The leading information and business resource for the UK's cafè bar market

La Marzocco, probably the world’s most famous high-quality espresso machine brand, has opened its first London office.  The Italian brand says that it has chosen to open in the city because the UK is now a big strategic market in the world coffee industry, and by being here, the brand can reach many of its… [Read more]

For coffee-shop baristas, the tamper is an intensely personal piece of equipment – in its classic form, it uses a carefully-shaped, handle of wood or aluminium, usually in a curved or ball shape.  However, a new maker has now developed a design-led tamper which features a ceramic handle with unusual straight sides, and the concept… [Read more]

An entirely new ‘upcycling’ idea has been pioneered by a coffee roaster in Scotland.  It provides a partial answer to environmental campaigners who complain that the country uses too many one-time disposable carrier bags, and the roaster involved in the project has suggested that the entire coffee trade would do well to adopt the concept…. [Read more]

Part 14 How to Guide: Planning for Success

The world of commercial coffee can be a challenging place, especially when it comes to selecting the best equipment and keeping pace with all the new innovations. Choosing the right water filter should be a high priority when upgrading old equipment or investing in new – despite this, it isn’t necessarily given enough consideration and… [Read more]

As the Christmas decorations go up in cafés all round the western world, and as the predictable seasonal background music begins to play on all the coffee-house sound systems, one café in Utah, USA, has managed to spark a considerable local debate with its seasonal celebration. Leasa Ray’s OMG café  -  the letters are not… [Read more]

Do the clothing trade’s uniform-makers have any creative ideas which might improve the look of everyday coffee-house staff?

The managing director of ‘Britain’s favourite awards scheme’, the annual Loo of the Year contest, has spoken of his continuing disappointment that the coffee-house trade has failed again to capitalise on the promotional opportunities of his event. This year’s contest, which recognises and rewards service providers who maintain a high standard of out-of-home toilet facilities,… [Read more]

The question of the beverage trade’s attitude to waste has taken some interesting steps in recent weeks. Perhaps the most interesting of all is the work by a café from Melbourne in Australia, where zero waste in and out has been achieved, through adopting a strategy that prioritises the waste, rather than simply viewing it as an inevitable part of doing business.

This month we wanted to bullet point broad pros and cons of setting up an independent coffee shop, not necessarily from a financial point of view but more from how we are personally finding the experience. Pro It’s nice to think that we can make decisions anytime we like and can tweak and grow Artisan… [Read more]

In times of Fairtrade and countless other campaigns in support of workers at origin, is there still starvation among coffee farmers? Yes, there is – it is in the three or four months of the year known in Central America as ‘los meses flacos’, the ‘thin months’.  That is a phrase well-known in the area,… [Read more]

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas…  Yes, it is that time of year again, when manic shoppers will hopefully be taking a well earned break if your coffee shop and looking for a little treat to get them in the festive spirit.  These palmiers make a fantastic alternative to a traditional mince pies,… [Read more]

There has been an intriguing new development in the matter of small communities  fighting to keep large coffee-shop chains out of their town centres.  In the most famous case of all, the town of Totnes recently succeeded in preventing an opening by Costa Coffee – however, questions have now been asked about the massive petition… [Read more]

The current ‘sustainable’ projects and certifications used by the coffee trade may not be enough to help our industry withstand the effects of climate change.  At exactly the same time that Kew Gardens has produced a report suggesting that the wild Arabica plant could be extinct by 2080, another scientist working on the subject has… [Read more]

A coffee roaster has spoken this month of his customers being approached by rivals with a rather bizarre sales tactic – and now the matter has come to light, other coffee roasters have spoken of experiencing the same tactic from competitor  salesmen. (For obvious reasons, in this story we have avoided the names of the… [Read more]

Union Hand-Roasted of London has made the bold, and probably expensive, move of advertising a direct-mail service of speciality coffee in the quality press – its campaign covers the Telegraph, Guardian, Times, and Observer Food Monthly.   It is extremely unusual for an independent roaster to attempt to pioneer gourmet coffee in the national press…. [Read more]

The takeaway cup sector has made a notable attempt to act on the matter of street litter caused by disposable food packaging, and in particular the matter of use-once coffee cups.  It has convened a European conference to discuss forming a pan-European body sharing best-practice against the problem.  The meeting in Brussels in mid-November was… [Read more]

Dan Fellows of the UK has succeeded in taking fourth place in the international Coffee in Good Spirits contest, the barista championship which invites contestants to create a coffee cocktail featuring an alcohol content.  One of his drinks featured wine, something rarely seen in a coffee contest. This year’s contest was held in Korea. As… [Read more]

In the latest twist on the subject of big brands monopolising the British high streets, the founder of the original Costa chain has given an interview to his local paper in which he has complained that the country is becoming over-run with coffee chains… including the one which carries his own name. Bruno Costa, who… [Read more]

Your local supermarket probably does it and the internet has embraced it without reservation: Display What You Sell Well.

The trade has been familiar with standard barista contests for a dozen years… now new ideas are coming in. What is their value to the trade? And are we making the most of the potential of trade contests?
Contests are a major part of any retail trade. The argument for them is that they promote the various concepts of ‘professionalism’, skill and standards. The argument against them is that they promote elitism.

