Be sure to check out the bonus content only available on www.groundcontrol.coffee/ktts as we continue the conversation with Ron and hear some pretty amazing advice for operators and owners who also want to make a difference with their business!
Links:
https://www.teofilocoffeecompany.com
Want to brew things differently? Visit our Sponsor!
U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits champion Matt Foster is here to guide you to specialty drink success!
We all want to have a menu that includes unique signature beverages that we love making and customers love drinking. Trouble is, making creative specialty drinks that in your shop that are delicious, practical, AND profitable is not an easy task. It requires intentionality, knowledge of ingredients, and discipline to consider all the areas of the business you menu will impact.
As we set our sights on future seasonal and signature drink menu plans I thought it would be great to have the specialty beverage champion himself, Matt Foster of The Annex - Coffee and Foods in St. Louis !
Matt is a long time specialty coffee pro whose fascination with beverages and coffee started at an early age even before becoming a bartender and barista. On top of being a barista he was also the wholesale trainer for Kaldis Coffee in St. Louis and is now the FOH - and Beverage Manager for The Annex - Coffee and Foods. In 2019 Matt won the U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship, a competition combining his two favorite things - coffee and cocktails. Obviously Matt has a deep knowledge of both these areas and knows what it takes to be successful when creating a menu.
In this episode we dive into a ton of practical information, best practices, and advice that will not only help you create and execute a successful menu, but help you strengthen your team and community in the process.
We cover:
Links:
Related Episodes:
117 : Coffee and Cocktails w/ Amanda Whitt
002: Master Your Workflow w/ Ryan Soeder
163 : Lessons from Crush the Rush w/ Josh Little Field
The BEST in commercial coffee equipment!
Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?
I am thrilled to get to feature Anne Lunnel and Charles Nystrand of Koppi: Fine Coffee Roasters on this month's Founder Friday!
Founded in 2007, Koppi not only established itself as of Sweden's preeminent third wave coffee companies but also as one of the world's best roasters. Both Anne and Charles have one the Swedish Barista Championship and additionally Anne has won the Swedish Brewers Cup finishing 6th in the world.
Their business was established as a roaster retailer in their home town of Helsingborg where they focused on sourcing and serving amazing coffees through a dense of relationship and sustainability. After 1 years they made a dramatic with to only roasting that both simplified their life and their business resulting in an even more healthy company.
In today's conversation with these world class roasters we will be exploring their story from founding through present day and the lessons, experiences, and values that have guided them along the way.
We cover:
Links:
Related Episodes:
252 : Founder Friday w/ Klaus Thompson of the Coffee Collective, Denmark
Founder Friday! w/ Adam Obrátil of Industra Coffee, Brno, Czech Republic
171 : Founder Friday w/ Matt Chitharanjan and Namrata Asthana of Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters in India
The BEST in commercial coffee equipment!
Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?
We need systems in the coffee shop. As we pursue them it can be easy to complicate the process and end up with something that was meant to be helpful but ends up being intimidating or not useful at all.
Today we are going to talk about the virtues of keeping your systems simple and how doing so will actually create more momentum for positive change.
Related episodes:
057 : SOP’s FTW! Success through Standard Operating Procedures
Interested in over the phone consultation? Reach out! Chris@keystotheshop.com
Elevated batch brew and so much more!
Your Own Branded App!
How we talk about coffee, relay information about coffee, and represent coffee to our customers and consumers in general, not only determines their attitude toward coffee but will literally shape the coffee industry. Often we get bogged down with details, side tracked with minutia, and overwhelm people in our bid to show them how precious coffee is to us. What is needed is a distilled and approachable treatment of the industry the opens up opportunities to more learning. That is what today's guest has accomplished through his new book Coffee for Dummies. I am thrilled to welcome back to the show, Major Cohen!
