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This is the end of the Barista.Barista’s are no longer the assets they claim to be for your Café

In2006Iwroteanarticleraisingthequestion“IsthistheendoftheBarista?”whichreceived some interesting comments in response (article posted on this site) Now six years later. I am more convinced than ever that the barista’s days are numbered. As super automated espresso machines evolve, modern technology is engineering ways to deliver the perfect cup of coffee, every time and much faster than even a world cham-pion barista would be able to serve it. Given this, consider that the future of making the perfect cup of coffee may no longer be a matter of human skill, instead it may be engineered by science.

The traditionalists among you may argue that no machine could ever replace the skill or craft of an experienced barista. You argue that there will always be an elite niche of gourmet coffee shops that will attract select customers. That may be true for the top 20%ofthemarketthathavemaintainedprofitableretailcoffeeoutletsovertheyears.Butfortheremaining80%ofcoffeeshopsinAustralia,baristaswillincreasinglynotbeable to provide the answers to how to improve profitability. Café owners need to return to smart business fundamentals.

A Declining Saturated MarketThe retail coffee market in Australia and New Zealand is in decline. Currently, the aver-agecoffeeretailerinAustraliasurvivesonameagre4%orlessprofitmargin.Thereisapproximately 1 espresso machine per 850 people in Australia & New Zealand. These espresso coffee markets are amongst the most mature in the world, and are now satu-rated – as indicated by the low average profit margin.

The sad reality is that most coffee shop owners have been romanced by the idea of coffee as an art form. In the process they have lost sight of, overlooked, or have never really known the realities of running a profitable operation. Many café owners defer

to baristas who claim that their skills are essential to creating the perfect cup of coffee for customers. There is this mis-conception the art form of brewing coffee will bring in profits. But if that is the case why is Australia’s coffee retail industry in decline?Whydolessthan20%ofcoffeeshops and franchises make a decent profit? If barista’s skills are so invaluable to the industry, why are their artistic efforts not translating into profits?

Could it be as simple as baristas are not as skilled or as indispensible as they make out to be? In the past five years super auto machines have certainly progressed. Sci-ence has surpassed human skill. While on the other hand, barista’s have had very little innovation to offer coffee retailers.

Why so few Coffee Franchises and Cafés are Profitable Even though statistics show that coffee franchises are more profitable, this is skewed by the fact that franchises will of-ten take over an unprofitable store and run it until it can be sold on to a new owner.

Story : George Sabados (GS) photo : Coffee t&i Thailand

In Australia independent cafés and coffee shops make up the vast majority of the market. 2007 figures showed 8500 new coffee shops in Australia. Aside from a select few coffee retailers that have been in the industry for years, most people enter the industry because they are ro-manced into the idea of owning a coffee shop. Few have previous entrepreneurial experience and even fewer have retail experience. They rely on the expertise of barista’s, thinking that barista’s know all about coffee and therefore, by default about the business of selling coffee.

In the process café owners make a clas-sic mistake. They think if they produce the perfect product it will automatically translate into sales. Café owners lose focus of business fundamentals. As an example: They lump together their coffee purchases with other expenses instead of separating it as a cost of sales. They therefore overlook that coffee is something that can be used to grow sales, and therefore, should be viewed as an investment in the business. They only see it as an expense. And because over a year, this expense can amount to over $50 000, they immediately assume that the best way to increase profits is to decrease costs.

Café owners expend vast amounts of time and energy trying to negotiate better coffee prices. As evidence the average cost per kilo for coffee has de-creased from $28 to $20 in the past five years. And this has happened despite green coffee bean prices doubling since October2010.Essentiallycaféownerslook to cut costs in all the wrong places instead of looking for smart sales growth strategies.

Onthebackofthat,duetotheinfluenceof barista’s, café owners get caught up in following unsustainable industry trends. Without stopping to ask: Will this be good for my business? They blindly fol-low the advice of their barista’s, who let’s face it, are not business experts, they’re coffee makers.

Have Barista’s evolved or simply become a Business Curse?To be blunt, baristas have run out of ideas. Even those competing in world champion-ship competitions have reverted back to out-dated coffee making techniques in a feeble attempt to be innovative. Take for example pour-overs and vacuum brewers that have recently re-appeared. Maybe in a competition or barista get-together it looks impressive. Perhaps if you’re brewing a coffee in the comfort of your own home the time it takes is worth it. But these techniques are totally impractical for the retail sector. Another trend has been to introduce tasting rooms in an attempt to lure more coffee connoisseurs. It’s a nice marketing idea, but all it ends up doing is using valuable retail space without achieving a return on investment.

