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Espresso is dead …long live espresso….or should that be filter?

Yes – in the last few years, more and more trade ‘chatter’ has been focussed on filter, or drip coffee, (depending upon which side of the pond you call home) being the next ‘big’ thing…

The simple reason is that here in the Uk we never did filter justice did we?

Remember the stewing jugs, on the pour and serve hot plate that used to sum up high street service, not much less than 5 years ago?

Then gourmet espresso based beverages appeared like a poison ivy rash – driven down our throats by the likes of Starbucks and an omnipresent ‘Big Brother’ Costa… and filter became a Lungo or Americano…in other words an espresso diluted with water

Looking back often provides inspiration for a better future…but we must be careful not to reinvent the wheel and pretend it is something different

A case in point is the Starbucks Clover Brewing system which may well be visiting an overpriced store near you sooner than you think!

The Clover Brewing system is neat, cool, different and it works for fine, clear and sparkling filter coffee…..Using patented ‘Vacuum Press Technology’ the system carefully and visually grinds, brews and then filters through a 70 micron filter screen each cup of coffee individually, fresh on demand

It looks cool…in the same way Linn Hi-fi equipment is an understated style statement, which few will ‘get’ and even fewer will partake in…it feels aspirational…the best that there is… simple and yet divinely superlative… well, yes, it may well be that and at what was a 30,000 USD price tag per unit it jolly well should be!

BUT! When Starbucks announced they were to acquire The Coffee Equipment Co – the makers of the Clover system in 2009 – they effectively stopped the innovation train…. and bought themselves time and control of an emerging trend, which clearly they knew little about…. and left the competitive set scrabbling for alternative solutuions….

A couple of years later, the system is now seeing the light of day, with Starbucks ‘Reserve Coffees’ which are (the marketing blurb advises) ‘exotic, rare and exquisite’ such as Honduras, Kenyan and Sidamo (Read Mondeo GLX) being available through the coveted system, at a premium of course – And this is what time has bought Starbucks…no improvement to the system, simply the ability to play a waiting game in the name of enhanced margin

The Clover beverages command a premium in the US of some 75 cent per cup…. good business by any standards and bring a basic cup of coffee knocking on the $4 barrier…

But the real insight from a ‘Coffee Ratings.com’ report is that the staff didn’t know how to use the system… tried to serve the reserve coffee from the top end brewer into a waxed paper cup… that the beans weren’t fresh due to a low rate of sale and that the Starbucks ‘charbucks’ roast killed all flavour and made the system a nonsense…

It smacks of the lowest denominator managing standards and expectations….. And this, for me, is the case at point here. In a mass consumer market how able and enlightened are we to use choice to make an informed, better decision? Well, unless we try hard and do our research I think the answer is ‘Not a lot Debbie!’

Aromo is launching great tasting Senseo filter coffee pods to join our ESE Espresso stable soon… we dare you to test and comment…in the meantime well-done on finding us, for doing your little bit of research  – whether by default or design –  you have challenged the system…if you try our humble coffees…we think you’ll like them!

This article was written by Guru (Andy Grelak) who writes for aromocoffee.co.uk, the UK’s leading online retailer of 44mm E.S.E espresso coffee pods

Guru was recently put very firmly in his place, after reading an article in that august and liberal tome the ‘Daily Mail’… which purported in a ‘Mystic Meg’ style to predict personality by the coffee which you preferred…

I like a Macchiato – best of both worlds me thinks… but not according to this writer, who coldly advised ‘…you like to be different- just not too different and in reality you’re happy to tag along behind others…’

Ok – that sounds like New Labour style speak…for basically, you are a no hope plonker who has little idea and is simply one of life’s passengers… cut to the quick was an understatement, as salt was then rubbed into my masculine wounds when I read that-

Mocha drinkers possessed a ‘core of steel’

Latte drinkers preferred to ’take their coffee with company’

And

Lungo drinkers were ‘connoisseurs’

The only comments of any accuracy or note were that espresso drinkers were ‘reformed smokers’ spot on! …..And that our soon to be £1B gourmet coffee appetite, can trace its heritage back to the simple, humble and beautiful espresso

New variants are appearing each and everyday…  the damp squib that is ‘Flat White’ being an obvious example…along with the following offerings…all of which have  been devised with the simple intent of maintaining interest and margin in the category

The Schiumato – one espresso shot and foamed milk

The Bicerin – one shot chocolate and foamed milk

And the Marochino – one shot espresso, foamed milk and cocoa powder

Aromo’s advice has, as ever, to be keep it simple…do what you want to do…but whatever you do decide to do…do it with perfetto ESE espresso!

