- Have you thought about how to Stand Out From Your Competition and increase your coffee sales revenue?
When selecting a coffee roaster supplier, what should you consider when determining, the kind of supplier to deliver, the right quality of beans suitable for your customer’s tastes? From multi-national suppliers to boutique roasters, which one best fits your requirements? And within this range, which coffee supplier would be the best fit for you and your business?
Coffee suppliers have diversified in the qualities of coffee they supply, so the good news is you have plenty to choose from. It is therefore wise for you to pick your supplier carefully because not all of them will suit your business situation or your customers taste expectations.
Coffee is broadly grouped into two main plant strains: Robusta and Arabica. Arabica is preferred because of its exceptional taste in the cup, being generally less bitter on the palate, although it is rather harder to grow than Robusta and in most cases is grown at high altitudes.
Most of the specialty coffees roasted and brewed in Australia are made from Arabica species. However, coffee suppliers occasionally use some Robusta beans in their roasts to increase caffeine content.
Coffee suppliers differ in what green beans they choose to purchase, the quality of those beans, their origin and of course, whether they are Arabica or Robusta coffee beans.
Top six tips to consider;
1. The Roasting and Brewing Experience of the Supplier
A major consideration to take into account when selecting a coffee roaster is their level of experience as a coffee roaster and as a coffee maker. This experience is gained with time and effort. One does not become an expert in coffee overnight. Years of practice learning the fine arts of coffee roasting as well as cupping experience is an essential ingredient. All this experience is important because experienced coffee suppliers will be in a position to give you guidance as well as solve any issues you are facing.
2. Know Your Coffee Requirements
If you are looking to source an ongoing supplier relationship for your roasted coffee beans, knowing what you want your coffee to be is crucial. Coffee roasters sometimes have huge lists of different blends and single origin coffee beans, which are often roasted differently.
So being able to work with a supplier to get your cupped taste profile to fit your customer’s tastes is an important factor in selecting a coffee supplier. Good coffee roasters can advise you on how to look for the best beans. They will work tirelessly with you until your needs are met.
For those of you with specialty coffee houses, you may also want to consider offering your clients an additional range of blends or single origin coffees your customers can try as an alternative to your main blend. Adding variety to your coffee offering allows you to keep one step ahead of your competition.
3. Samples, Samples, and More Samples
The nature of the coffee can only be truly judged from the cup it produces. Therefore, you should never judge coffees solely by their brands, logos, or even prices. When it comes to coffee types, it is only through sampling that you will get the exact coffee requirements that you are looking for. So do not be afraid to ask for samples. Roasters will be more than willing to invite you to their warehouses for you to sample the different types of coffees they have and see their roasting facilities in action. Other suppliers will be willing to send packages of the samples to you.
4. Consider the Coffee’s Origin
Check the region or the farm where the coffee beans have come from. Different farms produce different qualities of coffee, such as taste profiles and quality of beans. When choosing between coffee suppliers, be sure to have all the necessary information about the farm or the co-operation that produced it. This enables you to be in a position of choosing the right taste for you, as well as ensuring its’ quality.
While green beans retain their chemical structure for a long period of time, as soon as a coffee bean is roasted it starts to lose its freshness rapidly and release gases.
So, fresher is always better as far as coffee goes. This ensures that it has the optimum flavour required by your customers. Be sure to know when the coffee was roasted. The coffee supplier should let you know this. The coffee packaging also indicates when it was roasted. The mode of storage since roasting is crucial. Check for a plastic seal that has a small air hole at the centre of the coffee sack. This ensures that CO2 leaves the bag without permitting entry of oxygen. This is the conventional mode of storage, which will ensure that the quality of the coffee is preserved during its shelf life.
6. Inquire About Additional Services
Does your potential coffee supplier provide full training? How about equipment supply and servicing? These are important questions to ask.
Some of these services could be of much benefit to you and make things much easier for your café to operate effectively. Some of these services could be barista training or even customer support should there be any issues concerning the coffee. Work to establish a helpful relationship with the supplier. Success in the coffee industry has been seen when there exists a relationship between the farmer, the coffee roaster, and the wholesale buyer. This promotes the exchange of useful information, trainings, and good advice on the coffee.
In Conclusion
Chiones Partner - Capristo Espresso Roasters- has full HACCP Accreditation for safe and quality assured operating systems. This level of quality control is commonplace in much of the food industry, but surprisingly not so in the coffee roasting industry.
CE use unique ecological coffee roasting process which maximises coffee flavour while minimising our impact on the environment by using the latest technology, energy efficient and smokeless roasting equipment.
Being proud members of the Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA). Capristo Espresso Coffee is pleased to offer our clients our award winning unique coffee, as well as to offer our coffee at very reasonably priced rates.
Our master coffee roaster has three decades of experience in the coffee industry. He has worked locally and internationally, a former international Barista judge, helping to spread coffee culture from bean to cup.