Café owners are taking advice from their baristas rather than knowledgeable retail con-sultants or business mentors. Keep in mind that most barista’s are simply employees and aren’t concerned about costs and profits. They don’t have the big picture vision or small detail management abilities required to make a success as an entrepreneur. If they did, they’d be opening their own cafés. For the most part, baristas just want a cosy environment in which to practice their art form.

In addition, the industry is largely made up of baristas under the age of 30, so they don’t understand that certain techniques such as over pourers and vacuum brewers were discarded by the retail sector years ago, precisely because they were not profitable. Even more concerning is that by re-introducing these out-dated techniques, barista’s have become even less productive in terms of outputs. They mistakenly believe that these techniques are advancements, but in reality they are merely distractions to busi-nesses that are making cafés even more unprofitable than before. Yet because there is still a belief that baristas are central to the coffee retail industry, these production and profit losses go unnoticed.

Salesand

ProfitGrowth

Time

Slow salesgrowth

Rapid Salesgrowth

Slow - down insales and profit

Decline in salesand profit

In the coffee retail product life cycle graph above, X marks the peak of the market before it starts to decline. The coffee café sector in Australia and New Zealand has moved beyond this point and with them barista’s. Reintroducing out-dated techniques is not going to save the market. When any ‘product’ reaches its peak, it becomes ripe for replacement by new technology and practices. Cafés that fail to recognise this and refuse new technology are unlikely to survive. But those that become early adopters of new technology have the most to gain.

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A Lesson from the Travel IndustryThe past 10 years have seen some of the most significant changes in the travel indus-try.Traditionallytravelagentsearneda9%commissiononinternationalairfaresand7%ondomesticairfaresfromairlines.Fromthemid1990’stherewasalreadytalkofairlines going to a zero commission basis. Some agents started introducing the idea of service fees to their clients. But the vast majority said it would never happen. Their thinking was that airlines needed agents to sell tickets so they couldn’t and wouldn’t just cut them out.

Then in 2001 came 9/11. Due to this tragic event, airlines lost billions and overnight the industry went into decline. The strategies airlines had spoken about were no longer just optional. Airlines had to find ways to streamline their operations if they were to survive. Technology was advanced enough for airlines to have direct booking portals on the internet for clients. As a result travel agents were no longer indispensible to airlines.

Still the majority of travel agents clung on to the misconception that their expertise would save them. What they didn’t count on was the shift in consumer buying behav-iour on the internet. With more access to information, clients became smarter about onlineshopping.Onlineinnovatorscreatedplatformswherecustomerscouldcomparefares on different airlines for different routings. This made it even easier for customers to compare and shop online for travel. In short, the travel agent experts that thought the industry revolved around their expertise became obsolete.

There is always the exception to the rule. While the majority of travel agents closed their doors, there have been others that carved for themselves a successful business niche. They have not only survived, they have been extremely profitable. A primary reason for this is that instead of fighting technology and change it brought, they have used it to build more profitable businesses.

Thequestionis,willbaristasandcaféownerslearnfromthis?Orwillbaristascontinueto claim technology will never replace their expertise? Super automated coffee machines offer caf é owners a way to decrease costs, increase outputs and increase consistency of quality output. Smarter, newer technology is available now to make coffee shops more profitable, even in a declining market. So why are the levels of adoption in the coffee retail industry still so low?

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Super Automated Coffee Machines

The Ugly:Topping the list is the resistance by barista’s to accept super automated coffee machines. They claim that a machine cannot super cede their coffee making skills. Baristas see machines a threat to their livelihood, and rightly so. Super auto machines have evolved and are producing top quality coffees that will rival a world champion barista. But what baristas don’t see is that there is also the opportunity to use the technology available to enhance their skills or create a new career path.

There is one point worth conceding, and that is that the super auto machines do not boast a very artistic design. The engineers behind their design have focussed more on the internal workings of the machine than its exterior appearance, resulting in a super-efficient machine in a rather unattractive metallic square box. But there are ways to overcome this. It’s very easy to hide the machine behind the counter or build an attractive cover behind it. And moves are being made by some manufacturers to improve aesthetics.

Linked to the appearance of super auto machines is the fear of customer per-ceptions. Baristas and café owners like to believe that super automated coffee machines will take the culture and ambi-ence out of the cafés. But it’s not coffee machines that create a café culture. It’s the décor, the ambience, and the friendly and efficient service. A super automated machine does not take any of this away. Instead it enhances it by enabling cafés to serve more customers with a higher quality cup of coffee, more consistently and more efficiently.

