Trade news, insight and comment from the Beverage Standards AssociationNo. 6, February 2020

The customer is wrong... again!

The daily press has got itself involved in yet another of those odd spatsabout baristas who think they know better than customers. In this case, acustomer who happens to be a newspaper columnist and someone whoappears on various television shows, walked into a café in Dorchester andasked for an extra-hot latte. As she later recounted it in a newspaper –oddly, three whole weeks later – the barista 'point-blank refused'.

The customer went on to write that the barista 'lectured' her about how hotmilk would compromise the taste of his coffee beans, and she reported his'arrogance, rudeness and condescension'. She wrote: "he seemed to haveno clue about the concept of customer service or indeed what his job is – toserve coffee exactly how the person paying for it wants it. A barista is not thereto educate people; he's not there to give everyone who walks through hisdoors a 'coffee experience', because, frankly, most of us aren't interested. Wejust want our coffee the way we like it.

"But this barista clearly sees his job as something far grander. He's notentitled to insult and patronise paying customers who keep him in business."

This escalated into a war of words online: the coffee shop remarked "we hada think, turns out we still know better," and among thirty or forty othercomments on their Facebook page, one of their customers said: "it's your shopand you run it how you want and make coffee how you want. If people don'tlike it and want it their way then they can go somewhere else."

This is not a new story, of course; it's one of those recurring ones which hasturned up several times a year, right across the world. However, the argumentabout what is 'right' with regard to coffee still exists. There are baristas whosay they will only serve coffee the way they want to, because that is what theirbusiness does; there are others who set out to serve the wider world, and takethe view that in the hard world of business, coffee snobs are a very smallpercentage of the numbers you need to serve to stay in business.

The reporter/TV person canvassed various trade views on the subject: onebarista trainer told her flatly that 'you do not preach to customers', and no lessthan Peter Dore Smith of Kaffeine in London told her it was 'ridiculous' torefuse a customer's specific request, adding that he often serves DavidBeckham an extra-hot latte. The duty manager at the Ritz told her: "it'sabsolutely no problem whatsoever. It has to be the way the customer likes it -or what's the point?"

In practical terms, if a customer does ask for an extra-hot latte, what is thebest way to serve it, without ruining the milk? One BSA director suggests theway to satisfy the customer: first, pre-heat the cup, even if it is a takeawaycup. Then carefully steam the milk just a few degrees hotter than normal, butwell below burning. Invite the customer to stir the result, which will even outthe heat across the drink.

All these together, he suggested, will give the customer the sensation of an‘extra-hot’ drink, and everyone will be happy.

Farrers of Kendal, a BSA membercompany, has become the latest teaand coffee company to link with abrewery. Farrers has worked with thelocal Handsome Brewery to createLonesome Hare, which features theLakeland Special tea blend.

Tea beers are not new – there aredozens of them in America – but thisone has proved sufficiently successfulto be developed from its launch in kegform last year, to be now available inbottles.

The founder of Handsome, MarcinSerwatka, has said that the originalbatch in kegs sold quickly, andremarked that "tea allows brewers tocraft some really interesting brews,with subtle flavour notes and a realdepth."

Hare in bottles is priced at £3.00.

Farrers’ beer tea is a hit

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Barry Callebaut, a BSA member company, has produced a research documentwhich suggests that hot chocolate and chocolate-themed drinks arebecoming more important to the catering trade. The report is about desserts,but the preference of dessert-eating customers for chocolate drinks is aregular feature of the project. In particular, the theory of a combined dessert-and-chocolate-drink deal occurs several times.

The Callebaut Desserts report has comeup with the figure that half of thosecustomers who order dessert with a mealwill also order a hot drink to finish theirmeal; this apparently is a far higher figurethan those customers who do not take adessert.

A surprising remark is Callebaut'sassertion that 'three in five consumers whowouldn't normally order a dessert wouldorder a high-quality chocolate drink'.Further, says Callebaut, a fifth of dessertconsumers would be more motivated toorder a chocolate drink if were combinedwith a dessert offer, as a combination deal,particularly if there is a 'mini-dessert and drink' option. Eight customers out often say they now expect their chocolate drink to be "expertly crafted with real-high quality chocolate".

Desserts and pastries are now an all-day business, says Callebaut, with therenow being ‘a real appetite’ for dessert items outside traditional mealtimes. Itsays that breakfast croissants paired with hot chocolate are now a popularcombination, that 52 per cent of respondents order a pastry mid-morning in thecafé sector, and that two-thirds of respondents order a dessert or cake mid-afternoon in a café. All of these transactions, it is suggested, form anopportunity for an additional hot chocolate deal.

As a result, says Callebaut, "dessert-eaters should be considered by café andcoffee-shop operators when developing menus."

Meanwhile, the Thorntons brand has endorsed the idea that chocolate-drinking customers now demand quality, with a remark at the launch of its newLuxury Hot Chocolate Powder. The brand says that 75 per cent of people prefera hot chocolate from a recognised brand, adding (not surprisingly) that 90 percent prefer the brand to be Thorntons!

The concept of 'ruby' hotchocolate continues to become amovement. Even the big chainshave now got behind it, with Costahaving just launched its rubychocolate drink, marketing it as'baby pink, fit for a princess' at£3.35, which is a decent sellingprice for a coffee-shop hotchocolate.

Ruby is a natural chocolatephenomenon with a fruity taste andcolouring, and the Barry Callebautbrand has called it 'the fourthchocolate', alongside dark, milkand white.

Callebaut spent fourteen yearsworking on the product beforeintroducing it; several brands nowoffer it, with Marimba doing a hotchocolate melt, and BSA membercompany Farrers have one instock. Such brands as Kit-Kat,Magnum and Haagen-Dazs haveused it.

