Decaf Sumatra is just as tasty as the regular version. Enjoy the heavy body, earthy and loamy, and herbal notes. Sumatra pairs nicely with a good steak or hearty breakfast.

Do you drink decaf coffee? Think of this concept… Decaf drinkers are hard core. They drink coffee without the “buzz” from caffeine, and enjoy it all day long. Decaf drinkers are increasing in number and looking for that exceptional cup of coffee, so let’s be sure to offer it to them.

If you serve tea, learn what the proper brewing temperature the water should be by asking your tea vendor.

Keep your espresso machine clean. The grouphead should be cleaned daily and backflushed during each shift if you are busy. You will need to have the machine maintained regularly to keep the lime and mineral deposits from corroding the machine’s working parts.

Marketing on a shoestring…
1. Free drink cards are an old standby that many shops use and others don’t agree with. Consider what is best for you and your business.
2. Join forces with another business and put a good word out for each other.
3. Hire or trade with your customers for work you need done. No doubt your customers include writers, designers, and other creative people.
4. Support the community. Have a bulletin board promoting local events such as Relay for Life, fundraisers, or other events. Create a program whereby customers can donate the value of their earned free drink to a local charity. This charity could be the same all the time or maybe pick a new charity every month. Most people love to donate but might not have the cash. This gives them the opportunity to give back without opening their wallet.

Nutrition tips:
Add apple peels to a ham and cheese sandwich for increased flavor and antioxidants.
Add chopped orange peels to chili to help prevent skin cancer.
Add carrot peels to meat loaf and burgers to protect the eyes, skin, and immune system.

Make it a great week!

Do you remember Butternut Coffee? It was my mother’s favorite coffee when I was a little girl. The first time she tasted Brazil Porta Rossa, she nearly jumped off her chair and said “this is Butternut!”. As you enjoy this medium bodied, understated coffee, you will appreciate the nutty notes that clearly pop through. Take a mug with you as you stroll through the local county fair and enjoy it with an “elephant ear”. Yum, yum…

Business thoughts:
I recently made a comment to a customer about the fact that green coffee prices have reached a 12 year high this week. My costs have more than doubled since I began roasting coffee, and yet my pricing has increased approximately 40% wholesale and retail. As we discussed the economy and the fact that the businesses that are doing well (in most sectors, not just coffee) have made a commitment to their business and customers by providing the best quality product and customer service. Certainly we all need to stay on our toes, manage costs, train our staff well to do a great job, market our products creatively, AND not compromise with inferior products. Our customers expect only the best from us.

This gentleman and his wife are doing a bang up job in a highly competitive community by serving high quality products at premium prices. He told me we are all in the same boat. This reminded me how we need to work together whenever possible.
More on partnering opportunities next week.
I am motivated by each of you and love hearing your success stories.

Trivia:
1. 4000 coffee beans = 1 pound
2. The 1st cafe’ serving coffee opened in Paris in 1686 – LeProcope is still open for business
3. Navy Secretary Josephus Daiels outlawed alcohol on the ships. He ordered coffee become the service beverage on ships, hence the term “cup of Joe”

Make it a great week!

Ethiopia Yirgacheffe is back! Yirgacheffe is a coffee growing region in the Ethiopian country in Africa. Yirgacheffe is the most refined of the 3 Ethiopian coffees. Tea drinkers choose this clean coffee with sweet lemon notes and medium body. Try a cup with a berry scone or almond biscotti.

Reducing coffee hunger in the coffeelands… Recently a gathering of dozens of smallholder coffee farmers from across the Americas discussed ways to reduce hunger at origin. A few topics were:
1. Mushrooms are rich in protein and B-complex vitamins, mushrooms thrive on coffee pup and other “waste” from smallholder farm systems.
2. Beekeeping generates additional income from the sale of honey, research has indicated that bees can increase coffee quality and productivity through cross-pollination of coffee flowers.
3. Organic fertilizer is more accessible to the farmers for higher productivity and plant yield.
4. Family gardens can increase the availability of nutritious vegetables and leafy greens for coffee farming families.

Thought… Habitual coffee drinkers have more personal contact with their baristas than most of the people in their lives. Wow! We have the opportunity to have a positive impact on many people with a cheerful hello and attention to detail with their drink.

Specialty Treat: Affogato is an Italian treat; ice cream topped with a shot of espresso. These were very popular in my cafe’, as well as espresso shakes. If you are experiencing some high temps, increase your sales with this delectable dessert.