The Bad:In general, automated machines have in the past performed poorly and were much more expensive due to being based on old & limited technology. The franchises that did install them sought only to im-prove efficiency and operational costs. But in the process, lack of understanding resulted in choosing the wrong type of machines which delivered an inferior quality product to the customer. Many franchise groups using super-automatics have head office mandated operational requirements that take precedence over systems & methodology that produce the best possible quality. As a result the perception in the coffee retail industry and consumers of automated machines has been tainted through the lack of un-derstanding and lack of proper execution of those who used them.

To a degree, there remains a shortage of advanced super-automatics. Most ma-chines in the market place, as I said, are simply old technology modified every few years with minor changes here and there. Unlike car manufacturers, machine manufacturers have a far lower return on investment and look to maximise the shelf life of their production facillity and appli-cability of their original design. Designing from the ground up for companies set in their ways is almost an impossibility. And since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) many manufacturing companies have cut back on their spend in R&D because of the decline in sales – which means that old technology will be around longer.

As happens in industries, every now and then a ‘new kid on the block’ appears who had to start fresh, with fresh ideas on how to create a machine which can best a barista whilst at the same time increase output, be consistent and rarely break-down. Those manufacturing companies that have invested in the latest research and development are now seeing the fruits of their labour. The machines that are now being introduced can only be described as new generation super automated ma-chines. With multiple functions integrated into a single unit they stand apart from those that have gone before them.

The Good:The reason these super automated ma-chines are so good is that they have a quality focus. Meticulous effort has been put into engineering a machine that covers all known variables. With correct fine tun-ing in-store the machines deliver a precise extraction of flavour from the coffee beans with a level of consistency that is difficult to replicate manually. The machines are smarter. Some even have the capability to adjust the grind automatically accord-ing to volume over time settings. The steam wands are linked to automatic temperature cut-outs which deliver a more consistent temperature for steaming milk. No one can under or over steam the milk. Even automatic milk steaming systems are matching the creamy, sweet

micro-bubble foam top baristas produce. All this science and engineering has created super automated machines that over time are more reliable and more economical than a barista could ever hope to be.

What will it take to be Profitable in a Declining Market? Start by returning to what’s important. To run a profitable café the debate should not be about man versus machine, but about what will drive sales? In other words, what do customers really want? And how can you best deliver exactly what they want, and more?

Most daily coffee consumers want a consistently tasty cup of coffee delivered in a friendly and speedy manner. Customers don’t want to queue for any length of time. And they certainly don’t want a bad cup of coffee because the barista is having an off day.

Studies back this up showing that there are three keys to generatingsalesgrowthintheretailcoffeesector:1.Qual-ity of service; 2. Speed of service; and 3. A quality of prod-uct that exceeds customer expectations. The problem is that80%ofcoffeedrinkersdon’tknowwhataqualitycup of coffee tastes like, because most of the time they are given average coffee at best. The founder of Apple, Steve Jobs had a mantra to “give consumers what they wanted before consumers knew what they wanted.”

Super automated machines provide café owners with an economicalwaytodoexactlythat.Oncecustomersgetataste of a really good cup of coffee they are not going to want to go anywhere else. If you can deliver that coffee with a smile in a faster than expected time, you have the opportunity to sell more coffee that you’ve ever dreamed possible. People won’t even mind queuing because they know that it won’t be a long wait to get a delicious cup of coffee.

Can a Turnaround in a Coffee Retailer really be that simple? The interesting thing is that when I start to share success stories of clients that have achieved phenomenal growth thanks to super auto machines I get blank unbelieving stares. People in the coffee industry simply don’t believe that it’s possible to increase coffeesalesby3000%inayear.10%–maybe,40%-wellthatwouldbeamazing,but3000%–that’simpossible!Yetthiswasachievedbyatleastahandfulofsmallcoffeeretailers typically in a quiet parts of town where they competed with several other funkier coffee businesses . This was achieved not by hiring a world champion barista either. It was achieved by installing a super automated coffee machine and delivering each cup faster, better and with a smile.

At Sydney International Airport in Australia, one retail franchise took the leap of faith to install super automated machines instead of employing more baristas. This particular franchise was one of several coffee outlets in that part of the airport. Within a few weeks they had people queuing out the door while baristas at other coffee retailers in the airport stood around wiping down counters waiting for customers to arrive.

The franchise outlet now averages 45kg a week of espresso coffee sales. Keep in mind that most of their sales take place between 7am and 11am each day. What made the

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difference? Super automated coffee machines – they could serve more people, better coffee, faster. Word quickly spread that the franchise was the place to get an above average delicious tasting cup of coffee with friendly and efficient service and their sales continue to rise.

The Smart Approach to the Business of CoffeeIf coffee retailers want to remain profitable they need to rethink their operations. Take a close look at cost structures and look at what smart alternatives are available to a café. As shown in the table below, baristas make up the single biggest operational cost in a café. To their detriment they can only turn over so many cups of coffee so fast. When human effort is involved, most often as the volume of coffee demanded increases, the quality decreases or becomes inconsistent.

