Gina Pennington, director of Penningtons Tea and Coffee in Kendal, has collaborated with brewer Imogen Beedham of Fell Brewery to produce a unique sour beer with a twist.

The pair spent time experimenting with different flavours and recipes before coming up with the perfect pint, now christened Cuppa Rosie. The beer, a sour Berliner Weisse, has been brewed with mango and apricot before being infused with one of Penningtons’ special flavoured teas – The Blue Lady.

Pennington said: “Last year the brewery used our House Espresso coffee beans and brewed the most delicious dark beer. And it got me excited about what else we could do together with our local brewery.

“So this time, we went slightly more adventurous and Imogen was absolutely brilliant at coming up with different recipes and suggestions. I learnt some new tricks and it was really interesting to see how the brewing process works.

“It’s great to be able to use our teas and coffees in more innovative ways, and the outcome has so far been fabulous!

“Blue Lady Tea is a wonderfully aromatic, fruity black tea. It’s been blended with Mallow blossom, Cornflower petals, notes of grapefruit and Bergamot oil. I was very excited to play around with this tea and work with another brilliant local business.”

Last year Fell Brewery used Penningtons coffee to produce the hugely popular coffee milk stout, Cask O’Joe, which has since become the brewery’s best selling dark beer. Now the new brew looks set to have a similar level of success. After having just a sip, and even before Cuppa Rosie was finished brewing, local bars including The Factory Tap were quick to put their orders in for the sour beer.

Cuppa Rosie beer is now on sale for £5 (700ml bottle)

Beedham said she was excited to see what everyone else would think of the drink. She added: “Our stout beer flies out every time we make it, so it will be very interesting to see how this one turns out.

“We had been thinking of working together again for a long time and at first we thought of infusing Penningtons tea with our pale ale. However, after tasting the Blue Lady tea, I experimented with the flavours and found that the sour beer would really do the tea justice.

“Together we created something brilliant and it tastes incredible, I can’t wait to share it with our customers. It is a refreshing fruity beer with lovely floral notes. I’ve really enjoyed working on this project, it’s given me some ideas for the future.”

Cuppa Rosie, which is 3.5%, is now available to buy from the brewery in kegs or in bottles as well as at The Tap Factory and Fell Bar in Kendal, The Little Bare in Morecambe, Tweedies Bar & Lodge in Grasmere and Kittchen in Hawkshead.

Penningtons is a family-run business and it recently recorded a 40% increase in demand for its letterbox-friendly coffee and tea packages.

For more information, visit: penningtonscoffee.co.uk/pages/subscriptions.

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The 1966 Coffee IPA is handcrafted with Peet’s Ethiopian Super Natural Coffee, which is incorporated in several ways, one of them being by ‘dry-hopping’ with whole coffee beans.

The IPA pours a pale gold with tight white bubbles and has aromas of blueberries and citrus notes from Columbus, Citra, Amarillo and Centennial hops, combined with accents of rich coffee and balanced with malt structure and bitterness.

Shaun O’Sullivan, co-founder and brewmaster at 21^st Amendment, said: “Rather than the traditional dark beer with coffee, we wanted to have fun with the melding of hops and coffee, paying attention to the coffee varietal and manipulating the roast level to nudge the subtle flavors from the bean for an incredibly unique IPA.

“Working closely with Peet’s Roastmaster, Doug Welsh, we settled in on Peet’s Ethiopian Super Natural with its lemon, bergamot, and blueberry characteristics perfectly complementing the hop flavors.”

“Don’t expect dark roast,” said Doug Welsh, roastmaster at Peet’s Coffee. “We iterated every roast style imaginable, with a target profile of maltiness – matching the beer – a kaleidoscope of floral aromatics and the piquant acidity and glacé citron of exceptional Ethiopia. Hops, meet your coffee cousin.”

Part of 21^st Amendment’s “Insurrection Series”, the IPA celebrates the hive of activity in the SAn Francisco Bay Area in 1966, the heart of the experimental music scene and psychedelic rock poster art, as well as being where Alfred Peet first opened his coffee bar at the corner of Walnut and Vine in Berkeley.

The limited edition IPA is being released nationally across 28 states (from 1 February 2020) and comes in 12oz cans of six-packs and draft.

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Roasted at 232°C – the same temperature as the barley used to brew Guinness – the coffee has notes of fruit and nut chocolate with a rich mouthfeel and a long-lasting distinguished chocolate finish almost identical to Guinness in appearance. 232 Brew contains no alcohol.

The delicious blend will be available at selected venues across the country including Flat Iron Square (London), Oasthouse (Manchester) and Brigadiers (London).

Brad Barritt, Tiki Tonga co-founder said: “Coffee is a key ingredient to a rugby lifestyle – starting us off pre-training with an espresso and through a flat white post-tough session and more – and for me, it’s a key way to unwind and connect with friends. Through 232 Brew, we want to encourage people to get together to watch rugby and bring the team spirit.”

Niall McKee, Head of Guinness Stout Europe said: “The next six weeks are set to be some of the most exciting weeks of the year for fans of rugby, but we know that for many the early morning starts are far from ideal. That’s why we’ve partnered with Brad and the team at Tiki Tonga to create the ultimate coffee. We want to be there with rugby’s biggest fans for those early morning starts – bringing belief and team spirit.”

For more information visit: https://www.tikitonga.co.uk/

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The product was created as many Australian sports lovers are often required to stay up late or wake up early in the morning to watch the cricket series when televised from the UK, and VB Tea gives them a viable alternative to beer.

VB Tea is non-alcoholic and made with a blend of black ceylon tea with Victoria Bitter’s signature Super Pride hops.

Katrina Diamonon, consumer analyst at GlobalData, said: “The campaign presents some promising routes to innovation for the tea category in general. The hot drinks category is not renowned for exceptionally exciting or dynamic innovation. However, there is evidence that consumers still seek novelty when shopping for these products.

According to GlobalData’s 2018 Q4 survey, almost one-fifth (19%) of global consumers ‘often’ experiments with new or different varieties of hot drinks while an additional 25% of consumers ‘sometimes’ try new varieties when they want to try something new. Tea products that are inspired by alcoholic drinks have the ability to inject excitement and indulgence into hot drink consumption.

Notably, the reverse also applies with regards to opportunities in alcoholic drink innovation. As alcohol-free alternatives to beer, wine and spirits increasingly appeal to health-conscious consumers, there is a growing demand for options beyond the standard fizzy drinks and juice.

Indeed, GlobalData’s 2018 Q3 survey found that 45% of global consumers are interested in ‘sophisticated’ or ‘adult-style’ soft drinks as alternatives to alcoholic drinks.

Diamonon concluded: “Products that leverage the authenticity and often complexity of tea can elevate a non-alcoholic drink to something more refined.”

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The new beer, Mad March Hare, is inspired by the characters in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass.

Aware that coffee has made a significant appearance in the beer market with stouts, porters and IPA’s, head brewer and joint founder Marcin Serwatka decided to try to create a beer with a difference, using tea.

Working with quality ingredients, Lakeland water and Farrer’s best-selling tea, Lakeland Special, Marcin created Handsome Mad March Hare.

Co-founder of the Handsome Brewery, Marcin, said: “We are actually surprised that more breweries aren’t brewing with teas.