To make 12 or 18 Savoury Muffins – either vegetarian or with diced bacon or ham.  These Kiwi specials are always popular for a savoury snack. To really dress them up and make a meal in themselves – slice the top off and spread with cream cheese and add some crunchy lettuce.  Again – a… [Read more]

People often think that rent, business rates and VAT are the key expenses for a small coffee shop and whilst they are important and expensive, they don’t even compare to the cost of your staff. Our plan, which does differ from many of you who are thinking of establishing a coffee shop, was for Artisan… [Read more]

This month’s interview is with Tim Grant of Oliver’s Pantry in Rippon, Yorkshire. 1. Location/s: North Street, Ripon, North Yorkshire 2. Number of outlets: 1 3. Date Opened: 2nd July 2012 4. Who owns the business? Tim & Louise Grant 5. Annual turnover? 1560kgs of coffee beans 6. Number of staff? 5 Full Time 5… [Read more]

Find out more about a host of the leading people within our business with the Caffe Culture Industry Profiles.

The trade has once again been exasperated by the way coffee has been used to provide a novelty story for the general press  -  although Debenhams has been pleased at the publicity given to its ‘plain English’ coffee menu, the rest of the beverage trade has protested that the chain store operator has put the… [Read more]

Lavazza, the Italian café brand which already has its Espression cafes in several other parts of the world, is reported to be making its first serious move to establish them in the UK, through a franchise operation. The brand already has some sites in the UK – it opened in Harrods two years ago, and… [Read more]

The biggest social and environmental crisis to come in coffee-producing countries will be in Africa – it is the ‘new form of colonialism’, and it involves multi-national corporations buying up land for their own use, with insufficient regard for the rights of local people. The warning was made in at a recent meeting at the… [Read more]

Please see this month’s How to Guide on Marketing  

The coffee-house trade has reacted with sympathetic amusement to last week’s claim by the pub trade that pubs are now selling more coffee than coffee houses. The claim, which led to such headlines as ‘UK’s pub chains are the top sellers of coffee’ (Caterer and Hotelkeeper) and ‘Pubs selling more coffee than cafes’ (The Publican’s… [Read more]

A riverside café which actually warrants the description ‘unique’ is being offered on a ten-year lease. It is Smugglers Cottage at Tolverne, near Falmouth in Cornwall, which is available for what the owners call ‘the first time in living memory’. One of its unique features is that the business is part of the Tregothnan estate,… [Read more]

The Speciality Coffee Association of America has released a study which appears to show that while American customers are willing to pay a premium for coffee which ‘tastes better’, familiar trade terms like ‘speciality coffee’ mean little or nothing to the consumer.    The SCAA’s report ‘The Speciality Coffee Consumer’ is intended to be ‘an… [Read more]

Who’s thinking beyond the cup in the packaging industry for takeaway hot and cold beverages and snacks. Creative companies such as Vegware, Solo, Keepcup and Vaiopak seem to be pushing forward in this arena.

So we had got off to a good start and things seemed to be going well at Artisan, however summer time was just around the corner. Everyone had always told us that this was a tough time for coffee shops as people headed to the parks and the pubs, leaving empty and sad looking coffee… [Read more]

While courgettes are still plentiful this makes a delicious and subtle alternative to carrot cake.Also known as Zucchini Cake by our friends from Australia and New Zealand.  Ingredients• 225g Unsalted Butter, Softened• 340g Soft Light Brown Sugar• 4 Large Eggs• 300g Plain Flour• 3 Levelled Tea spoons of Baking Powder• 80g Chopped Walnuts• 180g Finely… [Read more]

As the Beverage Standards Association announces its café awards for this year, the trade group has made an observation on what is important in industry prizes and recognition. The BSA offers two sets of prizes in its annual event: there are half a dozen prizes given for ‘best drinks’, but there are also an unlimited… [Read more]

  This month month’s interview is with Oliver de Trafford who has worked hard to create a successful business in an area of Brighton which was in need of regeneration: 1. Location/s: York place, Brighton 2. Number of outlets: 1 3. Date Opened: 3rd December 2007 4. Who owns the business? Family business Oliver de Trafford, Karl Griscti, Kate de… [Read more]

The phrases ‘direct sourcing’ and ‘direct trade’ have become currently fashionable in the coffee world, and it is easy to see why – the suggestion that operators work directly and fairly with coffee farmers, is a very attractive promotional image. Putting across the concept that a neighbourhood café or roaster is sufficiently ethically-minded to have… [Read more]

This month’s guest writer is Chris Brown, director of catering consultancy Turpin Smale. Here he discusses how design, humour and styling can create a café experience to remember: Cafés have often reflected a somewhat amateur start to life but, sadly, as they have become bigger and busier, the look has become more corporate – counters… [Read more]

   Globetrotting and green beans The status of the green-bean importer has risen significantly in parallel with the rise of ‘speciality’ coffee – as the trade learns more and more about what really goes on at origin.  There has been a growing appreciation that the bean importers are more than just commodity traders or sack-shifters,… [Read more]

It has taken rather a long time, but the place of chocolate in the café-bar trade has begun to be regarded with greater respect – chocolate is on a roll, and at last the concept of ‘great’ chocolate, as opposed to a simple generic product, is becoming spoken of. As when the artisan coffee roasters… [Read more]

One of the most important products in the coffee-house trade is again under question for the ethical nature of its sourcing – chocolate, which is often said to account for approximately 20% of the average café’s turnover, is once again the subject of allegations of child slave labour. A major film on the subject, to be… [Read more]

Want to know the most important factor for the success of your new coffee shop?  Taking complete and utter responsibility for your business.  This is a particularly harsh lesson to learn but once fully grasped creates an almost zen like state of control. Download How to Guide 13 here

