My New Commercial Coffee Venture

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My New Commercial Coffee Venture

Postby cleverdic » Wed Mar 10, 2004 7:48 pm

Well no it isn't really but please bear with me,

As you (hopefully) know, I am only an enthusiastic consumer of coffee. I do not have any commercial experience at all in the business except that I am lucky enough to own a (small) commercial single group head espresso machine and grinder. A friend of mine has invited, well pushed and cajoled, me into running a coffee stall indoors for 1 day on the 20th March at a local boat jumble he is organising in our village hall. It will run for maybe 6 hours. I've agreed and I'm approaching this venture firstly to have fun but I would really like to do it properly hopefully leaving any customers I have with the thought: mmmm.....that was the best coffee I've ever had. :lol:

So I'm now walking around trying to think this project through. I have no idea of the projected number of people that will coming to the jumble but my guess is that the customers will be the sort of people that are looking for a bargain in whatever they buy so I feel this sets the agenda for a number of decisions I need to make.

These are my thoughts so far,

I'll sell coffee only in quality 8oz paper cups with lids if requested
My list will comprise of

cappuccino
latte
mocha (my friend insists)
americano (the choice for anyone who just "wants a coffee")
espresso

I'll make all drinks with double shots since that's all I ever use at home.
If anyone does ask for an espresso, I'll offer them in an espresso cup otherwise it will be in the 8oz paper cup.


I'm working on the ratio of around 50 drinks per kilo of beans and 12 litres of milk. I'll supply sugar in bags for customers to help themselves.
I'll also offer a shaker to those customers that want sweet powder on their caps.

At this point, I'll work on a plan of 100 drinks but it will probably be much less.
I plan to roast my own beans since I have quite a stock to consume. This leads me into my first question; Can anyone suggest a suitable blend suitable for what will be predominantly milky drinks based on my current stock;

450g Columbia manizales supremo
650g Guatemala huehuetenango
700g Sumatra Lintong
700g Guatemala palencia peak
800g Brazil cacheoira
800g Ethiopian Mocca
1200g Indian Monsoon Malabar
1500g Java old brown

I've been trying out this following blend recently with good success;
50% Brazil
20% Ethiopian
20% Sumatra
10% Sulawesi
But I don't have enough beans for 2 kilos of this blend.

I don't plan to sell anything else since I just want to concentrate on the coffee this time. However, I have an idea to supply biscotti with each drink so I have been eyeing up Carolyn's recipe. :wink:

Back to the cups; I have only been searching today for cups but it seems that I can only buy min. quantities of 1000 economically. Does anyone know where I could get 8oz quality paper cups in lots of say 250?

What do I charge? Difficult to decide but I was thinking along the lines of 75p for the Americano and £1 for the caps and lattes and £1.10 for the mocha which leads me to another point. I haven't made mochas before :oops: and so I was planning to use that well known UK chocolate powder unless someone can suggest a better idea.

I'll be doing all the barista' ing at the event and I'll press gang my daughter into serving. At this point, the purpose is not even to make a profit. I'm happy enough to plan and enjoy the event and if I can cover my costs, thats good.

I would really appreciate friendly input from the group. Assuming it all goes ahead, I can post my progress with this venture with pictures and a summary report of the proceedings.


Richard
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Postby Raf » Wed Mar 10, 2004 7:52 pm

I can't offer any help - I'm useless in the planning department - but let me wish you the best of luck and be sure to keep notes for a fun article! And I'd stop by for a double ristretto if my budget would allow it (alas!). ;)
This week I am eagerly anticipating the first god shots from my La Spaziale machine....

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Postby flozza » Thu Mar 11, 2004 10:00 am

Make sure you charge what ever the going rate is for an 8 oz cup of coffee. Cups? No idea, maybe you have a friend that owns a coffee bar or something that will sell you some at cost?
Mocha use a good Drinking Chocolate powder with a high cocoa content table a heaped tablespoon mix it with just a little hot milk about 2 teaspoons or less so it become a thick silky paste then add to espresso top off with milk/cream
Roasting isnt my area of expertise, so I cant help you there.
Have fun and dont hurry yourself if/when you get busy let people wait
it just makes more people line up. (its a strange phenomena)They wont mind if they realise you are making effort to make a real good coffee
and enjoy yourself have fun with the customers...
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Postby cleverdic » Thu Mar 11, 2004 11:50 am

Flozza,
Many thanks for your description on preparing a mocha. I'll give it a go tonight.
If I get any sort of queue, I'll be delighted.

