Invitation only coffees - rmiguelcoffee.com

[HB]

Last month's poll posed the question "Have you purchased 'ultra premium' priced coffees for espresso?" What prompted it was the evidently growing popularity of truly premium/reserve/limited edition coffees on the market. When I think of unique and interesting coffees, Paradise Roasters is one of the first places that comes to mind. Today Miguel sent an e-mail to his customers announcing his latest venture, RMiguel:


Announcement and image posted with permission

EDIT: Updated picture.

I'm both scared and excited. Scared to find out (a) if I'm on the list, and (b) if I can afford it! And excited that the market is opening wide enough that such an undertaking is possible. Good luck Miguel!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I want to announce my new venture, R Miguel Coffee. This is the realization of a goal I have had for many years. My website is up now but has yet to have all areas filled out. http://www.rmiguelcoffee.com Much more content and info to come soon.

I am excited to be able to offer coffees that I have become very passionate about. Our first offerings from Panama will be available in a couple of weeks. I will still be serving as green buyer and roastmaster for Paradise Roasters for the foreseeable future. R Miguel will specialize in coffees so rare and exquisite that offerings will be limited to a small group of consumers. That is why I wanted you to know about this first.

Please add my email address for this new company miguel at rmiguelcoffee dot com to your address books and contact me there for anything regarding this company.

Thank you and keep your eyes peeled for some very exciting news to come soon!

R. Miguel Meza

[Bsouthard]

Can't wait to try these coffees!

[ppopp]

Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm sure that raising the awareness about ultra-premium coffees will encourage many growers and processors to improve their practices, and the trickle-down effect will probably mean better beans and processing for all of us.

On the other hand, this reeks of wine club-style snobbery. Especially with the words rare, exquisite and especially invited bolded in the announcement. Plus, I'm sure I'm not on his list. And that hurts my feelings

[Ken Fox]

Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm sure that raising the awareness about ultra-premium coffees will encourage many growers and processors to improve their practices, and the trickle-down effect will probably mean better beans and processing for all of us.

On the other hand, this reeks of wine club-style snobbery. Especially with the words rare, exquisite and especially invited bolded in the announcement. Plus, I'm sure I'm not on his list. And that hurts my feelings

Miguel is a great guy and has done a lot for high end specialty coffee.

At the same time, I think that this website, as currently designed, is not projecting the marketing concept in the best possible light. I think Miguel would do better with a different approach.

ken

[HB]

Ken, if you have specific ideas, feel free to share them here or directly with Miguel. The website has been tweaked closer to its final forum. As for the "exclusiveness", all you have to do to get invited is fill out your info on the contact page (up to the first 500 people or so). As he explained it, the number of active customers and size of a given lot will determine who is on the buy list and who's on the wait list.

I don't see myself using super premium coffees for espresso, but I will certainly try it for vac or presspot. A little coffee goes a long way with those preparations, which means a net cost of a few bucks a cup even at Esmerlda prices. If it doesn't impress, it wasn't a huge outlay.

[luca]

Miguel is a great guy and has done a lot for high end specialty coffee.

At the same time, I think that this website, as currently designed, is not projecting the marketing concept in the best possible light. I think Miguel would do better with a different approach.

ken

I agree, but I think that we will all basically regard the heavy-handed marketing spiel as irrelevant once people have actually tasted the coffee and reported on it.

Cheers,

Luca

[Ken Fox]

Ken, if you have specific ideas, feel free to share them here or directly with Miguel. The website has been tweaked closer to its final forum. As for the "exclusiveness", all you have to do to get invited is fill out your info on the contact page (up to the first 500 people or so). As he explained it, the number of active customers and size of a given lot will determine who is on the buy list and who's on the wait list.

I don't see myself using super premium coffees for espresso, but I will certainly try it for vac or presspot. A little coffee goes a long way with those preparations, which means a net cost of a few bucks a cup even at Esmerlda prices. If it doesn't impress, it wasn't a huge outlay.

I have no talent whatsoever in advertising, so my suggestions wouldn't be worth much. The whole tagline of "needing to be invited" to buy something is just too "over the top" for me and appeals to motivations I don't find very flattering in people.

I have been "invited" to buy a great many things in my life, and fortunately for my financial situation, have resisted most of those offers

ken

[HB]

The whole tagline of "needing to be invited" to buy something is just too "over the top" for me and appeals to motivations I don't find very flattering in people.

I agree, the emphasis should be on the uniqueness of the coffee finds. Evidently you comment was already been taken into account because the graphic now says "exquisite coffees without equal." Still a bold statement, but it's about the coffee, not the buyers.

[Abdon]

Still a bold statement, but it's about the coffee, not the buyers.