In what has been an extremely active month for Starbucks, it has won a great deal of attention in the general retail world by launching the first of ‘thousands’ of coffee vending machines in the UK. The move has generally been seen as a response, if perhaps a slightly delayed one, to Costa’s recent work… [Read more]

The prototype of an entirely pedal-powered mobile coffee cart has appeared in London, and has already won a couple of design awards. It has been designed by graduates of the Royal College of Art in London, who describe it as a “celebratory fusion of human power, sensory pleasures and technology”. Three well-known trade companies have… [Read more]

United Coffee, the influential European–owned operation which owns the Lyons brand and has a turnover in the region of eighty million pounds, appears to have quite deliberately teased the rest of the coffee trade with the launch of its new consumer-sales website, Make Decent Coffee by recruiting the TV personality Peter Andre for a launch… [Read more]

The Rainforest Alliance is making its second attempt at an ‘awareness week’ this week – but for the second year in succession, has failed to gain the unqualified praise of the coffee trade.Almost unanimously, coffee roasters and green-bean importers seem enthusiastic in their support for the aims of the movement – but at the same… [Read more]

It’s no accident that the major chain start promoting their Christmas food and beverage range almost as soon as the last pumpkin cookie has left the shelves following Halloween. Seasonal product ranges offer a great way to up-sell to both new and existing customers. In this session we’ll take a look at what opportunities exist… [Read more]

Coffee has had some bad press over the years but there is growing evidence that coffee is actually good for your health

 The Coffee Boys: John Richardson and Hugh Gilmartin are back in London on 3rd and 4th October 2012  to present two more Marketing Masterclasses at the Free Word Centre in Clerkenwell, London dedicated to showing you how to increase your margins in coffee shops and cafes. With a combined experience of forty years in the… [Read more]

The onset of the winter trading season is always a puzzle. Some café-bars go to town on it – do they make it pay? Whilst other coffee-houses seem to do absolutely nothing at all about the winter season – do they miss all the potential? One of the biggest Christmas idea of recent years is… [Read more]

For impressive company image work in the coffee trade look no further than the development of Bolling Coffee, a Yorkshire roaster, into the additional identity of Grumpy Mule. Clive Balmforth set up Bolling in 1979 to supply the local catering market with freshly roasted coffee. A friendship with one of the founders of the Rancilio… [Read more]

  This soup is best made now at the end of summer when tomatoes are at their best.Oven roasting them really maximises their flavour and gives a delicious seasonal soup that can be served hot or cold, spicy or mild.  Serves 12  Ingredients:• 3kg plum tomatoes quartered• 6 garlic cloves – not peeled• 2 litre… [Read more]

In this blog, we look back over the last 6 months of running Artisan and try to pull out some useful bits of information for all of you who are keen to go down the independent coffee shop route. The first thing that springs to mind is that we think we made our lives easier… [Read more]

    This month’s interview was with David Tracey of Mitchells in St Andrews, who are passionate about bringing excellent coffee to this part of Scotland. 1. Location/s: 110 Market Street, St Andrews, Fife. 2. Number of outlets: One 3. Date Opened: March 2011 4. Who owns the business?  the G1 Group, a multiple award-winning… [Read more]

Too many café owners are stuck in short-term thinking, with no vision – and that is one reason why so many coffee businesses are going bust, and why some of the best baristas in the country are working for very low wages. This challenging suggestion has come from James Hoffmann, the UK’s first world champion… [Read more]

There are a huge number of books about coffee, books about coffee-making, and books about barista training – and one of the biggest currently on the market is the Barista Bible, by Christine Cottrell of Brisbane, Australia. This book, and the various CDs and other training aids which are produced alongside it, are from the founder of… [Read more]

As the dust settles after the initial excitement of the news of Tesco’s involvement in a new high street coffee house venture, and now that the first of the Harris and Hoole business has opened in Amersham, the coffee trade is asking whether Tesco has indeed become involved in a genuine artisan coffee venture? As… [Read more]

At virtually the same time, Starbucks has presented a scholarly paper on the saving of waste to a very high-powered American academic institution… and on the other side of the world, has created what might be thought an entirely unnecessary piece of disposable coffee-related equipment. At the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American… [Read more]

In contemporary business society a rainmaker is often regarded as that person who really makes it happen, the salesman who consistently brings home the bacon or the deal maker that always pulls in the big revenues. Download How to Guide 12 here

The image of the business methods of major coffee chains is now seriously in question and there could be an adverse knock-on effect which might harm the public image of the coffee trade as a whole. The problem arises from the recent spate of stories, more than usual, about disputes between the major chains and… [Read more]

The café trade’s customer-service policies have again come in for criticism in the press, with several recent stories about non-customer members of the public being refused use of the lavatory facilities in coffee shops. There has been the extremely embarrassing situation of an elderly pensioner in a Costa in Sussex (allegedly the second such case… [Read more]

As the days turned into weeks and even months, we slowly but surely began building a reputation for quality coffee. However one of the challenges that we were encountering was how to manage the staff and the coffee shop as a whole. We would find it so much easier to ask each other to do… [Read more]

The subject of ‘strength’ with regard to coffee has surfaced again – and it has done so at both ends of the spectrum, at exactly the same time. In the UK, the Cafédirect organisation has spoken of now putting its ‘strength’ classification on all its retail packs, while in the USA, the dramatically-named Death Wish… [Read more]

