Why is the coffee industry so indifferent to its customers?
Posted by TheShot on 03 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Barista, Beans, Café Society, Consumer Trends, Machine
Many in the coffee industry speak volumes about wanting to market themselves to the public as the “new wine.” But if we examine the practices the industry has taken on to accomplish any of this, it has failed miserably on nearly all fronts. What becomes all too clear is that the coffee industry either doesn’t want to engage with its customers or awkwardly has no clue how to do it — despite the many hints and clues left by the wine industry it supposedly looks up to.
Let’s examine the closest things the coffee industry offers in terms of public outreach, contrasting them with similar practices in the wine industry.
Death by barista competition
The new season of barista competitions is upon us once again (this is the original inspiration behind this post). Barista championships are widely considered one of the prouder, most marketable achievements of the specialty coffee industry. And yet they exhibit all the hallmarks of a navel-gazing insider event that feigns courting but really disregards the coffee consuming public.
Whether in person or via online video streams, following a few seasons of them creates its own form of repetitive stress injury. Bear witness to a few consecutive seasons, and it’s little wonder that people in the coffee business for any length of time simply stop attending. And despite a frequently-stated desire for a TV-ready, Top Chef-like equivalent for the coffee industry, these competitions are even more tedious for the coffee consuming public.
The competitions demonstrate a form of precision gymnastics to which no retail coffee consumer can relate. Glowing red timers on the walls; a dog-show-like presentation complete with mic’ed up headset and mood music; a hunched-over team of clipboard carriers who scurry like roaches as they inspect spent pucks and leftover grinds in the hopper. Even the specialty drinks compulsories are completely disconnected from anything resembling coffee in a retail environment. (As we’ve always liked to say, “if it requires a recipe, it’s not coffee.”)
To make matters worse — or at least more puzzling to consumers — the USBC has now introduced the concept of the Brewers Cup: to exhalt the art of pouring hot water over coffee grounds. Then throw on more formal recognition of latte art competitions — the industry’s push to elevate coffee not so much as a consumable, but as an art medium not entirely unlike pen & ink wash or watercolors. Huh?
Can the coffee industry produce a public event that isn’t a game show?
If we look over to the wine industry, just how many of their public events are modeled after reality TV game shows? A competitive sommelier beat-down, perhaps? Painting with wine contests? PBS surprisingly opted to renew The Winemakers for a second season, but microscopically few wine fans have ever heard of it.
There are competitive events such as the SF International Wine Competition, but they actively engage public participation, offer public education, and generally prevent these events from becoming industry navel-gazing or a mere spectator sport. However, the wine industry frequently engages with consumers through targeted consumer appreciation events as varied as the Rhone Rangers or the Family Winemakers of California or even cultural attaché marketing arms such as local chapters of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin.
And coffee has… well… the SCAA conference. The conference made recent overtures to invite the culinary world to their events. But that’s still just business-to-business marketing that completely ignores consumers. With coffee, it’s as if the trade is all that matters. This is also reflected in the industry’s most popular publications — i.e., magazines such as Roast, Fresh Cup, Barista, etc.
Yet when you compare the number of coffee consumers to wine consumers, and the frequency that each consumes their respective products, doesn’t this suggest gaping holes in the coffee industry’s consumer outreach strategy?
Making consumers bend to the industry vs. the other way around
Even when the coffee industry makes a direct attempt to engage consumers, it can blow up on the launchpad. When it tried to court consumers with the concept of comparative coffee tastings, it instead opted for the industry trade practice of cupping — with all its obscene slurps, crust making-and-breaking, and spinning a lot of defect detection as if it were a social event (meat inspection, anyone?). As such, coffee cupping resembles nothing like the experiences that made your average coffee consumer a fan of the stuff to begin with.
The idea of using coffee “disloyalty cards” to introduce consumers to new coffee houses is a more clever consumer outreach program that has caught on in a number of cities. But none of these programs have had much impact beyond a small audience enthralled with their initial novelty and a few local press releases.