Major Cohen is a coffee lover who has enjoyed a dream realized. After being a teacher of photography and film at the high school level for 20 years, his second career brought his passion for teaching and passion for coffee into alignment and he worked as a coffee educator for more than 25 years for Starbucks.
His work for Starbucks began in 1995 when, as a Barista, he leveraged his passion and curiosity for coffee and business and after 8 years in operations in 5 roles was invited to move to the Seattle headquarters and join the coffee team. In the next 17 years he had the opportunity to be part of some of Starbucks most innovative efforts, and during his final 7 years traveled extensively in Asia as a coffee educator and brand ambassador. Although recently retired from Starbucks, Major is continuing his involvement with education in his role as an Authorized Specialty Coffee Association trainer, AST, and has written his first book, Coffee for Dummies.
In today's conversation with Major we get to hear the story of how this book came to be, what went into deciding its content and we dive deep into discussion about communicating with consumers about the drink we all love!
We cover:
Links:
Buy the book here!
Link to Starbucks video:
https://coffeeexperiences.starbucks.com
Related Episodes:
127 : Passion and Curiosity: A conversation w/ Starbucks Global Sr. Project Manager, Major Cohen
242 : A Conversation with James Hoffmann
198 : The Evolution of the Coffee Shop w/ Prof. Jonathan Morris
215 : Communication and Marketing Master Class w/ Spencer M. Ross, PH.D.
The BEST in commercial coffee equipment!
Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?
Going from a single store store to multiple locations brings with it the question of how to replicate the culture and values across the shops. Making continuity between your various retail expressions a reality will take some purposeful planning and actions.
Today on shift break we are going to talk about a couple key actions you can take to scale your companies values as you grow.
Related episodes:
Interested in over the phone consultation? Reach out! Chris@keystotheshop.com
Elevated batch brew and so much more!
Your Own Branded App!
One of the most neglected areas of the bar happens to also be the most important. The register. Not because it is where we handle money (although that is important) but because it is where we make first impressions and guide the experience of both the customer and our coworkers. The register controls everything but we treat this station as though it is simply a place to avoid when on shift or a place to hastily put new underprepared baristas. If we hope to win people over to specialty coffee and deliver a great experience then we need to start focusing at least equal amounts of energy on how we prepare ourselves and others to working this station with the respect it deserves.
Today we are going to be discussing behaviors and habits that are core to creating an excellent service and work experience beginning at the cash register.
We cover:
Related Episodes:
The BEST in commercial coffee equipment!
Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?
www.pacificfoods.com/food-service
Hiring a great team is the aim of every cafe. Often when we look for the right person we end up looking for the perfect individual vs the perfect fit for the team and culture of our shop. We want an all-star team but what we get can often just be a big collection of egos that don't work well together.
Today we will be talking about the myth of the all star team and how we can approach hiring in a way that creates harmony in the work.
Related Episodes:
121 : Working from Your Strengths w/ Strengths Finder Guru, Lisa Cummings
232 : Rebuilding your Staff with Excellence w/ Dave Stachowiak
226 : The Art of being Indispensable at Work w/Bruce Tulgan
221 : Building your People Program w/ HR Consultant Dana Goodwin
Interested in over the phone consultation? Reach out! Chris@keystotheshop.com
Elevated batch brew and so much more!
Your Own Branded App!
Coffee roasting legend Mark Michaelson is back on the show! Mark has spent the last 9 years as the Head Roaster for onyx Coffee Labs in NW Arkansas whee he was instrumental in helping them forge a path to being one of the worlds most respected coffee companies. One top of this Mark is the 2017 U.S. Roasting champion and top 12 finisher in the World that same year. Mark is an active member of the Roasters Guild and in addition to being a champion himself has roasted coffee for other champions including the Colombian Brewers Cup champion and also for 2020 U.S. Champion and Co-Owner of Onyx Coffee Labs, Andrea Allen.
So suffice it to say, Mark has had a very successful career in coffee roasting and has been an inspiration to production roasters all over the world.