“We think most brewers feel that tea has too such of a subtle flavour and that as a result that it could easily get lost in beer, but that’s far from the truth, tea provides beer makers with some really interesting opportunities, especially if they want to craft some interesting beers for their customers. It would have been easy for us to follow the trend to use coffee to create a beer but seeing as I’m a tea drinker I wanted to use my favourite brew to create a beer using tea as one of the main ingredients, I wanted to do something different.”

Dave Walsh, John Farrer & Co’s general manager, said: “When Handsome Brewery approached us to see if we could work together, I was over the moon when they told me that they didn’t want to create a coffee beer. As soon as they mentioned that they were looking to use tea I was firmly on the same page. I have what you might call a good grounding in the beer industry having worked for a number of small and large breweries over the years, and I thought this collaboration was the perfect opportunity for us work together to create something a little different.

“When you taste Mad March Hare it subtly reminds you of the morning repast, with the delicate aroma of tea and the richness and fruitiness of marmalade, but it’s definitely not one of Alice’s six impossible things to believe in before breakfast, because tea infused beer really works.”

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BEAR has added to its existing outlets in Derby and Uttoxeter with the opening of the new Stone, Staffordshire location, creating new jobs for the local economy in the process. The new café-bar will provide customers with speciality coffee, fresh food, cocktails and craft beer in the former HSBC building.

The financing from HSBC UK has been used to design and fit-out the store, cover BEAR’s marketing budget for the launch and train new team members.

Commenting on the expansion, Craig Bunting, co-founder of Derby, England-based BEAR, said, “We opened our first BEAR in 2016, with the aim of serving great coffee in a warm and welcoming environment, but what really sets us apart is our love for coffee products and connecting with the community around us. The growth of BEAR so far has been an incredible and humbling journey and we look forward to delivering our strategy of being a UK Challenger Brand.”

“Here at BEAR, coffee is our world — all of our roasts are of a single origin and carefully selected from sustainable sources, so we can make sure that every cup we serve is delicious,” says Louise Cook, BEAR’s head of coffee. “We’re thrilled to have opened up a site in Stone and can’t wait to share our passion for coffee with the community.”

BEAR hopes to quickly become a cornerstone business on the High Street and connect with the local community in as many ways as possible. It differentiates itself from the rest of the market through its inviting atmosphere — getting to know each of its customers, ensuring all staff love what they do and deliver a mix of specialty coffee, simple and honest food, cocktails and craft beer.

BEAR is working to expand throughout the Midlands and beyond, with plans to open to 30 stores nationwide over the next five years.

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Thirst may be the first reason a consumer reaches for a beverage, but it’s the packaging that may seal the deal at the point of purchase. Increasingly, beverage manufacturers are looking to captivate customers with packaging that offers some form of personal resonance.

Whether referencing a lifestyle choice, a fond memory or an important goal, a beverage label that can connect with consumers on a deeper level has the power to stick. Consider packaging that aims to motivate workouts, sparks memories of a favourite vacation or reinforces the value of a healthy lifestyle — prompting engagement in the product experience before the consumer even twists off a cap, pulls a tab or pops a lid.

Given the growth of the market, it’s no wonder manufacturers are in a race to capture the hearts, minds and loyalty of consumers. Currently worth USD $30.1 billion, the beverage packaging industry in the United States is expected to experience 4.5 percent growth in the next decade, according to the 2018 Beverage Trends in Packaging and Processing Operations by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. In today’s competitive landscape for beverage products, more brands may take bolder steps to amplify the essence of what’s inside on the outside — particularly utilizing the power of print effects. Today’s consumers will likely not reach for a drink when they simply feel thirsty, but instead when they feel understood.

Tugging at the Heartstrings

Choosing a career path, moving to a new city or buying a home — these are all decisions highly dictated by emotion. But what about beverages? Can a person have an emotional reaction to a drink on a store shelf, and can this connection really influence their decision to purchase the product?

The answer may be “yes” as consumers continue to choose beverage products that feel familiar or strike a certain chord of nostalgia. Consider the “Share a Coke” campaign from the Coca-Cola Company, which created a way to literally attract consumers by calling their names. For Coca-Cola, which had long established its foothold in the carbonated beverage sector, this campaign strengthened customer loyalty and created buzz around the brand.

Creating this kind of label variety was no small feat, even for such a major brand, but advancements in printing technologies made the campaign possible. According to an article on Label & Narrow Web’s website, to run labels that pulled from a list of about 250 names, Coca-Cola tapped a domestic label and packaging converter company, which coordinated with printers equipped with HP Indigo digital printing technology to get the job done. With this technology, the varied labels could be done on short runs and still reflect high-quality printing.

On an international scale, South Africa-based magazine Packaging & Print Media reported that Coca-Cola repeated this collaboration with converters and partner printers to create thousands of names in multiple languages. Some international printers utilized flexographic printing as opposed to digital printing, so careful colour matching was done in order to achieve the same “Coke Red” shade across different types of printers.

Some brands have found a way to speak to customers less directly, but still with intimacy or a level of personalization that can be hard to beat. Whiskey brands Jack Daniels and Johnnie Walker are actively pursuing different segments of the market and looking to expand their reach with a range of tailored products. Jack Daniel’s Gentleman Jack whiskey aims to reach a segment of the market that associates fine whiskey with a premium sipping experience.

According to PMMI’s report, unique packaging is what premium brands use to differentiate themselves from value brands, so mid-tier brands are now using packaging to emulate the look of top-shelf brands. With its Gentleman Jack edition that features a metalized label resembling a stamped silver plate, Jack Daniels is attempting to appeal to consumers who value finer, more original details over a traditional paper label. Some craft spirits are taking premium package printing a step further by turning to technologies that use tinted glass and other tactile labels, allowing for a more sophisticated, expensive look.

Johnnie Walker recently created “Jane Walker,” a special-edition iteration of their Black Label product, to appeal to the female demographic typically not considered a whiskey-drinking group. To substantiate the message, Johnnie Walker is donating proceeds of each bottle of the Jane Walker Edition sold to organizations supporting women’s progress.

Packaging for the Health- and Eco-Conscious

Personalization may not be the only key to sales. With an equally large demand for products that support healthy, active and clean lifestyles, more beverage manufacturers are producing drinks that come in smaller cans or bottles with fewer calories. The dainty servings not only meet demands for lower-calorie, lower-sugar products, but also reinforce the idea of portion control in a departure from decades of oversized servings.

In this era of clean labelling, consumers are also looking for natural and additive-free drinks, however, this type of beverage comes with its share of challenges for manufacturers and processers. Many of the more organic or natural beverages, like juices, are non-homogenous and become separated when standing still on the shelf. To avoid possible negative reactions from customers, brands are using shrink wraps to hide the inner contents of a bottle.

The push for clean labelling has also spurred some changes along the production line, with manufacturers having to add agitation equipment or adapt filling machinery to handle the different behaviours of more natural beverages.

For the athletes shopping in the beverage aisle, the extra aid that sports drinks promise can offer a massive appeal. Some brands have introduced a way to target different types of athletes, taking customization to a new level. Gatorade, for example, developed a product line that provides multiple drinks to be consumed at specific stages in a workout. If this product line speaks to a particular athlete’s established routine, Gatorade may have just increased a customer’s purchase from only one drink to three — right at the point of sale.