The table below shows a cost comparison of a more traditional café set up compared to a café that with a super automated machine. The table shows that a café has the potential toreduceitsoperationalexpensesby10-35%whichtranslatesintothepotentialforatleast40%moreprofit.

Instead of needing 29 cups per hour served to break even only 18 are required. Instead of having to turn over 33kg or coffee per week only 21kg is required. This illustrates the potential to increase profits and boost sales by changing the operational set-up. Now if the café were to produce 29 cups of coffee per hour, with lower operational costs, that would translate into straight profit added to the business bottom liFigures don’t lie – Costs Comparisons

Cost: Manual Machine & 2-3 Baristas Super Auto Coffee Machine

Coffee

Milk

PaperCup

Lid

Sugar

Stirrer

SalePrice

GrossProfit

Operational Expenses

Direct Costs

Machinelease

Baristas

Rent%(40%)

TOTALopEx/hr

Cupsperhrtobreakeven

Kilosperweekrequired

25-50cents

30cents

16cents

5cents

2cents

1cent

$3.00

$1.96

$0.50hr($20/mth/$1000)($8000)

$50hr($75)for2(3)baristas

$11.50hr

$62($87)

20(29)

23(33)(at14gramspercoffeeaverage)

25-50cents

30cents

16cents

5cents

2cents

1cent

$3.00

$1.96

$1.30hr($20/mth/$1000)($20,000)

$25hrfor1barista+$18.75hrserver

$11.50hr

$56.

18

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GeorgeSabados(GS)hasbeen internationally recognised in theespressocoffee industrysince2000-eventhoughcoffeewashisbusinesssincetheearly1990′s.

Georgehas consultedas a coffee sales growth strategist, trainer, adviser, presenter,workshopleaderandstrategisttocoffeefranchisechains,nationalandmulti-nationalcoffeecompaniesbothinAustraliaandinternationally.

Georgeisdifferentfromthemajorityofroasters&baristasintheindustryinthatfirstandforemost,heisonlyinterestedinwaystogrowsales.Hehasanentrepreneurialunderstandingofespressocoffee.AllhisexperiencesandaccoladesinthecoffeeindustrywereachievedwithONEpurposeinmind–discoveringwhatittakestogrowsalesrapidly.

Histhinking,systemsandapproachtocoffeeisdifferenttothemajority–andmostpeoplewhoencoun-terhimrecognisethatinstantly.Heischallengingandbeyondpeerinhisdepthofunderstanding.

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They think that the only way to increase outputs is to employ another barista. But an additional barista adds a further burden on the coffee shop in terms of operational costs. Suddenly you have to produce 33 cups an hour to break even. Installing a super-auto machine, however, gives cafés the capability to increase outputs while at the same time reducing the operational costs. Imag-ine a super-automatic with the ability to extract 4 coffees simultaneously, all day, in the same way. The only thing the operator would have to do is steam the milk and pour it into the cup. What would that do to your speed of service and consistency of product?

Sooner or later the debate of man or ma-chine and the romance and mystique of the coffee industry needs to be set aside in the light of good business sense. There is little doubt that those cafés who choose to adopt the new technology of super automated machines will be the ones to reap the benefits: Improved quality, stan-dardization of that quality, faster turnover, improved customer service, franchise brand enhancement and a requirement for less skilled workers.

Individually owned coffee shops are the ones that are surviving on4%profits.Coffee craft and tasting rooms will never be able to compare to producing a con-sistently good cup of coffee in a faster turnaround time. The coffee retail industry no longer owes its existence to the barista. Baristas expertise cannot save the industry from further decline. The solution lies with technology and adaptation. Blended with quality service, even a floundering café has the opportunity to become a market leader.

This table shows that even though a super-auto machine is significantly more ex-pensive than a traditional machine, there is a much greater potential for profitability. Café’s with a traditional set-up are missing out on profits without even realising it.

George Sabados believes that to be a true‘espressocoffeeexpert’onehastohaveaproventrackrecordofinnovation.

George Sabados has a proven track recordof leading the change in theAustralian andInternational EspressoCoffee industry – andcurrentlycontinuestodosoforhiscustomers.

Formoreinformationgoto‘www.gsroasting.com

oPInIon

If the development of the coffee roasting markets in the USA, Northern Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zea-land are anything to go by, in markets where espresso coffee drinking is gaining traction eventually there will be a proliferation of individuals entering these markets

as espresso coffee roasters. In New Zealand there is one roaster for every 30,000 people, and in Australia there is one roaster for every 70,000 people – similar to Italy. Most are very small to medium-size operations that categorise themselves as “bou-tique” roasters. The interesting observation in these markets is that everyone seems to be an “expert” or “Master Roaster”. Naturally, this begs the question “what does it take to be a coffee bean roaster?” If total numbers are anything to go by then the answer is not much. It seems that anyone who can afford to buy a little coffee roasting machine can put a shingle above the door and call him, or herself, a Master Roaster and start selling roasted coffee.