This article was written by Guru (Andy Grelak) who writes for aromocoffee.co.uk, the UK’s leading online retailer of 44mm E.S.E espresso coffee pods

If this is coffee, then please, bring me some tea. But if this is tea, please bring me some coffee Abraham Lincoln

Ever thought of ESE espresso Sir?

The first written references to coffee here in the UK are found around 1598… And it is most likely that the coffees consumed were single origin Ethiopians…good taste!

Believe it or not, the first batches of coffee returned to the UK were thought to have medicinal properties – Francis Bacon was one of the many, who propounded the belief that coffee had a medicinal quality able to cure scurvy, gout and help with excessive drunkenness!

The first English Coffee house was established in either, Cornhill or Oxford, depending upon what you believe…The Oxford ‘branch’ called Angel (Grand Cafe) was opened by an entrepreneur named Jacobs in 1650 and flourished in this scholarly and experimental community  - These new establishments, which grew to a 3,000 strong compliment, served other new and racy beverages too – such as tea and chocolate!

During the proceeding ten years Oxford became famous for its profusion of coffee houses…Many of which were called ‘penny universities’ because they offered an alternative means of learning, education and a debating forum

An academic on this subject writes:

The power of these coffee houses…..’Lay in the fact that they were in daily touch with the people. Their purpose was something more than to provide a meeting-place for social intercourse and gossip; there was serious and sober discussion on all matters of common interest’ (Ellis 1956)

And this for me dear reader is the key point…coffee shops were a place of social interaction…of stimulation and challenge, of friendly debate and intellectual interrogation…compare this now to the Starbucks generation and the ‘Black Gold’ debacle, where we witnessed Starbucks threatening to taking the Ethiopian co operatives to court to prevent them from T.Marking their provincial / geographical descriptors

Coffee makes us severe, and grave, and philosophical ~Jonathan Swift

Women were allowed to take part in the cultural and political critiques which exercised the minds of the coffee house faithful and enlightenment trickled down to the wider community….’The (coffee houses allowed the) creation of a Bourgeois public sphere for the discussion and transformations of opinions’ (Outram, 1995)

And the inevitable ebb and flow and decline of coffee houses in the 18^th century, it is suggested, is attributable to sheer simple snobbery…. Strangers were no longer welcome… alternative and challenging views were not countenanced and prices increased….

How sobering a thought this is, if we reflect, upon the current gourmet coffee cafe bar boom…

A certain Liquor which they call Coffee…which will soon intoxicate the brain

G. W. Parry (1601)

High prices…continuous double digit growth… and the rise of the coffee bar as the ‘third way’…. a mermaid, for a spiritual anchor, for the technological generation, which no longer has or understands the skill of simple human interaction…

What will happen next?  Que Sera, Sera? I think it’s time for my Aromo perfetto easy serve espresso as I ponder this next question….:)

This article was written by Guru ( Andy Grelak) who writes for aromocoffee.co.uk, the UK’s leading online retailer of 44mm E.S.E espresso coffee pods

I was reading an article recently, which propounded the theory that coffee had becoming successful despite itself, simply because it had a fabulous ability to promote social and personal interaction

Now from a sociological perspective, this is an interesting and potentially very profitable avenue…hence, the cynic in me can’t help but think that Howard Schultz’s assertion in his last memoir, that Starbucks was the provider of the ‘third place’ for such social interaction, had the cash registers chinking all the way to the billionaires life style he now enjoys

The ‘third place’ for those like me, which had no clue of such an expression, is the next place in the queue of locations where you spend the majority of your waking and social hours…so No.1 is home (hopefully) and No.2 is work (unfortunately)

We humans are simple beasts… perhaps now burdened more than ever before by a technology which feeds and deprives our souls in equal measure

The original coffee shops were indeed ‘hot beds’ of social interaction ….I am sure both physical and mental as well as spiritual…However – it was through face to face dialogue and interaction that theories were set and challenged….honed and perfected

And yet today … in our expensive predominantly middle class coffee houses, we are constrained by technology… yes there is a boom in social connectivity … and yet it is this very invention which then creates a sense of individualism…or as one commentator I have read puts it ‘being alone together’ Urgh!