On top of nutrition, brands can also gain selling power in sustainability. By offering an eco-friendly product that can claim it creates less waste, a brand is able to connect with growing consumer concern for the environment. One way that manufacturers are addressing this shift is by using digital printing, which in general is considered more cost-effective and environmentally friendly for the short runs that occur with label variation. Digital printers, like the HP Indigo technology used for the “Share a Coke” campaign, have been recognized for their eco-friendly benefits of reducing energy and supplies in each round of printing.

Some beverage manufacturers are also going green by utilizing eco-friendly materials like vegetable oil-based inks or water-based inks, which can be used in conjunction with digital printing technologies. These inks not only dry quickly and deliver a high-quality print, but also minimize the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are usually heavily present in traditional solvent-based inks. UV inks offer similar benefits in that they “cure” at rapid rates and release minimal VOCs, and they also allow for high-quality digital direct printing on glass or PET bottles.

Advances in Printing Propel Brands

The beverage variety that we see on the shelves today can be tied to the growth of technologies that enhance the flexibility of lines, speeding and simplifying changeover between different product runs. With increasing consumer demand for a wide selection of beverages, manufacturers require the ability to swap labels out and change production over many more times than they likely had to in the past. Changeovers that used to happen only once a day or week now may happen three times in one shift in order to generate the masses of personalized or targeted products customers crave.

To achieve this rapid changeover, many manufacturers have turned to digital printing, which allows for labels to be diverse and to be prepared and quickly applied. With this technology, generating a graphic for a label is a more efficient process and can be done in a more immediate timeframe, reducing costly downtime. The speed of this equipment also coincides with the need for products to be delivered to the store in as fresh of a state as possible. Packagers can generate digitally printed labels closer to the time of production; ensuring consumers receive beverages that did not spend months in storage before shipment.

The prevalence of digital printing systems is a result of the technology becoming more accessible every day. At a price point that doesn’t break the bank, the adoption of digital printing is an easier choice to swallow. Now that the technology can be used for shorter runs of products like 30,000 units, it is arguably becoming a more difficult decision to stick with traditional printing technology.

Beyond digital printing, technologies that create larger and bolder imagery are taking hold. Shrink sleeve technology is being used more on cans and bottles, according to PMMI’s report. For example, a craft brewer might place a shrink sleeve over an entire six-pack. This style of package printing facilitates easier packaging line changeover and is helpful for companies that produce a variety of beverage types or flavours in the same can shape.

Yet, some brands prefer paperboard over shrink sleeves, because paperboard can retain its imagery and shape after being opened, whereas shrink sleeves become ripped, distorted and likely discarded at the first use. In many cases, the brand may choose paperboard as the outer packaging in the hopes that a consumer will keep the container in the refrigerator or on the counter. Regardless of the choice in material, either option provides a brand the added benefit of more images, more information and the chance to tell a greater story about the product.

‘Niche’ is the Key to Market Growth

The importance of differentiation in the beverage industry is perhaps best witnessed in the bottled water market, where, arguably, the same liquid is being portrayed as an entirely different product depending on the customer toward whom it is being marketed. Brands design packaging and labelling elements to match their target demographic, and these elements become differentiators that can justify a product’s shelf space.

For example, Evian and Fiji waters present themselves as clean, natural waters that are sourced from exotic locales around the globe. Their use of clear bottles that reveal an inside label showing striking landscapes along with declarations of purity help communicate this message. Meanwhile, waters like Core, Essentia and Smartwater sell themselves as waters that boost physical and cognitive health and ‘go the extra mile.’ Then there are brands like Vitaminwater and La Croix, which are still considered ‘waters’ despite adding flavours and/or carbonation to their products to appeal to those seeking something just a little different from regular water.

Convenience and Innovation

But the trend for finding a niche falls across all beverage sectors, where companies clamor to be different and stand out during selection. Sometimes that niche can be found by offering reliable convenience, such as a Capri-Sun pouch with a straw, or sports drinks with flip-top caps. Other times, it can stem from an original packaging innovation, such as beer giant Coors’ Coors Light label featuring thermo inks that react to temperature changes. This label conveys information that the beer has reached the perfect chilled temperature and is ready to drink, and it also offers an interactive feature that is simply fun for the customer.

This type of ‘cool’ can graphic is a more recent development, as metal packaging graphics have traditionally improved at slower rates than paper labels. Improvements like thermo inks, light-responsive, glossy, matte and tactile inks are all a result of better coating technologies, PMMI’s report states. Overhauls in can printing quality and capabilities have also occurred over the last five years, with dots per inch (DPI) increasing from 120 to 130 and high-definition separation work, platemaking and printmaking all improving.

Still, while utilizing emerging technologies and finding the right niche is crucial to operations, manufacturers must also focus on staying relevant. Claiming ownership over a unique space in the market is only sustainable for as long as the brand is willing to adapt and adjust to consumer concerns and lifestyles. Beverage brands that hone in on their product’s differentiator but can continuously transform its appearance are likely to quench customer demands for decades to come.

Tom Egan is vice president, industry services, PMMI (The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies). PMMI represents more than 800 North American manufacturers and suppliers of equipment, components and materials as well as providers of related equipment and services to the packaging and processing industry.

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The world market for packaging machinery value is expected to reach USD $42.2 billion by 2021, according to PMMI’s Global Trends Impacting the Market for Packaging Machinery 2018 report. Pack Expo International will address the trends and challenges driving the food and beverage, pharmaceutical and medical device, cosmetics and personal care, industrial and household chemical, and other packaged goods industries. Attendees include manufacturers, managers, engineers, production supervisors, purchasers, brand managers, package designers, product development professionals and supply chain and logistics professionals from more than 40 vertical markets and companies of all sizes.

Over 2,500 exhibitors and 50,000 attendees from more than 125 countries will converge at Pack Expo International, where beverage industry professionals and packaging designers can find the latest innovations in beverage package printing.

Highlights at this year’s show include:

• The PACKage Printing Pavilion (South Building): Making its debut at Pack Expo International 2018, the PACKage Printing Pavilion is the industry’s main stage for digital’s advantages for short-run, on-demand, cost-effective variable data and personalized packaging.

• The Containers and Materials Pavilion (Upper North Building): This year’s Containers and Materials Pavilion will address the latest innovations in paperboard, glass, metal and plastic. Flexible and resalable packaging options will also be on display as well as innovative containers and sustainable choices. The Pavilion will also feature the Showcase of Packaging Innovations, sponsored by The Dow Chemical Company, where visitors can view the award-nominated packages.

• The Reusable Packaging Pavilion (Upper Lakeside Center): As demand rises for sustainable packaging solutions, the Reusable Packaging Pavilion, sponsored by the Reusable Packaging Association (RPA), is a hotspot for reusable products, services and solutions for increasing sustainability across the supply chain. The RPA’s Reusable Packaging Center within the pavilion will offer free presentations on case studies and best practices for incorporating reusables.

• The Forum at Pack Expo: Take advantage of free, unique, interactive presentations throughout Pack Expo International. The Forum will feature 20-minute open sessions on the latest industry trends by the OpX Leadership Network, Institute of Packaging Professionals, Contract Packagers Association and PMMI Business Intelligence, followed by small group discussions and Q&A sessions.

• Packaging & Processing Women’s Leadership Network (PPWLN): Launched in 2016, PPWLN serves to recruit, retain and advance women in processing and packaging. The PPWLN breakfast is on Tuesday, 16 October at 7:30am. The meeting will include presentations and discussions allowing peers to exchange ideas and experiences.