That's the root of the problem; this type of marketing approach is usually designed with just one thing in mind; to attract the kinds of dollars (or pounds, yens, liras, etc) that actually cares about this sort of ''exclusivity''. Some will enjoy the coffee as they drape themselves in its privileged pedigree, others just find it very hard to see the coffee as it hides behind the perceived pompous gimmickry.

I wish Mr. Miguel best wishes on all his endeavors. I have no reason to doubt that his skills are worth the premium he seeks. I'm just the kind of person that is turned off by this sort of thing. I guess that at the end of the day all that matters is that Mr. Miguel meet his business marketing goals and that his exclusive clientèle is happy.

[John P]

On the surface it is an intriguing and overdue idea, but for the quality of coffees he will purportedly be sourcing, the copy on his website needs to be the same caliber. First rate coffee with third rate copy describing the venture is not the way to go. It's a public website; nothing new is being revealed here. But for something that could be a groundbreaking idea if done right, the marketing of the concept needs reworking.

Example:

...so startling and so rewarding...so immensely flavorful

"so" is not a valid descriptor... unless you are targeting thirteen to nineteen year old girls, as in, "Like, she's so..." and "I'm so..."

And

worth the price of admission

Welcome to cliche city.

Lastly,

exclusively by invitation only

Kind of redundant. "by invitation only" is exclusive... no need to say it.

$150 coffee. $10 PR.

For R Miguel: You're at the top of your game. Find a PR rep that is of the same caliber.
Continued Success.

[prettydeceextrap]

Does anybody know exactly what kind of prices this venture is looking to charge? It seems like many online roasters already offer some pretty premium coffee, available to the public, and running anywhere from 20-50 dollars per unit (whether its 12, 14, or 16 oz). Are they having such trouble selling these that there is a need to establish a buyer's list to assure sales? Are the prices going to start running towards the triple digits? Are we anticipating any sort of "fall from Paradise" so to speak. Oh, man. Ignore that last pun.

[jffhn]

I've always admired the democracy of the coffee subculture. Being invited into a elevated class of coffee connoisseurship through a clever marketing approach like this just isn't consistent with what appeals to my coffee passions. I'll skip this one. Good luck to those involved.

[popeye]

Like many other people here, I'm curious about what he'll be offering. However, i'm not joining up on ideological grounds. If he had started a waiting list for high quality, high-priced coffees, and left the "exclusiveness" out of it, i might be interested.

[Niko]

Looks like some kind of male escort service.
I don't mean this to be offensive, it was the 1st thing that jumped in my mind.

[prettydeceextrap]

So I am probably behind everyone else, but I just got the "heads up" from this R Miguel venture. Anyone have any more information about what to expect from this situation? I was a little surprised at how little information there was on the site about the whole situation. And is it me, or is the 20% price difference between roasted and green a little bit small?

A third and final question: is this the type of situation where I am likely to be removed from future considerations unless I purchase each time? Because that would definitely turn me off from participating.

Anyway, thanks if anyone has any additional info on this whole thing ... and have a good holiday season!

[HB]

No, I haven't heard anything since I last posted, except for this e-mail I received tonight:

Introducing R MIGUEL COFFEE

The first offerings of R MIGUEL Coffee are now available to you, one of the select few connoisseurs invited to experience coffee perfection. Rejoice with the arrivals of Nectar and Aurora. Both are extremely limited, extraordinarily delicious and brought to you with fierce pride and passion from R MIGUEL:

Aurora Roasted (4 ounces) $50.00
Aurora Green (8 ounces) $80.00

Nectar Roasted (4 ounces) $75.00
Nectar Green (8 ounces) $130.00

Wooden Gift Box with 8oz of each Coffee Green $250.00
Wooden Gift Box with 4oz of each Coffee Roasted $165.00

Each Gift Box set is serialized and signed for your enjoyment by R MIGUEL. The perfect gifts for the discerning coffee drinker. Only 25 boxes are available.

[Jasonian]

No, I haven't heard anything since I last posted, except for this e-mail I received tonight:

I received the same one.

That's a lot of dough for a little coffee. It's too rich for my (financial) blood at the moment.

I do hope that someone on one of these forums I frequent takes the plunge and writes some notes.

[prettydeceextrap]

I do hope that someone on one of these forums I frequent takes the plunge and writes some notes.

Exactly. I guess my main issue was whether or not they would stop offering me coffee if I didn't buy each and every time. In any case, I think they need to put out more information considering how much they are asking.

[Abe Carmeli]

I do hope that someone on one of these forums I frequent takes the plunge and writes some notes.

I ordered 4 oz of Nectar. I hope Zeus does not strike me dead for stealing his brew, but if it is perfection, as Miguel describes it, it may be worth the risk.

[cannonfodder]

Way too rich for my blood. I thought I was living high on the hog when I picked up 5 pounds of this year's Brazil #3 COE winner, which I thought was superb bean.