Category: In-depth Insights

The Secrets of the Coffee Capsules in 10 Steps

Coffee Capsules

The coffee market is now clearly split into portioned coffee and Whole grain / Roast&Ground coffee. In Italy, the market share increased by 20% and ESE by 5%, when the overall market is stable. It means that the commodity, simplicity and quality of these products are satisfying more and more consumers.
Now, as a roaster company or independent Barista, you want to launch your own products, how can you do that and what are the main parameters to control when developing your portioned coffee? [Sign in to continue]

Some Like It Too Hot? Rethinking Coffee Serving Practices

Some Like It Too Hot? Rethinking Coffee Serving Practices

When questioning professionals or consumers about influences on coffee quality, factors such as type, variety and origin, processing, sorting, gentle roasting, fresh grinding or the type of preparation are usually named. Very rarely, however, is the temperature is brought into play. According to popular opinion, the best way to think with coffee is “the hotter the better”. This belief needs to be tackled in two ways. [Sign in to continue]

Blockchain: How Power Relations in the Coffee Chain are Changing

Blockchain Coffee

The coffee bean is one of the world’s most valuable agricultural products from the tropics: it’s worth over $100 billion worldwide. The coffee chain is characterised by a huge difference between production and consumption: on one side we have 25 million small farmers producing 80% of the world’s total coffee supply, for less than $2 a day, on the other side we have the “Big Four” coffee roasting companies – Kraft, P&G, Sara Lee and Nestle – buying about 50% of the coffee produced worldwide. This make the relation between buyers and producers in the coffee chain [Sign in to continue]

How to Choose the Perfect Coffee Machine for Your Restaurant?

manual-coffe-machine

In the last couple of decades, coffee industry has evolved significantly, therefore, local restaurants cannot serve standard cups of coffee and have to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Here’s a guide on how to turn your business into a profit generator.
First of all, you have to decide on what wish to offer. Whether it is a range of flavored Americano drinks or milk-based coffees, the right coffee machine will help to intensify or, on the contrary, diminish the real taste of your drink. [Sign in to continue]

Recycling Programmes: How Coffee Shops Engage in the Circular Economy

reclycling-programmes-300x300

The phenomenal growth of coffee shops (in the UK, but also globally) has consequently meant a rise in energy consumption and the production of waste. It’s estimated that 500,000 tonnes of coffee waste is produced in the UK each year, and 7 million disposable coffee cups each day. It is estimated that less than 1% of these coffee cups are recycled. After the issue reached the mainstream media last year as part of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s ‘war on waste’ there have been many developments.

One of the most common ways in which coffee shops engage in the circular economy is [Sign in to continue]

Considering the ‘Coffice Economy’

coworking-spaces

This is a new piece of research which highlights another important function of café spaces – as places not only of co-working for independent workers, but as places where business and work takes place more generally.

The discount voucher website MyVoucherCodes has recently released some data which suggests that:

4/5 people in the UK have spent at least 3 ½ hours working from a coffee shop each week;
1/3 have closed a business deal (with an average value of [sign in to continue]

Coffee Culture and Specialty Coffee in the Middle East

Middle-East-Coffee-Shops

Last month, Trade Arabia announced that Coffee Planet, a coffee roaster and coffee shop chain in the Middle East, signed a franchise agreement with HB Brands for 70 shops in Saudi Arabia. Coffee Planet, based in Dubai, embarked on the franchise concept in order to expand its global presence, adding to its existing franchise agreements in UAE, Qatar, Pakistan and Malaysia.

There are changes taking place in Middle Eastern coffee culture [Sign in to continue]

Exploring Coffee and Cafe Culture in Portugal

Coffee culture is ingrained in the everyday life, culture and history of Portugal. The Portuguese were crucial actors in expanding the coffee industry into what it is today with Portuguese colonists introducing the coffee plant to Brazil. There isn’t space here to explore the rich history of Portuguese coffee culture, but I will write about this more at some point soon.

Drinking coffee in Portugal is an everyday part of life, with cafés found almost on every street, and espresso being the most common drink.  Coffee is significantly cheaper to drink out of the home, than it is in the UK. An espresso wouldn’t usually cost you more than € 1 and in most cases is closer to € 0.50. If you ask for a coffee (um café) an espresso is what you’d be served, although there are regional variations for different coffees too. If you were in Porto and wanted an espresso you’d order um bica, while in Lisbon you’d order um cimbalino (named after the La Cimbali espresso machines). [Sign in to continue]

Exploring Coffee Shop Culture in Russia

Russia is a country more frequently associated with a tea drinking culture which dates back hundreds of years. While the hot drinks market in Russia is still dominated by tea, the consumption of coffee is one the rise, with the consumption of fresh coffee being the main driver (ICO, 2015).  The coffee market was valued at around $2.5 billion in 2014 compared to around $4 billion for tea (USDA 2014).

‘Specialty coffee is new in Russia; until just 20 years ago, any form of coffee had been considered a luxury reserved for the elite and was far beyond the reach of average consumers. Today, half of all coffee consumed is still soluble (instant) coffee, making it one of the biggest markets for Nescafe in the world. The other half of is a hodgepodge of commodity and specialty coffee’ [Sign in to continue]