• The Innovation Stage: In addition to the packaging and processing technologies that will be on display on the show floor, Pack Expo International will be giving attendees access to free educational programming at The Innovation Stage. During the show, free 30-minute seminars presenting breakthrough technologies and techniques will be scheduled and will focus on a wide range of industry specific solutions. Located in the North Building, Booths N-4560, N-4570 and N-4580.

• Industry-specific Lounges: Pack Expo International attendees can network with peers, gain specialized insights and rest their feet at the show’s three industry-specific lounges. Networking receptions for Snack, Confectionery and Beverage Industry Lounges will take place in their respective locations on Tuesday, 16 October, from 3:30-5:00pm. The Beverage Cooler Lounge (N-4575) will serve as a networking hub for beverage industry professionals and ISBT subject matter experts. Hosted by The International Society of Beverage Technologists (ISBT) and sponsored by Bevcorp, LLC (S-3874).

• PACK gives BACK: Sponsored by Rockwell Automation, PMMI’s regular benefit returns to Pack Expo International with a networking event in support of Pack Expo Scholarships, a scholarship program for US and Canadian students majoring in packaging and processing. Guests can enjoy beer, wine, light appetizers and a performance by renowned stand-up comedian Sebastian Maniscalo. Tickets to the fundraiser are USD $75. The fundraiser on Monday, 15 October, kicks off with a networking reception at 4:30pm followed by the comedy performance at 5:30pm. For more information and to get tickets, visit www.packexpointernational.com/pack-gives-back.

To learn more or to register, visit packexpointernational.com. For information on PMMI, visit pmmi.org.

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Aroma and taste descriptors are most easily understood when primary flavours are referenced for the perceived attribute. When attributes are categorized into groups it becomes difficult to understand their meaning without additional training or explanations. Confusion is created when conclusions are used for flavour descriptions or when adjectives or verbs are used in place of nouns when presenting descriptions. The use of primary food terminology adheres to the tenants of TRUE descriptions. A primary food word is one that has a tangible reference found in nature, at a grocery store, or within a set of calibration standards. Familiarity with basic taste terms is developed through sensory training using calibration samples for aroma and taste and aligning with other cupper and tasters for the appropriate use of the terms.

When there is confusion, additional discussions are required to identify the actual taste or aroma character being perceived. This becomes inefficient for an operation and may result in inappropriate or incorrect descriptions being used for coffee. These additional discussions are challenging when cuppers/tasters are working to understand each description across language, regional or cultural differences. Examples of conclusion or category words that are to be avoided when communicating coffee descriptions:

• Green – describes coffee that is early-crop harvest, under-ripe, recently milled, or has not has enough time to rest before analysis. Specific tastes that could be identified individually include: grassy, green pepper, green bean, onion, and broccoli, among others.
• Aged – a measurement of time not taste, used as a conclusion when coffee presents tastes and aroma of paper, malt, cereal, cardboard, oats, peanut shells, and rice.
• Past crop – a measurement of time not taste, used as a conclusion when coffee presents tastes and aroma of paper, malt, cereal, cardboard, oats, peanut shells, and rice.
• Old – a measurement of time not taste, used as a conclusion when coffee presents tastes and aroma of paper, malt, cereal, cardboard, oats, peanut shells, and rice.
• Tired – a measurement of time not taste, used as a conclusion when coffee presents tastes and aroma of paper, malt, cereal, cardboard, oats, peanut shells, and rice.
• Processed – often used to describe decaffeinated coffee and thought to indicate over-processing to remove caffeine or the character of the water used in decaffeinated coffee processing. Specific tastes that could be identified individually include: hay, straw, paper, cereal, malt, cardboard, peanut shells, nut skins, and rice.
• Low-grown character – often used to describe coffee that lacks intensity of flavour, mild acidity, thin body, and may also include grassy, dirty or earthy undertones.
• Roasty – used to describe the effects of roasting instead of the character of the coffee, for example the taste of burnt sugar, earthy, dirty, smoky or ashy characters found in dark roasted coffees or coffees exposed to exhaust smoke.
• Edgy – used to describe coffee that is not clean and/or not sweet.
• Harsh – also used to describe coffee that is not clean and/or not sweet.
• Off-cup – used to indicate a coffee cup that lacks uniformity with other cups, or has an unidentified taint or fault.
• Bright, Crisp & Sharp – terms used to describe organic acids that are astringent, tart or lack sweetness.
• Sound – A term used to indicate when coffee is free of defects.

To avoid confusion when creating reviewing coffee sensory descriptions, it is most efficient and effective to use primary food words, which have a single item that can be used for calibration, either from a grocery store, or a flavour training kit.

Training and sensory acuity may affect the words used in creating coffee descriptions. Also, the quality of the coffee is a key contributing factor to the degree of generalization or specificity of the descriptive words used. Eg, a coffee may be described as having fruity, spicy, and nutty characters. By this description it is unknown if the cupper is a novice and has not been fully trained in identify and describing taste, or if the quality of the coffee does not allow for more specific taste characters to be perceived and listed.

Fruity is a category descriptor that obviously includes all fruits. This category can be divided into citric and berry, thus diverging on the fruit identity and increasing the level of specificity. Further detail perceptions would be to identify the actual citric fruits perceived or berries perceived. Many specialty coffee descriptions identify the individual variety of lemon or lime. This level of great details requires a highly trained cupper who is calibrated to lemon and lime standards and a high-quality coffee that has the inherent taste characteristics. Without one or even both to occur, a description that may include Kaffir Limes, Key Limes, Limequates, Meyer Lemons, Rangpur Limes, Tahiti Limes and Eureka or Lisbon lemons, will lack both credibility and believability.

Coffee Product Descriptions

Merchandising is the promoting of items for sale. Any action that stimulates the buyer’s interest and entices consideration for purchase intent is merchandising, including advertising, packaging, price, and promotion. It is most effective when the buyer understands the information which is presented in a clear and concise manner. When descriptions create too many questions, or present incomplete or include technical jargon, merchandising will adversely affect the buyer’s purchase decision.

Industry jargon and abbreviations are appropriate only when the seller and potential buyers are both familiar with the terms and a communication short-hand is appropriate. However, armatures, home-roasters and consumers may be confused by our verbal short-hand.

When offering products to consumers, additional explanations and more detailed descriptions are required, specifically answering why the information presented is important and how it will affect the quality of the coffee. Consumers expect TRUE descriptions. Information that is obvious to professionals may be unknown to consumers, thus it is always recommended to identify the information being presented to avoid confusion. Green coffee descriptions are commonly used to merchandise roasted coffee products, illustrating the relationship and importance of describing descriptions accurately and appropriately.

Each company should adopt a standard format for coffee description, which over time, will become familiar to returning customers. An important note: regular customers will gradually gain knowledge and sophistication, so before changing the format of coffee descriptions carefully consider how those changes will affect new and novice consumers. What benefits one consumer group may alienate another. Detailed explanations for coffee descriptions may be presented on the company’s web page, within the foodservice menu or retail display, and are not always feasible to include on the coffee packaging. In the foodservice environment, TRUE product descriptions and detailed explanations should always be part of employee training and available to any employee who needs to answer a consumer’s question.

Green Coffee Descriptions

Commonly used to establish provenance, promote the sourcing practices, or explain the quality of the coffee, green coffee descriptions are obviously a critical component to merchandising green coffee products and are not more common when merchandising roasted coffee products. Often a point of differentiation from one product or company to another, green coffee descriptions establish the expectations for quality, value and sensory experience.