Montana Mystery is a customer favorite and one of my personal “go to” coffees. The medium body, nutty notes, hints of chocolate and citrus make this an easy to drink coffee. I enjoy it for a quick cup before yoga class at 6:00 am or the decaf version for an afternoon treat.

Marketing: Christmas in July! Have fun with a day or week of promotions with Santa in shorts, snowcones, carolers, or hot chocolate and cookies. I like this idea because it is very different from what your competition is doing and you will be noticed.
Taking this idea further, you could do this any time of the year with a unique theme. How about Tropical Vacations in January? Let your imagination wander and come up with lots of great ideas. Mix it up with traditional and regional promotions and throw in a little something different to keep your customers interested in what you might try next.

Be sure to evaluate the success or failure of your promotion and marketing programs. For instance, if you try a buy one, get one, or a discount on a particular drink, you’ll want to know how much product is used and what your revenues are for that promo. Bringing new customers through your door and then keeping them is worth much more than the one discounted drink to attract them. Remember, it is much cheaper to keep loyal customers than the cost to attract new customers. Improve or maintain excellent customer service and quality drinks.

Summer Staff burn out? Are you in a seasonal location with a summer peak in business? Do you add more employees for the summer rush? Do you and your employees experience summer burnout?
Refresh your staff with any of these simple ideas:
1. Ask how they are doing. Letting them know you appreciate them and understand summer burnout happens about this time will give them the boost they need to keep going until the end of the season.
2. Praise their efforts. Offer suggestions at this time if you see the need for improvement. There is still time to boost performance.
3. Consider scheduling some kind of fun event. Or, if you can’t close down your business long enough, plan an after season event. My Mom worked at a resort and enjoyed a feast, day of golfing, and fun on the lake provided to all employees who stayed the entire season.
4. Give them an extra day off. If you are well staffed, stagger some extra days off for each employee so they can have fun with their friends and family.

Drink: Create your own specialty drink using a local product. Huckleberries are found in the mountains in northwest Montana and a specialty item used in jams, pies, syrups, and milkshakes. One of our customers has a large customer base buying their huckleberry frappes, smoothies, and other treats.

Make it a great week!

I enjoyed a cup of Decaf Brazil this morning and it was such a treat as I drove to my yoga class. Nice body, nutty notes, and lingering finish. Brazil pairs well with a yummy sticky bun for extra energy.

Branding, quality products, & customer service are the big topics we read and hear about frequently. I have chatted a few times on these ideas. I have suggested partnering with wine shops to do a coffee and wine tasting, because the customers are often the same.

Starbucks “test shop” in Seattle is trying a wine and “coffee theatre”. Going back to the basics of preparing coffee one cup at a time, bringing back the romance of the special drink. And now pairing with wine offerings as well. The test shop provides a comfortable, laid back ambience, encouraging customers to spend all day with their laptop, book, or stop by for a quick coffee break or business meeting.

Wine may not be your desire, yet getting back to the basics of outstanding coffee beverages and partnering with another business are certainly concepts to seriously consider. There is a nitch for each of us.

Trivia:
1. No primary defects and up to 5 secondary defects are allowed in a 300 gm sample of specialty grade coffee according to SCAA standards.
2. Coffee is an evergreen shrub in the Rubiciae family, which comprises two main species; Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora, or Robusta. Arabica is the specialty coffee species.

Try your Decaf Brazil on ice for an afternoon treat. No worries about caffeine.

Make it a great week!

Peggy Ennenga
Owner/Roastmaster
Fieldhead’s Coffee Co
PO Box 8143
Kalispell, MT 59904
Phone: (406) 249-5775
Fax: (406) 756-5141
www.fieldheadscoffee.com

Happy 4th of July to each of you!

I am taking the time this morning to do my own coffee cupping (tasting). Today I am comparing 4 different Sumatran coffees. All 4 of them are semi-washed and from 3 different regions.
The two Mandheling coffees are heavy with molasses and wood notes, and a lingering loamy finish.
The Lintong coffee is a sweeter and brighter Sumatran coffee with complex herbal notes.
The Gayo coffee is spicy, herbal and has more acidity.
Lots of time and effort goes into choosing the very best coffees for you and your customers. I will say that all 4 of these coffees pair well with fresh banana bread.