And if you look at the way quality coffee is marketed in the press today to consumers, it’s as if the industry is hell-bent on a mission to prevent good coffee from being consumer-friendly and approachable. If you purchase a retail coffee beverage in a shop, consumers are barraged with price-tag hype and the programmed obsolescence of the latest espresso machine. Consumers brewing at home are bewildered by the pour-over arms race.
Wine may have more than its fair share of gadget hawkers — e.g., the next Rube Goldberg-esque cork pull or aerator gadget. However, wine consumers aren’t inundated by a monthly one-upsmanship competition telling them that how they appreciated wine last month is now wrong, outdated, and no longer expensive enough. We cannot say that about quality coffee, whose public marketing strategy has more in common with 4G smartphones than with wine.
What we’d like to see as coffee consumers
As much as the coffee industry has promoted the idea, we’ve always felt comparing itself to the wine industry was generally a bad idea. Even so, there are simple things the coffee industry could be doing that might include consumers in their success — rather than putting up barriers, refusing to accommodate consumers, and yet still hoping they still find a way to engage themselves to keep their industry afloat.
Given the belief in coffee terroir, why not demonstrate and educate consumers on it? For example, we’d love to see a coffee-growing-nation-sponsored, consumer-focused event that explores the various roaster expressions of the latest crops from, say, Guatemala. Or if not a tasting event based on regions, how about growing seasons? The Cup of Excellence program has elements that can be applied here. However, it is modeled as purely a trade event and many coffee growing nations aren’t even represented.
Come on, guys. We love your stuff. Why do you have to make it so ridiculously hard to participate, let alone enjoy it?
15 Comments »
With all due respect: It ain’t about you.
From my perspective (for what it’s worth), specialty coffee isn’t quite “ready for prime time.” The barista competitions aren’t intended, designed, or suited to be consumer-outreach endeavors. Rather, it’s one of many vehicles to help serve as catalysts for advancement in the craft and ultimately what’s delivered to customers.
The Brewers Cup was developed for one reason and one reason alone: to be a catalyst for improvements in manually-brewed coffee quality. There are too many baristas who are complacently satisfied with the quality of their mediocre brews, because there hasn’t been a good mechanism to critically evaluate the cups they’re producing.
I can understand why one might ask the question (you’re not the only one) “Why does everything need to become a spectacle or contest?” But there is a trickle-down effect that yields much greater fruits than the idea of crowning a bunch of champions in a given endeavor.
As I wrote above, I don’t generally believe that specialty coffee is really “ready for prime-time.” There’s still much development and maturing of the industry that needs to happen before anyone could take on the task of addressing the consumer populace in a significant way.
I kind of agree with you – about making it more accessible and participatory.
Barista competitions – these aren’t for the public. I think the industry has pretty much accepted that. They way they are scored is completely obscured to the public and you have no idea who did well until someone tells you a couple of hours later. This rules it out as a spectator event for me. I think they are extremely valuable and worthwhile events for the industry, I will encourage participation in them and I hope I continue to see the benefits of them.
Having run coffee events more focused on the public I think it can be done, but scaling this stuff up is incredibly difficult without investing heavy resources. We used to run espresso nights where we’d get espresso coffees from 5 great roasters in a certain country, I’d pull shots and people would taste them blind, share notes on a whiteboard (anonymously) and have some fun with it all.
Our busiest event was 60 people. It nearly killed me pulling that many shots that fast, while also trying to make sure you represent people’s coffees fairly. Doing it for 200 or even 1,000 would be very difficult indeed. I don’t really like cupping either (it isn’t designed for consumer appreciation of coffee, as a process anyway). Still – we plan on running more tasting events and perhaps brewed coffee is the way to go…
I agree with Nick’s remark :
“There are too many baristas who are complacently satisfied with the quality of their mediocre brews, because there hasn’t been a good mechanism to critically evaluate the cups they’re producing.”