Paradoxically, finding customers willing to buy the product confirms in the roasters mind that they are doing a good job. And when mixing and comparing the standard of their roasted coffee product with other new entrant roasters, most ‘roasters’ walk away proud that their coffee products performance and taste profiles are equivalent to those other “boutique” roasted products in their market. As many would admit, roasters exhibit a lot of passion. That is admirable and certainly makes turning up to work more enjoyable. But roasting espresso coffee is a science first and foremost. In my opinion most “boutique” roasters are “flying blind” with their consistency and quality because they lack even the most basic understanding of the science of roasting, and all the modifications and controls which need to be put in place to guarantee relative consistency at the highest possible quality. For most people in the business of roasting coffee they

What does it take to be an espresso coffee bean roaster?

Story: George Sabados (GS) / Photo: Coffee T&I Thailand

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merely are someone who takes green coffee beans and turn them brown. The underlying assumption in the coffee roasting industry is that the process of roasting is one of temperature over time – a simple process needing nothing more than a roast log sheet, a stopwatch, a temperature gauge, a coffee probe and a sample of the previous roast (for comparing colour result). Whilst this is a simplistic observation, this whole process re-quires little to no skill on the part of the “roaster”. As I indicated earlier, exceptional consistency at the highest possible quality – the maximum development of the coffee bean itself – can ONLY be achieved using a combination of many modifications, control equipment, lab equipment, and incessant tasting notes compared to real data which can then be fed back into the control equipment. It also requires some understanding of the consumer market the coffee product is aiming to serve, and where it is on the maturation curve. Whilst it would take me days to explain each of the above points in detail, I think the best way to answer ‘what it takes to be a cof-fee bean roaster’ is by making clear what exceptional roasting is not.

roasting is not just about exceptional green bean choices Great choices in beans are important, but it is more important to differentiate their quality based on intended use. For ex-ample, the single origin movement (which is so pushed in the Australian and New Zealand espresso market) originated in the United States in the 1970s aimed at providing better quality filter coffee to a market at its nadir in quality. Due to the history and development of coffee, 99% of the worlds coffee supply infrastructure – from growers, to international tasters, to green bean brokers etc – are trained in, and geared up for, filter coffee markets. As I travel to various origin countries rating coffees with other expert tasters via the traditional cupping method (another system of classification

beneficial to filter coffee markets) I have come to realise that there is a huge gulf between what is appropriate for filter coffee and what is appropriate for espresso coffee blends – particularly espresso with milk!

My observation is that new roasters follow a line and tempo set by the dominant coffee markets of the world – such as North America, Japan, Northern Europe – and they follow this enthusiasm without question. Not surprising since anyone new to the game seeks out training – usually found at the SCAA, SCAE and other organisations dominated by the individuals from the markets just mentioned. So when coffee roasters in the USA speak of single origin, which is ideally delivered and tasted as a filter style coffee, others who roast for espresso markets adopt the idea. This is not a criticism except to say that very few single origin coffees in the world are in and of themselves excellent for espresso coffee with milk. Where markets with a historically filter coffee domi-nance, green beans which are washed, high in acidity, low in sweetness and body are highly favoured. Newly emerging es-presso (and milk) markets require the opposite characteristics in green beans. They comprise such a small percentage of the global supply, however, I have found such excellent coffees in plentiful quantities in India. Needless to say, the preference by roasters for the former type of green bean rather than the latter – when applied to espresso coffee – is but one example of their general lack of scientific understanding

So what else?The beans must retain their integrity. Roasting is not just about developing the green coffee bean – it is about not destroying its integrity. This one is probable the most difficult statement for most roasters to conceptualize. There are a great many chemical compounds in any coffee bean of any quality mark. The aim of the roaster is not

