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York Coffee Systems
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LATEST NEWS
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"I speak
to many senior people about trade issues, and when I ask them 'where did
you hear that?', they reply - 'Boughton's'. -
An extremely well-known manager, 20 April 2007. |
We have been asked for
a 2009 features schedule - it's
here
2nd July
We have the
first news of the cafes which go forward to the second round of the
Beverage Service Association's Bev-e contest:
The independents are
-
Avanti, Kirkby Lonsdale
Bizzy Lizzy's Coffee Shop,
Basingstoke
Bottle Kiln, Ilkeston
Café Harlequin, York
Café Licious, Swindon
Chocoholics Tea & Coffee
Lounge, Bury
Coffee Aroma, Lincoln
Coopers Tea Rooms & Coffee House,
Darlington
Courtyard Café,
Preston
Mackerel Sky Café, Penzance
Muffins Coffee Shop, Laurencekirk
No 1 Café Bar, Dawlish
Sadlier's Coffee Lounge, Tettenhall
The Apple Tree, Barton, Staffs.
The Coffee House, Skipton
The Pharmacy Café, Newton Abbott
Waterloo Tea Gardens, Cardiff.
(We
have the usual, expected, number from the north, but there appears
to have been a successful nomination lobby from the south-west this
year - no, it wasn't us! Of course, the Bottle Kiln and
Sadliers are familiar names in this contest, and the Coffee House in
Skipton was the first Bev-e winner of all)
The groups are:
The Loungers Group,
Coffee#1 Group
(both,
interestingly, are south/south-west based)
The mobiles are:
Café 2U Barnsley
Café 2U Nottingham South
Café 2U Yeadon & Guiseley
Coolaboola Coffee
(Three of course
are vans, the fourth is a cart at Jesmond station in Newcastle, with
a high reputation, and entrants in the UKBC, I think)
And you'll enjoy
this - it's the first viewing of the UKBC / WBC logo for the London
event next year. What do you think it is?
25th June -
Java Republic, the
Irish roaster with a particularly strong interest in sustainable
practices, both at the farm end and in its own roastery, has
expansion in mind and is seeking new distributors.
The company is inviting potential distributors to visit its new
‘brand house’ roastery in Dublin. The company tell us that it ‘now
wishes to build on its success in the UK by issuing an open
invitation to the trade to exploring an exclusive distributorship
for the UK and Europe for our range of foodservice and retail
coffee, teas and hot chocolate. We have a strong brand and believe
that we are now perfectly positioned to grow the brand globally.’
When we enquired about
Java Republic’s recent distribution arrangement with First Choice,
we received the polite reply: ‘First Choice and their team did an
excellent job in helping us to build brand awareness in the UK. We
will still continue to work with them in terms of our equipment, but
we are looking for a new distributor.’
*
We have some more
details of the line-up of speakers for the Allegra Strategies event
in Vienna, on October 9.
A particularly interesting addition to the speakers’ list is
Instaurator, Author of The Espresso Quest, former head of the
WBC, and generally regarded as one of the world intellectuals on the
matter of espresso. We have politely (I think!) enquired of
Allegra how the Europeans are going to take to being told about
espresso by an Australian, but it should certainly be fascinating.
We also now know that John Derkach, MD of Costa, is going to speak,
as is Gerry Ford, founder of Caffe Nero.
*
Despite what the
national press has suggested, McDonalds has no immediate plans to
open its McCafe subsidiary in the UK.
Plans to develop the concept across Europe were followed by such
British press reports as (from the FT): ‘the fast food chain is
planning to open 1,200 McCafes across Europe, including Britain…’.
And the pub trade paper Morning Advertiser (yet another for which we
used to work!) devoted an entire story to the threat this posed for
pubs’ business in coffee.
However, Vicki Fuller
of McDonalds’ European office in Munich told us: “The
UK market has no immediate plans to open McCafé. The coffee strategy
is to continue to grow the successful platform of espresso based
coffees sold at McDonald’s.”
*
We can confirm that
the acquisition of Metropolitan Coffee by Café do Brasil, the
Italian producer of the Kimbo coffee brand, will result in a certain
change of emphasis for the London company.
Apart from the fact that it will now bid for larger contracts that
it could not handle before, Metropolitan will now become coffee-led,
and its machine business becomes secondary.
Metropolitan had
proposed to take on Kimbo as the next step in its plan to replace
the Segafredo coffee business, which ended when that company bought
its own UK outlet, Brodies of Edinburgh. In a curious parallel,
Café do Brasil decided to do exactly the same, and decided to buy
Metropolitan as its British base.