In other words… humans…to our fibre social animals…in a technological bubble… each at a work station…now a coffee table…paying exorbitant prices for mediocre coffee, so as to be seen to be social… and this ultimately is the nub of the debate….it is about being seen…not necessarily ‘engaging’ in the old fashioned sense of the word

By default then – can we also expect synthetic espresso to be on the menu in the next 10 or 20 or 50 years?

Certainly, the development of new hybrids in the coffee world suggests that GM varietals may become a necessity, as global coffee demands continues to rocket … expected to increase by some 30 M bags within the next 8 years or so

In the meantime – we at Aromo have a simple suggestion ….keep it real…..keep it connected and focussed… Don’t accept the crap!

Find your small chinks of pleasure and enjoy them…for me Perfetto espresso is my luxury ‘me moment’…..find yours, stretch out and invade that technologically free space with beautiful simple ESE pods and easy serve espresso!

This article was written by Guru ( Andy Grelak) who writes for aromocoffee.co.uk, the UK’s leading online retailer of 44mm E.S.E espresso coffee pods

Top Tips for the best buy Espresso

Ideally, any self respecting espresso aficionado will know that the best espresso is made at home!

Firstly, because you are the barista at large and can show case your skills and experiment to your heart’s content and secondly, because it is so much cheaper than indulging in high street gourmet coffee society!

Past Blogs have commented that typically the cost of the actual coffee in a standard cappuccino might be 2 > 5% and the milk a further 7 > 10%

The rest of the price tag is made up of rents / rates / labour and MARGIN!

But had you ever considered that much like a food menu, the coffee menu could be constructed so as to maximise operator revenue?

Yes, menu designers use certain strategies that will make your ’mouth water and your wallet fall open’… and these include-

1)      Optimising half way down the page or menu

Depending upon the size of the menu there are known ‘hot spots’ where your eyes will naturally fall…on each page of a menu this is half way down the page

This is where the higher margin, or signature items will usually be placed

Signature beverages often mean trading up in size or with flavours and toppings – beware the subsequent cash and calories crunch!

2)      High Profit Items

Are typically highlighted, or put in other prominent menu positions…hence, why flat white, which is usually only available as a small (but at the RRP of an augmented medium) appears at the top of the menu card

3)      Recommended items and specific ingredients

Accredited coffees cost more

Original coffees of provenance cost more

And – Today ironically the arbitrage between Robusta and Arabica coffees has been massively reduced – but typically high Arabica coffee beverages cost more

But don’t allow yourself to be too fooled by the marketing gibberish… Trading up in size is often not a good idea as the extra fill simply doesn’t get consumed!

And coffee is not wine - any variance in price rarely actually reflects quality or taste performance – more usually supply / demand and cache

Drink at home and use ESE coffee pods / easy serve espresso pods has to be our recommendation!

But if you do drink out and about be aware that you are being ‘conditioned’ to trade up wherever possible… The marketing teams at the large coffee operators are smart cookies and already have introduced regional pricing policies and price lists for company and franchise owned stores etc all of which could mean you end up paying 50 > 80p / beverage visit more than you either anticipated/ wanted or needed!

Be warned!

This article was written by Guru (Andy Grelak) who writes for aromocoffee.co.uk, the UK’s leading online retailer of 44mm E.S.E espresso coffee pods

Oh dear! Another route for an old trade ‘has been’ to make some retirement cash has appeared this week

‘Smart Coffee’ the fabulous new App for you dear reader to down load and learn all you need to about coffee

The theory is admirable

The practice is actually not bad

The only problem is the victor Kiam style promises that this App will change you life!

This ‘simple $2.99 App’ will enable you to ‘think and drink coffee like a coffee professional’ no less… and in record time…forget all of those wasted and unnecessary years working your way up the greasy pole, apprenticeships and trial and error and all that kinda frustrating stuff!