This gluten–free recipe has been taken from the Honeybuns Gluten-Free Baking Book by Emma Goss-Custard, published by Pavilion, photography by Cristian Barnett.  It makes 15 piecesCooking time: 40 minutes for the baseStorage: 5 days in an airtight tin – it also freezes well  You need to bake the Polenta Shortbread base first:  Ingredients: • 125 g/4½ oz/generous… [Read more]

This month’s highlights include an industry profile of Angus McKenzie from Kimbo , the latest ‘How to Guide’, a feature on the ‘Gluten-free market’ not just illustrating the size of this market, but showing how it can add value to your business – plus one of Honeybuns new gluten-free recipes to try out for your customers. Victoria… [Read more]

Café Life London by Jennie Milsom is a refreshing addition to the already crowded market of London coffee house guides… The great problem with guides to coffee in London is that the same places tend to crop up time and time again – many of them simply cannot be left out. The same style of… [Read more]

This month’s interview is with Davinder Dhallu of Six Eight Kafé in Birmingham who is striving to bring excellent quality coffee to the city. He found Hannah, their new Manager in an unusual way: 1. Location: Temple Row, Birmingham City Centre 2. Number of outlets: 1 3. Date Opened: February, 2011 4. Who owns the business? Owned… [Read more]

The Coeliac UK organisation has announced new training and accreditation to help the catering industry capitalise on the growing gluten-free sector, just at exactly the same time as one of the café sector’s major suppliers, Honeybuns, has published its book on gluten-free baking.

Kimbo is very proud of telling the story of how three guys started off their own roastery in Naples in the 1950s, and became firmly linked with the city’s coffee style

The trade’s tea and coffee brands have both done well in this year’s Great Taste Awards. While some of the bigger suppliers to the café-bar trades are represented with multi-star awards, several smaller suppliers have made a creditable appearance as well. There have also been unusual awards, including a 2-star prize for an all-robusta espresso…. [Read more]

How to increase your profits with clever menu management.  Within the top five misconceptions is the assumption that if you simply create amazing coffee you will have a great business. It is an often made mistake. Download How to Guide 11 here

The relationship between dairy farmers and coffee houses has been shaken during the current milk-price crisis, to the degree that somefarmers have now gone out of their way to say that they appreciate the support that parts of the café trade have given them. There has been some inflammatory language reported by the serious press,… [Read more]

Breaking news from Lavazza who have kept their launch with Fiat so deeply under wraps, that the first some of their own European offices knew of the matter was when the news was released to the press.

Should the trade be recommending that its customers put their coffee in the freezer for best storage?

The appearance of a new coffee from Weanie Beans has restarted the age-old discussion about whether or not coffee is good for hangovers. Weanie Beans is a brand without a bricks-and-mortar site – it sells from a couple of coffee stalls at markets, but has now developed a trade business, supplying branded coffees, teas and… [Read more]

This is a great video about the honest truths behind starting a cafe.

In a very imaginative move, the Little Chef chain has continued its image-changing work by installing traditional espresso machines in all its 90 sites, sending hundreds of its staff to Lavazza for barista training, and saying that it will bring great coffee to the one part of Britain where it is still missing – the… [Read more]

So there we were with our lovely coffee shop – a great property all fitted out – and we had been trading for 4 weeks, constantly ironing out the little flaws and perfecting the perfect cup. Now was the time to launch Artisan on to the coffee shop scene. I remember distinctly not wanting to… [Read more]

This delicious and colourful dish is very versatile – it can be served as your salad of the day, it can be the vegetarian option, or it can be used to serve with grilled chicken or salmon and a fresh green leaf salad.  Other options include using either bulgur wheat or quinoa instead of the… [Read more]

Download How to Guide (Issue 10 part 2) here This How to Guide describes the second 5 of 10 big mistakes that Coffee Shop operators make.  

An industry profile of Marco Olmi from Drury Tea & Coffee, the latest ‘How to Guide’ and seasonal recipe, plus a feature on ‘wi-fi squatters’ and how they can affect your business.     

The Drury Tea and Coffee Company in south London quite cheerfully accepts not being one of the ‘cool and hip’ coffee roasteries

This month’s interview was conducted with Claire Beesley of the Counter Cafe on their pontoon on the River Lea opposite the main Olympic Stadium in east London.   1. Location/s: The Counter Café is situated on the bank of the River Lea – 100m from the main Olympic Stadium – about a 10min walk. 2…. [Read more]

The matter of laptop users ‘squatting’ in coffee shops has arisen again, this time with the publication of a report on the subject by two American professors

The biggest worry for aspiring café owners is rent. This is in spite of retail rents having dropped by 25-30% since 2008, and in spite of the widely-held view that landlords must soon be forced to offer lower rents and flexible deals to bring tenants into their empty properties. The finding has come in a… [Read more]

There has been a constructive response by coffee roasters and top baristas to the suggestion that they should add their expertise to a university study on the caffeine content of drinks sold through the café trade. A professor of human nutrition at Glasgow University has suggested that caffeine levels vary so much in foodservice coffee,… [Read more]

The best way to avoid spilling coffee in a cup while walking may be to challenge the cup industry to re-design its takeaway products, suggests a new study on human movement by two ‘fluid scientists’ in California. According to a report in the professional journal Neuroscience, researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara… [Read more]

The world of ethical trading is being challenged from within by an American claim that opening up Fairtrade certification to large coffee producers will open the door for a wider amount of ‘greenwashing’, the practice by which large brands are alleged to claim credit for fairer purchasing policies than they actually operate. The British arm… [Read more]

