coffee business strategies

CSP Magazine published a summary of their annual Convenience Retailing University session, this year held in San Antonio, Texas on February 12-13. I am honored to see my session “C-Store Coffee Success” get coverage in the wrap-up beside Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer and Stephen Covey, motivational speaker and co-founder of FranklinCovey. Pretty cool.

Once you accept coffee as a prepared food rather than a powdered drink mix, you can begin unleashing the beverage’s full potential. That’s the message from Andrew Hetzel, founder of Cafemakers LLC, a retail specialty-coffee consultancy based in Kamuela, Hawaii, at the session “C-Store Specialty coffee Success.”

You can download the full article as a PDF, here.

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MINNEAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The nation’s top espresso-makers battled it out Monday to be called best-of-the-best, but it was Kyle Glanville of Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea who took home top honors. Glanville won the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s (SCAA) highly competitive 2008 United States Barista Championship (USBC), hosted by Krups. The heated competition took place at SCAA’s 20th Annual Conference & Exhibition, May 2 – 5 in Minneapolis, Minn. SCAA is the world’s largest coffee trade association, and Krups, the title sponsor of the event, is a leading manufacturer of premium home espresso and coffee machines.

As the industry’s most watched contest for coffeehouse professionals, the USBC encourages and recognizes achievement in the art and skill of espresso-drink preparation and service.

During the competition, the nation’s best baristas created some of the world’s finest coffee concoctions. Challengers prepared and served 12 orders–four espressos, four cappuccinos and four original signature drinks of their own creation–all within a 15-minute timeframe. As they readied their coffee beverages, contestants engaged the audience and explained their actions and selections while expertly working the competition’s official espresso machine, a three-group La Marzocco.

Seven USBC-certified judges, including one head judge, two technical judges and four sensory judges, carefully evaluated and scored each of the contenders. Judges focused on station cleanliness, taste, beverage presentation, technical skills and total impression.

As the 2008 United States Barista Champion, Glanville received the highest national honor for a barista, a trophy, $1,000 in cash, and an all-expenses paid trip to the 2008 World Barista Championship in Copenhagen, Denmark, June 19 – 22, 2008, hosted by the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe and held at its “Wonderful Coffee” event.

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Couldn’t make it to Minneapolis this year? Check out the live SCAA 2008 conference blog.

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Black Coffee Screening at SCAA Conference on Saturday, May 3, 2008

Join other SCAA conference attendees for a special screening of the film series Black Coffee, which traces the unique and volatile history of coffee. The Perfect Cup, the episode being screened, heralds what some coffee experts have called “the romantic age of coffee.” North Americans re-discover what their European counterparts have known all along; coffee is better when it’s quality coffee, and the best place to find it is in the relaxed and friendly atmosphere of the cafe.

A quirky collection of vagabond hippies looking for a quality cup of coffee emerge from the 70’s to create a new café society. Specialty coffee becomes the first global industry to experiment with sustainable practices and a new breed of co-operative farmer is born in Central America. As activists wake up to the fact that a pound of designer coffee in North America represents a full week’s wage to coffee growers in the producing countries, they organize under the banner of “Fair Trade” (defined as coffee grown by small holders in cooperatives who meet the requirements.) A new generation of coffee consumers demands not only the quality coffee but justice and environmental awareness in their morning cup — a complex brew.

And the search continues for the perfect cup.

The movie will be shown on Saturday, May 3 at 8 p.m. at the Oak Street Cinema in Minneapolis. A panel discussion featuring Irene Angelico, the director of Black Coffee, Mark Pendergrast, the author of Uncommon Grounds, TransFair USA President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Rice and several coffee luminaries will immediately follow the film.

A shuttle bus will pick up conference goers at 7:20 p.m. and 7:50 p.m. at the Minneapolis Convention Center, returning at 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Tickets will cost $7. illycaffe,

Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Coffee & Tea.Ltd., Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, and Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea are sponsoring the event.

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OK, so it’s Specialty Coffee Association of America, not the Specialty Coffee Growers Association, but otherwise, the article is spot on. I even like the subtitle:

The National Barista Championship beginning Friday will showcase some highly sophisticated coffee preparation — and for three local competitors, the experience is as rich and savory as a perfect demitasse of espresso.

The article begins:

Grind. Brew. Extract. Steam. Serve. Repeat. And repeat again, several hundred times, quickly and gracefully.

Since early February, Adam Palmer has spent 30 hours a week in a Zen state, practicing for the Olympics of coffeemaking, the U.S. Barista Championship to be held this weekend at the Minneapolis Convention Center. As one of three young Twin Cities men competing in this creme de la creme contest for coffee fanatics, he knows that no ordinary cup of Joe will tickle the picky palates of judges who consider coffee a high art, not a mere beverage.

More from the Minneapolis Star Tribune

See you in Minneapolis. Ooh yaw. Doncha know.

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