Green coffee descriptions may require explanation relevant to quality, sensory profile, and price:

• Regional Identification – What is a Yirgacheffe or Huehuetenango?
• Varietal/Cultivar – Why is Bourbon or Geisha important to state?
• Altitude/Density & Other Identifiers – What is meant by PW, EP, HB, SHB, HG, MCM, SHG?
• Processing Types – How are the different methods significant?
• Certification – Why is it significant and what does it mean?

Recently, a colleague visited a local coffeehouse that offers specialty quality coffees in their pour-over station. The featured coffee was Panama Pacamara and the price was USD $9 for a 12-ounce cup. When compared to usual prices for pour-over, French press and vacuum pot preparation in the US, this drink is about two to three times more expensive. The merchandising and description for this expensive handcrafted beverage, Panama Pacamara, was grossly incomplete, and was further exacerbated when the barista was asked about the coffee provenance and roast development. The barista’s only response was Pacamara coffee from Panama. This exchange and poor description is tantamount to merchandising a bottle or can of craft beer as ale from Colorado and selling it for two to three times the usual price.

Both are examples of descriptions that are not TRUE.

Roasted Coffee Descriptions

The message of hospitality is to never give the customer a reason to shop elsewhere. Confusing and incomplete merchandising may force buyers to look elsewhere for coffee. When buyers are unable to connect with the product through the description there is low confidence of purchase or repeat purchases.

As professionals, we know our industry has many differences of opinions and company-specific terminology regarding quality identifications for coffee. TRUE descriptions are not vague and are aligned with the industry as whole. Examining roast level’s descriptions, the roast development spectrum may be divided into categories, there has been limited industry alignment on the use of light, medium, and dark description. Recognized roast terms used in merchandising, such as: American, cinnamon, city roast, full city roast, Vienna roast, continental roast, French roast, Italian roast, etc, are not standardized and often create confusion for the consumer. When comparing several packaged coffees that all use the same roast level identification, there will surely be several different levels of roast development or coffee colour, often with a wide range from light to dark. Consumers are further confused when seeing company-specific references. Eg, a light roast from a company that specializes in dark roasted coffees may be darker than a dark roasted coffee from a company that specializes in light roasted coffees. Standardization or a universality of roast development language or roast colour identification would contribute to greater understanding by consumers.

Descriptions are not TRUE when confusion is created and consumer expectations are not met. Flavour descriptions, roast description, coffee quality, origin information, etc, must always follow the TRUE model or a point if disconnection will occur between the seller and the buyer, or between the professional and the consumer.

Knowing the details of the contents within a coffee package or of a coffee beverage through the use of TRUE descriptions will help prevent disappointment and purchases of coffee that will not suit the preferences of the consumer.

Spencer Turer is VP of Coffee Enterprises in Hinesburg, Vermont. He is a founding member of the Roasters Guild, a licensed Q grader, and received the SCAA Outstanding Contribution to the Association Award. Turer is an active volunteer for the Specialty Coffee Association and the National Coffee Association of the USA.

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Situated at 2401 Curry Ford Road, Foxtail Coffee in the Hourglass District is located inside a former a gas station convenience store, offering an open footprint. “We love taking existing buildings and making them into something new,” says Alex Tchekmeian, Foxtail’s co-founder. “Each of our locations has its own personality. We want to fit into the neighbourhood and become part of the community.”

Dubbed Hourglass Social House carries through Foxtail’s signature look and feel but with added touches. The space includes reclaimed wood, subway tile and industrial features, as well as greenery walls. It also offers a large patio with built-in benches, a hand-painted mural and café lights. The location can seat 55 inside and more than 40 outside. Additional parking is available in the back.

The entire space allows room for a traditional Foxtail counter, offering locally roasted coffee and traditional beverages, as well as for partner business Leguminati, which serves vegan fare for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Customers can order items from either business at either counter. Guests can also choose from 48 types of wine and 60 types of beer, with 12 on tap.

For more information about Hourglass Social House or Foxtail Coffee Co, visit: www.foxtailcoffee.com.

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Cold brew is a brewing method, not a singular final product. The New York, New York-based National Coffee Association’s (NCA) Cold Brew Toolkit draft, released this spring for industry comment, explains that “cold brew coffee is made with roasted and ground coffee. In most cases, the brewing process trades time for temperature; instead of brewing with very hot water over a very quick duration, cold brewing typically uses ambient or cooler water and extended periods of time to extract an optimal amount of flavour compounds and solids from the beans.”

Establishing the Category

The cold brew category is growing. Because of its versatility as a ready-to-drink (RTD) product, cold brew increases opportunities for coffee occasions throughout the day. According to Sarah Snudden of Keurig Dr Pepper, based in Waterbury, Vermont, a presenter at the NCA’s webinar, The Business of Cold Brew,

“Cold brew is one of the ways coffee is becoming more premium, convenient and refreshment driven.”

Matthew Barry, beverages industry analyst for London, England-based global market intelligence firm, Euromonitor International, said that cold brew’s growth in RTD form “does not seem to be taking consumers away from mainstream brands like [Starbucks] Frappuccinos, which are still performing well. The growth of RTD cold brew represents new consumers entering the category. Cold brew growth should be thought of as complementary to existing RTD products rather than a major challenge to them.”

Cold brew is here to stay and is a major avenue for attracting and retaining lifelong coffee drinkers. Now, the challenge is to stay ahead of potential risks and keep cold brew safe for consumers.

New Safety Considerations

“Different from roasted coffee, cold brew is a liquid,” said Mark Corey, the NCA’s director of scientific and government affairs. “Increased water activity and moisture create conditions for pathogens to grow. Brewed coffee has a low-acid pH, which has inherent food safety risks to consider in a comprehensive food safety plan, similar to other low-acid foods like canned soup or tuna.”

Corey explained that cold brew manufacturers must “understand that pH must be closely controlled to prevent risk of Clostridium botulinum, a deadly pathogen in hermetically sealed containers.” Hazards that can harm a consumer fall into three categories: biological (yeast, mold), physical (foreign objects) and chemical (lead, pesticide residue, allergens). Risk is the proximity of a hazard and the likelihood that it will affect the manufacturing process.

Controlling the Risks

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requires that all food manufacturers write a Food Safety Plan identifying how a facility controls inherent manufacturing risks.

Corey suggests thinking of risk control as a pyramid. “The baseline is good manufacturing practices (GMPs), next is identifying hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP), and the top level is a Food Safety Management System that builds confidence into your process.” Confident processing means that statistical and scientific knowledge is built into the process to reduce the need for testing every time. “There is less risk, and the risk is controlled appropriately,” he said. “You want to empower your employees with knowledge so safe processing becomes innate and intuitive.”

FSMA’s Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventative Controls (HARPC) rule requires a facility’s food safety plan to first identify hazards and then establish preventative controls for the risks those hazards pose.

The NCA’s Cold Brew Toolkit recommends that cold brewers “complete challenge studies, which involve testing the ability of unwanted micro-organisms to grow in a product in use and abuse conditions. Apply the Process Approach: Plan, Do, Check, Act.”

An Array of Packing Options

Different packing materials have different food safety requirements. Additives like dairy and sweeteners also change the safety measures required for different RTD cold brew products.