Metropolitan will keep
its own Integrity coffee, a British-roasted Fairtrade blend which
has performed well, and its new owner may use that coffee as its
entry into the Fairtrade markets which are developing elsewhere in
Europe.
However, Metropolitan
says that its interest in machines will now support its coffee
machines – “we will not now sell ‘only’ a machine to somebody, or
sell machines where our coffee is not involved,” says MD Angus
McKenzie. (Having said that, we are awaiting news of some domestic
and low-volume catering capsule machines which we hear the company
has sourced.)
*
Today is the royal
opening day of the UK’s remotest café
– the one at Cape Wrath lighthouse, which is run by John Ure, the
only resident of the area, at the most north-westerly point of the
UK mainland. Princess Anne will perform the opening, and while all
the other 2,000 customers a year are ramblers who reach it by an
11-mile walk, she will arrive by helicopter.
*
A useful little
publication has just been produced by Beyond the Bean
– it’s a timely set of recipes, hints and tips for hot-weather
business. It’s called Summer Drinks Sorted, and you can get
it from 0117 953 3522.
*
We’re entertained by
the latest episode in the ‘outside seating’ rows between cafes and
councils –
at Stanley Park in Blackpool, forty protesters sat on the steps of
the café, and some brought their own chairs, after the council
removed the café’s outdoor seating, claiming non-payment of licence.
*
We’re equally
entertained by having been in touch with Winter,
the man the international press describe as a ‘Starbucks obsessive’,
for being on a quest to visit every branch of the chain across the
world – he’s just arrived in the UK. Personally, the editor
thinks that the Starbucks theme is simply a convenient one to allow
Winter to travel the world, because his ‘blog’ says remarkably little in detail about the chain.
However, we did enjoy
his answers to some of our questions – briefly, he reckons that the
London Starbucks tend to be ‘messier’, and in particular he doesn’t
care for the toilet facilities in some of them (we’ve written about
that ourselves, in the past). By comparison, he reports that
suburban American stores are ‘spotless’. He has been particularly
approving of two attractive stores – the café at the lock-keeper
house on the canal at Camden, and one at Castle St, Dalkey, Ireland,
which he rates as ‘the prettiest’.
Winter says that
Starbucks’ British baristas are equally knowledgeable as their
American ones, but sees a difference in demeanour and courtesy: ‘the
biggest difference is the fact that the UK is part of the EU, and
these Starbucks are staffed by a much higher percentage of
non-British than American stores are staffed by immigrants. For
example, I've noticed less smiling from the Eastern Europeans - in
fact, there was an article a while back about how Russian baristas
had to be trained on how to smile more.
‘In the level of
courtesy, if we are just talking about native Brits vs native
Americans (non-immigrants), I would give a slight edge to the Brits.
I do perceive the English as being more polite than Americans.
Overall I've been more well-received in Britain – in America, they
treat me at arm’s length.’
Having said that,
Winter’s blog does blast some London stores for lack of knowledge of
their chain in general: ‘I have experienced the pain that is trying
to deal with Starbucks baristas on the phone - they're getting paid
for their time, and yet they can be so incredibly rude if I ask them
to do something as simple as try to remember if a store is closed on
a Thursday, or was it a Friday. How hard can it be to keep baristas
well-informed? And where in the training manuals does it say that
it's okay to talk to a customer on the phone like he had just killed
your parents. Seriously, the hate is just dripping off these
people's voices. I mean, if you don't want to deal with customers
don't freakin' work for a coffee company.’
If you care to read
the whole thing, it’s at
http://www.starbuckseverywhere.net/Log_2009_05_11.htm
*
We have also had some
fun with the news that Nestlè
Professional, which is in charge of
Nescafe, has sponsored (wait for it) one
of Europe’s fastest rollercoasters,
at Thorpe Park. This is the one that goes 250ft vertically from
zero to 80mph in two seconds. We have suggested that invitations
to the café trade might be in order…
20th April
World barista
champion – an inspiration for the high street?
The victory of
Gwilym Davies in yesterday’s World Barista Championship is a
triumph for not just the British coffee trade, but the everyday
coffee trade, and it should be an inspiration to every
high-street barista.
Gwilym, who runs a
coffee-cart business in two east London street markets, took the
world title by a mere three and a half points, beating the
desperately-unlucky Sammy Piccolo of Canada, who has been very
near to becoming the world’s top man on several occasions now.