A very promising statistic has come from the International Coffee Organisation in its Monthly Coffee Market Report for May. According to its figures, the world’s coffee consumption could possibly increase by 25% over the next eight years. There have been fears about ‘oversupply’, with one international banking organisation recently saying that global production will be… [Read more]

‘Coffee-house Capers’, one of the most entertaining books written about the coffee house trade was launched at this year’s Caffè Culture show. It is credited to Kaldi the Goatherd who is the boy who, according to coffee history, first discovered the coffee bean. The name has been adopted by the writers of Boughton’s Coffee House, the news magazine for people who… [Read more]

The long-running story of the Nespresso capsule has taken yet another unexpected turn.  A British company has announced that for the first time, users of the system can now have access to capsules compatible with the system, because the Nespresso patent has expired – but at almost the same time, Nespresso has claimed that the… [Read more]

This month’s interview was conducted with Edward Berry of The Conservatory Barn and Café Location – situated beside the Ludlow Food Centre in Bromfield, near Ludlow, Shropshire Number of outlets: 1 Date Opened: 2007 Who owns the business? The Earl of Plymouth Estates Annual turnover? 850kg of coffee Number of staff? Part time – 5… [Read more]

Cafédirect, the UK’s leading Fairtrade coffee business, will have a new chief executive from next month – at the same time that the brand is warning that climate change will have a devastating effect on the coffee trade, and that some growing communities may be ‘wiped out’. . John Steel, formerly with brands ranging from… [Read more]

The first few weeks are now a bit of a blur; customers would expect us to be as efficient as a streamlined coffee shop that had been open for years. Instead they found Magda and I looking bewildered as we tried to figure out the confusing till buttons; and often we had to make up… [Read more]

With all these lovely summer berries around this Summer Fruits Cheesecake adds a touch of indulgence to your counter.  We used the berries for a Union Jack over the Jubilee but they can easily be re-arranged to make Olympic rings for the weeks to come. Ingredients: 150g digestive biscuits 100g gingernut biscuits 100g butter ,… [Read more]

The rapid rise of the ‘artisan roaster’ fraternity has recently brought a lot of new business to the handful of British import companies who specialise in bringing in green beans from the world’s various countries of origin.  A new import company has now appeared, offering the challenging suggestion that the artisan roasting trade needs to… [Read more]

Soft drinks and fruit juices have again shown themselves to be a major part of the beverage market – apart from the effect of a couple of wet summers in succession, the market in all kinds of soft drink has risen in recent years. However, it is widely suggested that to make the very most… [Read more]

Download How to Guide (Issue 10) here This How to Guide describes the first 5 of 10 big mistakes that Coffee Shop operators make.    

You can find no end of books about Starbucks, and you can find no end of books by Starbucks.   The top man himself has written two, and there have been such gems by outsiders as the superb ‘My sister’s a barista’. The very best books about Starbucks are usually those written by people who have… [Read more]

One of Italy’s most famous espresso machine brands, Brasilia, has been declared by the Civil Court of Milan to be in ‘a state of insolvency’, and the brand is effectively in administration. The British distributor of Brasilia, Caffe Society of Yorkshire, has said that it has already put back-up plans into operation, has a large… [Read more]

The Caffè Culture show has continued its progress towards an all-round show serving the ever-broadening beverage market within the hospitality industry. It is a constant puzzle in the exhibition sector to satisfy both a coffee industry which wants ‘a coffee show’, and an all-round hospitality industry which appreciates that many different things go to make… [Read more]

We are entering a cycle in which world coffee supply is going to exceed demand – however, the global financier Rabobank has said that we cannot expect any significant effect on prices. Rabobank is a global leader in sustainability-oriented banking, with a concentration on agribusiness – it is also the highest-rated privately-owned bank in the… [Read more]

After several years of indecision, the coffee trade and its target market appear to be moving slightly towards the concept of the re-usable takeaway cup. The theory of the re-usable cup has been touted for several years, with several arguments put forward in its favour – there is the obvious preference to the thrown-away paper… [Read more]

The world’s press has for once been delighted with a piece of health research from the coffee industry – it is the arrival of a scholarly work which argues that drinking coffee may help humans live longer.  It follows hot on the heels of another study which concluded that the benefits of drinking coffee outweigh… [Read more]

The café-bar trade is doing far better than many critics would have us believe, and for those businesses which are not currently doing well, the clue is to look at the performance of their peers. The suggestion comes with the results of one of the most comprehensive surveys undertaken by Upper Street Events, the organisers of the Caffè… [Read more]

One of the biggest problems facing the café owner is that of general snacks.  The industry is constantly plagued by suppliers offering a wide variety of both take-away or sit-in snacks, which can be described variously as either ‘healthy’, ‘wicked’, or, ‘indulgent’. However, the suppliers rarely address the thing that café owners want to know… [Read more]

In the latest example of imaginative local promotion of the beverage industry, the Café Trade company of Chester has run a twelve-week campaign aimed at encouraging local consumers to visit their local cafés and vote for them. In a local vote, the city’s favourite independent café was found to be the Mad Hatter’s Tea Rooms,… [Read more]

With the smell of fresh paint still lingering in the air the night before we were about to launch, there we were busy writing up the coffee menu with the help of our flat mates – and nervously anticipating our very first day of trading! We believed we had everything covered – we had hired… [Read more]