Richard
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Postby Steve » Thu Mar 11, 2004 11:50 am

Richard mail me I can deffinatley help with cups and blends and other stuff too. Cant answer all the questions at the moment as I'm roasting (can I smell burning ;) )and later I will have forgoten but drop me an email and I'll chat to you later on
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Postby Raf » Thu Mar 11, 2004 11:56 am

I forgot to say this but: don't forget to take pictures as well! (sorry, I'll get back to my corner and be good now)
This week I am eagerly anticipating the first god shots from my La Spaziale machine....

La Spaziale S1, Vibiemme Domobar (retd), Mazzer Mini Electronic, Behmor 1600 230V
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Postby phil » Thu Mar 11, 2004 11:57 am

Blending, roasting etc: this is grist to the mill for TMC. Please keep such things on-site if possible.

Cheers

Phil
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Postby Steve » Thu Mar 11, 2004 1:14 pm

Phil I wanted to talk to him about cups not take away content from TMC
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Postby alans » Thu Mar 11, 2004 2:06 pm

I'd put Macchiato and Ristretto on the list for two reasons, firstly Macchiati are my drink of choice, but more importantly it will immediatly tell people (who know a bit about coffee) that you know what you're doing. I'd also put "I only use fresh home roasted Coffee" or the like at the top of the list.

Unfortunatly I'm still new to blending, so no help there. As for the price I think it's important to charge the "going rate", if you're too cheap people will expect the coffee to be no good.

If it were me I'd also see it as a chance to get people interested in home roasting, so I'd have a roaster and some green beans on the table as a talking point, but that's just me ;)
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Postby cleverdic » Thu Mar 11, 2004 7:31 pm

Alans,
Thats a good idea, having green beans available for people to see. I could add Macchiato's but I'm not confident at all in my skills at Ristrettos and would probably screw it up. Considering the type of punters at this event, I think £1 for a coffee could be seen by some as too expensive. Its getting that balance right between setting a price that people will believe they are buying a quality product and putting people off as they don't want to spend that much on a drink.

I have a related question on Mocha's. I went to the local supermarket today and looked at Drinking Chocolate powder. Bearing in mind what flozza said about high cocoa content powders, our national UK favourite states on the side of the tin that is is basically cocoa powder (25%) and sugar with a little unspecified flavouring. However, Bourneville Cocoa powder is simply 100% cocoa powder. Why don't I make a powder up based say 50% Bourneville and 50% Caster Sugar? Much cheaper as well.

Off to make my first go at biscottis tonight.... before my wife comes in :P
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Postby flozza » Fri Mar 12, 2004 7:32 am

Drinking chocolate is different everywhere good point, after i said that i sent danny an email asking is drinking chocolate drinking chocolate over here...
so the advice i offer you is try mixing and see what tastes best....
im thinking add a little cocoa to the drinking chocolate, but make sure the cocoa does not make it bitter, generally mocha drinkers like their coffee fairly sweet.... hope this helps, all the best of luck....
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Postby flozza » Fri Mar 12, 2004 7:38 am

Drinking chocolate is different everywhere good point, after i said that i sent danny an email asking is drinking chocolate drinking chocolate over here...
so the advice i offer you is try mixing and see what tastes best....
im thinking add a little cocoa to the drinking chocolate, but make sure the cocoa does not make it bitter, generally mocha drinkers like their coffee fairly sweet.... hope this helps, all the best of luck....
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Postby flozza » Fri Mar 12, 2004 7:58 am

oh and drinking chocolate normally (well in australia anyway) has a VERY small amount of corn flour i think it aids in making it smooth and silky.....
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Postby peterj » Fri Mar 12, 2004 11:04 pm

If people have to adulterate a great cup of coffee, sugar being the first alarm bell- (for me) chocolate is a really odd area. What is it we mean by chocolate?? You could do worse than get some VAL RHONA or similar dry French styled/ produced chocolate. Less of the veggie fat, with sophistication.
With the Italian-esque thicker chocolate powders, l think there is potato or maize starch as corn flour is too good at cleaning out those kidneys...l wont elaborate and they weren't mine!!
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Postby moccafaux » Mon Mar 15, 2004 12:18 pm

Good Luck for you! As an "old Hand" behind the counter, selling stuff, my only kind of advise would be:
-stay cool, no matter how many customers and how much hectic around you,
-dont argue with anyone about your prices at the POS (point-of-sale).
Put something on the list noone outside italy has ever heard of, a "maroccino". Thats an espresso topped with foam. I like it, because its not as soft as a latte or a cappuchino, but smoothens the bitterness of the pure espresso a bit. great for those, who have not yet acquired the taste for the real thing (=espresso) but also wont have the coffee drowned in milk and sugar.
I wish I were with you that day!
chocolate+-----__0
coffee=-------- \ >;
myfuel------- (_)/(_)
_____________________________________________
Wo ich geh und steh brauch ich mein Kaffee........
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