However, certain food writershave now called ruby chocolate a'fake' product, one of them allegingthat all cocoa beans have a ruby orpurple tint, which disappears infermentation, and that the 'new'chocolate is simply an under-processed product, a cost-cuttingproduct to turn lower-grade beansinto a profitable product. This viewis widely disputed!

Demand for high-quality chocolate drinksis on the rise, says Callebaut

We are obliged to Tommy Coleman, technical solutions manager at EspressoService, for this pic of the state of the innards of a coffee machine he wasasked to work on – he comments: "would youcook a steak in a frying pan that's not beencleaned for days, weeks, months .... why iscoffee any different? There is not enougheducation within our industry that coffee is afood product!" We recall that a long-retiredsales director from Brodies, the Edinburghroaster, told us how he would always visit aclient and ask to have a look at their espressomachine - he would remove the portafilter,prise the basket off, and invite the client to lookinside. The reaction was always one of uttershock – because very few everyday staff think to clean the things.

The further rise of the ruby

Ruby hot chocolate flakes by Marimba

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When you’ve got to go... some cafes makeit hard for you

"Throughout our towns and cities,"she writes, "many public places stillhave de facto toilet charges, withcafés placing keypad door locks ontheir loos and providing thecombination code only on receiptsgiven to customers."

Against this, a 'guerilla' campaigncalled London Loo Codes has begunon social media, giving out the codesto the facilities in many London cafes.The campaign attracted thousands offollowers almost immediately, and it isreported that other cities have takenup the idea.

The organisers say the project camefrom their own habit of taking notes oftoilet access codes for their own use,before they decided that it would besignificant public service to makethem widely available. This decisioncame about when one of them was ina chain café and asked if she couldhave the code before she ordered hertea, but the staff insisted she had tobuy something first.

The organisers say that their ideahighlights a big general issue whichmust be addressed – at the sametime as councils are closing downpublic facilities because of the cost ofkeeping them open, so are certainbusinesses making their loosavailable only to customers.

"Most functioning toilets are run,maintained and locked by businesseswith no legal requirement to openthem to people who aren'tcustomers," the organisers have said.

"The problem is that everybodyneeds to use them, and some moreurgently than others – consider thosewith health conditions, older people,those caring for children, betweenthree and six million people whosuffer from incontinence problems,

and many rough sleepers."

In the interests of fairness, thecampaigners do identify cafes andcoffee-houses which make no accesscharge; on the other hand, they reportone chain bookshop which appears tobe changing its code regularly as adeliberate attempt to frustrate thecampaigners.

"Not everyone who needs to use theloo can afford a coffee," said one ofthe organisers. "We feel it's conduciveto basic human dignity to affordaccess to clean loos without thedemand of a purchase."

This is apparently a worldwideproblem: a New Zealander tourist inSan Francisco complained to his localpaper that he was expected to installan app on his phone just to use acafé's restroom; when he declined,the staff printed him out a QR codewhich could be shown to open thedoor.

In China, there have beencomplaints about a café whichreportedly told customers to scan acode if they needed toilet paper.

Many coffee shop owners maywelcome an initiative from Tokyo,where a café has a ban onspeaking. The café is the Lion in Shibuya,

Tokyo's major commercial district,and is one of the few remainingexamples of a Japanese tradition ofcafes where customers go toconcentrate on music – the Lion hasa remarkable collection of recordedclassical music, much of it on vinyland played on antique equipment,and the protocol is that one entersand takes a seat, and a waitresssilently brings a menu and aprogramme of the day's music; alittle later she returns and will take awhispered order. Anything louderbrings a telling-off.

Some customers read, some arestudents working in the remarkablypeaceful surroundings. One travelwriter reports that the only voicesheard are the staff "announcing themusic selections through amicrophone in an almostindecipherable murmur".

Also in the Far East, a Taiwanesecoffee house has banned theInstagram generation, and inparticular the recent phenomenon of'influencers'. The management ofMittsume café in Taipei became sofed up with self-important'influencers' causing havoc to takephotographs which they would postin Instagram, they simply bannedthem.

Their announcement read:"Starting today, no standing onchairs for photo-taking, nophotographing other customers ortaking photos with other customers'meals, no moving of shop furniturefor photo-taking.

"We understand if you want todocument a cake you ate today, or anice corner of our café, we will notinterfere with that. Butcontemporary internet culture andthe culture of social media tagginghas seriously crossed the line andinfringed on the balance betweenshop owners and customers. Weare not restricting photo-taking, butjust wish that everyone can stay intheir seats and not disturb others."

A writer in New Statesman magazine has reported that a new service hasbeen created to allow access for the general public to the toilets in certaincafes. A campaigning organisation has complained that many cafes aremaking it difficult for the general public to use their facilities, a practicewhich runs directly contrary to other campaigns which recommend thattoilets in pubs and cafes should be open to all, particularly the elderly anddisabled.

One of the various national ‘open loo’badges which can be seen at some

helpful cafes.

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In launching its new series ofCoffeeworks training videos, UCCCoffee has taken a ratherentertaining swipe at certain trainingmethods in the coffee world.

Coffeeworks features a video seriesled by the company's head of coffeeexcellence, Gareth Davies, whointends to 'challenge commonindustry misconceptions' and offerexpert advice with a realisticcommercial aim. He has said thatUCC experiences many businessesconsistently all making the samemistakes with their coffee, andwanted to create videos which are“educational, with a focus on real-lifeoperational benefits."

The inspiration for it comes from hisown early experience of receivinginadequate training.

A typical remark he makes in thetraining is that "coffee is about yourcustomers, not the barista", and in atalk to a pub and bar trade gatheringrecently, Gareth Davies reported thatthis lesson comes from his own timein the hospitality trade.