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to butcher them or miss-time the roast (either under or over) so that they are not ‘triggered’ – then leading to flavour and aroma development. Suffice to say that not one coffee roasting machine fresh off the production line is any good without extra modifications to achieve a minimum ‘damage’ impression on the coffee beans. When I ask roasters to tell me their convective/conduc-tive heat ratios, their radiant temperature grid, their spreads, their endothermic reversal point, the chemical development range etc. they just stand there and stare. This is not just gobbledygook to satisfy ego. With-out knowing these concepts a roaster is simply ‘flying’ blind. These concepts form the basis of a scientific understanding that increases the chances of consistency at a high quality level and equally as impor-tant, increases the taste footprint of the beans, their flexibility and durability. To map out these key objectives a roaster must be able to record hard data from a variety of points in the roasting machine, from calibration equipment, and to able to match that data to several espresso tastings of the same coffee – each with a different development of the 12 key chemical compounds we know are linked to flavour and aroma development. To so much as measure these differences a roaster must invest heavily in a myriad of modifications and an array of heavy hitting calibration equipment – which could make the idea of purchasing a roasting machine 3 to 4 times more expensive. Most “boutique” roasters do not have the knowledge of these requirements, or if they did, the gumption or the necessary capital to convert to this setup. Lacking scientific knowledge or the scientific calibration equipment to execute that knowledge simply means more damage than good is being done to the coffee beans in the roast. This leads to decreased shelf life (why many say coffee must be consumed no more than 5 days after roasting) are flat (baked) or acidic with a hint of ash (scorched and under cooked) – conditions which I describer as “2 dimensional” coffees. All these conditions are the result of lack of scientific knowledge and lack of appropriate modi-fications to the roasting machinery. Simple commodity coffee

can be roasted in such a way as to defy the depth of flavour, development of character, and longevity most roasters attach to it – producing a roundness of development I describe as “3 dimensional” and a taste far beyond the ‘ speciality grade’ coffees. Roasting is about understanding the end consumer and delivering what they like, not telling them what they should like!

A great many “boutique” roast-ers tout Sour/Acidic espresso coffee as a favourable characteristic of espresso coffee blends. It is not. Certainly not in markets which then add milk to most espressos. Unfortunately, it is so common out there that the end consumer does not know any better. That is, of course, once they taste an alternative. As an anecdote, I once was told by a broker that a particular country (a whole nation) of consumers preferred their coffees acidic. Admittedly, that was all one could find being supplied by roasters in that country. I then suggested that we get several focus groups together and let them try acidic coffees (the main boutique brands in the market) and a sample coffee blend that was neither acidic nor bitter. In fact, it was sweet and rich in flavour and body. The end result was that the consumer chooses what they like, and they preferred non-acidic tasting coffees. They were simply asked to taste their espressos cold and then compare them. At or near body temperature the beneficial or negative characteristics of coffee shine through since our taste buds are designed to taste best at that temperature scale. Acidic/Sour coffees are not pleasing when cold, and taste like a cup full of lemon juice. Similarly, burnt/scorched coffee exhibits that taste when cool. Exhibiting both sour and burnt characteristics indicates that the roaster has no idea what is going on. The point here is that roasters don’t know how much they don’t know until someone shows them something different!

roasting coffee does not make you a retail expertRoasters are relied upon quite heavily by retailers, cafés, coffee shops, coffee distributors and franchise chains for ensuring the success of these end businesses. The only problem is that

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A great many “boutique” roasters tout Sour/Acidic espresso coffee as a favourable characteristic of espresso coffee blends. It is not. Certainly not in markets which then add milk to most espressos.

the overwhelming majority of coffee roasters are not retailers, never have been, nor know the first thing about successfully generating sales in a retail environment. Endless rounds of coffee training and excessive package deals will not help a retail business which is structurally unsound and in need of a complete overhaul in order to succeed. There is a pervasive myth in the marketplace that coffee roasters or coffee distributors can help retailers, cafés etc resolve all their financial woes simply by concentrating on espresso training. Whilst it is true that coffee training can lift sales, without remedying the root of the problem a roaster (and his/her trainers) is soon bereft of ideas. Growing the sales of a retail business is best left to professionals who specialise in applying a broader strategy by utilising a diverse array of ‘weapons’ designed to grow sales. Unfortunately, coffee training is but a very small part of the overall success equation, and any small business, café or coffee shop that believes their roaster holds the keys to their future security is grossly mistaken. I hope that the above advice has been interesting reading when understanding what makes a great coffee roaster. This is by no means a comprehensive account and there are a great number of considerations and learning a person must undertake as an ‘accountable’ roaster and reach a result level that is consistent and at the highest possible quality.

George Sabados (GS) has been internationally recognised in the espresso coffee industry since 2000- even though coffee was his busi-ness since the early 1990′s.

George has consulted as a coffee sales growth strategist, trainer, adviser, presenter, workshop leader and strategist to coffee franchise chains, national and multi-national coffee companies both in Australia and internationally.

George is different from the majority of roasters & baristas in the industry in that first and foremost, he is only interested in ways to grow sales. He has an entrepreneurial understanding of espresso coffee. All his experiences and accolades in the coffee industry were achieved with ONE purpose in mind – discovering what it takes to grow sales rapidly.

