Reinventing the Coffee Industry in Romania
Mihai Panfil, the owner of one of the famous cafes to go from Bucharest, emphasizes that the freshly fried coffee is another way to extract and serve coffee. However, this new way of serving coffee has made the older companies afraid, because people are used to a certain taste of the past and they are not eager to accept the newly made product, full of fruity notes, freshly and more delicately fried, which is in turn, very different from old style cafes. Actually, the customers get a completely diverse perception of the same product. Nevertheless, both types are gladly accepted and have its markets, as reported by trendshrb.ro.
The specialty coffee, especially the brown coffee segment, is still a small market which has been developing during the last few years. Bucharest is home to 30 or 40 such coffee shops, and there are about 60 in the whole of Romania. What is more important is the interest in this field since many people are asking and thinking about opening these types of coffee shops in Romania. There are about three to four independent toilers in Bucharest and another three to four throughout the country.
More and more people emphasize the purity and quality of coffee, meaning that the product itself is good, and there is no need for certain additions. Nowadays, consumers focus on the experience of drinking coffee and they come to coffee shops in order to taste a good cup of coffee, and not only to socialize. What the coffee shop owners are trying to do is to avoid giving their customers sugar, but let them experience the coffee itself, and pay more attention to the product. That way, many of them change their habits in drinking coffee.
The Romanians are still in a beginner phase where people taste coffee with the aim of discovering what they want. The experience they have is good, so this means that the coffee market has a potential for development. Coffee to go is a great product taking into consideration that the customer can consume it right away or later, but it should be drunk within an hour. Bucharest, like many other big cities, is the place where everyone is in a rush and coffee-to-go has become a normal thing.
Graduated in Philosophy, Sladjana has a master degree in English language and literature. She has worked as an English teacher in various schools in Vranje, as a translator, proof-reader and writer for “Profit magazine” which issues texts about economy, successful people, companies, and marketing. Since June 2017, she has been writing for CoffeeBI as a reporter from Europe.
