Tanzania is well known the world over for growing and exporting wonderful and iconic coffees. Mostly every coffee professional has enjoyed a Tanzania Peaberry coffee. Yet, much like most coffee farming countries, Tanzanias internal consumption nd availability of great roasted coffee to locals was limited at the very best. Enter Leo Ferreira and Puzzle Coffee Shop.
For the past 8 years now Leo, his wife, and team have been running and growing Puzzle Coffee as a hub of coffee education, excellence in roasting, quality, and hospitality. In those years Puzzle has been a catalyst for change in Tanzania as they source great local coffee, and origins beyond to expand horizons invest in the community.
Leo is a certified AST in both roasting and Barista, a Q-Grader, a post graduate of the Coffee Excellence Program, and a sought after consultant/trainer.
In this discussion we talk about the journey of putting it all together, lessons learned, keys to success, and what pieces of the puzzle Leo and the team are currently working on putting together.
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Fine robusta has been the hot topic of conversation in the specialty industry these last few years and for good reason. What was once relegated to the sidelines has been showing up on offering sheets and coffee menus of some of the world's best importers and roasters.
With this in mind, knowing how to approach and roast this species of coffee is critical. As robusta secures its place in specialty coffee we need to do our part to do it justice when we bring it into our roastery and offer it to our customers.
On this Rate of Rise we will be talking all about fine robusta with Cleia Junqueira!
In 2005, Cleia’s coffee passion ignited in Brazil, as she owned and operated her independent café training baristas. She partnered with the Beehive Institution Young Service, offering training to underprivileged youth and later produced an educational coffee DVD. Joining the Brazilian Association of Coffee Baristas (ACBB) in 2007, she judged barista championships and enhanced her coffee knowledge until late 2012. Cleia then coordinated at the Coffee Preparation Centre at Sindicafé-SP, earning a CQI Licensed Q-Grader Certificate in 2012 and becoming a Q-Robusta Grader in 2017.
From 2017 to 2019 Cleia served on the SCA-UAE board of directors and spent six years, as a WCE Certified Judge. As Coffee Planet’s Head of Coffee, she managed quality control and became well-versed in Middle East Coffee Industry Trends and Consumption while actively supporting the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA).
In this conversation we talk about our changing perceptions of robusta, how does it behave differently from arabica, what goes into roasting it well, and how can we ensure we are doing it justice with the tools at our disposal both in the roastery and the shop.
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We love to talk about setting each other up for success and pursuing excellence in what we do. In some ways we are like the person trying to order food in english to a server who does not understand the language, instead of translating, we think we should just say it louder and slower. Which makes things way worse. They are fine words, but without telling people what they mean, they become meaningless.
On today's shift break we will be talking about why defining these terms before we use them in the shop is necessary for buy-in, good communication, and to achieve a specific level of excellence and success.
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How do I find loyal staff and win loyal customers? This question and many like it has been asked thousands of times as we deal with incredible amounts of turn over in our shops. We have tried tricks, incentives, benefits of all kinds but they never seem to quite do the trick. Same with customers, we offer deal, discounts, and specials, and dance whatever dance we think will get them to come back and be engaged.
Today we are going to be exploring the idea of winning staff and customer loyalty and what it truly takes to achieve this in a responsible and effective way.
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Cafe standards are often a jumble of various people's ideas sourced from both far flung areas of the industry and the past habits of new staff. We are in a constant cycle of sending people away to outside places to learn what to do within our own walls. The problem with this is that we are constantly dependent on outside input but never truly using resources to build our own systems and standards that bring clarity and stability to the shop.
On today's shift break we will be talking about why you need to focus on and prioritize developing in house quality control and training standards vs perpetually outsourcing these things to your roaster, a consultant, or a certifying body.
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It is a new era is specialty retail coffee. Great coffee can be found very easily in most major cities and people are making better coffee at home than they ever have. Add to this the ubiquity of RTD (Ready to Drink) coffee and a wide variety of convenience products. The retail coffee shop, with baristas making drinks and serving those drinks to customers, sits amongst this saturation with a problem, how do we create value? How do can you win in specialty retail coffee?
On this episode we are going diving into some extremely important ways that you can not only stand out in a crowded marketplace, but give the customer unmatched value that draws their repeat business, and you sustainable success.
Enter with an open mind and determine ahead of time, that if something resonates with you, that it will be the first step of your consistent pursuit to apply it and let it change you and your business.
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The world of hospitality is filled with people who are either a great fit for the field, or not. Problem is that, for the number of coffee shops in operation today demand for great people is way higher than the supply. So how do we make sure we are hiring the best fit for our business?
