest, Sahra Nguyen!

Sahra Nguyen is the founder & CEO of Nguyen Coffee Supply the first-ever specialty Vietnamese coffee company importing and roasting in Brooklyn, New York. On a mission to transform the coffee industry through diversity, inclusion, and transparency, Nguyen Coffee Supply has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, VICE, New York Magazine, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, and honored with the 2019 StarChefs Rising Star Award. Early January 2020, Imbibe Magazine featured Sahra Nguyen as one of the #Imbibe75 -- people, places, and directions that will shape the way you drink in 2020. She is a Gold House Collective Founder for Spring 2020 cohort, a leading network to celebrate and elevate the Asian American community.

In this conversation we get to hear the story of how Sahra founded, grew, and now leads Nguyen Coffee Supply on a mission to flip the script, change the narrative, and create a place in specialty coffee for Vietnamese coffee and coffee culture.

We cover:

• The current marginalization Vietnamese coffee
• Why Vietnam and robusta are the future of coffee
• The people behind the coffee
• Learning to import and roast and start her own supply chain
• Creating opportunity to improve
• Feedback to farmers and long term relationships
• Vietnam coffee culture
• Holistic perspectives on coffee origins
• Making room in our community for diverse expressions and origins

Related Episodes to listen to next:

256 : Founder Friday w/ Varat Vichit-Vadakan of Roots Coffee Roaster in Bangkok, Thailand

247 : Founder Friday! w/ Ritesh Doshi, CEO of Spring Valley Coffee, Nairobi, Kenya

236 : Founder Friday! w/ Meil Castagna-Herrera & Curtis Herrera of Cafe Corazon!

209 : Founder Friday! w/ Linda Thach of Little Skips, Brooklyn, NY

171 : Founder Friday w/ Matt Chitharanjan and Namrata Asthana of Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters in India

279 : Founder Friday! w/ Daniel Brown and Nephthaly Leonidas of Gilly Brew Bar

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Time and color in the roasting process are inextricably linked. We are fairly used to using time as a tool but what about color? Turns out that the color of your coffee is actually one of the most important but under-utilized, and poorly tracked metrics for determining flavor in the final roasted coffee. On this 5th edition of the Rate of Rise series we are going to be talking with Morten Munchow, the co-author of the Roast Magazine article: Flavor Development-The Relationship Between Time and Color in Coffee RoastingMorten Munchow To help us dive into this

Morten Munchow is the Founder of Coffee Mind a coffee roasting academy, research, and consultancy company based in Denmark. Morten is a scholar of biology who through over ten years of intense practical and scientific research and application gained a unique insights that have pushed the specialty coffee industry forward worldwide. He is a sought after speaker and presenter having published several papers in scientific journals.

In our conversation today we will be discoing the relationship between time and color and how we as an industry need to start regarding color and its subsequent tracking as a primary tool in creating consistency, quality, and serving a product that delights our customers

We will cover:

• Obsessing about minutia
• Reaching wrong conclusions
• Sensory impact of color
• Relationship between Tim and color
• Tracking color in your production
• Determining a starting color and your roasters range
• Developing intelligent intuition
• Investing in equipment

Links:

www.coffee-mind.com

Instagram

Example of color meter

www.roastmagazine.com

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RoR #1: A Conversation w/ Anne Cooper of Equilibrium Master Roasters

RoR #2: Exploring Quality Control w/ Spencer Turer of Coffee Enterprises

RoR #3: Making Contingency Planning a Reality w/ Andi Trindle Mersch of Philz Coffee

RoR #4: Practical Thermal Dynamics w/ Candice Madison of Royal Coffee / The Crown Oak

Interested in coffee consulting? Let's talk! Email me: [email protected]

When we seek to change things in our coffee shops we often underestimate the amount of time and investment it will take to actually turn things around. I have experienced this both in my consulting as well throughout my career in cafe management helping cafes scale and refine operations.

On this shift break we will be discussing how to approach making big changes to your company in a sustainable and effective way.