He said that as manager of aboutique hotel, he was proud ofeverything he provided – except thecoffee. In this, he said, the training hereceived from suppliers was a box-ticking exercise provided by "trendy,cool baristas who spoke in riddles...which made them feel good, butdamaged my business.

“My coffee was just as mediocre aseveryone else's on the high street,and regardless of how much trainingor support I asked for, it never got anybetter. I'd tell customers my machinewas broken rather than make them acup of coffee!

“The mysterious and guarded waybaristas teach us often leads us tolook in the wrong places and chasetrends. "

This, he said, is a major clue to

establishing a good coffee offer –don't chase trends, but concentratefirst on training staff in the basics ofcoffee preparation, the freshness ofcoffee, the freshness of milk, and theimportance of cleaning espressomachines.

Elsewhere, UCC has published itsFuture of Automation report, whichargues that as the entire worldembraces automation in every walk oflife, so must its potential inevitablyaffect the world of coffee andbeverage service.

In the report, UCC's Phil Smith saysthat by mid-2020, thirty per cent ofjobs will be at risk due to automation– typically, Amazon is now using30,000 robots, and only five per centof Nissan's British factory is human. Inthe catering trade, he says, robotchefs, servers and smart kitchengadgets have appeared and areimproving performance; we havealready seen robot-manned bars, andthere is now a robot which can createpersonalised cocktails.

In coffee, drones are now beingused on farms to collect the same

amount of data in ten minutes thatwould take farmers eight hours toassess manually.

What will happen at the 'customer-facing' end of the trade? Although it isgenerally reckoned that the baristawill still have a job of some kind, UCCoffers the fascinating finding that halfof coffee shop customers would behappy to serve themselves from anautomatic machine if it avoided theneed to queue.

This is already happening in the FarEast, says UCC – one of its owngroup companies has launched aJapanese 'robot café system', inwhich the robot can identifycustomers by gender, age and evenclothing. A robot-powered chain inCalifornia can serve at the rate of twodrinks a minute, and the rapidly-growing robotic Briggo Coffee Hausfrom Texas allows for a surprisingamount of drink personalisation andeven remote ordering.

Perhaps delving a little far into thefuture, UCC says that the latest

“The training I received from suppliers was provided by "trendy, cool baristaswho spoke in riddles... which made them feel good, but damaged my

business.” - Gareth Davies

Practical modern-day baristas - and therobots just around the corner

continues on page 5

UCC has been working on several practical trade projects, It has a new series of down-to-earthtraining videos aimed at the practicalities of coffee service in the commercial world, and it takes a

look into the near future to see what automation will mean for the coffee trade.

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artificial intelligence can identifypeople based on eye movements,and that "touch-free self-servicecoffee machines of the future willlikely be able to read eye movementsto distinguish customers and makeinformed coffee selections..."

Science fiction maybe, but as anAmerican writer recently put it:"maybe the world of espresso will bebetter for a robotic invasion – no falsepleasantries at the counter, no drinkerrors, no transliterations of yourname written on the cup!"

For the multi-site catering operator,says UCC, the world of super-automation brings greater facilitiesthrough telemetry. This began bycreating communication betweenremote machines and head office forfault-reporting and re-ordering ofsupplies, and has now expanded intotargeted marketing.

For one-off machines, UCC points tothe advantages of such features asauto flush and automatic group headpurging. These are basic goodpractice, says UCC, but "often oneelement of the process that thebarista most frequently forgets".Automatic regulation of all the variousfeatures of milk-steaming, says UCC,is now "giving the impression that themilk is hand steamed". Otherequipment providers are coming upwith matching ideas, says UCC,pointing to the Puqpress (from BSAmember company Brew-It) whichtamps automatically and consistently,in 1.3 seconds.

What does this mean for thecustomer?

The most important factors in buyingcoffee, says UCC's research, areconvenience and efficiency. Thisseems to be very practicaldevelopment from the rah-rah attitudeto coffee shops in the early-2000sboom, when it was widely believedthat a cup of world-beating coffee wasthe customer's main interest; manycompanies have always known thatthe provision of 'very good' coffee tothe mass market is the major aim...and, the report notes, 72 per cent ofcustomers expect to pay under £3 fora cup of very good coffee.

Card transactions overtook cashpayments some time ago, and in onefinding which might bear furtherinvestigation, UCC suggests that"nearly 60 per cent of people usecoffee shop apps on portabledevices".

Automated delivery is well into itstesting phase - IBM has patented adrone to deliver coffee to offices, andin Australia, drone delivery of coffeeto homes has already been launched.(In a perhaps unfortunate turn ofphrase, it has been said that thedrone uses GPS to get coffee to the'drop zone'!) Automatic collection bydrone of cups for recycling has beenproposed.

In another practical comment, PhilSmith remarks that "automation canhelp customers receive a higher-quality, more consistent coffee.However, it's important to rememberthat we are in a service industry -technology is certainly helping in allareas of the coffee industry, but maynever replace the role of the human.

"Often a friendly smile and greatservice is the difference betweensuccess or failure in an increasinglycrowded market space."

The head of UCC, Elaine Swift, hastold the Bulletin that the automationreport has aroused "a great deal ofinterest from existing and potentialnew customers. With consistency,quality coffee, and sustainabilitystrategies extremely high on theagenda of operators and consumers,we believe the report is bang ontrend."

The Future of Automation Report isfree to download on

www.thefutureofautomation.co.uk

continued from page 4 People who regularly drinkcoffee tend to have strongerbones than those who don't,according to research from theuniversity of Hong Kong. There isno shortage of health-relatedcoffee research, from which wecan infer both that the drink isremarkably good for us, andpossibly remarkably harmful. Inthis case, the study compared thebone mineral density of those whosaid they drank coffee regularlywith those who didn't - coffeedrinkers came out strongest.