Gwilym’s success would have been by a wider margin, had he not
run seventeen seconds over his allowed time, incurring a very
heavy points penalty – but he still won. The American entry
came third by one single point, and the well-regarded Irish
contestant, Colin Harmon, scored an admirable fourth.
The casual
professionalism of Gwilym, a likeable street coffee-cart
operator in waistcoat and flat cap, is a wonderful antidote to
the self-importance of some international baristas in recent
years, which led to the derisory title of ‘rockstar barista’ (a
status which our last champion, James Hoffmann, notably
criticised as soon as he took his world title!)
In the opinion of
this magazine, it is ideal for us to have a quite literal ‘man
in the street’ world champion to inspire every other high-street
barista in this country, at this very point in the UK’s coffee
story - because next year the world championship comes to
London, and we know that the UK championship organisers
desperately want the entire cafe trade to be inspired by the
prospect.
This could be the
start of a great year for the British coffee trade.
In winning in
Atlanta, Gwilym did carry off tactics which scared the daylights
out of us, and could well have backfired – to have given the
judges the choice of how they wanted him to create his signature
drink could have been dangerous for several reasons, but Gwilym
carried it off with such disarming charm that the trick won
universal approval. Equally, to have said casually that he
didn’t care about being seventeen seconds over time so long as
he served the drink the way he wanted to, could have raised a
few hackles… but again, he carried it.
As yet, we have
seen no reports in the international press (we don’t count the
Mirror’s cheap sideswipe at the contest last week) but
first reaction from the US was gracious: an American barista
trainer contacted us overnight to say: “The
scores were not very high, at least compared to the American
regionals, but the best man definitely won.
”Congratulations, to the UK for producing a culture of coffee
excellence in such a short time. You have really gone from 0-60
in no time. That is wonderful.”
A message from Steve Penk, the
Briton who takes over the chair of the WBC from now, said
simply: ‘the legacy continues…’ !
We now look
forward to the trade in general making the most of the year’s
run-up to WBC 2010 – and if we might make the point again, now
is the time for companies in the trade to start planning how to
make the most of an incomparable promotional opportunity.
(Meanwhile, the
editor is taking some ribbing at home for the miserable nature
of his predictions in this year’s contest. He tipped Maxine
Beardsmoore for the UK title, and Sammy Piccolo for the world –
in his defence, the editor points out that both came second, and
would therefore have been a money-saving each-way bet.
Apparently, at one stage last week, Gwilym was 13-1 at
Ladbrokes).
*
The latest planning
argument has been to the High Court, where Caffe Nero has been
told to close its café in Epping high street. That café
opened in 2006, allegedly without permission, and the local
council claimed that it went against their balance of retail and
catering outlets, and attempted to enforce a closure. When the
matter finally reached the High Court, Justice Proudman backed a
previous report by a government planning inspector which agreed
that Epping high street already had too many non-retail shops.
The local paper has today quoted Caffe Nero’s finance director
Ben Price as saying he was disappointed at the decision but not
shocked, adding: “I find it hard to fathom the motivation of
the council. No-one’s going to buy that unit now we’re in the
middle of the worst financial crisis in 70 years. We get over
2,000 customers a week and I can’t see how it’s good for the
high street for us not to be there.”
*
In the north, Pumphreys of
Newcastle has been quoted in its local press today as saying
that it is experiencing a boom in coffee machines and café
equipment, with more people looking to open up cafes. Stuart Lee
Archer of the company has told us that the local paper’s
description of ‘a caffeine-fuelled sprint into a Continental
cafe-style culture’ exaggerated the situation, but that he has
indeed seen more incidence of newly-unemployed people taking the
chance to become their own boss, by using redundancy payments to
follow the dream of opening a coffee-shop or tea-room.
*
There has been a
certain lack of enthusiasm in the marketing press for Costa’s
new poster campaign, in which the brand says ‘the people have
voted’, and ‘sorry Starbucks, seven out of ten prefer Costa’.
The campaign is based on some
research carried out in November and December, in which taste
tests were carried out at neutral venues positioned close to
branches of Costa, Starbucks and Caffe Nero. Runners were sent
to each store and brought back camouflaged cappuccinos for taste
tests.
The result, says Costa, was
that seven out of ten customers who described themselves as
‘coffee lovers’ preferred Costa’s cappuccino to Starbucks, and
more or less the same figure preferred Costa to Caffe Nero;
Costa claims that its cappuccino was also preferred by those
who stated themselves to be regular customers of the other two
brands.
Marketing
magazine, sounding a little unimpressed, said: ‘One of the
clearest hints that a market is maturing is an inability to find
consumers new to the segment… Costa's campaign certainly seems
to suggest that new custom is harder to come by.