In this conversation, as Mark Ventures out in his own Consulting business, we are going to be taking a look back at his time in front of the roaster and learning a great deal about how he has developed as a professional and gaining some wonderful and practical insights into the world of production roasting that will definitely help you on your own coffee roasting journey.
We cover:
Links:
Related Episodes:
026 : What Your Roaster want you to Know w/ U.S. Roasting Champion, Mark Michaelson, Onyx Coffee Lab
196 : Understanding Customer Preferences w/ Peter Giuliano
The BEST in commercial coffee equipment!
Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?
www.pacificfoods.com/food-service
If this least year has shown us anything, it is that life is unpredictable and can sometimes throw a wrench into our plans, causing us to go into emergency mode. What do we do when this happens? What is our plan for when the roastery goes down? If you are like most busy owners, you probably don't have much of a plan in place for when these things happen. Having a robust and well rehearsed contingency plan can literally save your business and those who depend on it.
But where do you start and what should you plan for?
To help us figure this all out we are talking with Andi Trindle Mersch of Philz Coffee!
Andi Trindle Mersch is Director of Coffee, Tea, and Sustainability with Philz Coffee. In these roles, she oversees coffee and tea sourcing and quality and leads company wide sustainability efforts. Andi has held a variety of responsibilities throughout more than 26 years in specialty coffee. She has published numerous trade journal articles and lectured nationally and internationally on many topics in the coffee sector and more recently in sustainability. She has held a number of leadership and board roles within the broader specialty coffee industry and is currently serving on the Food 4 Farmers Board of Directors and the newly formed Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity.
Today Andi will expand on her 2 part Roast Magazine article on Coffee Plant continuity Planning and give us practical and insightful advice to take the first and best steps in making contingency planning a reality for your roastery.
We cover:
I hope you enjoy!
This episode is brought to you by Roast Magazine! Visit them and subscribe over at:
Subscribe to Roast Audio Articles!
https://www.roastmagazine.com/audioarticles/
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andi-trindle-mersch/
Related Episodes:
RoR #1: A Conversation w/ Anne Cooper of Equilibrium Master Roasters
RoR #2: Exploring Quality Control w/ Spencer Turer of Coffee Enterprises
184 : Making Great Business Decisions w/ Dave Stachowiak
Interested in coffee consulting? Let's talk! Email me: Chris@keystotheshop.com
Talking about, even announcing to our staff, what we are going to do and what we intend to do is a behavior displayed by leaders under the title of "Casting Vision". The question must be asked though, how many of those plans actually come to fruition and how many end up just being abandoned?
Today we will be talking about the power your words have and the necessity to communicate responsibly to those you lead in the coffee shop.
Related Episodes:
244 : Top 10 Ways to Lose Employees
261 : The Basics of Managing Managers
228 : Cracking the Leadership Code w/ Alain Hunkins
Interested in over the phone consultation? Reach out! Chris@keystotheshop.com
Elevated batch brew and so much more!
Your Own Branded App!
Starting a coffee bar means you have to focus on several hundred different things at once. It can be maddening! All of this to get to the point where you can open the doors and finally let people enjoy what you and your team have created. But what happens after you launch? Where do you put all that energy you have been used to spending getting ready?
Today we are going to cover several key areas that you need to focus on after you launch your shop in order to create the best chance of success. Even if you are well along in your shop's life, you will still benefit from today's episode because it is never too late to give proper focus to the core elements of your business and each time you open a new location you will want to make sure these areas are well covered.
Related episodes:
173 : 5 Areas of Focus for Retailers
181 : Organizational Self-Knowledge
184 : Making Great Business Decisions w/ Dave Stachowiak
191 : Retraining your Staff on new Standards
Need consulting? Reach out! chris@keystotheshop.com
The BEST in commercial coffee equipment!
Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?
www.pacificfoods.com/food-service