Emeryville, California-based Peet’s Coffee manufactures a variety of cold brew products, all of which are pasteurized as a kill step to guarantee food safety and freshness. “Peet’s Cold Brew line has two dairy-free beverages. The Baridi Black is pasteurized and then hot filled into the glass bottle still at pasteurization temperature to meet federal processing requirements for low acid foods in hermetically sealed containers,” commented Gretchen Koch, director of marketing and innovation for Peet’s Coldcraft division. “For our canned Nitro Cold Brew, we High Temperature Short Time (HTST) pasteurize the coffee first and then fill the cans through sterilized lines. The coffee is nitrogenated in line just prior to capping and seaming of the can.” These processes preserve the taste and improve shelf life in refrigerated distribution.

Dairy and dairy-alternative flavours in the Peet’s Cold Brew line are sold in PET bottles, “pasteurized using Ultra High Temperature (UHT) to minimize the time of the heat treatment and maintain the longest shelf life in a refrigerated supply chain,” explained Koch. “Both methods provide food-safety benefits but still require the product to remain refrigerated throughout the supply chain.”

Peet’s True Iced Espresso is manufactured with a retort process that renders the canned espresso commercially sterile and capable of being distributed and sold at room temperature. “We did this to better utilize our current Peet’s Coffee ambient temperature delivery routes for coffee beans, so we can reach a broader national distribution quickly and cost effectively.”

Cold Chain for Safety and Quality

Shelf-stable products have certain distribution advantages, but maintaining the cold chain, even for pasteurized products, offers other advantages in final taste. Setting up a new cold distribution network is part of the challenge for a coffee company adding cold brew manufacturing to its portfolio.

“[Our] company is 109 years old, and several years ago we started with a new RTD product,” noted David Mendez Jr, vice president of Newark, New Jersey’s WB Law Coffee, about building a nitro cold brew facility from the ground up. “We know coffee but refrigerated trucks and refrigerated distribution were completely new to us.” Law’s Ironbound Cold Brew and private label products for wholesale B2B are packed as bag-in-a-box kegs, made with an in-line nitrogen system.

WB Law has extensively trained its distribution team in the importance of maintaining the cold chain. “Cold brew has to be delivered directly into a refrigerated space – it can’t be left on a hot loading dock,” commented Mendez.

In St Petersburg, Florida, Made Coffee also roasts, brews and packages a canned cold brew. It will soon produce a concentrate for a retorted product line. “We are vertically integrated under one roof, so we are able to control our processes,” shared Made Coffee founder Mike Rideout. Made is set to launch its Cold Brew Con Leche in September.

“Made’s in-house coffees are cold chain products brewed and packaged at temp and distributed through the dairy channel in refrigerated trucks to local grocery stores,” explained Rideout. “We are big on testing our products. We pull random samples during production for full-panel testing on listeria, yeast, mold, and botulism. It’s our extra step in quality control, some consumers want to see that we have documentation and testing.”

Beverage Industry Cross Pollination

When Made Coffee began, there was limited information available in the coffee industry about how to design a safe facility for canning cold brew. “Ultimately, it was the craft beer community that gave us our first idea what to do. We flew to craft beer trade shows and attended many seminars.” Made also consulted with equipment manufacturers while writing its facility’s food safety plan and with other food service industry professionals during construction.

WB Law Coffee sought recommendations on kegged products from fountain soda companies and consulted architects with expertise in building FDA-approved clean room facilities prior to constructing their plant, but Mendez also found a lack of cold brew-specific resources. “There is a Gold Cup standard for desired TDS [Total Dissolved Solids] when brewing hot coffee. Will that be established for cold brew? Where is the collaboration to keep cold brew safe?”

Space to Collaborate

According to the NCA’s Corey, collaboration is just beginning and will determine the next chapter of cold brew’s evolution, particularly as the category maintains consumer confidence in food safety. “With the enactment of FSMA and cold brew’s rapid changes, there is so much new product innovation, questions from throughout the supply chain, even consumers making cold brew at home. This is a great opportunity to bring the industry together to address these concerns,” he said.

The Cold Brew Toolkit was drafted to reflect those questions and concerns, and the next step is a workshop hosted by the NCA this fall to offer a Preventative Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) certification with content specific to the coffee industry, such as draft model food safety plans for manufacturing roasted and ground, flavoured, decaf, and instant/soluble coffee.

“You don’t have to be a big brand to win in this space. The ones who do best are focusing on specific consumer needs,” noted Snudden in the NCA’s webinar. If smaller, newer brands are to continue to meet consumers’ demands, then the cold brew conversation, especially as it relates to food safety, must continue to share information and provide education to new brands getting into the space. “We’re ready to share what we’ve learned,” said Made’s Rideout. “Now is the time to collaborate and help build the proper procedures for this category.”

Rachel Northrop has been covering coffee for T&CTJ since 2012, while she lived in Latin America’s coffee lands writing When Coffee Speaks. She is based in Brooklyn, NY. She may be reached at northrop.rachel@gmail.com.

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In 2016, Starbucks became an investor and global licensee of the business and opened the first Princi location in the United States inside the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle, where his artisanal baked goods are served alongside the freshly roasted small-lot Starbucks Reserve coffees. Starbucks made Princi the exclusive food purveyor in its Roasteries and Starbucks Reserve store locations, and since then, new Princi bakeries have opened in the Shanghai Roastery and Starbucks Reserve store at the company’s SODO headquarters (and coming soon to future Roastery locations in Milan and New York).

Now, the first Princi standalone store in the United States is opening in the north end of downtown Seattle, Washington, on Westlake at 9th Avenue. Starbucks store design team worked closely with Rocco Princi and his team to design the new location.

“Your first impression is the abundance and seduction of food,” says Christian Davies, Starbucks vice president, creative global design & innovation. “That’s what we’re trying to create with a distinctly Italian look and feel to bring that passion to life.”

Davies and the design team took inspiration from Princi’s original Milan bakery and the nearby Starbucks Reserve Roastery, using natural materials and earth-colored stone. In every element of the space, the team tried to express Princi’s commitment to craftsmanship, from the hand-blown glass light fixtures to the hand-rubbed plaster on the walls.

“We kept the palate neutral. The food becomes a ribbon of color and light that ties the whole space together,” Davies says.

The oven is the centerpiece of the space, with fresh baking onsite throughout the day, including freshly baked cornetti, brioche and focaccia, pizzas and desserts. Commessas, Italian for “shop assistant,” act as a guide through the journey of food. “We wanted to make sure every one of these elements is created with the same level of detail that Rocco puts into his food,” says Davies.

The new store features the full Princi menu of artisanal baked goods, prepared with high quality ingredients sourced from Italy to Seattle, starting at breakfast with steel-cut oats with Italian jam, baked eggs in a spicy tomato sauce and cornetti sandwiches made with prosciutto cotto and fontina. At lunchtime, the menu offers soups, salads, focaccia sandwiches, and hot entrees. Afternoons expand to a wider selection of Italian cakes, tarts and other desserts.

Starbucks Reserve Princi Blend is the signature coffee offering, along with handcrafted espresso beverages made on a manual espresso machine.

In the evening, Bar Mixato offers traditional Italian aperitivo, including cocktails, beer, wine and spirits accompanied by complimentary small plates. Customers can relax on the patio, which will open up to a planned new city park later this year.

“When you go to Italy, you’ll always find people on the patio,” says Davies said. “I hope customers will come here and find the spirit of Milan.”