‘Using advertising to knock a
competitor is a strategy that is often criticised by experts who
believe it serves only to weaken a sector and cheapen the brand
involved.’
However, Marketing also
suggests the economic downturn will bring a rise in such
marketing techniques in the coffee sector.
Elsewhere, Costa has done a
two-year deal with Hilton hotels, but is also up against a
two-day public enquiry in Beverley, over a branch opened without
change-of-use permission. The company lodged a retrospective
application, the East Riding councillors rejected it, and Costa
appealed. One councillor has said that the town’s local plan
quite specifically states that the shopping area is not for
cafes and restaurants; Costa has said that it has demonstrably
proved itself a benefit to the community.
*
A curious reaction to another
planning row, this time in Skegness, has shown unexpected
support for the café applicant. The Cancho Coffee Company
applied for change-of-use in an area designated as ‘retail’, but
councillors said that the current economic situation provided
extenuating circumstances, and allowed the application.
*
Quality Espresso, owner of the
coffee-machine brands Futurmat, Italcrem, Mairali and Visacrem,
has made a major move towards solar power. It has mounted 646
solar panels on one section of the roof of its 17,000 sq.m.
factory in
Barcelona,
and says that for an investment of £ 650,000, it has created a
100-kilowatt plant which will cover 60 per cent of the company’s
electricity costs. Only ten per cent of the available roof area
has been used, and it is expected that the company will increase
its use of solar power in due course.
*
The BB’s Coffee & Muffins chain
has revived the Mr Men, the childrens’ characters which became
well known on TV and through best-selling books. The characters
will be used under license from next month, on a childrens’
menu, a special book, a meal box, a kids’ meal deal and a
choccacino drink, and a series of character appearances. BBs
says that compared to rival chains, its customer base has shown
a noticeable increase in families with children.
*
The Scandinavia Cafe in
Luton
was the subject of an annoying theft this week – the owner,
Teresa Palermo, decked the exterior with flags for St Patrick’s
Day. Somebody stole the lot.
*
We’re used to reporting
beverage-spill stories, but not so costly as this one –
Buckingham
Palace
has had an entire new 156ft carpet laid in the Queen’s Picture
Gallery, and on the second day it was down, a footman spilled
tea on it. The repairs cost £60,000.
*
BikeCaffe has been quick to
capitalise on the news that our new
UK
barista champion is a cart operator – the company is promoting
franchises on its bike-based coffee stalls. The bikes are
Scandinavian, rather like old-fashioned delivery bikes, but are
re-built to hold an
Astoria
lever machine. The coffee is Integrity, from Metropolitan.
Details:
www.bikecaffe.com
*
We have learned of another
franchise opening arising in a fascinating location - the Celtic
Tree Tearooms at Finlaystone country estate, on the banks of the
Clyde.
The contact is Barbara MacMillan (bam@finlaystone.com)
and the venue can se seen at
www.finlaystone.co.uk.
The estate produces its own crops of organic fruit and veg and
is committed to sustainable forestry methods. They expect around
65,000 visitors per year.
*
We congratulated Youri Vlag’s
Absolute Coffee on its first birthday last week, but didn’t know
that it coincided with another one – Peter James, the roaster at
James Gourmet Coffee in Ross on Wye, tells us that last week he
notched up ten years in business.
11th March:
The small British tea
house which was threatened with legal action by a giant German
company over its use of a teapot logo has won its case.
The Tea Box in
Richmond, Surrey, made national news when it became known that the
global Teekanne group had threatened it – the whole idea of a
teapot logo being forbidden to a British company was generally
considered nonsense, but the german giant continued with its case.
However, an expert
company in intellectual property law, Withers & Rogers, has
contested the action, and has now received an indication from the UK
Intellectual Property Office that the German company’s case would be
unlikely to win. On hearing this, Teekanne has withdrawn its case.
Mark Armitage, trade
mark attorney at Withers & Rogers, said: “It is great to have been
able to help this small independent British business successfully
counter a claim, which most people viewed as unreasonable and
heavy-handed.”
*
Today, 11th
March, is the first birthday of Absolute Coffee, the company started
in Yorkshire by barista trainer Youri Vlag.
To celebrate, the company is offering one-kilo bags of its Absolute
Espresso blend free to British coffee shop owners – the coffee is
available to the first twenty café owners who call 01142 997 994,
today, and use the reference 'Boughton's' .
No sooner had we reported this than Peter from James'
Gourmet Coffee of Ross-on-Wye got in touch to say it was his
company's tenth birthday!