Smart Coffee will prevent consumers from being ’immobilized’…what this quite means I am not sure, but let’s please hope it doesn’t happen at the point of paying for the large espresso they have just ordered(!)

Smart Coffee will deliver the ‘keys to the kingdom’!! Making consumers ‘wiser, quicker, smarter’ and will enable them to find their perfect cup of coffee and never waste money again…blah blah…perhaps hair regeneration and a free six pack could have been thrown in too??

Basically, there ain’t nothing it won’t do if you are remotely interested in coffee… other than perhaps advise you if the coffee is fresh or not…or has been high yield or conduction espresso roasted… water or air quenched…. used larger or smaller screen size beans… lower or higher defect rates… you know all the other basics that will, ah yes of course, appear with Smart Coffee 2 …this time priced at $4.99!!

Now then I am an old git of a cynic… this is a good idea…but let’s just keep our feet on the ground… buy a basic industry book and read all about this and much more …

Taking photos of your latte and comparing notes on your smart phone of other recent purchases now seem more important than trying to relax and enjoy your coffee break!

Remember perfetto espresso… special, quiet reflective moments…time to chill and contemplate…or perhaps even socially interact if you read my earlier blog…anything but adding another layer of technological confusion please! Keep it real with ESE espresso – Keep it simple with easy serve hard pods !

This article was written by Guru (Andy Grelak) who writes for aromocoffee.co.uk, the UK’s leading online retailer of 44mm E.S.E espresso coffee pods

Beyond espresso what is there?

Aero press perhaps…? Worth tracking down if you haven’t seen it before

(What is Aero press?? A super cool and effective way to enjoy traditional filter coffees – Hot tip… beyond espresso, fine and clean filter remains the next big trend…!)

But would you ever consider Senseo?

Otherwise so beautifully known in the Continental coffee trade as ‘coffee pads’

Oft considered a retro grade step in the annals of coffee service history, the Senseo style soft 62mm pad was the first domestic mass market single serve ‘espresso style ‘coffee unit

OK- it didn’t pump at pressure much more than atmosphere

OK- it produced nothing more than a thick and frothy hard Benelux style brew

OK- the machine was hardly the style statement of 2004 and no one wanted to be the bloke on the telly with the coffee moustache

But it was and is a huge success and for those of us in the coffee trade and the espresso appreciation society, we must recognise the role Senseo has and will play in opening up the beauty of perfetto single serve espresso to so many

Some time ago, I had the pleasure of meeting the chap who invented Senseo!  Marco was an unassuming inventor……Busy not doing much in his untidy office, but imperceptibly pushing the boundaries of coffee and espresso forwards…..he had made and lost his money, but remained upbeat and chipper, as he extolled the virtue of a new tin he had discovered….

With that in mind Monkey is fiddlin’ in the kitchen as we speak, to see if he can bend and cajole his machine into spitting out a 62mm soft pad for you to try…

Not just any old pad – but one in which we really aim to shake up the accepted quality and price norms…!
Push the boundaries Monkey….! Drive the value continuum Monster and don’t forget to tell Buddha Pigsy….!! Time for a quiet ESE hard pod perfetto espresso moment before we have the final frontier melt down!:)

Tell us what you think dear reader…does a new and exciting Aromo Coffee 62mm Senseo style pad offer float your boat…? Should we focus only on easy serve espresso pods ? Answers on a postcard please!

This article was written by Guru who writes for aromocoffee.co.uk, the UK’s leading online retailer of 44mm E.S.E espresso coffee pods

Our 200th Blog sees Guru in a contemplative and yet rambunctious mood

Oh dear!

Ever heard the one about the two faced coffee consultant?

Nope! Well I am not sure what planet you have been living on dear reader…but such duplicity and intrigue is now unfortunately a fact in the once small and conservative (small ‘c’ if you please !!) sector of the coffee trade

First off, you good people may never have heard of such employ as that of the venerable ‘coffee consultant’

Well, the reality is, that it is a small but rapidly growing market place in which a raft of flotsam has coalesced

Traditionally, the haunt of ex Managing Directors and washed up has beens and could have beens from the corporate machine, it has quickly taken on a new and all together sexier form as Baristas of various shapes, sizes and dubious awards join the ranks of those keen to offer advice to organisations big enough and profitable enough to listen

The reality is that some individuals and ‘networks’ are well placed to offer insight, guidance and connection of significant value in a trade often stage managed by the smoke and mirrors corporate marketing department

But – the problem is that as this sector grows, the quality of much of the advice and insight offered is diminished and eroded by the cow boys and slow hand Luke’s who are able to define a ‘sweet spot’ and wax lyrical about the specially foamed top of a flat white… however, as soon as the debate becomes remotely technical a chasm appears….

