welcome to the second edition of Q&A
this time it's an Instagram special I
throw up a little photo on Instagram and
ask people to comment below it asking me
a question and you asked a lot of
questions you asked more than 50
questions and I don't think we have a
chance to answer all of them but I'm
gonna answer some and I think there was
an interesting little theme to some of
those questions which I'm going to start
with now so an interesting question from
coffee by Joe how would you open a
specialty third-wave shop in a city that
hasn't been introduced to it yet a city
with coffee culture but not specialty
this is a really good question and an
interesting question this is a great
place to open first and foremost you can
look at things two ways you can say
there's no demand or you can see there's
no competition and I would definitely
see the latter there so how would I
introduce it to people well I would make
sure I start by speaking their language
if you just come in and start talking
about specialty in a way that makes you
seem very abstract and strange and
confusing and difficult then it's gonna
be hard people who aren't used to what
you do to get interested and get
involved in it so I think the key to
this is kind of two things separately
firstly I would want to look at what is
driving people to buy coffee in that
particular City what are the successful
cafes in that city doing well if it's
not quality what else are they doing
well so try and understand a little bit
of demand in the area and then secondly
approachability that might be in how you
talk about coffee that might be the
drinks that you serve that might be
considering price a little bit more
carefully though I don't think that's
the thing you should worry about the
most can someone come in buy a drink and
leave and not really have known they
were in a specialty shop they've just
gone to a cafe that they're like they
got a delicious cup of coffee
they enjoyed going there and they want
to go back the challenge is every
customer and when you open is probably
already buying coffee somewhere else
what are you gonna offer that's gonna
change their life
it's gonna change their route to work
it's gonna change how much they spend
it's gonna change maybe their morning
routine you're asking someone to make a
big change is
into your business what's your value
proposition and if it's just this coffee
is more traceable or if it's just this
coffee's a little bit sweeter that may
not be enough so you can't just focus on
the one thing you can't just focus on
cup quality there has to be an overall
experience that's very compelling and
have the cup quality and have the coffee
that you serve be a piece of that puzzle
Zac Atkinson asks UK cafe that
specializes in pour over is it too soon
for this to be desirable enough to make
a profit this is a challenging question
what is it about forever that you think
makes it particularly valuable is it
that it's brewed to order is it that
it's brewed in small batches is it that
it's somehow theatrical what is it that
makes this a compelling offering if it's
just a cup of coffee then why is it
better than batch brew and frankly often
it's not what is it about pour over that
makes you want to do this thing
pour over is incredibly difficult to
make profitable very quickly your labour
cost involved in having one person stand
and brew coffee and frankly do very
little else means that your your cup
price can very easily become
disconnected from the experience the
customer ultimately gets those eight
ounces let's say of delicious coffee
become unnecessarily expensive by adding
an enormous amount of labour to it if
you could achieve that same cup quality
with much lower labor costs and
therefore provide a more accessible
price and more accessible drink to the
consumer why is that not a better idea
I don't think a pourable bar in the UK
will ever be financially viable because
I don't think the premium that we add by
the the labour that we add really
returns on it with an improvement in the
cup quality a bourgeois asks the
question in many cafes there are a
couple of choices of brewed yet there
may be five to ten plus bags of coffee
of different coffees on the shelf how
can more choices be offered in the
future or is it even important
increasing choice is now given in all
other beverages served this is a great
question from Ed and it's absolutely
right you walk into a cafe that
generally have way more coffees
on retail than they will be offering you
to drink so how do you necessarily
connect what you're drinking with what
you want to buy or how do you understand
what it is that you're buying first and
foremost I think cafes need to be a
little bit more thoughtful about what
they're offering there are a spectrum of
experiences that should be reflected on
they're brewed coffee menu as well as in
their retail wall and I think connecting
those two things could be and should be
done a lot better I think what it also
comes down to is that we probably need
to be doing a better job in how we
merchandise bags of retail coffee we
need to do a better job of communicating
what it is the customers buying and how
it meets their particular needs and I
would argue we don't know enough about
what's driving consumers to pick the
bags that they pick and the kind of
experiences that they're looking for
I think there's huge opportunities for
learning to do retail better that Greek
fella asks the customer walks into your
coffee shop especially one and asks you
what sets you apart from the other
regular places where he drinks coffee
what do you answer how do you
communicate what you do to someone who's
not familiar and not really interested
in specialty coffee or whatsoever again
this comes back to something I touched
on earlier which is you know how we get
people engaged with our coffee shop
businesses and frankly if it's not going
to be about the coffee on the menu then
we have to look at everything else there
I don't believe a great cafe can get
away with just being about great coffee
has to be about great design has to be
about great aesthetic it has to be about
great experience there has to be
thoughtful from start to finish and if
someone walks in and gets all the way up
to the register all the way up to
ordering and they haven't worked out
something is different or something is
compelling or something is unique about
your business then you still have a lot
of work to do and actually talking to
them about coffee or anything else
you've already lost the game before this
point they need to understand that this
isn't a Starbucks this isn't a typical
run-of-the-mill space how are we
communicating now for a long time I've
used the example of restaurants when you
walk into a restaurant you've got a
pretty good idea of whether or not you