*
We have two
notifications of coffee bar managers being required – one in
Preston, one in Truro. Respond
to the editor, please, and we’ll pass them on.
*
A curious warning has
been given by the fire brigade after a Yorkshire café was damaged by
fire.
The Coffee Evolution coffee shop in Huddersfield was
damaged inside by the fire which started in the early hours of
Wednesday morning. The fire brigade said that the fire started after
cloths soaked in linseed oil which had been used to treat work
surfaces spontaneously combusted in disposal bins – they warned
caterers to be careful of such things.
*
Volunteers are still required by the Shelter from the Storm charity
for the homeless in Islington
– the charity had its new premises officially opened by actor Pete
Postlethwaite on Saturday. Anyone who cares to lend a hand, contact
Louie Salvoni at Espresso Service.
*
Java Republic in
Dublin has won an enviromental sustainability award for small firms
in the Republic of Ireland.
*
Roger Cobb, formerly
of Bunn, has been appointed Area Manager for Fetco Corporation with
responsibility for Europe, Middle East & Africa.
Fetco are based in Lake Zurich, Illinois, and also have a plant in
Poland manufacturing the full range for the European market. Roger
told us: |”I am thrilled to be associated with Fetco as they are the
most innovative filter coffee equipment manufacturer in the World,
having pioneered their patented pulse brewing technology, off heat
thermal technology and their latest innovation, the cascading spray
dome.”
3.30pm, Wednesday 4th March:
The UK barista championship was won
this afternoon by Gwilym Davies, who
operates a coffee cart in London
Second - Maxine Beardsmoore of the
Bottle Kiln
Third - Tristan Stephenson
Gwilym also won best signature drink and best espresso,
and Maxine won best cappuccino.
*
And the other big news is that the
World Barista Championship will be held in London in 2010.
27 Feb:
An independent estate agent in
Tooting, south London, has begun selling coffee in the hope of
survive the slump in house sales. Walker Wyatt of Tooting Bec
said: “coffee is one of those things which as yet hasn’t been
touched by the recession.”
Two England rugby players, Matt
Stevens and Lee Mears, have opened a coffee house in Bath. It
is called Jika-Jika, which means twist or turn in Zulu, one of the
languages spoken in Stevens' native South Africa.
The final sponsor of the BSA’s
Bev-e café awards for 2009 will be Huhtamaki, which has selected
a category relevant to its own product of takeaway cups – it’s
sponsoring the mobile/cart section. (The Yorkshire press today is
having a go at a previous Beve winner, the Roundhay in Leeds, which
is accused of being unfriendly to mothers with baby-buggies)
18th Feb:
The winner of this
afternoon’s northern regional event in the UK barista championships
was Luke Tariq Lamb, of Rhode Island, the five-strong north-western
chain. We
believe he is from the Bolton shop. Second place went to
another notable company building a reputation – Matthew Lynch of
Artisan Roast in Edinburgh. Third was Gill Campbell of Tinderbox.
*
We have what
we think to be satisfactory, if unofficial, confirmation that the
latest senior member of the trade to leave his job is Jim Harding of
La Cimbali – he was managing director there for five years,
but we think worked for the company for well over a decade. The
company today advised us that the UK branch is currently being run
by a member of La Cimbali’s Italian head office.
*
17th Feb:
Starbucks
has today confirmed the launch of a new product already hinted at in the
American press – it is moving into soluble coffee, which will be sold
for the first time in Starbucks London stores on March 25th.
Speaking to Coffee House magazine, Starbucks UK managing
director, Darcy Willson-Rymer, and Anthony Carroll, Starbucks manager of
green coffee quality, said that the product uses a new manufacturing
method, and is intended to replicate the taste of the ‘brewed’ (or
‘filter’) coffee sold in Starbucks cafes.
The product
is a powdered soluble coffee packed in 2.3gm sachets, and sold in
flip-top boxes of a dozen sachets. In the UK, the product is to retail
at £1.20 for three sachets, or £3.95 for a box of twelve.
Although
the product is intended for retail sale, Starbucks acknowledges that it
has seen the vast potential for making its branded soluble coffee
available through thousands of ‘tin-and-spoon’ catering outlets, and
also through instant coffee vending machines – however, it is understood
that catering packs do not yet exist.
The product
is called Via, a name which is partly a nod to the person who originally
devised the idea, the late Don Valencia.
The product is
said to have long been a pet project of Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz,
although some doubt does surround the history – the Via packaging says
that the process took 35 years to develop, but it is barely 30 years
since Howard Schultz joined the company, and the three original founders
were filter-coffee enthusiasts.