That remark still rings true, even here in Indonesia. Especially when you’re talking about espresso.
Here the baristas largely (and for some cases, only) depended on the training given by the machine distributors. And they aren’t exactly the best teacher. So many of the basics like coffee storage down to the grinder adjustments and shot timing… It’s kinda like being skipped.
By inviting the baristas to the Indonesia Barista Competition and giving the baristas workshop and calibration session, they got the real insight on how to really make espresso, NOT from the machine distributor. It’s so new for some of them that one of them just knew that he have to time the shot, and not just wait for the coffee to flow down from the portafilter until the shot glass is full.
And this is the same person from a coffee-cafe that would’ve charge me around $3.5 for a shot. In a country where $500 a month is already a good wage, $3.5 for a bad shot is too much. And oh one more : many of the so-called baristas here doesn’t even know the NAME of their machine. So Barista Competition in an effort to educate the still-growing segment of coffee enjoyment here? Oh yes.
Espresso is the problem. It’s much easier for people in other food items to slowly up their habit, like Sam Adams? Try Dechutes and so on. Like espresso based drinks at Starbucks? Buy a 40 dollar machine and 20 dollar blade grinder, bad tasting espresso. End.
I think it’s hard for people to make a whole hearted jump into coffee because of our collective obsession with espresso as a industry and as a society. Until that ends coffee is going to remain more like a video game convention than a wine lovers association.
Upon further thinking…
I have lived in Portland and San Fransico, why do the ‘big’ third wave roasters insist on setting up shops in NYC? Wouldn’t it be better for coffee as a whole if these roasters instead focused on infusing the local area that they are in with their coffee?
It must be just self-agrandizement, which is the problem with the industry that your article tries to address.
Nick, I understand your point that these events are not necessarily for me, and I am alright with that.
As a amateur coffee lover, I’ve never been able to get into into barista competitions for the reasons you mention. Another reason is that I find it hard to learn anything practical that can help my technique.
A point that is mentioned here is that the specialty coffee should try to host more events that reach out to consumers. I know the espresso tasting that we’ve done in Toronto modeled after Jim’s event was a tremendous success. I am hoping the Down Under Tasting that we are doing next week will also be a great success.
In addition to your suggested focus on terroir, my inclination for events is always towards education whether it is coffee focused or around technique. I know a lot of consumers have mentioned to me that they are looking for education that is simple, accessible, and results focused.
I’ll weigh in as a coffee industry outsider.
I accept Nick’s contention that barista competitions are not directly for consumers, but created to help baristas hone their skills so they can deliver a better product to customers. But I think that the position that specialty coffee isn’t quite ready for prime time and that these types of events are needed to advance that goal before anyone can “take on the task of addressing the consumer populace” is scary and I think, wrong.
If you want someone to truly appreciate great Latin American literature, for example, and their grasp of Spanish is limited to “Dónde están los baños?”, you don’t hand them a copy of a Gabriel García Márquez novel. NOBODY WILL GET IT. Worse, if it’s way beyond them, they will give up and not try to move up the ladder of appreciation.
I’m a coffee enthusiast who “got into” specialty coffee over my concerns regarding environmental sustainability, but our goals are similar: to get people to quit crappy commodity coffee and appreciate and support specialty coffee. The knowledge level of the vast majority of coffee drinkers is “pre-Hola!” to use my previous example. Granted, some people will never go beyond Folgers, but every day I try to educate average people about coffee, and many are surprised and eager to learn. Even those people, however, don’t “get” a COE coffee I have them try. It’s too big a leap.
I have attended three SCAA Events, and it’s like stepping into another world (I used to belong to SCAA, but they eliminated their consumer membership). There needs to be some middle ground, some way for consumers to get from here to there and learn the beautiful language of coffee. Everyone pisses and moans about Starbucks — THAT’S who is doing this right now. I believe more very basic consumer education needs to take place. The average person needs to be welcomed, not treated with disdain or feel intimidated. I’ve been made to feel this way myself, and it’s ridiculous and alienating.
