coffee business strategies

Neat article on MSN (in their City Guides section) looks at Seattle’s coffee culture and discusses barista competitions.
Thanks to Starbucks, coffee is big business in America, where specialty espresso drinks—lattes, cappuccinos, macchiatos—have replaced the diner “cup of joe.”
But long before Starbucks was a household name, the coffee revolution was underway in mid-1970s Seattle, [...]

[Read more →]

Associated Press Business Writer Lauren Shepherd interviews Andrew Hetzel of Cafemakers and others regarding the recent consumer trend favoring lighter roasted coffee:
NEW YORK — Coffee lovers, burned out from the dark roasts popularized by some gourmet specialty coffee chains, are increasingly turning to lighter-roasted beans for their daily pick-me-ups.
Coffee industry watchers say as coffee [...]

[Read more →]

I was surprised when a client mentioned to me last week that she had recently seen an article that quoted me in a hospitality and lodging magazine; assumed that it must have been one from last year. Nope — it’s a new one. I had almost forgotten about this interview for Lodging Magazine [...]

[Read more →]

I had a good interview with the New Paper from Singapore earlier this week, which resulted in the following article surrounding the Asia Barista Championship. Although missing the technical points of our discussion completely (sour coffee and chalky milk comments were blended), he does a nice job of capturing the spirit of competition.
WE live [...]

[Read more →]

I noticed a strange article about a coffee drive-thru business in the Kitsap Sun (wherever that is), which told a harrowing tale of innocent female baristas being harassed by customers. Straightforward enough, until you learn that the business is called Espresso Gone Wild, a name fashioned after the popular Girls Gone Wild series of [...]

[Read more →]