This month we’re producing a little of the content that is in our Marketing Masterclass webinar. This is a totally free webinar we’re running in the lead up to Caffè Culture this year. Download how to guide here    

One of the most annoying practical problems in coffee-making will be addressed by Drury at this year’s Caffè Culture Show.  It is the question of ‘clumping’, or the situation in which ground coffee sticks together as it comes out of the grinder. “We all know that on-demand grinding is the way things are going,” says… [Read more]

Caffè Culture has always been a place to contrast and compare the different technologies for making coffee, and this year provides the opportunity to investigate and discuss with manufacturers exactly what they have been developing.  A welcome return of a recent trend is the offer by manufacturers for café operators to bring along their own… [Read more]

The Benders cup company has created a unique method of using QR codes on takeaway cups – it has worked with Nestlé on what it calls ‘the first scratch and win digital coffee cup’. It is felt by many people that the coffee trade does not make sufficiently imaginative use of the promotional potential of… [Read more]

In a year which has been characterised by the appearance of so many regional coffee events, the latest one has a distinct fighting touch to it. The west country town of Totnes, which is said to be one of the highest-selling Fairtrade places in the UK, is organising an independent coffee festival.  It is a… [Read more]

Whatever the predictions for the summer weather, it seems almost certain that the soft drinks market will continue the relative buoyancy that it has had in recent years, with most of the sector’s categories faring well. There was a worrying period a couple of years ago for bottled water,  but all the trade surveys say… [Read more]

The Asparagus season came early with all that warm March weather so even if it is raining outside why not put a taste of Spring on your counter with this easy but impressive savoury tart served with bright spring salad leaves. Ingredients: For the pastry: 250gm plain flour 125gm cold unsalted butter 1 egg 2… [Read more]

The latest of what might be termed ‘novelty’ animal-processed coffees is to go on sale for the first time in the world, in London – it has a strange story behind it, and unlike other animal coffees, is highly unlikely to provoke any reaction from activists. The best known coffee in this sector is the… [Read more]

May’s interview was carried out with Robert Robinson of Notes and Flat Cap Coffee from St Martin’s Lane, London WC2 Notes & The Flat Cap Coffee Co Locations: Notes Trafalgar Square 31 St Martin’s Lane London WC2N 4ERNotes Covent Garden 36 Wellington Street WC2E 7BDFlat Cap Fleet St 186A Fleet Street EC4A 2HRFlat Cap St… [Read more]

A significant boost to the British paper cup sector, sees the Printed Cup Company of Lancashire making the unusual move of bringing its manufacturing operation back to the UK. The company has been making cups in China since 2007. It has doubled turnover in the past year, an achievement which managing director Mark Woodward has… [Read more]

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Scientists in Cuba have been exploring the reason that tepid beverages do not taste as good as hot ones. The problem with lukewarm coffee dates back to the days of cavemen, according to Karel Talavera of the Laboratory of Ion Channel Research.  Their ‘taste receptors’ evolved according to the food they ate, and our own… [Read more]

In a remarkable but apparently not unexpected warning shot, the London coffee scene in general has been told that it is not the faultless ‘world centre of great coffee’  that it is so often portrayed to be.  By contrast, a top barista and café-baroperator has said that the London scene has ‘stalled’ and stopped progressing…. [Read more]

United Coffee has launched what it calls ‘a licence to work in coffee service’ as part of its general customer service programme. It is a stage of what is called the first ‘customer insight club’ for the beverage trade. The overall programme is entitled ‘all about u’, and promises customers a range of added-value benefits and industry ‘firsts’…. [Read more]

A barista from Norwich has won worldwide approval for taking a stand against ill-mannered customers – particularly those who speak on their mobile telephones while he is serving them. Darren Groom of the Little Red Roaster was so annoyed by the discourtesy that he put up a sign which read: “we are unable to serve you… [Read more]

As the conclusion to one of the worst-kept secrets in the coffee trade, it has now been formally ‘revealed’ that the operation of the Melitta UK business, which distributes super-automatic espresso machines under the Cafina brand, is to be taken over by Chris Glossop and Steve Penk, known for their work with La Spaziale. The… [Read more]

…in the last ten years. Barista training has come along way since 1999. Back then few people appreciated the skills behind making great coffee and there were only a couple of people offering training in the country.  It was back then that Paul Meikle-Janney founded Coffee Community. Thirteen years on Coffee Community have brought barista… [Read more]

Bill Gorman talks about the often overlooked value of Tea in the Cafe business.

Sponsored feature The third wave of the UK coffee market is gathering pace as discerning consumers become even more educated about the coffee they drink. In fact, we are at a point where certain industry experts have identified a fourth wave of coffee enthusiasts.  This new breed of aficionados will fuel a demand for even… [Read more]

There is a phenomenon in the coffee trade which began in 2010, and is gaining momentum – it is the local or regional coffee festival.   The first people to do it were south-western traders around Bath, and this year the concept has already appeared in Norwich, and there will be one at a stately home… [Read more]

Although fleeting, summer has definitely made an appearance so it is time to start thinking about lightening the menu with some lovely salads.  However, given that much of the country is experiencing its second winter, this lovely salad has a foot in both camps – with the fantastic light flavours of smoked trout and peppery… [Read more]

There is a sales tactic which is extremely popular in the tea and coffee trades, and which continues to be both a powerful way of encouraging consumers to try a beverage, and an equally useful way of encouraging sales staff to sell it. It is the ‘tasting’. Properly handled, a tasting is a wonderful way… [Read more]