His thinking, systems and approach to coffee is different to the major-ity – and most people who encounter him recognise that instantly. He is challenging and beyond peer in his depth of understanding.

George Sabados believes that to be a true ‘espresso coffee expert’ one has to have a proven track record of innovation.

George Sabados has a proven track record of leading the change in the Aus-tralian and International Espresso Coffee industry - and currently continues to do so for his customers.

For more informationwww.gsroasting.comi

The international coffee world has been going ‘barista crazy’ for the last ten years. There has been a rise and rise of the barista profession in countries scrambling to grow an espresso coffee market, and internationally, participating busi-

nesses within the coffee sector have backed the barista in order to carve out market share or a place of dominance based on the perception that they are a purveyor of quality. Certainly, there is little expectation that the enthusiasm behind baristas, national barista competitions and barista events will abate in the short to medium term. This is a good thing for the raising of standards overall. However, as a café entrepreneur, I have observed a disturb-ing parallel trend amongst café owners - most of whom are first timers to the café sector. They tend to abrogate their responsi-bilities as owners and go with whatever the barista dictates is so. Within a great number of cafes it appears that the barista calls the shots when it comes to direction of the coffee side of the business. Speaking from experience as a consultant to over 1000 coffee related businesses, this is a BIG mistake. Barista’s are not the sole reason for the success of a cafe business; they are simply a part of that business. To understand what I have just stated, we must first think entrepreneurially - which allows us to look at the rise of the barista scene from a different perspective to the coffee associa-tions, competitions, coffee roasters and baristas.

Why Baristas Can’t Save Your Business

OPINION

Here are some key observations. First and foremost, the majority of baristas are committed employees and not entre-preneurial by nature. They are not the key to the café owners’ success or future fortunes. They are not, by the nature of their profession, required nor able to exploit the myriad of ways to grow the OVERALL sales performance of a business. Baristas concern themselves with the doing i.e. the making of coffees. Whilst they may do ‘the doing’ well, it is foolish for a café owner to blindly entrust them with complete control of a large component of their revenue base. Usually, baristas do not have a vested or financial interest in maintaining the welfare and best sales performance of a cafe business. The owner does. And any owner who expects employees to make them ‘rich’ is kidding him/herself. I have observed that when baristas get together (at national and international competitions) the nature of their talks and training methodology revolve around a series of actions or thoughts relating to the best possible score they can achieve in a competition. Whilst this is valuable skill building, it is skill building in respect to competitions. To highlight my point, consider this:- the WBC format calls for 12 coffees (4 espres-sos + 4 milk based + 4 signature) to be made in 15 minutes! This time frame is actually a very SLOW standard for a thriving retail environment. In the retail world the ability to grow sales depends on quality, consistency and speed of service. It is speed of service that grows the turnover of a business. Nowhere in

BY GEORGE SABADOS (GS) PHOTOGRAPHY BY COFFEE T&I TEAM

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the barista scene is speed of service spoken of as an important part to the profession. Personally, I have walked into (and passed) a great number of ‘cool and funky’ cafes where the wait for a coffee is 10-15 minutes. A great number of them weren’t all that busy. What I observed in these instances was the barista trying and retrying to be ‘perfect’ with their shots, thereby wasting and inordinate amount of ground coffee – and time – causing a backlog of customers. Not only is this behaviour an unnecessary expense to the business, it tends to elongate queues which whilst may make cafes look busy don’t translate very well to money in the cash register. Such patterns of behaviour are also very impactful on the cost of goods sold (COGS) of the business. Further, baristas are being taught or schooled in creating clever latte art – usually fern leaves. This is not an altogether bad thing and quite a treat for customers. The issue in relation to speed of service is that they are being taught to use a very small milk jug which allows only one coffee to made at a time. All the boutique brands in the Australian market are promoting the use of small milk jugs as the only way to perfectly texture milk and create latte art patterns on coffee. This is wrong, and again, only acts to slow down speed of service. Again, long queues and long waits for coffee, which most people mistake for a ‘busy’ café. Yet, when you add these actions to the actions outlined in the previous paragraph you can deduce a slower customer churn than what is possible - which inevitably translates to less money in the register! As I indicated earlier, possessing a detailed understand-ing of retail requirements and figuring out what does or what doesn’t grow turnover is not the mandate of the barista – nor is it their particular skill set. The café owner needs to enshrine actions that are directly linked to sales growth. For example, in my consultancy sessions with café owners I have proven to many that capacity can be

turned up 3 to 4 fold without sacrificing quality, consistency or latte art ability through the use of a variety of different sized milk jugs – which accommodate the fluctuations in the volume of customers at any one time. I have proven that orders can be batched and large groups of customers can be served in one go – speeding up service, customer churn and café revenue significantly. In many instances that I have done so I had to endure the barista mumbling in the background that what I proposed to the owner was simply not possible. Historically, such instruction led to instant sales growth in quiet and busy cafes alike. Recently a client of mine (who has a café turning