Two of the most wonderfulresearches of recent times,involving a total of almost a millionpeople in the UK and USA havesuggested that coffee offerseverlasting life. In a rather bizarreturn of phrase, the researcherssaid that regular coffee drinkersare less likely to die 'from anycause', than those who don't drinkcoffee.

The Birmingham Coffee Festivalwill return this year; it is to be heldfrom June 5-7 in the delightfully-named Custard Factory. It comesafter the Otley event (25 April), andthe Glasgow festival is 1-3 May.The London Coffee Festival ( 2 - 5April) has a new feature – visitorscan nominate their favourite coffeeshop for the London's Best CoffeeShop Awards. Voters can win ayear's free coffee.

A British businessman calledElliott Manning reports that he hasseen and photographed thisoriginal device in an Australiancoffee house. The item he hascircled in red is a 'phone cage' -customers who lodge their phone inthere for the duration of their stayget a ten per cent discount off theirbill. His picture scored 25,000'likes' on social media.

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A café owner in Liverpool has spoken out to her local press about aconsiderable increase in people doing a runner, andleaving without paying their bill. The owner of the RoseTree tea room in Burscough said they are 'shocked' at therise in non-paying customers, and that the effect on asmall family business can be devastating. One of thedelightful features of this café is their creativity with cakesand traybakes... their unusual Rocky Roads areapparently a habit in the venue, and are made withCadbury cream eggs, peanut butter, Terry's chocolate,and various other things. They have also created acream egg Scotch egg!

The rapidly-expanding Boston Tea Party café group has come in for praisefrom customers for its novel creation of National Making Things Better Day,timed for June 1st. The first such day highlighted the business's ban onsingle-use disposable cups, then there was an awareness project aboutplastic straws and stirrers, and another about about single-use milk bottles -the chain used 190,000 a year, and began a move towards returnable pergals.

It has been reported that banning disposable cups lost the chain a quarter ofits takeaway customers, but this was countered by the sale of 30,000 reusablecups.

Although Boston Tea Party customers approve of the campaigns, café chiefSam Roberts has said that the wider industry still needs to move on suchissues: "nothing much has actually changed within the wider industry - lots ofnoise and sticky plaster fixes, but very little concrete action."

Meanwhile, Boston Tea Party is also supporting the Bristol campaign BillyChip. This commemorates the work of a local ambulanceman who had becomeconcerned about the general public being unwilling to give money to homelesspeople, out of worry that it would be spent on drugs. The Chip is a token:customers can buy one for £2 at a café branch and give the token to ahomeless person, who can then exchange it for a hot drink.

Ever since kopi luwak was discovered by the general press many years ago,there has been a regular stream of exotic animal-related coffees. There ismonkey coffee (we have actually been part of a search for it in India - andfound it!) and elephant coffee, and now from Madagascar we have bat coffee.

Unlike the other coffees, this one is, as we understand it, not actuallyconsumed by the animal – the bats simply nibble on the beans and spit themout. The farmers in Madagascar, who used to grow robusta, now farm abourbon coffee which is provided to the bats; the result is being sold at ahundred dollars a pound. A local hotelier has said, understandably, that "thetaste of this coffee stays a very long time in your mouth..."

Meanwhile, another of the exotic coffees has cropped up, with a London cafénamed after it - this is the new Jacu café in Westminster. For some years, it hasbeen known that the Brazilian jacu bird 'processes' coffee beans in very muchthe same way as the kopi luwak, and again these beans sell at a premium. TheLondon café serves the coffee in a wine goblet, at £30, though its normal coffeemenu shows conventional prices of around £3. Nonetheless, the café ownerreported selling four of the jacu coffees in his first week.

By remarkable comparison to the bat coffee of Madagascar, one customerwho tasted the jacu coffee told a reporter: "it has an oily taste that stays in themouth..."!

The animal coffees that stay a long time inthe mouth...

Boston Tea Party’s ‘make things better’ day

We always enjoy stories fromcafes who discover that theyhave a 'celebrity' customeronsite.

This picture comes from theLavenham Blue Vintage TeaRooms of Suffolk, who weresurprised to find themselvesserving David Neilson, ofCoronation Street - he plays, ofcourse, the café owner RoyCropper, of the brilliantly-namedRoy's Rolls café.

Once the actor and the cafémanagement had agreed thatthey were essentially in thesame trade, the actor obliginglyslipped on one of the café'saprons and prepared to takeorders!

(One of his colleagues in thesoap opera really is a caféowner - the actress JennieMcAlpine, who plays thecharacter Fiz, runs her own caféin Manchester city centre).

It has been reported thatBlackburn Cathedral is to launchits own brand of coffee. TheDean's Beans will be locallysourced, selected and roastedand will be sold at an onsitecafe. It is not the first time thecathedral has branched out withits commercial activities - in2018 it launched Cathedra Gin,a locally-distilled brew.

David Neilson slips into character

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At the end of this month, from 24February to 8 March, we will haveFairtrade Fortnight. This is, I think,the 23rd year of the Fairtradeawareness event, and it has alwaysamazed me that the catering tradedoes so little to mark it.

Not, I hasten to add, just for theselfless and charitable reason ofpromoting the cause of fair trading - Imean I am surprised that the cateringtrade does so little to make profit fromit. And I have been surprised formany years that the FairtradeFoundation does very little to supportthe catering and hospitality trades indoing so.

Why does the coffee trade do solittle with Fairtrade?

True, there have long been doubtsas to the quality of the product - up toa few years ago, many specialitycoffee roasters told me they simplywouldn't touch Fairtrade coffee (thereare various reasons for this, which wewon't bother going into).