According to
Darcy Willson-Rymer, the story probably starts in the late 1980s.
“The
story goes that a customer, Don Valencia, went into Starbucks and took
some brewed coffee home, where he dried it so that he could take it
camping. He went back with what he’d done and got the store manager to
taste it – the manager called Howard Schultz and said ‘you’ll never
guess what this customer’s done…’ Eventually Howard Schultz hired Don
Valencia.”
The
manufacturing method now being used is partly the accepted method of
making instant/soluble coffee, with an added twist. Starbucks has
acknowledged that it is working with a known maker of soluble coffee,
and also that its method is the spray-drying one, which allows for a
powdered result.
“The process
is that we take Starbucks brewed (filter) coffee, concentrate it and dry
it,” Anthony Carroll told Coffee House. “The patent-pending part
is the ‘microground’ coffee – essentially, after the drying of the
brewed coffee, we add more of the same coffee, which has been ‘microground’.
This powder is finer than an espresso grind.
“You will
notice that, unlike most soluble coffee, a little sediment remains in
the cup, as you would expect with a filter coffee. This is the
suspended solid matter, which gives the coffee its body.”
A leaked
Starbucks email ten days ago said that its two types of the instant
coffee ‘will absolutely replicate the taste of Starbucks coffee’. The
goal, says Anthony Carroll, is to match the typical high-roast Starbucks
taste of its Italian Roast, given the additional tag ‘extra bold’, and
its Colombian medium filter coffees.
“If you were
to go into a Starbucks store and have a cup of brewed Italian Roast or
Colombian, that is the taste we have been looking to replicate,” says
Anthony Carroll. “Our expectation for the Italian Roast is of
sweetness, good body, but dark-roast depth and roundness. Our
expectation for the Colombia is of some acidity and a nutty complexity
in the finish. This one is more about ‘taste of origuin’ than ‘taste of
roast’.
“The quality
requirements of the green bean are exactly the same as for our filter
coffee.”
There is a
generally accepted description of instant coffee in the British coffee
trade, which says that instant coffee is a nice, comfortable warm
beverage, but is a different beverage from ‘real’ coffee. Howard
Schultz is expected to launch the product in the States by saynig that
the coffee market is ‘ripe for disruption’, and the British managing
director says that this relates to changing the image of soluble coffee.
“He
means that this is a multi-billion dollar market which has had no recent
innovation,” Darcy Willson-Rymer told Coffee House. “The
whole notion is to bring a completely different coffee into the
category. We are talking specifically about bringing the Starbucks taste
to coffee on-the-move, and portability is a great opportunity for coffee
– I go camping, and my wife always objects when I try to pack a
cafetiere! This is an opportnuity to bring a branded product to a new
place.”
He was asked
by Coffee House magazine about the potential for the catering market,
and whether 20,000 greasy spoons and roadside caffs up and down the UK,
all of whom have relied on cash-and-carry tin-and-spoon coffee, could
now legitimately become Starbucks outlets?
“This is a
fantastic idea!” he replied, sounding slightly taken aback. “We’re not
doing catering packs yet, because it wasn’t in our plans.”
Equally, when
asked about the massive potential for Starbucks branded soluble-coffee
machines in offices, factories, petrol stations, and railway stations,
he replied: “This wasn’t in our plans either, but we are aware of the
potential, and will be evaluating it.”
*
Caffe Culture
advise that they have now sold 78 per cent of the space available for
this year’s show – or, to put it another way, they have 22 per cent
left.
*
It is
confirmed that the Coffee @ chain of London is in administration; the
administrators are Baker Tilly of Watford, who have not replied to our
enquiries about what they intend to do with the business.
*
12th February:
Two more regional
results from the barista championships:
in the Midlands yesterday,
Maxine Beardsmore
of the Bottle Kiln won with a very high score, but even so was followed
closely by David Olenjik of Coffee Community. Third place was a
first-time competitor, Carl Fleischer from Rotherham College. Maxine’s
win follows our prediction that this year might be the time for one of
the experienced competitors who have come so close in recent years,
notably Maxine herself and Neli Petkova of Belfast.
Meanwhile, the south-western regional was won by a ‘privateer’, an
independent entrant, and thereby hangs a slightly incestuous tale. The
winner,
Tristan Stephenson,
works for the drinks giant Diageo, but used to be bar manager at Jamie
Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant in north Cornwall. Just up the road is
Wadebridge, and Hugo Hercod’s deli, Relish. Last year the two of them
most certainly worked together to some degree – and of course Hugo ended
up UK champion, with Tristan a finalist. At one point, Tristan had an
assistant at Fifteen called Jack Hudspith; guess where he now works?
