A great coffee shop will use a great coffee roaster.  Typically they won’t hide the name of their roaster.   They will often place a sticker of their coffee roaster near the front door.  Coffee shops that hide the name of their roaster do not inspire trust and I tend to avoid them.

As the organizer of the Coffee Club of Seattle, I am always on the hunt for new coffee shops for our members.  Later this week we are visiting the Coffee Drop Cafe.  When I walked past the place, I saw the Caffe Vita sticker on the door.  Sold.  No further validation is needed.  When I don’t see any roaster information on the front door or menu, I will go to their website and look for that information.  If it isn’t there, then I assume they suck and give my business to those that take pride in their roaster.

Voxx Coffee in South Lake Union shows from their sidewalk sign that they serve Stumptown Coffee.

The Roaster Sticker can also serve as a warning if I know I don’t care for the roaster.  Whenever I see the Caffe Appassionato, Fonte or Lighthouse sticker, I keep on walking.

Coffee houses can show their support for their roaster by sharing their roaster name with customers.  How can roasters help support their wholesale customers?   Devote a page on your website listing those places.  Kuma Coffee posts a map on their website of all the places you can buy their coffee.  Unfortunately, most roasters do not publish this information on their website.

Sources:

Coffee Drop Cafe – Facebook page for the University Village coffee shop with Caffe Vita sticker on their door.

Kuma Coffee locations – Map indicating places where Kuma sells coffee.

Coffee Club of Seattle – Meetup page for our group.

Voxx Coffee – Flickr Photo by INeedCoffee / CoffeeHero

I love Andrew’s concluding statement.

Rather than go through all of the effort to create these spectacles and then later cover your tracks with surreptitiously masked comments designed to give the appearance that the general public supports your actions, why not just focus on making a better product?

Amen!

Starbucks Corp. will begin offering unlimited free Wi-Fi at all of its company-operated U.S. locations next month, part of an ongoing effort to bring more customers in the door.

The free wireless Internet will be available July 1 at about 6,700 locations.

Photo Like ducks in a row by Joel Washing

My thoughts have not changed since the 2008 INeedCoffee article Coffee Roundtable – Our Starbucks Idea was published.   Here was my advice.

Don’t offer Free WiFi. Free attracts freeloaders. People arrive early, buy maybe one drink, and then camp out all day. Other customers quickly learn there are no places to sit among the sea of laptops and stop coming.

How did I arrive at this opinion?  Zoka Coffee.

Zoka is one of the top roasters here in Seattle and up until recently they were infested with WiFi freeloaders.   Each time I went there, every seat was taken.  A room full of laptop users quietly clicking away next to mostly empty coffee cups.  Very little conversation and the line was usually empty.  Zoka Tangletown was a laptop refugee camp. Because of this and having the highest priced espresso in Seattle, I stopped going there.

Then in May of this year, Zoka decided they had enough of the freeloaders and modified their WiFi policy.  In the blog post The Low Down on Zoka’s New WiFi Policy they announced they would be restricting users to 2 hours with each purchase.  Good for them.

Even though I am not a Starbucks fan, I always respected how up until today they never caved into pressure for free WiFi.  People chatted with each other in their cafes.  Meetings took place there.  First dates.  That is about to end.  Soon the freeloaders will descend into Starbucks with their laptops.  They’ll spread out their stuff, plug in their headphones and tune out their neighbors.

Sources:

The Low Down on Zoka’s New WiFi Policy – May 6, 2010 blog post.

Starbucks: Free Wi-fi at 6,700 U.S.sites – Detroit Free Press story by Ashley M. Heher of the Associated Press.

The first message I saw was from Tougo Coffee on Facebook.

Let me decode that message.  I know Tougo currently uses Stumptown Coffee as their roaster, which means the standard espresso blend they carry is Hairbender.  Recently Tougo started mixing up their espresso blends and I’ve been waiting to try something new.  The SOE (single origin espresso) Kenya Gatomboya was outstanding on the cupping table at Stumptown on Sunday.  I needed to try it as an espresso.  The Evil Twin Espresso is from Ritual Coffee Roasters out of San Francisco. Both sounded good to me.  For this visit I had the Kenya.  It was outstanding.

Then Seattle Coffee Works left some breadcrumbs on Facebook, which lead me to Twitter.