It was at a BSA meeting some yearsback that the buyer for the Co-op,who were very early Fairtradepioneers, recalled how, in the firstdays of fairly-traded coffee, it wasknown as 'suffering coffee'... this, hesaid, was because you suffered insolidarity with the farmers every timeyou drank it!

But now there are very goodFairtrade coffees available to thetrade (my own favourite, which I sayopenly in the hope of getting asample, is Cafedirect's MacchuPicchu. The Grumpy Mule brand israther good for Fairtrade stuff, too;and of course BSA member Miko,which has its own conservationprogrammes, is also Fairtrade-badged. Very good Fairtrade coffeefor cafes is there if you look.

True, there have sometimes been

doubts over the 'usefulness' ofFairtrade, for want of a better word.Nobody who was there will ever forgetthe 'blood on the carpet' Q&A sessionat an Allegra conference in (I think)Vienna, when representatives of thevarious ethical-trading organisationssat rather self-consciously behind atable waiting to be congratulated, anda notable economist tore the FairtradeFoundation representative into tinyshreds over the shortcomings of hisbusiness model.

It was a masterly assassination, andyet the Fairtrade man could havesaved himself if he had only said:'criticise our model if you like, and ifyou don't like it, go and buy yourcoffee somewhere else – but give uscredit for doing something, in the waywe think correct'.

And that choice is open to all of us –those who believe in fair trading, butnot necessarily Fairtrade with acapital F, are free to adopt direct-trade, or Rainforest, or Utz, or indeedany good cause badge, and choosewhichever route they think correct.

But my point is, Fairtrade Fortnight isa useful promotional event, fromwhich the trade can benefit. Candidly,you can make money from it.

Is that an ethical view? It certainly is,and in support of this I have the wordof the redoubtable Harriet Lamb,when she was the boss of the

Fairtrade Foundation, who made itperfectly clear to us that it is perfectlyacceptable to market FairtradeFortnight for all you're worth, and tomake as much money from it as youcan. Her logic was that the more youdo so, the better it serves the farmersat the growing end of the chain.

The fact is – this is a commercialopportunity. And yet, looking aroundthis year, I can barely find anyevidence of the catering tradesupporting it, or indeed of theFairtrade Foundation supporting thecatering trade in return... not even theFoundation can offer me any exampleof this happening.

They do tell me that there are twocoffee farmers to be here in the UK,but not whether they will be madeavailable to the coffee trade forpromotional purposes.

So if you're going to mark FairtradeFortnight, it looks like you'll have to dothe work yourself.

But any promotional opportunity isworth taking, for both profit and ethicalpurposes – so at the very least,download some of the Foundation'sfree posters and banners and makesure you have some of the right coffeeto hand if and when someone asks forit.

- Steve Slark, Chairman

Why does Fairtrade Fortnight never supportthe sharp end of the trade?

Chairman's comment:

The point of Fairtrade Fortnight is that it is a promotional event, from which thetrade can benefit. Candidly, you can make money from it.

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There was a quite fascinating choice of speaker at the recent FoodservicePackaging Association seminar - the organisation invited ExtinctionRebellion. The organisation's representative appears to have been wellreceived, offering to work with the FPA on such issues as litter. A speakerfrom Foodservice Footprint suggested that the Rebellion group could be ofuse to the foodservice industry by using its influence to highlight packagingwaste issues.

From the Scottish government, Janet McVea said that they are committed toaccelerate the pace of change, with the aim that by 2025 the ambition is that allbeverages will be sold in reusable cups. Their research suggests that a 20p levyon disposable cups will drive 49 per cent of consumers to move to reusablecups.

In this regard, the On Pack Recycling Label group has now said that food anddrink packaging will now come with a simple 'recycle' or 'don't recycle' label.The current label terms of 'recycled', 'check local recycling' and 'not yetrecycled' have been found to be too confusing. Single-use cups will join the'specialist label' list for packaging that can be recycled at specific sites or instoresites.

Of these, consumer tests showed that the label 'recycle at coffee shop', hadthe highest score for clarity, with the OPRL saying that for consumers to knowthat they could dispose of a cup at any coffee shop and not just the one in whichthey originally purchased, would be even better.

A to-the-point approving comment by the FPA was that 'it is very hard toimagine any consumer took the previous advice to "check locally", so thankfullythis option has been removed'.

Elsewhere, a light show was projected on to the council building in Bristol topromote the city's new paper cup recycling facilities. One hundred recyclingbins specifically for disposable coffee cups are being installed across the cityas part of the Bristol Waste campaign, 'For Cups Sake', which aims to recycleup to four million paper cups in the first year alone.

Cups thrown into the bins in Bristol will be sent to the James Cropper papermill in the Lake District where the plastic lining is removed from the cup, and thepaper then recycled and turned into items such as notebooks and papershopping bags.

The head of the Bristol project said: "we know that people generally want todo the right thing with recycling, but three in four people are still unaware thatcups need to be collected separately from normal card and paper."

A new emoji, which is thepictorial symbol used in textmessages and the like, willappear next month – it is a redteapot, which will probably beused to signify ‘time for tea’.

The Yorkshire Tea brand,owned by Taylors, has claimedcredit for having the emojiapproved by the UnicodeConsortium, which is the bodythat decides which smileys andthe like may appear on phonekeyboards. The teapot emoji,notes the brand, is remarkablysimilar to Yorkshire Tea's ownred teapot symbol.

The new emoji will appear onsmartphone keyboards in March,joining the roll-out of oneshowing bubble tea and 116other new emojis including awoolly mammoth, a polar bearand, for some reason, a ‘gender-neutral Santa Claus’.