The standalone Princi store makes Seattle the first city in the world to offer the full suite of experiences from Starbucks Siren Retail business, dedicated to its premium Reserve brand, which includes a Reserve Roastery, a Reserve store, Starbucks stores with a Reserve coffee bar, and now Princi stand-alone stores. Located at 2118 Westlake Avenue, Seattle, the new Princi stand-alone store is open Monday through Friday, 7am to 8pm, and Saturday to Sunday, 7am to 7pm.

Additional standalone Princi locations are expected to open this fall in Chicago and New York.

Visit www.princi.com for more information.

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Coffee brands are rapidly consolidating, with moves in 2018 that are reshaping the coffee landscape from roasting through consumer product distribution. Rabobank senior analyst for beverages, James Watson, sees the current market as a buy or be bought environment, with significant pressure on companies with 1-3 percent retail share. “If a [potential buyer] was interested and you’re not selling now, you will miss the boat. With only so many strategic buyers, there is pressure to sell early,” commented Watson.

There is also pressure on smaller roasters and brands from their competition. Watson noted, “If you’re a small player, it’s a fragmented market and competition is your size. They get bought, and you’ll be surrounded by giants.”

Farmer Brothers has been actively acquiring companies since 2016, first with China Mist tea, followed by West Coast Coffee and Boyd’s Coffee in 2017. “There’s a degree of investment needed to level up,” said David Robson, Farmer Brothers chief financial officer. “It’s harder for smaller players to compete, either they put in a lot more investment or be purchased.”

Savvy consumers are more educated to the nuances of coffee’s attributes, like flavours from origin-specific terroir, and to the variety of ways coffee can be prepared hot or cold at home or in a retail setting. They expect choice and quality. “Several years ago we leaned into the expectation that the market will get bigger and more sophisticated,” Robson commented. Farmer Brothers’ new headquarters in Northlake, Texas doubles its capacity to 200 million pounds of coffee per year.

Efficiency of scale is one of the main benefits large buyers offer to the smaller brands they acquire.

“What we bring to the table from an efficiency standpoint is this large capacity,” said Robson. “Acquisitions like Boyd’s work really well because we both have large national accounts, they have a direct to store delivery model like we do, and this continues cost effectiveness.”

Coffee experienced its artisan craft revolution in what is often described as “third wave” and “fourth wave” trends towards single origin offerings, transparent traceability, agricultural changes in varietal cultivation and processing, and a hands-on approach to roasting, packing and brewing in small, custom batches. For this craft segment to grow and serve the customers it draws, smaller players can take advantage of the cost-effective structures already in place by larger companies. This consolidation pathway closely mimics the transformation of craft beer’s recent trajectory.

Following Beer’s Path

“We see the beer segment as an example because it is consolidated so thoroughly,” noted Watson. He also highlighted the overlap between Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI), the largest global beer brewing portfolio, and JAB Holding Company, one of the largest global coffee brand owners. In the last several years, and in just the United States, Luxembourg-based JAB has acquired Peet’s Coffee (Emeryville, California), Caribou Coffee (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Stumptown Coffee (Portland, Oregon), Intelligentsia Coffee (Chicago, Illinois), Keurig Green Mountain (Waterbury, Vermont) and Dr Pepper Snapple (Plano, Texas).

“ABI partners are also partners in JAB. Money is coming into JAB from ABI, and their philosophies are very similar. The comparison between coffee and beer is the ability to create value by consolidation,” said Watson.

Dodie Butler, director of mergers and acquisitions for Farmer Brothers, echoes this. “Coffee is similar to beer in that craft brands are regional, and they can be consolidated by larger players quickly.” Acquisition also includes the added value of expertise. “We found West Coast Coffee’s go-to-market model attractive. It’s synergistic and we can learn from them.”

RTD Coffee Replaces Soft Drinks

Coffee’s consolidation maneuvres parallel those taken in the past decade by beer, but the products sold by these new global brand owners will compete with soft drinks’ share of the market. “Keurig Dr Pepper is JAB’s biggest acquisition yet, blurring the line between coffee and soft drinks in general,” Watson explained. “Another risk to small coffee players is potential entry from large soft drink players.”

Consumers are moving away from sugar-heavy drinks like sodas and juice products towards healthier beverages with fewer calories and more plant-based ingredients. RTD coffee is well positioned to respond to consumer demand for grab-and-go cold drinks with reduced sugar content and natural ingredients. “Market data shows demand for healthy drinks is growing. Tea, coffee and water fit into that,” observed Farmer Brother’s Robson. “Everyone consuming those products are in their 20s.”

Swiss multinational Nestlé AG’s 2017 acquisition of Austin, Texas-based Chameleon Cold Brew and subsequent acquisition of Oakland, California-based Blue Bottle in 2017 supports the growth of premium RTD coffee. Watson noted, “Coffee is now a soft drink. Coffee companies have to ask, ‘Do you know how to have a branded cold drink on a grocery shelf?’”

Independent Expertise

La Colombe has successfully placed branded cold coffee drinks on grocery shelves, specifically with its canned Draft Latte products. This was accomplished through a new partnership rather than a merger or acquisition.

Hamdi Ulukaya, founder and CEO of Chobani yogurt, based in Norwich, New York, became Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based La Colombe’s sole investor and majority owner, along with founders Todd Carmichael and JP Ilberti, in 2015. The press release announcing this change stated, “La Colombe is also developing plans to improve every segment of the coffee industry with high-quality offerings, including ground-breaking ready-to-drink, single serve, retail, e-commerce, and packaged coffee.”

Since that statement, RTD has emerged as the most transformed of those coffee segments, with cold brews, sparkling coffees, and coffee with milk beverages hitting the market aggressively, packed in glass, plastic bottles, cans, boxes, and pouches. Ulukaya’s investment came with his expertise in the single-serve cold dairy category, a space that overlaps with RTD three-in-one coffee’s growing popularity.

Changes in Distribution Patterns

La Colombe was able to use Ulukaya’s expertise and investment to adapt its distribution system to a new category of coffee products. The need for streamlined distribution is crucial to the viability of consolidated coffee, across cold RTD and roasted coffee channels.

Looking at soft drinks’ recent changes to anticipate coffee’s moves, Watson said that Coca-Cola went through a national refranchising. “National brands like Coke need coordinated national networks to distribute their brands. Giant national brands need giant national partners,” he explained. “It is hard to ask a retailer like Walmart to work with ten national distributors, so a coordinated roll out with a single partner makes it more feasible for new coffee products to be carried at national retailers.”

Farmer Brothers operates a channel-based direct to store delivery approach. “Customers demand to work with experts,” said Robson. “There’s a difference between selling to casinos versus convenience stores versus college campuses.” As coffee transforms from being a hot beverage brewed at home, in the workplace, or in a café setting, into a hot or cold beverage for any time of day, the networks for delivering coffee must update as well, something large global coffee companies have the infrastructure and capital to carry out.

“Coffee is consumed throughout the day,” noted Robson. “We are adding more cold brew, RTD, and iced drinks in a way that is easy for restaurant providers to serve. Coffee is one of the few areas where we are not driving down to the lowest price point. Customers have more sophisticated palates and are indifferent to a USD $0.25 price increase because they want to enjoy the product.”

Consolidated Outlook

As coffee enters new retail spaces, smaller roasters feel pressured to innovate beyond legacy operations. “For a traditional coffee roaster wholesaling to food service with some brands on the grocery shelf but no expertise in RTD, it might be difficult to do without a partner moving forward,” Watson concluded.

