Decaf Colombian

Greetings, Coffee Crew ~~

Is summer over in your neighborhood?  Northwest Montana went directly from summer to winter and we are graced with the beauty of snow capped mountains.  What a glorious sight!

I am sipping a cup of decaf Colombian.  The citrus notes are mild, medium body, and fresh, lingering finish.  The decaf is as good as the regular Colombian.  Try it with a slice of zucchini bread or French toast.  Our decaffeinated coffees are some of the best you will find.  We use only the best beans, and as with all our coffees, they are roasted carefully to bring out the very best flavors.  Many roasters buy their decaf beans pre-blended.  I prefer to buy the individual beans and create my own blends to create special coffees for our decaf drinkers that are just as tasty as the regular coffees.  You can be proud of the decaf coffees and espresso you serve.

Customer Appreciation Day!  When I had my shops, I would randomly pick customer appreciation days to offer discounted drinks.  This way I was not predictable and my customers never knew what to expect.  I learned from one of our customers the other day he does this very thing with a twist.  He sells travel mugs and offers a free drink in the mug “whenever he decides to have a customer appreciation day”.  I like this idea because of the advertising with his mug in the car all the time.

Let’s talk about product costing.  This is important for all aspects of your business.  If you have a POS system, much of the work is done and all you need to do is calculate sales and margins.  If you are using a simple cash register you will at least have gross sales.  The next step is to determine the number of drinks sold.  When I first began my business, I kept a cup count.  You can do this with a notebook, marking down the number of drinks made.  Or you can count cups each day.  I chose to track the drinks made and sold.

Divide the gross sales by the number of drinks sold to determine your cost per drink.  To be more accurate, it would be helpful to do this for each size of drink.  Your product cost should be approximately 30%.  There are many explanations for a product cost that is too high, but waste or theft and pricing that is too low are the first things to consider.

Gross Margin = Sales – Cost of Goods.  Sales and gross margin are important numbers for managing your business.

Deep cleaning is an important task to maintain our espresso machines in top notch condition AND to produce the very best coffee.  We can have the very best coffee, but if our equipment is dirty, the coffee won’t be good.

Many coffee drive thru kiosks serve an Americano as their drip coffee.  I have heard baristas comment “there is no difference between brewed coffee and an Americano”.  Not true.  The taste difference is unmistakable.  The Americano is prepared with a shot of espresso and add hot water to taste.

Each brew preparation brings out a different flavor profile and your coffee drinkers will know the difference.  Our customers brewing drip coffee are experiencing much higher bean sales.

Make it a great week!

Peggy Sue Ennenga