In celebration of World Nutella Day on 5th February - yes, it reallyexists - a special Nutella-themed afternoon tea service was held at theTower Eye in Sydney, Australia.

Customers could have an hour-long tea experience featuring anassortment of chocolate hazelnut breakfast and dessert items, withviews of the entire Sydney harbour... for $50 a head. Elsewhere, theworld's first Nutella café, in Chicago, offered Nutella flavoured ice-cream and shakes, with free personalised jars to the first hundredcustomers.

We do recall that six years ago, our old friend Gino d'Acampoinvented a Nutella latte at his pasta bar in London; as the paste ishazelnut flavoured, the result is not a lot different from a latte flavouredwith hazelnut syrup.

On-pack recycling messages are ‘tooconfusing’,conference told

The mobile coffee franchiseCafe2U, a BSA membercompany, has launched a '20-20vision' of its aims for this year.The company was named in oneof the rankings of Top 20franchises for 2019, and intendsto develop various of its projectsthis year - it says it will beinvesting heavily in its greencredentials, and will hold its thirdannual 'Green Coffee Week'.Cafe2U will also launch acustomer app, which will alertcustomers to when vans arearriving. There will also be a'brand re-fresh'.

9

The newest arrival in the capsulemarket is a machine from a BSAmember - the La Spaziale S15 comesfrom the Brew-It Group, and is thelatest development in capsulemachines which look like espressomachines, featuring a real steamwand instead of the frother used bymany capsule machines.

"This came to us from some veryexcited Italians who thought it wasfantastic!" Brew-it's Angus McKenzietold us. "I had held back on capsules,as they seemed to be the scourge ofthe industry. I had been concernedthat capsules created so much waste,but now we see so many peopleproducing Nespresso-compatiblecapsules in an eco format, so nowseemed to be a good time to get intothe spotlight."

This is the latest in a line of tradetraditionalists who at first dismissedthe concept of capsules, but thenturned to the realisation that themodern capsule does create perfectlyacceptable coffee.

"I have been listening to people fromrestaurants who say that they want toserve great coffee, but that they don'twant to employ a barista. I don'tbelieve this is a coffee-shop machine,but it has a real place in hotels andrestaurants - it has a specialist placein a non-specialist environment. Wenow have the situation where a guestchecks in to a hotel at midnight, andwants a cappuccino when the hotelcafé is shut, but whoever is on the

desk can now make it."

As many suppliers have observed,an advantage of capsules is theopportunity to switch instantlybetween coffees.

"It's now easy for a small restaurantanywhere to be able to offer both adark-roasted Brazil and anEthiopian... in the same way that ahigh-end restaurant would tempt youwith a selection of ports or whiskies,so many customers may now opt tobe offered a choice of high-endcoffees.

"We have now even seen JamaicaBlue Mountain in capsules. It maysound odd to put JBM through anespresso machine, but I found itworked - very soft with a light crema.You certainly don't want an expensivebag of JBM hanging round yourgrinder hoping that someone willorder one... but with capsules, youcan now have it as a guest coffee."

The S15 is not entirely unique."Many manufacturers now have aportafilter holder which will accept acapsule. This is a little bit unique inworking towards capsule use withbarista technique and adjustment."

Elsewhere in the coffee trade,Rancilio says that its similar machineis the Baby 9. "It's a plug-in two-groupmachine with a water tank; lookedperfect to us but needed to beadapted for 13amp. A good littlemachine, which can be converted totake any of four different capsules -it's an easy change for an engineer,just a different group handle and adifferent shower head."

Another importer said: "I have beenarguing the benefits of suchmachines for years. The benefitsagainst a fully automatic are lowermachine and servicing costs, fasterdelivery speed, maybe double, andthat the theatre of coffee-making issomewhat retained. The downside isthe cost of capsules - my estimationis that up to 100 coffees a day it maybe cost effective, but thereafter costsare prohibitive.

"Also, capsules are generally madefrom plastic, which is not good. Somecapsule manufacturers are claimingcompostable capsules but then refer,in the small print, that they are'industrially compostable' - in otherwords you can't put them in the foodwaste, and specialist recycling isrequired."

More espresso machine makers turn to thecapsule option

The Lavazza S15

A printing company from Dorchester has launched a range ofproducts created from recycled takeaway cups.

This is Coffee Notes, which comes from the Epic print company, andwhich works with recycled cup paper from the James Cropper mill.The Cropper 'CupCycling' process converts 90 per cent of the wastefrom a cup into usable paper and board, and the plastic content of anold cup is used for 'energy recovery'.

The Coffee Notes range includes various sizes of notebook, andCosta is already selling branded ones. Coffee Notes is also a partnerto The Outdoor Guide, a walking and litter-prevention scheme run byTV presenter Julia Bradbury.

From cups to notepads...

10

"I have never seen a story aboutcoffee spread so widely around theworld!" said a BSA director thismonth – and the story he wasreferring to is a new twist on theregular old chestnut of ‘scientificallycreating the perfect cup of coffee’.

It is a British project that started thisworldwide interest, when professorJamie Foster at the University ofPortsmouth and his colleaguesdecided to investigate the puzzle ofconsistency in espresso brewing.

Prof Foster is a coffee fan, andquestioned why, when brewing twoespressos one after the other, usingthe same ground coffee and brewingin exactly the same way, the two shotscould taste quite different.

With colleagues in America, he setout to develop mathematicalequations to model the processesoccurring in the bed of coffee as brewwater passes through it.

According to their research,published in a scientific journal, themathematicians concluded that thesecret to the best espresso is all downto the grind (which baristas couldprobably have told them). Theyconfirmed the principle that the finerthe grind, the greater the flavourextraction, because there is moresurface area for the water to comeinto contact with.

