Q&A Volume #2 - Creating a successful cafe, sales tactics and more
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ส.ค. 2024
- This is the second round, sorry I couldn't answer every question you asked. In this video I cover:
- Opening a speciality shop in a city with no speciality culture 0:33
- A pourover only coffee bar? 2:35
- How to offer more coffees to sample? 4:02
- A customer walks into a coffee shop... 5:19
- A home brewing beginners guide? 7:31
- What do I drink when not drinking coffee? 7:43
- A temp controlled domestic brewer? 8:46
- Podcasts and books? 9:11
- Roasting sales tactics 10:15
- A drone related, embarrassing question 12:12
Note: apologies for a couple of sound issues.
Additional links:
jimseven.com/2...
baristahustle....
"I'm scared to learn too much about tea..." Hoo boy, I feel you, buddy.
"I've always believed here that the goal is to grow the market; not slice it ever thinner "
If this was common business/economic philosophy the world would change for the better in so many positive ways it's almost unimaginable.
At the very core of this, people would become more focused on cooperating to create something better in the world to share as opposed to competing with each other to keep something to themselves. I mean, TH-cam and similar sites are just a recreational and only slightly financially tapped example of this.
"So if we don't grow the whole thing, then really we're all gonna struggle and we're all gonna suffer."
Truer words could not have been spoken.
Thank you so much much for helping to spread this thought process James 🙏🙏
On the other hand, in the economy we also need a bit of zero-sum competition, because that will benefit consumers by increasing efficiency and productivity and thus giving people more and better things. In the long run, everyone benefits from that. Cooperation between competing businesses is effectively collusion and is harmful to the consumer. So I would advocate for a productive, well-spirited competition. May the better roaster with the best practices win. Of course, big players shouldn't drive smaller ones out of the market unfairly, e.g., via price dumping, either.
This IS in fact the common economic philosophy, I'm sure you've heard of economic growth. However as the world is finite any new market will eventually become saturated and the growth will stifle. Nonetheless competition drives innovation and quality which means more value to the customer and better life for everybody. This process has been going on quite efficiently for a few hundred years and the results indeed have been almost unimaginable; we're all practically living like kings of olden times now.
I am not a fan of Starbucks for various reasons, but there have been many occasions where I would still choose to buy coffee there rather than a the specialty cafe nearby that I prefer simply because they have a bathroom and coffee is a diuretic. So if I'm not going home anytime soon I'm going to choose to get my coffee somewhere where I can use the toilet. Having to hold in your bladder really takes away from any good coffee experience.
Bravo James..... Bravo
That insight into the "new specialty coffe shop in town" is, the best segment of business related information ever shared
My first love is tea, always has been, and I had a similar but opposite fear of getting into coffee. Watching you has completely plunged me down the rabbit hole and I'm so glad, it has not been time wasted, in fact my life is better overall. I feel my level of tea learning had come to a point where I can understand what my tea experience will be like from fairly limited information, and so whilst I could spend yet more time delving into every tea there is, and experimenting with brew times, temperature, drying methods etc, I have plenty of excellent cups of tea all the time, and will continue to do so. I'd like to invite you to show some more interest in tea; if I'd had more time to prepare I'd have put a proposal forward to take over your channel in February 2021 to talk about tea, but I didn't. Don't let this put you off though, there is a whole new world of absolute joy to be had in tea. I'd like to recommend you read The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzō; even if you only read the first few chapters, it will be life changing. He describes finding the perfect tea leaves as having "creases like the leathern boot of Tartar horsemen, curl like the dewlap of a mighty bullock, unfold like a mist rising out of a ravine, gleam like a lake touched by a zephyr, and be wet and soft like fine earth newly swept by rain."
If that doesn't make you want to get out there and find those leaves, I don't know what will.
great video on cafe business. I especially liked your argument about the (lack of) added-value to pour-over coffee. thanks.
I live in a town of 10,000 with 3 cafes but they're all pretty bog standard. Starbucks, Art-Cafe, Bookstore-Cafe. We have the highest restaurant per capita in this state as we're an international university town with a large number of startups every year getting started here. I've been thinking of trying a specialty coffee cafe here and this video is very helpful, thank you.
That last question (ehem, the answer) got me! Two years ago, I flew my drone and after trying to get a sick cinematic shot, it struck a tree and fell into a forest on a steep hill 🤣
For me, pour over is a drink to have at home. I can make a good pour over myself, so why pay someone else to do it? What I can't do at home is espresso, and all the drinks that come from it. That's going to be the drink I will be happy to pay for.
I disagree my friend. Espresso can be done at home now with all the great equipment that's out there.
Pour over is more common at home, and easier to master, but doesnt necessarily mean every person that can do it does it right.
People perceive pulling well extracted shots of espresso as higher level of difficulty. I would argue that a well balanced and pour over coffee is more difficult. Getting the coffee to water ratio down... the speed in which pour... the proper coverage of your beans... the bloom time.... there's so many delicate parts involved
Espresso at home is for hobbyists. Quality will never be had easily without lots of understanding and expertise, much less in a cost effective way.
For me, paying for a pour over let’s me try a new coffee, which may lead me to buying a bag if sold there in the shop.
Also, part of it is watching the barista make the pour over. Something satisfying about it.