Today on shift break we will be exploring the number one most important thing you need to discover about a person before bringing them on to the team.
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As professionals, our communication about coffee is only as good as our ability to truly tune in to the message that emerges from the many different voices that give shape to the story of coffee. In the noisy world innovating ways to connect people with meaningful narratives is crucial.
Today we are going to talk with someone whose coffee subscription project invites people to interact with coffee in a new and unique way by blending quality coffee with interviews captured on vintage audio. I am so happy to welcome Alexander Roach of Boycott Coffee and the Alphabet Book of Coffee!
Since 2010, Alexander has worked behind coffee bars in both Memphis and Seattle. In that time, he has ventured into owning/operating a cafe and roastery, Boycott Coffee, in Memphis, Tennessee. The Alphabet Book of Coffee is a independent project with a goal to produce an audio/tasting series that gives people an out-of-the-box exercise in how they consume and share coffee narratives.
In our conversation we will discuss communication, how we learn, curating content, exploring deeper stories, and how we can lean on creativity to truly connect with people about and over coffee.
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Ever wonder what's behind the fridge? Most of us have had the unique "pleasure" of finding out. The build up of cup lids, loose change, grime, and other organic matter / creatures is a great illustration of how we tend to avoid things that are out of sight, yet left un attended will have a negative impact of everything.
On today's Shift Break we will be talking about how this applies also to the deeper integral parts of the cafe(leadership, communication, systems, culture etc) that we tend not to tend to but left un attended, they build up their own kind of grime that impacts everything.
It's all about building with structural integrity from the foundation to the facade.
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Coffee is all about human connection. That we get to create both the beverage and the experience people have when enjoying it is at once a great responsibility, a joy, and an opportunity to change lives through our hospitality in each interaction.
In our daily pursuit of providing this special moment we must start with a dedication to our craft and care for people that in many ways could be considered "Unreasonable".
I am thrilled to welcome to the show someone who has created these moments for guests at the highest levels of global hospitality and is on a mission to champion "Unreasonable Hospitality" as a framework and philosophy that will benefit to anything we set our hearts and hands to do.
Such a pleasure to welcome, Will Guidara!
Will Guidara is the founder of Thank You, a hospitality company that develops world-class destinations and helps leaders across industries transform their approach to customer service. He is also the former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park. Under his leadership, the restaurant received numerous accolades, including four stars from the New York Times, three Michelin stars and in 2017 was named number one on the list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants.
He is also the cofounder of the Welcome Conference, an annual conference that brings together the best minds in the world of hospitality. A graduate Cornell University, he has coauthored four cookbooks, was named one of Crain’s New York Business’s 40 Under 40, and is a recipient of WSJ. Magazine’s Innovator Award.
In his latest book, Unreasonable Hospitality, he shares many of the lessons about service and leadership he learned over the course of his career in restaurants, and makes the case that any business can choose to be in the hospitality industry by taking ordinary transactions and turning them into memorable experiences.
In the conversation we explore Will's own development and pursuit of hospitality through his career in restaurants, the birth of the idea of Unreasonable Hospitality, and the nuances of how it is applied in both life and the work of serving others.
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Effectively training up an apprentice roaster is key not only to your succession, the growth of your business, and the consistency of your quality, -but providing a great learning environment and approach to education and coaching will push the whole industry forward.
The key is to not only deliver processes, rules, and systems, but also opportunity for contribution, conversation, and room for your trainee to grow in maturity.
These are just some of the powerful things discussed in this Rate of Rise episode featuring, Steve Lee!
Steve Lee began his coffee career in 1996 as a barista at Peet’s Coffee in the San Francisco Bay Area. After spending a number of years in the Training & Education Department of Peet’s, he moved on to help open the Roasting and QC Department at Intelligentsia Coffee’s Los Angeles Roasting Works, where he developed his love for the craft of roasting. Since then he has worked on a number of consultancy projects, worked as the Director of Coffee for Groundwork and the SPC Group in Korea, worked as a green importer for Odyssey Coffees, and has served as a judge for international coffee competitions. Throughout his coffee career, the main focus has been on craftsmanship, education, and fostering relationships across the supply chain for the betterment of the coffee industry as a whole. Steve spent two terms on the Roasters Guild Executive Council where he had served as the Vice Chair to the Education Committee and Vice Chair to the Events Committee, focusing on creating content for the RG Origin Trips. Steve is currently the C.O.O. of Linea Caffe, a micro-roastery based in San Francisco, CA.
In this conversation we discuss Steve's own now 25 year journey in being trained, becoming an educator, and the way he would love to see learning take place in roasteries that can deliver the most value for both the one being trained and the roasting company itself.
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https://www.pocketknifecoffee.com/
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