It is the consequence of this whichhas come as a surprise.

When the team carried out tests in areal cafe, they found that very fineespresso grinds are unpredictable inthe way that water passes through,This is because the small particlestend to clog up the bed of groundcoffee in the filter basket... but thisclogging occurs in an unpredictableway each time.

The team concluded that whendifferent parts of the bed clog up, thewater flows through the coffee in adifferent way, and extracts differently.

Thus, there is a variation in flavourfrom what would appear to be twoidentical brews.

In essence, said Professor Foster, ifcafes grind too finely, they risk theirtaste being unpredictable. But bygrinding more coarsely, say theresearchers, there is less variation inwater flow, and so less difference inextraction from cup to cup.

"The mathematical theory tells usthat this is because reducing coffeemass means that the water flowsfaster through the shallower coffeebed. The coarse grind results in arelatively permeable bed, such thatwater flow and extraction are uniformand predictable. This method leads toshots that taste the same each time.

"The key is to have the particles justlarge enough that the flow is uniformand predictable, but still as small asthey can be to maximise the surfacearea," said Foster.

He has followed this up with theargument that by grinding slightlymore coarsely, the barista can lowerthe mass of coffee used for each shotto get the desired taste moreconsistently, and at lower cost. Simply

put, a coarser grind gives a higherextraction of coffee for the samedosage, or - and this is the part whichhas attracted so much attention - thesame extraction for a smaller dose.

The same taste can be achieved byusing less coffee.

His team tested their theory in acoffee shop in Oregon for a year andfound they could increase servingspeed, reducing shot times tobetween seven and fifteen seconds,while using less coffee - this café isreported to have saved about aquarter of its coffee use, totallingthousands of dollars over a year.

“Using our protocol we estimate that,in the U.S. coffee market alone, thetotal savings would amount to $1.1billion in America's cafés per year.”

What does the British coffee tradethink of this? One response was: “thesensationalist view that Americancoffee shops could save billions bybrewing less, faster, may be anillusion... it may be a race to lowerquality. We may be better to follow thepolicy that quality sells.”

In response, Professor Foster toldthe BSA: “The feedback from theindustry has largely been positive,and people have been happy to seesomeone approaching coffee makingin such a rigorous way.

“There is at least one coffee shopthat has been using our approach tomake all their coffee for the pasteighteen months. They have savedan appreciable sum of money, andcustomer reviews have not suffered.For milk-based drinks, I think the vastmajority of people would not tell thedifference between the traditionalapproach and ours.”

Systematically Improving Espresso:Insights from Mathematical Modelingand Experiment can be found here:

https://www.cell.com/matter/pdfExtended/S2590-2385(19)30410-2

We’ve been brewing it wrong!A new scientific study, which has dictated that we have got our espresso recipe all

wrong – if we grind coarser, we shall save ourselves a fortune...

The ‘model for espresso extraction’which has surprised the trade

11

We are now absolutely delighted toread that the Caffeine company ofLondon is supplying TottenhamHotspur's new stadium with coffeeand machines, and has done so withthe comment: "the stadium is the firstin the UK to serve only top qualitycoffee". And at the same time, wehave come across the comment fromthe catering manager of apremiership club catering managerwho remarked that "most large stadiawork with in-cup coffee to keep pacewith demand, but the quality of theend product is like drinking sludge..."

The coffee that Spurs are taking isthe Tiki Tonga brand, which is half-owned by Justin Stockwell of Caffeineand half by Brad Barritt, a formerEngland internationalist (althoughborn in South Africa) and currentcaptain of Saracens. The brand hastwo coffee shops in South Africa, andwill open its first British café this yearin Hertfordshire.

We could not resist teasing Justinabout his claim of being the first top-quality stadium coffee in the UK. Butat the same time, we wondered: dotens of thousands of football fansreally care about the quality of theirhalf-time coffee? He replied:

"Spurs have spent the best part of£2 million on 60 state-of-the-artSchaerer bean-to-cup machinesbacked up by 160 Bunn bulk brewersto cope with the coffee rush. Unlikeother stadia, they only serve freshcoffee from whole beans, or filtercoffee, and only using fresh milk.There is no instant or powdered

product at Tottenham Hotspur at all.

"There are over 65,000 people inthe stadium and the equipment copesperfectly... and yes, we know a lot ofpeople have noted the quality of thecoffee, as we have been approachedto supply other businesses and largestadia who have visited. We arecurrently in talks with severalstadiums about their coffee offering."

The one Tiki Tonga coffee which isprobably not a football half-time drinkis their new 232 Guinness blend.

"This was born out of the rugby

world cup last year. The good peopleof Guinness wanted to promote adrink-awareness campaign as eachgame was being played early in themorning. Brad, as a professionalrugby player, was approached to seeif he could produce a specialGuinness coffee blend for the cupcampaign.

"We came up with the '232' name asthat is the temperature that Guinnessis brewed at - to legitimise our blend,we turn up the roaster to 232 degreesfor a split second to make the producta genuine one, but also to mimicsome of the flavour profiles ofGuinness. We wanted something toresemble their creamy malty tastewith a slight bitter finish, and we cameup with a premium hundred-per-centArabica blend using mainly high-quality African coffees.

"Guinness have been nominated foran award for Blend 232, we've alsobecome the highest digital mediacampaign that Guinness have everhad."

(According to the advertisingindustry, 400,000 Guinness coffeeswere served at Flat Iron Square, thesouth London area which wasnominated as the hub for rugby fansduring the event; the coffee posts onGuinness' global Instagram pagewere the most commented posts theyhave ever had).

Is the coffee available to the widertrade? Yes, says Caffeine - evenMarriott hotels reacted to the rugbycampaign and placed orders for 232.

No more meat pies and Bovril at thefootball match?