The prime time is today.
Julie, I didn’t mean that nobody in specialty coffee is or should be educating or addressing consumers at all. By “prime time,” I meant television.
That’s sort of a whole ‘nother topic, but just wanted to clarify. Most definitely, we should work to help others experience coffee in the ways you have. Right now, for the same reason you brought up Starbucks, I believe that the best mechanism we have right now for consumer outreach is the collective of quality-focused coffee shops out there.
The goal of the SCAA is to inspire “specialty coffee professionals in their quest to learn, grow and collaborate for the betterment of the specialty coffee industry” and to offer, “members every opportunity for success through education, training, resources and business services.” (scaa.org)
The goal of the average coffee retailer it is to make enough money to pay their bills and make a living. The “average” retailer is not represented by much of what is visibly happening in the industry competitions and that is OK. I don’t necessarily take issue with them, I take issue with the exclusivity, the narrow focus that some people have relating to those people they don’t feel achieve or aspire to the same level of competence they do.
Being successful in the coffee industry is a package deal. Having great coffee and great espresso is only one part of it. That’s also one of the reason I take issue with the “rock star” barista mentality. I have many employees, some of them are very accomplished and talented, but at our store we all pull together as a team. Their is no rock star to big that they still don’t clean toilets. If a retail store serves good coffee, but makes a great living are they less successful than the store that serves FABULOUS coffee, but can barely pay their bills?
On the Specialty Coffee Retailer group forum in Linked In I suggested, slightly tongue in cheek, that we create a Retailer Competition where the whole package of successful retailing is evaluated and promoted and rewarded. There would be categories for 1-store, small-chain, large-chain and franchise. Evaluations would be based on revenue, gross profit, net profit, coffee/espresso quality, food quality, cleanliness, ratios such as daily traffic count to population, sales per square foot, Longevity of staff, etc. It would take into account any local competition (other shops), local population, average household income and more.
I really haven’t thought through details, and like I said, it is really kind of a pie on the sky idea and one I don’t think will come to fruition, but I hope the underlying message does.
Just yesterday I noticed some tweets between to left-coasters who basically dismissed Abid Clevers as being “pourovers for dummies”.
Our industry just loves to eat its own.
Nick has often used the quote, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good”, in discussing how to make really delicious coffee more accessible to the general public.
While it may well be that standing behind a $600 halogen stand and a $125 siphon making “N” and “Z” designs at specific intervals with a stirrer made of virgin bamboo while keeping one eye on your temperature probe and the other on your digital timer produces the most phenomenal coffee in the known universe, what percentage of consumers is really going to want to go that far in their own home for their morning cup?
Two baristas using Abid Clevers just made the finals of the first Brewer’s Cup (which is a competition idea we love – and we wish the first round of barista comps made all baristas use the same coffee too!). Surely they had many other options to choose from, but chose that $16 piece of plastic to best represent their coffees. So why bash it? Because the aesthetics are beneath you? Because it doesn’t require an art deco stand? With a bit of training, the thing works exceptionally well and consistently.
To really get greater traction in ultra-specialty whole bean sales and greater public appreciation it’s not about going into the cafe and watching a complicated magic show. It’s figuring out how to get customers making smaller steps toward relatively uncomplicated brewing methodologies they can integrate easily into their current lifestyles.
If someone would invent a Technivorm knockoff that performed just as well at a price of $89.99 (or $72 with your 20% Bed Bath & Beyond coupon), they could be instant millionaires. And they’d be doing us all a huge favor.
First of all, I’d like to point out one obvious thing that the author of the article missed. Coffee is fundamentally different than wine because of one thing… the barista. A consumer can buy a great bottle of wine and take it home and enjoy it. However, without a great barista, the enjoyment that one can get out of a great pound of coffee is limited to one’s own skill and knowledge level. However, a great barista can access dimensions of a coffee that the lay person just can’t (by selecting the “right” brewing method, and then knowing how to tweak the variables within that brewing method). This really takes either an inherent gift or years of study or both.