This was put into sharp relief recently when a very good friend from the continental coffee trade told of a technical consultant ‘on a mission’ to rubbish a highly respected roaster

Said technical consultant requested some green coffee samples to verify and confirm the quality and provenance of the coffees being roasted and supplied to his client

The trading house the benchmark samples were requested from knew both the technician and the roaster… a quick call to the roaster confirmed the intrigue at play… and so the trader sent stock lot samples direct to the technical consultant and the very same samples to the roaster who then in turn simply re posted them on to the consultant

The rest of the story you can guess… and yes, your assumption is correct!! Same samples, same trader, same source, different postage stamp and the technical consultant praised one lot and rubbished the other….

Nothing new really is it…..but certainly a sad little indictment of the world we live in dear reader….

Fair play and fair’s fair and all that…

Time for a perfetto espresso me thinks courtesy of Monkey and Monster at Aromo Coffee…..hard at work making good honest fresh and authentic ESE hard pod easy serve espresso for you to brew and savour

This article was written by Guru (Andy Grelak) who writes for aromocoffee.co.uk, the UK’s leading online retailer of 44mm E.S.E espresso coffee pods

The coffee market remains in a bearish and foreboding mood

Gone are the recent hallucinatory NYC highs of + $3/ Lb

And we now have the reality of a record Brazilian crop and prices stubbornly chipping away at $1.70/Lb

Much lower and many farmers will start complaining they can’t make a profit and will start with holding stock…always a bit of an economic dichotomy me thinks…. but who I am to question the Keynesian, or otherwise, sentiment of the Brazilian grower cooperatives!

The simple fact is coffee prices are significantly lower than they were last year …in fact from the market peak prices are 40% lower

Now, true enough the price of coffee on the retail shelf is not simply about the cost of the raw material

There are the myriad costs to bring the ‘god given gift’ of green coffee from origin to Europe

To roast and pack and transport the product to a store near you… and in the main almost all of these costs have increased

But the reality remains that a price decrease is due….And you have guessed it  – the last country in Europe in which this price drop will be recognised is the UK

The US has already witnessed some lower moves…but it was the news over the weekend of Tchibo’s ‘clean sweep’ 1€ / kilo retail price decrease which has really put the cat amongst the pigeon’s in the European trade

The German coffee market is the power house of the European coffee trade

It is at least four times bigger than the market here in Blighty, which was itself valued at a staggering £986m in 2010

The German market has grown constantly at 4.6% each and every year between 2005 > 2010 and the average German consumes 6.6 kilo of coffee pa….

Tchibo are probably the world’s No.4 roaster… They are a well respected  business established in 1949 by the Herz family and have done a great job of keeping Kraft Jacobs in check in the German market place…

Tchibo remain a convincing No.1 with approximately 25% market share…closely followed by Aldi at +/- 25% and trailed by Kraft who range between low teens and early 20’s depending upon range activities which drive share

The price decrease is a bold and innovative move… Innovative you may ask…?

Well, yes it is, if only because it is honest!

Back in 2010 when prices were going up, Tchibo promised in above the line campaigns to reduce prices when the market allowed… and here we are in a drastically lower market and Tchibo are ‘doing the doing’!

This leaves Aldi with a tough act to follow if they are to maintain their lost leader positioning of being at least 50 € cent / kilo less than the brands… and leaves Kraft once again out in the competitive wilderness

Ah well… as we have debated before, Aromo coffee recently reviewed and lowered their prices and we may well do this again. Rest assured we aim to be honest and open with you dear reader and fellow ESE hard pod and espresso enthusiast… and so our quality and price promise remains constant and unerring

This article was written by Guru who writes for aromocoffee.co.uk, the UK’s leading online retailer of 44mm E.S.E espresso coffee pods