Fun point to the pour-over bar idea. Given that the idea of deconstructed foods are a bit of trendy way to serve food, Serving a customer a deconstructed pour over would be a way to approach a pour over bar. Where that labor cost is unlimitedly cut out on your end and transferred to the customers. Your marketing for the product could be that they are purchasing an experience -- much the same way that other high end restaurants will offer. The customer could receive the components to build their own coffee, pre-measured grounds, water and a brewing kit, as well as a story or an experience to go along with their high-end cup of coffee. Now, this would only ever work in a sit-down cafe and not a high volume cafe. At least, not unless you run your cafe like a restaurant. I also dont see great success when a cafe operates on exclusivity and doesn't diversify their menu. Not everyone shares a passion or a love of the same things you may share. Some people will always want their macchiato and will scoff at your bar if you don't offer what they would consider to be their perfect drink.
I great way to truly experience coffee, not in a niche 3rd wave way, is to travel the world, go to local markets in places where coffee is traditionally grown, where they have their own traditional brew methods. Places like India, south Asia, South America, Africa, latin America, etc. You'll meet a lot of great people and learn a lot about coffee that isn't necessarily specialty coffee. You can learn a lot about the social and economical impact that coffee has historically had on different regions of the world.
Idk about you guys, but to me, coffee is more than just a passion, or a favorite drink. Its literally a way of life. Its something that so many different cultures share and depend on all across the world and its a very unique business to be a part of :o
Anyways, ive some how blabbed on about coffee life style from a response to pour-over only bars lol. I think it would be a great FOCUS for a more sit-down cafe, but not an exclusive beverage.
Also, lol, why am i posting on a 3 year old post
That was brilliant James, very insightful sorry I didnt make it to your talk in Dublin recently.
"I'm scared to learn too much about tea. I can't cope going down another rabbit hole." LMAOOOO. That's why we coffee people are on the better side of the artisan beer industry. WE JUST DRINK IT.
That was great! Thanks James
great video and great drone piloting ;)
James All perfectly touched so far. & Next time you're in Germany be my Guest I will change your opinion about "Cocktails suck at the Bars". & Keep up the great Content and looking forward for the world's largest "Cupping-Tasting" . Cheers.
Love that little interaction with Colin. XD
Can you define "3rd wave"? For that matter, please define "specialty coffee". How is that different from whatever I normally drink?
Awesome piece, James
As far as pour over cafes, what about Philz coffee? They are based in the US, but have had great success as a pour over only style coffee house.
Last Q is the best closing point :D
Really enjoyed this Q&A.
You should visit Comins tea if you are ever in Bath.
Oh no... You're making me feel bad now for ordering pour over coffee so often. Well, really good V60 pour over is so hard to execute anyway, I mean It's relatively easy to execute perfectly serviceable cup of coffee, but when somebody nails the exact recipe for particular coffee, oh than you suddenly remember why you love coffee so much. I gues what I'm trying to say is that, I really like pour over coffee! ;)
If they offer it, don't feel bad for ordering it. A lot of places are doing inferior batch brew anyway. Batch should, theoretically, be more consistent and clearly makes sense for the cafe. There are increasing numbers of London cafes with great batch brew but still many whose brews are badly made, taste old or taste of the container. If I know the cafe I'm visiting has good batch brew, I'll order that but I wouldn't feel bad about ordering a pourover, maybe cafes should just consider charging more for them though.
Has to be about great STAFF!
Oh crap, I know that feeling of crashing the aircraft. Btw I am starting to like these q&a vids.
hi james, how do i know mexico is ready for this kind of specialty business ?
Saw a second edition Atlas on the Square Mile website? 1/2020.
I don't believe you answered @don_caballero's question (10:15) about sending free samples to coffeeshops. Roasters don't have much direct contact with the market, so how are they supposed to "grow the market"?
... James, enjoy all of your offerings tremendously... one small annoyance is the background music…It's really not needed… keep up your very good work, 🙏subscriber forever…
I totally agree with everything.
"That's a strange way of asking you for the drone footage, but whatever, nice factory. What's that about the 'you win' comment thought...? LOL you crashed it into a tree?! ... Wait, _that's_ what you meant, I get it now...."
I'm slow sometimes...
You mentioned in this video you were using the Breville coffee maker and would/might do a review of it. I have the same coffee maker and I would love to hear your comments about it. Still using it?
this video appearing in my recommendations worries me
maybe I am binging a bit too much
As a relatively recent Cafe Owner I really enjoyed this video, however as a long standing cocktail bartender, you're not going to the right cocktail bars! :-D Hopefully that has changed since the video is from 2018
hey james im a new coffee shop owner and ive been watching your videos for a little bit now and we havent yet decided on what type or brand of coffee we should brew. what would be some of your suggestions?
Obviously, I'm not James, and my response may not mean much, but I appreciate places that (so long as they are not roasting their own beans or partnering with a roaster) carefully curates the beans they use and rotate their roster of roasters frequently, at least for pour overs and single origin espresso. I think of places like Barista in Portland, OR (although they have started to roast their own), Sound & Fog in Seattle, WA, and Comet Coffee in St. Louis, MO. In my experience, they do a good job spotlighting excellent specialty roasters and they have introduced me to roasters that I have since ordered beans from for home brewing. Hope this is helpful. Good luck with your coffee shop!
I think a good local roaster is always a wise choice
3rd wave coffee?
We started our coffee shop in the small city, where the coffee culture just started growing, and we started with the specialty coffee, expensive equipment and all. By the time we working at, we find ourselves as a specific place with high quality service, as the consumers said. But we can't growing up, it means that the prices is quite high and people in that areas can't spend a lot of money for coffee per month. At this stage we got 2000 cups per month, and I would say that in our city lives about 200 thousand people. What do you think, is it quite enough or not so? Please, help us to understand it.
8:39 😂
dammit, at around 6:20 you made me lose the game
Is this guy 15 or 50?