Over on Twitter, I found the deal.

When I got to Seattle Coffee Works, I whispered the magic phrase and my $2 espresso suddenly became a $1 espresso.  Got to love that!

The Coffee Club of Seattle has its own Facebook page.  If Seattle coffee shops would like to announce their special offerings, discounts or events, feel free to use that page.  Our 126 members would love to be tipped to the cool coffee things in Seattle.

Sources:

@coffeehero/seattlecoffee – Twitter list of Seattle based coffee shops, professionals and uber fans.

Coffee Club of Seattle Facebook – Our page on Facebook.  If you are in Seattle and love coffee, join the group.

Tougo Facebook – Where I learned about the SOE Kenya.

Seattle Coffee Works – Facebook page.

@DrinkingMan – Twitter account for Seattle Coffee Works.

We all have our pricing stick points.  A business can increase prices to that level and we will not push back, but as soon as they do, we as consumers will push back.  That push back might mean cutting back or walking away completely.  Coffee is no different than other industries.

When a certain Seattle coffee house raised their espresso price to $2.71 (post-tax), I stopped going there.  The $300 I probably would have spent there, was spent with cafes that kept their espresso price under $2.25 (post-tax).   Fifty cents isn’t a lot of money, but when you consume as much espresso as I do, it adds up.

I love the Espresso Paladino blend, but 12 ounces is not a pound.  Hiding that fact or stating it is a full pound is less than honest.  Other coffee roasters sell 12-ounce bags of coffee.  To my knowledge, none of them sell it  per bag or tell their customers that 12 ounces is 1 lb.

In the South Park episode  Cow Days, Kyle realizes that a carnival game is rigged and calls  shenanigans.  I’m calling  Coffee Shenanigans.

Zoka Coffee, please update your website and list the product size as  per 12 ounces and not  per bag.

Well it looks like they did.  Below is what their website looked like shortly after they switched from 16 oz packaging to 12 oz packaging.  The second image is what it looks like today.  Coffee Hero is pleased.

From August 15, 2009

From September 11, 2009

The majority, if not all, of these roasters do not purchase coffee from the commodity market. Many of the roasters (notably Stumptown and Intelligentsia) on this list pay the highest (far beyond commodity prices) on average for exceptionally great coffees. They pay a higher price for quality directly to farmers. Intelligentsia also directly imports their coffees so what you are drinking was actually on a tree within the past couple months.

After reviewing my post and the Seattle Times article, I realized that I wasn’t being clear and that is my fault.  By commodities, I didn’t specifically mean coffee commodities, but the basket of commodities that influence all food pricing.

Oil is the primary driver of all commodity pricing.  After the run-up of oil last summer, food prices spiked.  Corn, wheat, soy, etc.  Because we need to move the food across far distances, higher oil prices will put upward pricing pressure on all food, even things purchased Farm Direct.

Last summer oil was $140/bbl.  Today it is $70/bbl.  There are several financial news stories out this week that discuss how food prices are falling.  It only makes sense.  Food prices move with oil, with a slight delayed effect due to futures contracts.  From the post  Queen of Coupons Feeds Family for $10 a Week; Grocery Price Wars Intensify; Paperless Coupons by Mish:

Grocery price wars are heating up. Jewel, Dominicks, Safeway, Sam’s Club, Meijer, Walmart, Vons, and Ralphs are all in on the action.

He also quotes The LA Times:

Already having cut prices for much of 2009, Vons, Ralphs and Southern California’s other big chains are gearing up for a new round of reductions as they seek to win back shoppers and market share.

The region’s big grocers, already having trimmed prices for much of the year, are gearing up for a new round as they seek to win back budget-minded customers who have migrated to discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp.

Vons will announce today that it is lowering the prices of about 5,000 items — about 15% of the store — at its 274 stores in the region.

For upper end coffee to still be increasing in price as food and every other asset class declines strikes me as difficult to comprehend.  With high unemployment, labor costs are flat at best.  Energy costs are lower than last year.  Commercial real estate is flat if you are stuck in a long term lease, but lower in many cases. I’ve already covered oil.    And although the US Dollar has depreciated against the YEN and EURO, it has more buying power in many coffee growing regions.