Therefore, as an industry, we need these events that focus on barista development and also to honoring the extraordinary baristas. Hence, the importance of the competitions.
That being said, I totally agree that our industry still needs an event (or ongoing events) in order to reach out to consumers more. This is why we are doing weekly cuppings at our stores, as well as custom blending workshops and more. I do think that cupping engages consumers, almost because of the slurping and spitting. Baristas can guide consumers through this completely sensual experience. It’s memorable, and I’d like to point out, oh so practical (quick, easy, immediate).
Coffee Fest I think was geared towards being a more consumer oriented event, somehow, but has just ended up being an SCAA imitation. I do think Coffee Fest could re-evolve itself into a more consumer oriented event. And, as the author points out, there’s plenty of opportunity for us roasters and retailers to continue to create our own events to reach out to consumers directly. Thanks for the reminder and the insight!
@Sarah: Thanks for the post, Sarah. We didn’t add the part about baristas because the post was long enough as is. That said, the human touch for brewing at the point-of-consumption is definitely a huge difference from wine.
But it’s not like coffee buyers or roasters don’t matter. Nor is the wine industry hurting without competitions and contests for critical roles in the wine delivery chain: vineyard managers/winegrowers, winemakers, sommeliers, etc. There’s definitely a need to train up the most public-facing and yet traditionally least-skilled member of the coffee delivery chain, but the singular obsession with the barista seems a bit heavy-handed and one-dimensional.
The cupping approach still struggles with the same problems of having consumers come to the SCAA conference: it’s a practice of converting the lay public into the trade in order to address the gap. Wine has its barrel tastings and winery tours, but people like drinking wine far more than they like to be educated about it. Wine’s success at consumer outreach has more to do with bringing the mountain to Mohammed, not the other way around as coffee does.
Your bringing up Coffee Fest is a great example, though. I think you’re onto something in that rather than have dueling industry-driven events that largely mirror each other, there’s an opportunity to be had in making one of them more approachable by consumers.
I am from Switzerland and thought this post particularly interesting because I just attended our national barista championchips a week ago (as spectator), and noticed that most people who were watching looked very familiar (i.e. they were all working in the industry). Yet, the event was held in a public shopping mall, which made it appear as if it was intended to get the public involved. I fully agree that this is not the way to reach the consumers (and many readers here obviously agree that these aren’t events for the consumers), even though I consider it a missed opportunity. Get people involved and explain the importance of the barista, instead of obscuring scoring-criteria and making fancy signature drinks no one can ever taste!
What I believe to be one of the biggest obstacles in the spread of coffee knowledge is the fact that origin is communicated like it’s a big secret or something. Cheap supermarket coffee usually has no declared origin whatsoever, but often even certain “better” roasters will only give out informations like “arabica blend”, “south america”, etc. which is in my opinion wrongly using the blend ingredients as their secret recipe instead of distinguishing themselves with their personal roasting interpretation of certain (declared!) beans. I think if people were more aware that (even starting with the cheap stuff) their coffees come from different places, interest and awareness of other important factors like preparation etc. would automatically grow along.
Sarah: I think your comment that “a great barista can access dimensions of a coffee that the lay person just can’t” is extremely condescending and illustrates perfectly Greg’s original point. Think about it.
As a musician, I know just how insular and technique-obsessed a specialty group can become (let’s say trumpet players, for example).
A former trumpet playing friend of mine (turned cafe owner) recently took me to a local barista competition, and we found the similarity to trumpet conferences to be uncanny. Our thoughts were that the obsession with gear and technique could be alienating, but some elements weren’t entirely without general consumer appeal. That being said, although everyone can appreciate this pretty much in full… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGX-ShLavE4&feature=related … it’s not exactly a meaningful musical experience.