Semi-Dry-Processed Coffee, Pulped Natural Coffee, Semi-Wet-Processed Coffee. Coffee prepared by removing the outer skin of the coffee fruit (a process called pulping) and drying the skinned coffee with the sticky mucilage and the inner skins (parchment and silverskin) still adhering to the bean. This processing method, situated between the dry method and the wet method, has no consensus name. It is one of three processing methods practiced in Brazil, and is used sporadically on a small scale by farmers in Sumatra and Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Enjoy a safe holiday weekend!

Cheers,

Peggy Ennenga
Owner/Roastmaster
Fieldhead’s Coffee Co
PO Box 8143
Kalispell, MT 59904
Phone: (406) 249-5775
Fax: (406) 756-5141
www.fieldheadscoffee.com

Kenya is back!! We are excited for the new Kenya crop. The supply is limited and the price is $1.40 more per pound than your other African coffees. I love Kenya prepared as a French Press or a regular drip brew. Enjoy the explosion of citrus flavor, medium body, and lingering finish.

Ethiopia Yirgacheffee should arrive by the end of summer, and Tanzania anytime.

Scientists in Brazil have found that unroasted coffee beans contain proteins that can kill insects, a finding that may lead to new insecticides for protecting food crops.
The study suggests a new use for one of the most important tropical crops in the world.
Peas, beans and some other plant seeds contain proteins, called globulins, which ward off insects. Coffee beans contain large amounts of globulins, and Paulo Mazzafera and colleagues wondered whether those coffee proteins might also have an insecticidal effect.
The high heat of roasting destroys globulins, so that they do not appear in brewed coffee.
Drinking coffee can reduce the chances of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to new research.
A review of the all of the available evidence shows that regularly drinking coffee, around two to thre cups a day, cut the risk by as much as a quarter.
According to the researchers, from the university of Porto, in Portugal, “This study confirm an inverse association between caffeine intake and the risk of PD, which can hardly by explained by bias or uncontrolled confounding.”
Quote: “Roasting is really what develops the personality of the coffee”.
Make it a great week!
Peggy Ennenga
Owner/Roastmaster
Fieldhead’s Coffee Co
PO Box 8143
Kalispell, MT 59904
Phone: (406) 249-5775
Fax: (406) 756-5141
www.fieldheadscoffee.com

Hearts ‘n’ Hands is a medium body coffee, nutty flavor, with a smooth, lingering finish. Try it with a bagel and cream cheese for a traditional continental breakfast or solo for a mid day pick-me-up.
Remember, $1.00 per pound from sales of Hearts’n'Hands is donated to the United Way.

Marketing: I recently stopped by a 3 unit strip mall with an all day “Happy Hour” going on. These 3 complementary businesses were offering slushy cocktails (not sure how they got a permit for this), fudge samples, and other goodies along with a fabulous sale. I would expect to see this kind of promotion during the holidays, but on an average Friday in June? I loved it and checked out shops I haven’t been previously. Employees and customers seemed to be having fun AND the business owners weren’t competing with other businesses during the typical holiday shopping events.
Look around and see who might be interested in doing something like this with you.

Terminology: Let’s explore the facts about some of the more prevalent coffee varietals.
Bourbon – Sweet, chocolate flavor, and creamy body. Roasters can do a lot with these coffees because of the deep fruit flavors.
Typica – Least productive in the Arabica species, lacking softness and sweetness of the Bourbon. Lighter body and floral notes.
Caturra – A natural mutation of Bourbon, smaller plant that is extremely productive. The plant has adapted well to mountainous regions, producing a lively cup.
Blue Mountain – Typica offspring found in Jamaica 200 years ago and is the dominant plant on the low-elevation Caribbean islands. Known for its soft, low acid taste.
Maragogype – Typica varietal “wanting in body and flavor”. Plants produce giant beans.
Pacamara – Combination of Bourbon and maragogype plants, created by researchers in El Salvador. Basic sweetness and chocolate flavor, herbal notes, and buttery finish.
Gesha – Native Panama plants, sweet, lemon and apricot notes with an intense citrus flavor, with floral aroma.

Nutrition Tip: Add blueberries to your yogurt to quell inflammation in your belly. The probiotic bacteria of yogurt help increase absorption of fiber from the berries.

Drink: Cafe’ Au’Lait is a traditional English drink. Steam milk and pour into a half cup of brewed black coffee. Hearts ‘n’ Hands is a great choice for this drink.