Much of the beverage sector runs in circles, or along well-established lines… it’s very unusual that an absolutely-new, completely-original angle on a product comes along. Chai is an ancient product – it is the spiced tea of the street vendors of India, who make probably the best tea in the world for a matter of… [Read more]

The day we finally took over the lease for where Artisan stands today was a great one. Having spent nine months planning and waiting – we were in no mood to waste time when it came to the big fit out. There were practical reasons for us wanting to get going fast as well, as… [Read more]

Joint Ventures are one of the easiest ways to generate new business and yet are often overlooked.  If you are short of money this should be top of your list of marketing priorities. Download how to guide here

The Jamaican coffee farmed by Rohan Marley, son of the late reggae star Bob Marley, is coming to the UK.  It is to be imported by Blue Mountain Coffee (Europe), which is largely the same operation as Sea Island Coffees, the importer of rare and exotic beans from extremely unusual and occasionally previously-unknown origins. Marley… [Read more]

The recent kerfuffle in the daily press concerning Starbucks has once again illustrated the unfortunate fact that, while speciality coffee still gets a fair amount of media attention, the café business is vastly misunderstood.  And for the café-bar trade, the media spotlight of the daily press shining in entirely the wrong direction has deflected attention… [Read more]

The top twenty entrants in the UK Barista Championships, who will now be invited to take part in the semi-finals of the event, are now known. The final line-up for the 2012 event is notable in several ways – not just because some of the UK’s best coffee-houses are represented in there, but equally because… [Read more]

The latest Antipodean import on the London coffee scene is a roaster-retailer with ambitions to serve as both coffee house and trade roaster for other quality coffee businesses in the capital.  It is Ozone, which has been established in New Zealand for around twelve years. With London now being widely touted as a world-leader city… [Read more]

The Atkinson coffee roastery in Lancaster is to create a ‘living heritage centre’ of coffee.  It will be a working coffee house in which customers will be able to watch roasting in action and see historical artefacts from the trade, with expert commentary and explanation from the staff. The project will be achieved by Atkinson… [Read more]

The problem of malicious online ‘customer reviews’ of hospitality businesses has again come into the spotlight. The consumer reviews site Qype has reported cutting ‘thousands of misleading or malicious reviews’ from its online listings, which number over thirteen million. It is a problem which has been highlighted in the café-bar trade on several occasions.  There… [Read more]

Can café bars capitalise on cultural events in the UK? Historically, this is a puzzler – there is no shortage of ‘occasions’ and ‘awareness days’ during a year, and this year is of course a more promising one than most.   But why do caterers in general, and cafés in particular, rarely seem to gain maximum… [Read more]

Teapigs has made its name through a quite deliberate strategy of irreverence towards the conventional tea trade, and by pioneering the move towards the pyramid-format, large-leaf teabag as a direct competitor to the flat ‘dust’ teabag which still dominates the market.  The over-riding argument is that large leaves in pyramid bags brew more thoroughly and… [Read more]

A one day marketing masterclass for the coffee shop and hospitality industry by The Coffee Boys – John Richardson and Hugh Gilmartin (for more information visit www.caffecultureshow.com/coffeeboys) When times are tough there is one skill, and one skill only, that can guarantee you will be able to ride out the economic storm. The ability to create… [Read more]

The Handmade Cake Company is one of those trading identities which is far more clever than it appears at first sight.  It is quite true that all the company’s products are hand-made – the odd aspect of this is that some cafés have found that the name allows them to promote ‘hand-made’ cakes quite legitimately,… [Read more]

A storm of  enthusiasm has greeted the appointment of Lynsey Harley as the new UK National Co-ordinator of the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe. There has been a huge amount of interest in the recent election for the position, because the winning candidate is an extremely well-known barista, competition entrant, trainer, and advocate of industry… [Read more]

Tea consumption in Britain is predicted to go downwards – and it is suggested that of all the major tea-drinking countries, we are the only one which is expected to experience a drop in usage. This extremely unexpected prediction follows a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, most of which… [Read more]

To the surprise, and perhaps not the unanimous approval, of the roasting trade, there have been two ‘blend it yourself’ initiatives offered to coffee consumers in recent weeks.   Both are online businesses, and while their operating procedures differ a little, the general principle is the same – customers are invited to ‘dial in’ their preferred… [Read more]

The Beverage Standards Association has made an interesting move in launching the second year of its awards series.  While accepting that for any trade awards to be of real value to the industry, they must be more than just hype, the association’s chief executive has good-humouredly defended the quite clear exaggeration that accompanied his own… [Read more]

One of the key weapons in business growth is PR. It’s a somewhat misunderstood art that can be enormously effective in helping you drive new customers into your business.

Easter is definitely a time to entice your customers with an array of freshly baked cakes, cookies and scones.  This recipe creates a stunning centre piece cake for any Easter display. Ingredients 175g light muscavado sugar 175g butter, softened 175g self raising flour 3 large eggs 25g ground almonds 2 tbsp milk 100g sultanas 100g dried cherries, quartered 100g dried apricots, cut into… [Read more]

This is the first in a series of blogs about Artisan’s first year of trading as an independent coffee shop in London. In this blog we tell you about the first steps we took to open. Firstly let us introduce ourselves; our names are Edwin and Magda and we are the owners of Artisan –… [Read more]

In preparation for their Marketing Master Class at Caffè Business Culture 2012, The Coffee Boys will be hosting a webinar here at CaffeCulture,com in March. To find out more about the master class visit www.caffeculture.com/masterclass – the date of the webinar will be announced shortly.