Readers will recall that a few months ago, we reported how the Green Farm coffee business of Norfolk had begunsupplying coffee to Norwich City football club, and we recalled that Lavazza had deals with the Arsenal and Liverpoolclubs.

The Guinness coffee produced anastonishingly high response during the

rugby world cup

There is no end to themed cafes, particularly in Japan. We now have not onlyPeanuts cafes in Tokyo, but Shaun the Sheep ones as well.Several Peanuts-themed cafes around Japan are all offering a spring-inspired

menu for the cherry-blossom season which is so big in Japan. There are Peanutsafternoon teas, with all kinds of branded items, and even cut-out Snoopy templatesfor chocolate sprinkles on hot drinks. The appearance of Shaun the Sheep cafesin Japan is quite astonishing. One pop-up themed café had 30,000 visitors duringwhat was supposed to be a four-month stay, and not surprisingly decided tobecome a permanent business.

The Bulletin is published by theBeverage Standards Association

www.beveragestandardsassociation.co.uk07944 161785

admin@beveragestandardsassociation.co.uk

A BSA ready-referencedirectory

Please refer to the BSA website for more details of these companies

The Bulletin is compiled by Scoop Malone

3M 01344 858437 www.3m.co.uk/filtrationAllpure Filters 01252 519955 www.allpurefilters.comAlpha Kaffe 30210602537 www.alphakaffe.grArden Coffee 01246 252832 www.iwantacoffeemachine.comBarry Callebaut 01244 370500www.barrycallebautvending.co.ukBrita 01869365840 www.brita.co.ukBritish Coffee School 07907 997979www.britishcoffeeschool.comBryan Stockley Consultancy 07832 258879 www.bscs-ltd.co.ukBWT 07831382929 www.bwt-uk.co.ukCafé 2U 0845 644 4708 www.cafe2u.co.ukCafebiz 01707 286 966 www.vend-ex.comCaffeica 01993 776753 www.caffeica.co.ukCimbali 020 82387100 www.cimbaliuk.comClockwork Coffee 01753 548 009 www.clockwork-coffee.co.ukCoffea Arabica 07766533157 www.coffeaarabica.co.ukCoffee Care 01756 794 811 www.coffeecare.co.ukCoffee Classics 0844 800 5387 www.coffeeclassics.co.ukCoffee Kids 16466882774 www.coffeekids.orgCoffee Perfection +353 01 8253981 www.coffeeperfection.ieCoffeeman Devon 01803 873759 www.coffeemandevon.co.ukCoffix 01530 242800 www.coffix.comCoffox 07736 950673 www.cafesuccesshub.comComplete Beverage Solutions 01635 877173 www.cbs-beverages.co.ukCornish Coffee 01209 215555 www.cornishcoffee.co.ukCOTECO 306944258158 www.bsaeducation.grEdgcumbes 01243 555775 www.edgcumbes.co.ukEspresso Services 0141 425 1083www.espressoservices.co.ukEspresso Solutions 01293 769825 www.espresso-solutions.co.ukEuropean Water Care 01279 780268www.watercare.co.ukEuropean Water Care Ireland 00353719638155www.watercare.co.ukEvoca 07384 836532 www.evocagroup.comFarrer's 01539 720020 www.farrerscoffee.co.ukFracino 0121 328 5757 www.fracino.comGMS Espresso 01494 484319 www.gmsespresso.comH20 Direct 01892 669628 www.h2odirect.co.uk

Habitat Café 01887 822944 www.habitatcafe.co.ukInglehurst Foods 01420 563 413 www inglehurst.co.ukKimbo 0208 743 8959 www.kimbo.co.ukKokoa Collection 0208 8832660 www.kokoacollection.co.ukLF Spare Parts 01285 861625 www.lfspareparts724.comM*A*D Training Solutions 07768 884693www.coffeetraining.co.ukMiko 0800 496 39 39 www.miko.co.ukMiko(Distribution Centre) 01942 601911 www.miko.co.ukMiko (Scotland) 01355 244466 www.miko.co.ukMiko Southwest 01392 447272 www.miko.co.ukMind Your Business 0118 983 5827Pentair Water Belgium +32 (0)14 283 504www.pentairfoodservice.comPlantation Coffee 01733 830875 www.plantationcoffee.co.ukPumphreys 0191 4144 510 www.pumphreys.co.ukQualitasse 01256 300050 www.qualitasse.co.ukR.W Stokes 01522 512548 www.stokes-coffee.co.ukRainforest Alliance 00 31 20 422 8856 www.rainforest-alliance.orgRanald Paterson 01494 674 095RBC East Midlands 0300 303 0666 www.rbcem.co.ukRcoffee 0161 448 9171 www.rcoffee.co.ukRobert Mallerman 01279 248100 www.spray-dryer.comSCA 01245 426060 www.sca.coffeeThe Apple Tree 01283 712332 www.bartonmarina.co.ukThe Black & White Coffee Co 01205 460700www.southlincsfoodservice.co.ukThe Brew Group 0845 450 0500 www.caffesociety.co.ukThe Brew It Group 07970 389101 www.brew-it-group.co.ukThe Coffee Cart Co 01432 278626www.coffeecartcompany.co.ukThe London School of Coffee 0208 439 7981www.londonschoolofcoffee.comThe Office Coffee Co 0203 7634035 www.office-coffee.co.ukThe Proton Group 01924 892834 www.proton-group.co.ukTotal Refreshment Solutions 0131 448 0666 www.arumba-coffee.co.ukUK Tea Academy 07976517128 www.ukteaacademy.co.ukVoyager Coffee 01364 644440 www.voyagercoffee.co.ukVin Sans Fin Education 0808 9012029 www.vsf.wine