over an average of AUD8,000 per day) set a record of AUD17,000 in one day simply by implementing my speed of service sug-gestions, without any loss in quality. In fact, he was shocked to realise that 33% of every employees day was wasted on activities unrelated to growing sales! Have a good look around and ask any barista to admit that they don’t know anything about coffee. It is a running joke with my staff that even the lowliest dish-washer in the worse café claims to know everything about coffee. Whether they lack

knowledge and skills most will tell you they are an experienced barista or even a Master Barista. Most will back themselves on the basis that they have been making coffees for years and by default are experts. This is simply not so. Many have enshrined bad habits; techniques and practices that do not assist the busi-ness to grow sales. For example, it is a practice of all ‘expert’ baristas, even at national and international competitions, to knock out the spent coffee cake from group handles, give it a wipe with a towel/cloth, then put ground coffee into the filter basket and tamp. And just prior to locking the group handle onto the group head, some purge the group head whilst many others do not – particularly when busy. Regardless, if you were to follow these actions but not put any fresh coffee into the filter basket, then lock the group handle onto the machine and

Most will back themselves on the basis that they have been making coffees for years and by default are experts. This is simply not so.

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extract a fictional coffee into a glass, what would you discover? Dirty, burnt smelling and tasting foul liquid. Very few would be keen to drink it. Yet, every day in almost every café in the world customers are being served up coffees with an unbeliev-able amount of burnt and bitter rubbish – which the taste of is usually blamed on the roaster. This is another enshrined practice not conducive to the growth of sales – and directly caused by the barista. Some of the anti-business actions amongst baristas happen to be coffee tasting labs, the manic pursuit of pour-overs and cold drip coffee. In the cold hard light of maximising sales per hour per square metre, these things are a distraction, impractical, adding complication and labour costs to your business whilst reducing sales per sqm. My observation of several businesses to date showed that whilst these additions did at first appear great for business, and did pose good marketing value, they did not work around the clock generating sales and they lost impact with consumers quickly, thus becoming a cost burden. Pour overs, vacuum brewers and drips disappeared from the retail environment simply because they could not compete with espresso on speed of service or quality of taste – and now the barista movement is bringing them back. Could it be that they do not remember the era in which they were phased out because most are too young to have lived through it? Needless to say, there is a focus at competitions and in training schools on the notion that a dose of coffee should be weight based. There is a presentation by a world leading barista whereby he describes his perfect grinder as one which is weight based (see http://vimeo.com/28227701) This is incorrect from an operational perspective and would produce inconsistencies in the quality of coffee taste/product. Why? Because dosing by weight creates different dose volumes depending on the fineness or coarseness of grind! And that would create inconsistencies in extraction rates. In a busy retail environment and in practice (when observed closely) baristas follow a volume-based method of dosing filter baskets because this is the only method that works in a practice. Even if there are baristas who ‘know everything’ there is to know about coffee, what does that mean when a café bases 40-45% of sales on coffee and the balance on other product?

OPINION

There is much more to running a café than just coffee. For a start running a successful café is about being a successful entrepre-neur – how to skilfully extract the best out of all the resources on hand within the business. Entrepreneurs know that it is not how much you know or what you know but how well you execute it in your store – again a major failing of baristas for a number of reasons which would drag this article out to several pages. In summary, baristas cannot save your business, they can only play a part of the whole. Ultimately, the true worth of a barista is in proving they have an unlimited capacity to produce, whilst maintaining a high consistency of quality – and these requirements are that of the café owner.

George Sabados (GS) has been internationally recognised in the espresso coffee industry since 2000- even though coffee was his business since the early 1990’s. George has consulted as a coffee sales growth strategist, trainer, adviser, presenter, workshop leader and strategist to coffee franchise chains, national and multi-national coffee companies both in Australia and internationally. He is different from the majority of roasters & baristas in the industry in that first and foremost, he is only interested in ways to grow sales. He has an entrepreneurial understanding of espresso coffee. All his experiences and accolades in the coffee industry were achieved with ONE purpose in mind – discovering what it takes to grow sales rapidly. His thinking, systems and approach to coffee is different to the majority – and most people who encounter him recognise that instantly. He is challenging and beyond peer in his depth of under-standing. George Sabados believes that to be a true ‘espresso coffee expert’ one has to have a proven track re-cord of innovation. He has a proven track record of leading the change in the Australian and International Espresso Coffee industry - and cur-rently continues to do so for his customers.

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OPINION

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