We need your help! In exchange for just a few minutes of your time we’ll give you a free copy of Café Bar Business Trends, a comprehensive report into the UK’s independent café bar market undertaken by Caffè Culture, normally priced at £199 + VAT. You’ll also be entered into a prize draw to win… [Read more]

A quite unexpected machine is in the prototype stage, with the intention of being launched to the beverage trade in the form of  the one-cup tea brewer. The one-cup coffee brewing principle has become established in the café-bar trade, with the continuing growth of the brew-bar concept.  However, the trade has doubts about whether a… [Read more]

The nine-bean espresso blend, which has aroused conflicting views in the coffee trade, has become the subject of an imaginative promotion – it has been taken up as the house espresso of a coffee shop which is using it for a charity-based promotion among the computer-games fraternity. The coffee is the nine-bean blend from Base… [Read more]

The first of the new temperature-profile machines by Rancilio has made its appearance in a British coffee house. The third Rancilio Xcelsius off the Italian production line has been installed at the Bermondsey Street coffee bar in London. The machine allows the taste of an espresso to be adjusted by changing the temperature of the… [Read more]

Sponsored Feature An international exhibition like Tea & Coffee World Cup is one of the best business opportunities offered today. Exhibitors can display their new products, demonstrate their machinery, meet with existing and potential clients and promote their company to a broad market. Companies ranging from associations and organizations at origin, to machinery manufacturers and… [Read more]

Karin Ridgers, VeggieVision TV, offers an insight into catering for the vegetarian and vegan markets. The word vegan may not be the most sexiest word we agree however catering for a meat free plant based diet is very easy. Vegan items are suitable for vegetarians – and meat eaters too. The big tip is once you… [Read more]

If there has been a common factor in the coffee trade during the first few weeks of 2012, it has been that everybody is running at full speed.  And there is no expectation that things will let up – in a delightfully quaint phrase, one significant coffee supplier to the high-class hotel sector has said:… [Read more]

A new survey has placed coffee shops in the top ten businesses most likely to succeed for start-up businesspeople this year.   The Startups UK organisation has said that after two months’  of research, which involved interviews with such authorities as stars of Dragons’ Den, it has highlighted the ten most promising business openings for 2012…. [Read more]

With a long anticipated cold snap looking like it is here to stay for a while, what better way to attract customers than with a heart warming spicy bean dish.  Exceptionally easy to make and really tasty, this recipe is bound to be a winner, both in terms of your profit margins and with your… [Read more]

Some interesting recent experiments between espresso engineers, a cocktail expert, a tea blender and a syrup maker may have opened up a new market sector for beverage operators who hold an alcohol licence. The concept of the ‘tea cocktail’ is not in itself a new one. However, Rory Ireland of the Roy Ireland espresso services… [Read more]

Caution has been expressed over what have, in recent years, been wildly-escalating projections of the importance of the coffee trade to the national high street. In a look at the rise of various high street chains, a national newspaper has actually thought to look at the other side of the coin, and has questioned Matthew… [Read more]

In what may be a new trend, or what may simply be coincidence, two suppliers of traditional espresso machines have both announced launches of new machines on a platform of avoiding grandiose high-tech claims, and returning to the world of commonsense espresso brewing.  The two launches are both Italian machines – the new Synchro range… [Read more]

Marketing is, without a shadow of doubt, the most misunderstood part of the jigsaw that you need to complete when seeking to create your perfect coffee shop.

The march of the capsule-espresso format continues, with two significant names now making their appearance in the sector – La Cimbali is set to launch two products which can work either as traditional espresso machines, brew with capsules, or brew with pods. United Coffee has launched its Campanini system, with an unusual method of brewing milky… [Read more]

In a period which has seen several pub groups consciously strengthening their work with coffee, the latest major step has been taken by the Spirit pub group, which holds the Chef and Brewer, Taylor Walker, Fayre and Square, Flaming Grill, Original Pub Company, Wacky Warehouse and Good Night Inns brands, covering around 1,300 venues in… [Read more]

The most imaginative ideas in the 2012 UK Barista Championship have been made by two of the contest’s sponsors.   Both Union Hand Roasted and Cravendale have made moves to encourage new entrants into the contest – and although the Union initiative has not gone down universally well, the company stands behind its attempt to encourage… [Read more]

There has been a big change at Coffee Kids, one of the coffee trade’s most significant organisations dedicated to improving the situation of impoverished coffee farmers. The British branch has closed and the UK committee has transferred its activity to similar work – run by the man who originally founded Coffee Kids. In a somewhat… [Read more]

A new trend has cropped up in the world of coffee-bar counter design – several manufacturers have decided that it is time for creative use of the space beneath the worktop.  New coffee-relevant ideas have now appeared from Scanomat, Marco, and Nelson. The item which has received most attention from the design community is Scanomat’s… [Read more]

An interesting new development in bringing speciality coffee to ‘secondary’ catering situations has been highlighted by Kimbo, the British branch of an Italian coffee supplier. The brand has pointed to the phenomenal rise of the capsule-coffee format, paired with the arrival of the relatively-new counter-top milk foaming machine, as the low-cost way for service of… [Read more]

A new method of preparing and serving filter coffee has been devised by a Danish inventor, who says that he has now come up with a system which is as good as, but easier than, the French press for high-standard hotel bedroom coffee service. The system has been in development for nine years and has… [Read more]