Right, at Relish with Hugo. And in the south-western heat, Jack has now
come second behind Tristan.
Asked whether the Cornish mafia is now proposing to might of Northern
Ireland, which has become famous for its competition baristas, Tristan
replied: “yeah, Wadebridge baristas are going to take over the world!”
To which Se Gorman of Krem in Belfast has responded that Neli’s regional
win has now given his café five British finalists in a row, and that
“this is going to be our year”.
This could be an interesting final…
*
Jeffrey Young at Allegra is running a UK Coffee Summit in London on May
19th, the day before Caffe Culture opens.
Speakers include some fellows with opinions - the UK MD of Starbucks,
Marco Arrigo of Illy/Eurofoodbrands, Gary McGann (now of Beyond the
Bean), the food director of Pret a Manger, and barista champ James
Hoffmann. Asked what would be the difference between this and his
symposium last year, Jeffrey replied: “a complete focus on the UK, more
time for debate and discussion, less overt selling, and a cheaper price
to make it more accessible.” Details - 020 7691 8836
*
Talking of the world champion of 2007, James Hoffmann, we see that this
week he unveiled the prototype of a new coffee machine in Dublin.
As we understand it, James had an idea for a kind of filter-brewer which
would give consistent control over water temperature: “In my head I had
a basic idea for a water font with a built in temp display and mixer
between boiling water and cold,” he told us. When he told Marco
Beverages of Dublin about it, their Paul Stack responded that he would
build one – and the prototype now exists. We hope to feature it
in our next issue (in two weeks time)
*
Coeliac UK, the national charity that supports people with coeliac
disease, tells us today it is planning its latest campaign, ‘Free for
Tea?’ Expect a campaign centred on cafes and tea-rooms, arguing the
case for gluten-free menus.
5th February -
Bunn has now confirmed (at last!) that the new UK/Ireland sales manager
for Bunn is David Locker, previously national accounts manager for Marco
Beverage Systems.
He joined Marco in April 2007 from Mantaya, which means that Mantaya has
now indirectly supplied Bunn’s last two senior appointments. Marco’s
managing director Drewry Pearson has graciously said that he wishes
David well, adding mischievously: ‘so long as it is at the expense
of…’ (and we’ll edit out the name of the competitor company!)
*
McDonald's has reported this week that while 2008 was its record year in
the UK, its coffee performance was a particular star – chief executive
Steve Easterbrook has been quoted as saying that a comparatively minimal
investment of a "few thousand pounds" in espresso machines has grown
his coffee sales by ten million drinks over the 2007 performance.
*
An American company has entered a national inventors’ competition with a
printer which uses an ink made from spent coffee grounds. The central
feature of the machine is something rather similar to an inkjet
cartridge, but filled with coffee.
*
An investors’ network in the USA has produced a fairly well-argued
report saying that Starbucks has got its latest strategic move seriously
wrong. The report follows Starbucks’ announcement that it will produce
‘breakfast pairings at attractive prices’, which is seen as a deliberate
attack on one of McDonalds’ major markets in the States. The report
calls this a very obvious ploy on Starbucks’ part, and asks why the
coffee chain is bothering – it argues that appealing to a fast-food
clientele is simply going to ‘further alienate’ the traditional
Starbucks customer. Meanwhile, a British writer for Times Online has
suggested that if Starbucks is not careful, it could even go the way of
the Lyons Corner Houses…!
*
The juice company Frobishers has issued a statement saying that its
service will not be affected by Sunjuice, which has packed many
Frobishers products, going into administration. Frobisher’s commercial
director Ray Tyrrell says that he has a contingency plan in place to
ensure continuity of supply.
28th January
Trevor Hyam of the Plan Café was the winner of the third regional
heat in the UK Barista Championships, held in Cardiff today.
Second was Dale Harris of First Choice Coffee, and we’re
particularly pleased to see that Lance Turner of Lavazza scored a
third – because he sent us a message last night saying ‘the
old-timer’s giving it one more go!’ Andrew Tucker of the machine
sponsor, San Remo, reports that the overall standard was high.
Barista championship gossip elsewhere suggests that although there
are many bright newcomers in the event, this could still be the year
of the experienced competitor… after Neli Petkova winning in
Belfast, we now see that a new entry in the Midlands is from Maxine
Beardsmore of the Bottle Kiln – a prize-winning barista from a
prize-winning café. We think that a significant entry. Elsewhere,
an independent entry has arrived from Tristan Stephenson, former
barista for Jamie Oliver; and we now hear that UK champ Hugo Hercod
is closing his entire business so that everyone can go and cheer on
his entry in the south-west, Jack ‘Barista Boy’ Hudspith.
