Advice needed: small bakery with small demand for coffee

Coffee preparation techniques besides espresso like pourover.
tinpaner
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#1: Post by tinpaner »

Hi,
I am looking for advice about my coffee situation.

I run a small bakery. One of our selling points is that we make everything from scratch with local ingredients--so part of our brand is to have high quality items. We are very small and most of our customers are not sitting and eating, they are grabbing a pastry or cookie, paying, and leaving.

When I first opened I assumed I would sell lots of coffee to walk-in customers. I got set up with very good coffee from a local roaster. I kept it simple using a small (but highly rated) Bunn drip coffee machine to make the coffee. We kept the coffee warm in thermal pots.

As time went on, it became clear that demand for the coffee was much lower than anticipated, as our walk-in business paled in comparison to people picking up large orders, who are less likely to want a cup of coffee alongside their purchase. I was throwing out a lot of coffee every day. We might typically sell one or even zero cups of coffee each day.

BUT--there are SOME customers who do want coffee. It is unpredictable; probably for every ten days we sell one or zero cups, we would have a day when multiple people wanted coffee. We were not able to meet that demand because we were no longer making large pots of coffee in the morning, since we had been throwing so much out.

Right now I am trying to figure out if there is a way for us to have the ability to make good-quality cups of coffee quickly for customers who want it. Our Bunn takes about five minutes to make a cup so it's not a practical solution for our grab-and-go customers. I don't want to keep buying and making good quality coffee and then throwing it out.

Is there any way to make good quality cups of coffee on demand, very quickly? I am open to any solutions and would be grateful for any advice.

Nunas
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#2: Post by Nunas »

A small espresso machine and a grinder would do it. You could offer espresso shots and americanos and have nearly zero waste. With the sort of low volume you have, nearly any prosumer machine would do, even a Breville DB. Also for the grinder nearly anything espresso-capable would do. Normally, in a commercial setting, you'd want a doser grinder, but at the volumes you have, a hopper grinder with no doser would probably be better, as ground coffee in the doser degrades noticeably in less than an hour.

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HB
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#3: Post by HB »

Pourover works for single serve, if you can dedicate 2-3 minutes to make it. Otherwise, the no-brainer solution is K cups. It's not the best coffee, but it's fast and consistent. I wouldn't recommend an espresso machine since dialing it in for irregular duty can be challenging.
Dan Kehn

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BaristaBoy E61
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#4: Post by BaristaBoy E61 »

First of all welcome to HB.

The advice so far is quite sound, with Dan's advice you certainly won't get ahead of yourself financially but I wonder if there might be a way to over time 'build' your coffee game.

I like Nunas's advice as well because nothing smells as good as a shot or two of fresh espresso in the air. That and an attractive looking espresso machine 'might' generate some interest, perhaps with a combo deal of something baked and an espresso drink at an attractive price or perhaps at a time of day when you're not otherwise particularly busy.

The aroma of the coffee is like 'Selling the Sizzle - not the steak', a fine looking single group espresso machine makes for 'Eye Candy' that might lead to Coffee Talk and more purchases.

Good luck & post back!
"You didn't buy an Espresso Machine - You bought a Chemistry Set!"

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sweaner
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#5: Post by sweaner »

A grinder and a couple of good French Presses would probably be the easiest way to go for quality coffee that is easy to make and not wasteful.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B011WTMNWA/

https://smile.amazon.com/Coffee-Grinder ... 07RB1JL8T/
Scott
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thirdcrackfourthwave
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#6: Post by thirdcrackfourthwave »

Market research could be helpful. Talk to the people who buy coffee and see if they would be into espresso? If K- cups would work for them? What is a typical max amount of cups you sell at one time? If it is only a few, as mentioned French press and pourover could work--those are pretty low initial capital investment. Also don't discount talking to people who don't buy coffee. What might induce them to buy coffee?

tinpaner (original poster)
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#7: Post by tinpaner (original poster) »

These are all great responses! I really appreciate them!

I think I will begin with a little of the market research. And probably will resume making our regular drip coffee on very cold days and Saturday mornings. I'll keep a notebook up front and ask staff to record customers' feedback. The suggestions you all gave I hadn't even considered. Part of the problem of trying to sell coffee when I know nothing much about it (always a bad idea).

Thank you and once I get some info I may return for some more suggestions.

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Bob_M
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#8: Post by Bob_M »

In my retirement I have traveled a lot and had coffee from many restaurants. The best restaurant coffee I've ever had comes from two places one was in Cambria California the other was Eureka Springs Arkansas at a bed-and-breakfast. Both of these used pre-ground coffee. The bed-and-breakfast use pre-ground coffee from intelligentsia and it was the best. Nothing to write home about but pleasant nonetheless. I would recommend this to any restaurant. I certainly agree that the French press idea would be a step above. But you are have to assume your customers know how to use a French press and I guarantee you most of them will screw it up royally. And most folks myself included don't like the smudge.

disciple
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#9: Post by disciple »

Another option is to buy a unit that grinds your fresh beans and makes the shot of espresso. Then you can add hot water or make a cappuccino as most of them have the wand to do that. Those are called automatics and superautomatics. There is a wide range of prices for those and the quality varies but in general they make a pretty good cup of joe. It certainly doesn't compare to a perfect espresso like you would get with a manual machine, but it may be a good starting point. If the interest goes up with this first machine , then you could train up a barista and switch to a manual espresso machine where you can tweak all the settings. I just think K cups are terrible and not cost effective, especially for a business. The admin who recommended it is an expert on espresso and I wonder if that was a serious comment or more tongue in cheek. I have read many of his posts and seen his videos - he is a true guru here so no disrespect intended, but K cups I say no no no.

tinpaner (original poster)
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#10: Post by tinpaner (original poster) »

disciple wrote: I just think K cups are terrible and not cost effective, especially for a business. The admin who recommended it is an expert on espresso and I wonder if that was a serious comment or more tongue in cheek. I have read many of his posts and seen his videos - he is a true guru here so no disrespect intended, but K cups I say no no no.
Yes... I would probably not go in that direction (K cups). I have close relatives who are coffee people and they would be horrified. It would be really off-brand for the business anyway, for a number of reasons. But it was interesting to ponder for a moment.

The biggest issue I see is that maybe I didn't explain, but the customers I have don't really want to wait even a couple of minutes for their coffee. This is not a coffee shop where people are putting in orders and waiting. People are just coming in to grab their birthday cake, or a quick snack, and then they are out the door. At the moment even when we offer to make a fresh cup of coffee that would take a few minutes, customers almost always say no, forget it. They go buy coffee at the convenience store a few doors down. But this is why it would be interesting to see if offering espresso might change that dynamic a little.

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