All this should translate to flat or even lower costs to the consumer.  Yet, I’m seeing 10% increases in many cases since last year, yet I see no justification for it.  Just where are the cost price increases?  Perhaps I’m missing something.  I do know 2 things.

1. One Seattle roaster saw my May 2009 Espresso price list and then raised his whole bean price 50 cents a pound, because he was priced lower.
2. Zoka switched from a 16oz pound to a 12oz “bag” which they stated was “a pound”.

There are two ways to put more cash in the register.  You either increase your customer base through competition and marketing or you squeeze the customers you already have a little bit more.  Sadly, I am seeing more evidence of the later.

UPDATE: Sep 10, 2009 – I have learned from Seattle Coffee Works that African coffee went up in price last year, which is often a significant component to espresso blends.

UPDATE 2: Sep 11, 2009 – Zoka has updated their website with accurate packaging size information.

Sources:

Seattle Whole Bean Espresso Prices – May 2009 – A post I now regret, as it signaled a few price increases.

I Call Coffee Shenanigans -The 12 Ounce Pound – How Zoka slipped in a price increase by redefining the ounces in a pound.

Queen of Coupons Feeds Family for $10 a Week; Grocery Price Wars Intensify; Paperless Coupons – Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

I sort of had a plan on how I was going to do resistance training on the cheap.  Seattle’s Green Lake Park has two sets of pull-up rings.  Add in some push-ups and your cooking.  Today I tested out my new gym and it was successful.

The “south branch” of the Green Lake gym.

I’m all about functional strength training using compound movements.  For now this is all I need.  After some mobility warm-ups, I did my first workout.

5 Pull Ups + 10 Push Ups repeated for 7 sets (30-40 seconds between sets)

Next time I plan on bringing a 16 pound medicine ball and adding squats.  Since I do no cardio, this is enough of a workout for me.  After a few months, I’m sure I’ll be itching to get back into my old gym.  Or I may be heading to Home Depot to construct new equipment for my Green Lake gym.

On the way back from “the gym”, I enjoyed espressos from both Neptune Coffee and Aster.  I could get used to this.

How are you freeing up more money for coffee? Share your ideas in the comments.

Sources:

Green Lake Park – Seattle park and home of my new gym.

Neptune Coffee – My first espresso today.

Aster Coffee – My second espresso today.

Just a few months ago, I posted Seattle Whole Bean Espresso Prices – May 2009. It listed the whole bean price for many of the local roasters. My intent was alert fellow coffee drinkers to the best deals in town. It had the opposite effect. Many roasters saw they were priced lower then their competition and increased their prices. Not just on whole beans, but on cafe beverages as well.

Business owners have every right to raise their prices.  And consumers have every right to stop buying from them.  This post is your guide to reducing your coffee expenses.

Here are 4 strategies to cut your coffee bill.

1. Reduce Your Coffee Intake – Have one less coffee drink per day or reduce the size of your beverage.  For me this equates to a 20% reduction in  my coffee bill.  Tea, even quality tea, is a far more economical source of caffeine.
2. Brew Your Own – Coffee equipment quickly pays for itself.  My current espresso machine and grinder cost me a bit over $1000.  I have had this setup for 2 years.  I drink 4-5 espressos a day.  The average espresso with tip at a cafe is $2.50.  You do the math.  That $1000 saved me quite a bit of money and it continues to save me money every day.   If you are new to brewing your coffee, I highly recommend getting a french press and/or an Aeropress.  It will pay for itself in a few weeks.
3. Roast Your Own – INeedCoffee has a library of tutorials to get your started on roasting your own coffee.  It is super easy.  There are several places on the Internet that sell green (unroasted) coffee beans.  You will cut your whole bean costs in half.
4. Boycott the Expensive, Reward the Pocket Friendly – I’m afraid to name names here, because it may trigger a price increase, but I think you get the idea.  If your cafe or roaster raises their price, put them in the time out corner.  Take your coffee dollars elsewhere.

Photo Time out, in the corner by Ken Wilcox

When I was interviewed by the Seattle Times in May, I mentioned that I stopped homeroasting since moving to Seattle.  Well, I’m back.  I’ve roasted over half my own coffee in the past two months.

Maybe coffee inflation is just a Seattle thing?   Have you noticed price increases in whole bean or cafe drinks this year?  If so, where are you at and more importantly, what are doing about it?