(We also hear, very quietly, that although the reigning champ didn’t
enter this year… he may be back next time!)
*
The south-western heat is on at the Expo West show on 3 & 4
February. We do hear that something unusual is to be found at the
Origin Coffee stand there – it’s the first produce from their new
roastery called, believe it or not, In Season. The importance of
this is that west-country buyers are more conscious of local produce
that anyone else in the UK – so ‘roasted in Cornwall’ is being put
forward as a significant marketing point.
*
Elsewhere, we recommend this for anyone who enjoys a good complaint
about food – we don’t usually circulate these things, but you’ll
enjoy the letter written by an aggrieved passenger to Richard
Branson, about Virgin airline food. It’s here: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/blog/editors_corner/article/11975/
*
In the States today, the Wall Street Journal, no less, reports that
Starbucks has instructed its store managers not to hold stocks of
brewed decaffeinated filter coffee after mid-day – they are wasting
so much in the afternoon that baristas must now only brew decaf ‘on
demand’.
*
Back on championships, Marc-Pierre Dietrich tells us that five Brits
have now been passed to judge in the world championships – himself,
Annette Moldvaer, Stuart Hargie, John Sherwood, and James Robertson.
20th January NEWSFLASH
 
McGann
(left) & Rogers
In one of
those gloriously unexpected stories which makes reporting this trade so
fascinating for us, the former chief of a major trade wholesaler has
joined his former rival – Gary McGann, who was managing director of
Espresso Warehouse until a month ago, will become sales and marketing
director of Beyond the Bean on February 2nd.
This move
follows Gary McGann’s surprise departure from his previous position in
December, the result of Matthew Algie’s strategic decision to bring
Espresso Warehouse, which had hitherto operated as a standalone
business, under the direct control of the main roasting operation.
Jem
Rogers, managing director and owner of Beyond the Bean, has said today:
“I’m sure this will come as a surprise to many people in the industry
due to the competitive nature of our business history - however we have
always kept in touch and shared coffees at trade shows in the past.”
Gary
McGann has told us: “I’ve always had fun being in contact with Jeremy –
as they say, you must keep your customers close, but your competitors
closer! And the competitive element was very good, because Jeremy kept
upping the ante, which meant I kept having to respond.
“Anyway,
better the devil you know…!”
Jeremy
Rogers has said that Beyond the Bean’s recent rapid growth had made it
clear that he would need to recruit someone of high calibre, and McGann
became available at a convenient point.
Gary
McGann has confirmed that he will continue his work on the board of the
SCAE and as an ambassador for Coffee Kids. He is also compering the
Scottish heat of the barista championships.
Our home page news section has sometimes been allowed to grow to
ridiculous lengths... we're going to try and keep it in check.
Items more than a few weeks old will now go to
the news archive. Now, that is an immense file... it goes back to 2003!
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CURRENT HOT TOPICS:
COFFEE HOUSE - THE TOP
PAPER!
The research
company Allegra, which specializes in restaurant, café and catering
data, has surveyed 200 independent coffee-house owners about the current
and future trade situation. One question was about the trade’s main
ways of obtaining industry news – and Coffee House magazine came top!
Another question asked about operators’ ways of finding new suppliers…
well, we didn’t mind being the second most important website, when the
top one was Google. And we didn’t mind not coming top in the magazine
section of this ‘suppliers’ question, either – because the top one was
Caterer and Hotelkeeper, and we write a great amount of their beverage
news.
*
Great Taste Awards 2008
This year's tea and
coffee winners are listed
here
*
The coffee sector research consultancy Allegra Strategies has produced
its online survey form for its first research into the British
independent café sector.
Allegra’s Jeffrey Young tells us that the new work is
intended to give detailed insight into market growth, consumer trends,
and best practices.
Allegra say that the survey should take only ten minutes to complete,
and it's here -
www.allegra.co.uk/indcoffeehouse
The main
report will be published mid-September. It will be available to
Boughton’s Coffee House subscribers for a discounted price of £360 + VAT
(Normally £395). All participants get a free summary copy.
*
OTHER HOT ISSUES -
The continuing inability
of local councils to make sense of the seats-outside-cafes situation.
See it
here.
and
The latest scalding
problem - what do cafe owners do?
See it
here.
See the
Great Ideas section
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