can ask for ketchup with your food and
that be acceptable nice white linen
tablecloths
flatware beautiful stemware that's going
to be a different kind of experience to
somewhere where you're gonna bus your
own tray cafes all look in many ways
very very very similar the way that you
walk in the way that you order the way
that you are greeted the way that you
wait for a drink before you leave the
way that in some cases you are expected
to clean up after yourself
all of this stuff sends a message if you
want to send a different message you've
got to understand those touch points
better finally I guess that there has to
be a conversation you can't find
something that resonates with a consumer
without asking them a little bit about
what's important to them to just tell
them what's important to you is a
one-sided monologue it's not a dialogue
you would need to talk to a coffee
drinker to understand what drives them
to choose the coffee they choose why
they go to the places they go to give
some context to your answer so that's
the other thing you need to have a
conversation a few quick ones
go pull Pat asked if I have any plans to
release a homebrew beginners guide no
not at this time it looks like Boris the
hustle are doing some interesting stuff
with education I would recommend
checking out I'll put a link in the
description down below
Luke V Davis asks when you're drinking
coffee what do you enjoy drinking one
cocktails I probably enjoy the cocktails
me and my friends make one I enjoy
drinking them at bars
I think cocktails in cocktail bars often
suck I love wine particularly natural
wines though I hate funky badly made
natural wines I like well-made wines
with low interventions and thirdly in
terms of beer I've gotten to be like a
boring old man and I really love
interesting beers but I have really
almost no interest in anything above 5 6
% alcohol like I just like lower alcohol
beers I enjoyed drinking them more and
so those are the kind of 3 things I'm
interested in the world of alcohol and
booze tea there's a company in the UK
called postcard teas who just Timm
sources amazing tea and every time I go
I just have the best tea experience if
you come to London please go and drink
tea there I'm scared to learn too much
about tea though I can't I can't cope
with going down another rabbit hole and
Tony pramana I hope that answers your
question - camera thumb trick asks the
question when will we see a domestic
filter Brewer with more adjustable
features like precise temp control or
flow-rate brew time there is one now I'm
kind of testing it at home it is from
Breville or sage it's that precision
grower you have you know one degree see
increments of control
tons of variation on brew time on bloom
time I will probably do a review of that
in the future I am really enjoying that
particular Brewer Archibald's asked
whatever happened to the podcasts the
Jim 7 podcast in a slightly different
format will be coming back so if you are
subscribed to the Jim 7 podcast from way
way way back in the day you get an
update I hope in the next month if
you're not subscribed there's a link in
the description down below
he also asked if there's any new books
in the works in terms of the Atlas
everyone hopes to get a 2nd edition I
have obviously slowly been working on on
that there's no release date for that or
anything like that but that's obviously
something I would like to get to that
would be a big success and a kind of
milestone for me aside from that no
other books I hope in the short term
writing is always harder than I think it
is I would also just like to devote more
time to writing from my blog again as
well as devote more time to this a few
different people have asked about
recommended reading lists I did write a
big long blog post on this I'll stick a
link to it down below it's the kind of
beginner's guide and a bunch of great
resources and books and all that kind of
stuff a tricky question don caballero
asks what do you think about sending
samples or free coffee to coffee shops
that are already working with other
Roasters and they have not asked for
them as some European specialty Roasters
are becoming bigger it is not unusual to
see their products being sent to any new
coffee shop that has an Instagram
account is it okay we are all playing in
the same market or is it the C market
tactic that goes against micro local
Roasters more than one person asked a
question like this inevitably we're a
growing industry and so your and Evan
we're gonna have competition as more and
more Roasters enter the market you know
more and more people are fighting for
market share and this is really at the
heart of it I've always believed that
the goal here is to grow the market not
slice it ever thinner
as new entrants come in and never to be
they are gonna win a piece of the
existing market and so if we don't grow
the whole thing then really we're all
gonna struggle and we're all gonna
suffer so I've believed that for a Rasta
the goal is really to to kind of bring
new cafes into specialty rather than
just a fight tit-for-tat
between other Roasters for the good
accounts out there because what I'm
interested in really is is longevity and
relationships you will be able to invest
more into a cafe with more support more
education potentially helping them out
with more equipment more coffee
if you feel is gonna be a return there
blanket sending out samples is is pretty
short-term thinking to me you might win
an account on price before they lose it
on price again in the future you might
win account by being the hot new thing
and you'll lose it again when someone
else is the hot new thing I believe it's
really about creating relationships and
growing the market we have to to get
more cafes serving great coffee rather
than just squabble over the small amount
in any city that are doing a great job
that's how long-term sustainability
happens and to finish the ever lovely
Colin Hartmann asks the question have
you ever flown your drone around the
novus Simonelli Factory yes Colin yes I
have you were there a little while ago
you and I went Italy we weren't spend
some time at the factory on some product
testing and the new building was almost
done and I thought I fly my drone and I
think what you really want me to do is
show this bit of footage so here you go
Colin you win
[Music]
no I wasn't told never put on the
Internet Hey all right that's today's
Q&A thank you for asking questions if I
didn't get to your question it may be
because I want to dedicate an entire
video to that topic in the future there
were some amazing questions in there
that I didn't get a chance to get to do
follow me on Instagram for the chance if
you want to ask you another question in
the future I'll probably do another Q&A
focused on there in the future thank you
so much for watching have a great day