Make it a great week!

Peggy Ennenga
Owner/Roastmaster
Fieldhead’s Coffee Co
PO Box 8143
Kalispell, MT 59904
Phone: (406) 249-5775
Fax: (406) 756-5141
www.fieldheadscoffee.com

A traditional Italian Cappuccino is 5-6 ounces. Try one yourself and enjoy the complex flavors of the espresso and fabulous sweet foam. A cappuccino is a great dessert beverage, afternoon pick me up, or morning java.

Coffee is a fun, rewarding, romantic, and dirty business. The coffee farmers have dirt under their fingernails, cherry stains on their hands, and tanned skin.
As a coffee shop owner, you have coffee grounds under your nails, coffee stains on your shirt, and good shoes to support long hours on your feet.

Let’s chat about a few basic operations.
1. Do you have a cleaning schedule listing daily, weekly, and monthly tasks?
2. Cross train every staff member regarding all aspects of the business. Encourage ideas from everyone regarding cleaning, staffing, marketing, and creative drink making.
3. Schedule tasting sessions comparing 2 coffees at a time to encourage more product knowledge and confidence. Discuss profiling customers to determine the best bean suggestions and food pairing ideas.
4. Be sure the sun is not shining on your grinder, heating the coffee beans in the hopper. You can’t pull good shots of espresso with stale or “precooked” beans.

Health tip:
Studies suggest the polyphenols in green and black tea may help reduce plaque buildup and fight infections.

We distribute Mighty Leaf Tea, so please talk to Tanya or me if you wold like more information.

Consider offering a traditional Italian cappuccino in your shop and your customers will appreciate the authentic quality drink.

Make it a great week!

Peggy Ennenga
Owner/Roastmaster
Fieldhead’s Coffee Co
PO Box 8143
Kalispell, MT 59904
Phone: (406) 249-5775
Fax: (406) 756-5141
www.fieldheadscoffee.com

Colombia is the country many people think supplies all our coffee. Colombia El Corazon and Colombia El Toro coffee is sweet, complex, and has a slightly syrupy body. Colombian coffee is a great choice to complement your weekend get togethers or enjoy while relaxing on the deck.

Today I am going to pass on some statistical information I recently received from the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America).
Where our beans come from:
Green coffee imports into the US in 2008 are 81% from Central and South America, with Brazil and Colombia 1st and 2nd, respectively. That leaves 19% of the green beans coming from all other areas, including Africa and Indonesia. If you read the descriptions for your coffees and blends, you will learn that most of the beans roasted at Fieldhead’s Coffee come from the 19% of specialty coffees imported into the U.S. Do you think there might be a connection between the comments we all hear, such as “I haven’t had anything like this”; “Wow, your coffee is so good”; and “This is the best coffee I have enjoyed outside of Italy”?
U.S. Market Place of Consumption:
The U.S. coffee market is a $33-34 billion industry. As you know, coffee is the 2nd largest commodity traded worldwide, following oil.
Consumption away from home is $25 billion and at home is $8.9 billion. Nearly half of the coffee consumed away from home is at coffeehouses, followed by QSR (quick serve restaurants) including donut shops.

Specialty coffee shops are doing many things extremely well. Consumers are becoming ever more careful about how they spend money. They are looking for the best quality for their dollar. We all need to be conscientious about preparing our drinks with care and providing customer service that differentiates us from the competition.

Starbucks is moving into the single serve market with portion packets for home use, while McDonald’s is moving into the specialty coffee arena. While the lines become gray with the big players in the coffee business, we must stay focused on our own specialty drinks because the consumer demands it of us.

Coffee is an important part of our days. It can be a quick morning cup at the coffee shop, midday pick-me-up at the neighborhood diner, or the finale at a fine dining restaurant. Or, dessert with a friend. As always, we are bringing people together with great coffee.

Health Tip:
A study by British researchers followed 23,000 men and women for 12 years and found that any coffee intake — caffeinated, decaffeinated, instant, or ground — was associated with a 27 percent lower risk of stroke than no coffee intake.

Make it a great week, and be safe this weekend.

Peggy Ennenga
Owner/Roastmaster
Fieldhead’s Coffee Co
PO Box 8143
Kalispell, MT 59904
Phone: (406) 249-5775
Fax: (406) 756-5141
www.fieldheadscoffee.com