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Questions and conversation. They are powerful tools to bring clarity and inspire action. Perhaps nobody knows this better than those of us whose job it is to ask questions of experts across our industry to bring understanding to a global audience. Today I am so please to be sitting down for a conversation with one such person. He is the host of The Coffee Podcast, Jesse Hartman! The Coffee Podcast has been a passion project for Jesse for 6 years now since its initial founding in 2015 with his best friend Wes. From a budding coffee nerd to an accomplish coffee professional managing and opening several shops, Jesse's growth in coffee inspired him to start the show to deliver the same coffee conversations that transformed him to the greater world to bringing clarity on a wide range of topics and inspiring action toward positive change. Today we get to hear about both Jesse's and the Coffee podcast's development over the years and the critical insights and lessons that have been gleaned from conversations with some of our industries foremost coffee experts. We cover:

• The romance of coffee vs the reality
• Bringing consumers into the fold
• The early years of TCP
• Learning through embarrassing mistakes
• How Jesse choses formats and topics for the show
• Sustainability, Conversation, and action
• Future of coffee
• Advice for retailers who want to effectively represent value chain

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020 Joe Marrocco : Transparency, Origin Knowledge,and Your Shop : How to approach and apply coffee origin information to enhance, not detract, from the cafe experience

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It's Founder Friday! Today we get the honor of hearing the story of Gilly Brew Bar in Stone Mountain, GA from Daniel Brown and Nephthaly Leonidas.

Started by Daniel Brown who was quickly joined by Nephthaly Leonidas, Gilly Brew Bar was founded with the mission to help people re-imagine coffee culture. This mission serves their main purpose, which is to disrupt norms and build better communities. Gilly came to be as an effort to not only make waves in the coffee industry being black owned, but to change the narrative of what it means to be a coffee company serving in the community alongside an amazing gang of baristas. Gilly is unique also in that they serve coffee and tea elixirs to story-tell. With this experience comes a whole new way of thinking and operating. Humility, connection, and people focused service define what Gilly is all about.

In today's conversation we are going to deep dive into the story of Gilly's founding, overcoming challenges of history and race, bucking the status quo and much more

We cover:

• Setting the table for guests
• Not being just a coffee bar
• People focus
• Challenges in first year
• Overcoming racism and obstacles
• Customer feedback and leading with humility
• Becoming a light in the community
• The unique elixir beverages and their story
• Hopes for the future

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Visit our sponsors! www.prima-coffee.com/keys www.pacficfoodservice.com

Ever get frustrated that your staff are not doing things the way you want? I'm guessing you have. In fact if you are like most leaders presented with an issue in the shop you have probably also said, "That "should" not be like that." or "They "should" know better."

The question we need to ask though is-why should they?

Today on this edition of shift break we will be discussing why using this word is often problematic and indicative of bigger issues with our communication and systems.

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Visit our Sponsors!

Elevated batch brew and so much more!

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

A lot of how successful a shop is depends on the people who work in it. In the specialty coffee retail industry we can tend to hire based desperation, convenience, or nepotism. What we end up with then is problems in the work and culture that manifest themselves either immediately or down the road.

Instead we need to prioritize the hiring process as the main tool in creating a great cafe experience. In today's episode you and I sit down to talk about some best practices in the hiring process that will make getting the right fit for your cafe way more likely.

Be sure to listen to the recommended episodes below that are related to this topic.

We cover:

• Why "It's hard to find good people" is flawed
• Your values lens
• Applications and resumes
• Should you hire experienced or no-experience?
• Hiring for potential
• Interview tact and goals

Related episodes:

The Myth of the All-Star Team My #1 Interview Mistake The Right People? 232 : Rebuilding your Staff with Excellence w/ Dave Stachowiak My Favorite Interview Question 018: Hiring, Culture, and the Future of your Shop Visit our sponsors! www.prima-coffee.com/keys www.pacficfoodservice.com

Even though you might want to, you can't just chuck items in the garbage willy-nilly. I have been there, done that, and suffered the wrath.

There is a better way to keep the menu fresh and get rid of items humanely and with deference to the customer and the staff. Today we will discuss this important part of curating a great menu.

Interested in consulting or coaching? [email protected]

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Visit our Sponsors!

Elevated batch brew and so much more!

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

How we respond to negative feedback will have a big impact on how our business grows. The trouble is that we tend to not take kindly to negative feedback and respond with either dismissiveness, avoidance, or defensiveness. We leave a lot of value on the table when we don't embrace critique and use it to our advantage.

Today we are re-airing an episode from 2 years ago that takes you through my 5 step process for responding and reacting to negative feedback in a way that opens up lines of communication, builds good will, and actually strengthens your business in the process.

Let's dig in!

We cover:

• Why we get defensive
• The value of our staff and customers
• Deciding your response ahead of time
• Humility and self-reflection
• Refining the feedback
• Filling in missing info
• Responding with generosity

Recommended episodes:

• Building a Feedback Culture
• Coffee Compass Article: The Wrath of the One Star Review
• Shift Break: Stop Lying
• Shift Break: Creating a Feedback Culture

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