Watson’s comment came just days before Nestlé and Starbucks Coffee, based in Seattle, Washington, announced their partnership, an agreement that affords Nestlé the rights to market, sell and distribute Starbucks products across its channels. Starbucks’ press release referred to an “Alliance to leverage the complementary strengths, scale and sophistication of two of the world’s most recognized and respected consumer brands.”

Commenting on the partnership, Michael Schaefer, global lead, food & beverage at Euromonitor International, said, “For Nestlé, the deal represents a sea change in strategy – the company has long resisted allowing outside brands access to its Nespresso and Dolce Gusto pod platforms. While “Nespresso-compatible” products have existed in some markets for years, an official Starbucks partnership is something else altogether, with the Swiss company now devoting considerable resources to marketing an outside brand. With Starbucks coffee shops serving as a powerful brand driver in key emerging markets, this move allows access to an important and growing consumer base.”

To grow at a competitive pace, coffee roasters and retailers are seeing that they need to acquire new skill sets and modalities at a pace that demands partnering with other established companies.

Impacts along the Chain

While brands acquired and sold in the current flurry of consolidation maintain a bullish outlook on the overall growth of the coffee market, coffee producers and intermediaries are more reserved.

The financial pressure exerted on green coffee exporters and importers by consolidated buyers further strains producers at origin. By extending credit terms to up to a full year, green coffee traders have less liquidity to invest back in buying from producers. As climate change threatens producing regions and coffee agriculture requires more strategic investments to remain viable, the limited flexibility of the first buyers of green coffee threatens the economics of production.

The other potential direction the situation could take, however, is positive. With consolidated purchasing power, global coffee brand owners could source certified coffees and make investments in sustainable production at a scale that has previously been impossible.

Finally, in the consumer space, another question remains: can brands once synonymous with small-batch craftsmanship and local artisans retain their customer loyalty as they are folded into global coffee portfolios? The success of all coffee brands depends on consumers’ trust in the products.

The same consumers who demand healthier beverages are also those who demand ethical verifications. As coffee becomes less fragmented, these newly powerful brands will need to proceed wisely if their coffee products are to remain the continued RTD, any-time-of-day beverages of choice for discerning demographics of today’s newest coffee drinkers.

Rachel Northrop has been covering coffee for T&CTJ since 2012, while she lived in Latin America’s coffee lands writing When Coffee Speaks. She is based in Brooklyn, NY. She may be reached at northrop.rachel@gmail.com.

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“As sophisticated consumers demand more natural, healthier options, and the chance to express their individuality, botanicals are making a comeback in the food and beverage world,” comments Barbara Lezzer, director of marketing Europe.

Tea is no longer a beverage to be had at a certain time of the day. Exciting new offerings have consumers reaching for tea in different forms and flavours around the clock. It is associated with sophistication and flair as well as with naturality and health. The ability of tea to offer rich, intricate profiles makes it the perfect way to add flavour and depth to everything from ice cream to chocolate and alcoholic beverages. Sensient’s Tea Collection brings together eight different tastes: Green Tea, Matcha Tea, White Tea, Cascara Tea, Rooibos, Chai Tea, Black Tea and Earl Grey.

Sensient’s Floral Collection offers spicy and herbaceous as well as delicate and sweet flavours for a multitude of applications and include: Jasmine, Chrysanthemum, Desert Wildflowers, Elderflower, Geranium, Rose and Lavender alongside Orange Blossom, Cherry Blossom and Hibiscus.

Sensient’s Spice Collection offers a modern twist with Black Pepper, Pink Peppercorn, Star Anise, Clove Bud and Saffron firmly in the beverage arena, and with their inherent heat Cinnamon, Capsicum, Cardamom and Liquorice are the ideal way to add warmth to bakery and dairy.

Culinary herbs add naturalness and offer aesthetic appeal to beverages and food. Sensient’s Herb Collection comprises Garden Mint, Coriander Leaves, Sage, Rosemary, Hops, Oregano, Basil, Thyme, Lemongrass and Aloe Vera.

Ginger has been trusted since Roman times, and is now enjoying a resurgence amongst consumers of all ages. However, not all ginger is the same. Sensient’s Ginger Collection feature six distinctive flavour profiles: Classic Ginger Beer, Ginger Ale, Ginger Root (gari), Spicy Ginger, Nigerian Ginger ¬¬and Chinese Ginger (galangal).

Sensient’s All Natural Flavour Collections are based on Sensient Natural Origins, a range of authentic true-to-nature extracts derived from the named source (FTNS) botanical and other organic-based ingredients, created using selective extraction techniques that capture the true flavour and aroma profile of the original source.

Sensient Flavors uses proprietary technologies to create customised flavour and colour solutions for customers in the Beverage, Sweet and Savory segments. It is a business unit of Milton Keynes, UK-based Sensient Technologies Corporation, a leading global manufacturer and marketer of colours, flavours and fragrances. The company’s customers include major international manufacturers representing most of the world’s best-known brands. For more information visit: www.sensientflavors.com.

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By Anne-Marie Hardie

At first glance, coffee, tea and alcohol, may seem to be completely different products. However, the journey of these three items have taken very similar paths. An increasing number of consumers have developed refined palates and are actively seeking beverages that were developed by artisans. They are seeking a full sensory experience paying attention to the aroma, taste notes and colour of the liquor. It seems natural that the crafts have come together to offer consumers a fully immersive experience.

In the early stages of craft brewing, said food engineer Jonathan Zangwell, beer was produced more as a commodity than for the craft. Today, however, the craft beer industry mirrors what has happened to the speciality coffee industry. Master brewers are focused on creating high quality products, bringing together the art and science of cultivating a great beer.

With an extensive experience in brewing and an accelerated education in coffee, Zangwell – the founder, brewmaster and master roaster at Stolen Sun Brewing Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania –decided to bring beer and coffee under one roof. “I wanted to create an environment that focused on the bean and the beer individual,” said Zangwell. “It is not about mixing coffee and beer, but bringing together the cultures of the two products.” Zangwell’s goal is to increase awareness of the two products, highlighting both the way that the product is processed and the similar tasting notes.

Stolen Sun is not the only company recognizing the similarities between the two crafts. In fact, breweries are actively seeking out roasters to help them develop the right coffee profile for their beer.

Paying Attention to the Nuances

Press Coffee, Phoenix, Arizona has been roasting coffee since 2010, with over 75 wholesale accounts in the food and hospitality industry. The first brewery they began working with was Wren House Brewing, also based in Phoenix, which currently uses Press Coffee’s cold brew in their Jomax Oatmeal Stout. “Wren House Brewing was looking for both the beans and a cold brew product to pair with their beer,” said Alex Mason, partner, general manager, Press Coffee. “They wanted traditional coffee notes, chocolate, bigger body, and lower acidity.” Wren House Brewing opted to prepare their chosen coffee as a cold brew, as its lower acidity tended to work well with beer. Since that initial beverage, Press Coffee has worked with Osho Brewing, to create a cold brew for their Morning Brew, a blond ale.

Casey Hughes, brewmaster at Coppertail Brewing Company, Tampa, Florida, shared that it was the concept of adding coffee to beer that inspired him to take his first sip of coffee. “I never drank coffee until I had it in beer,” said Hughes. “It wasn’t until I had a cupping with a roaster that I discovered the nuances in quality coffee.”

Balancing the flavours of coffee with a pale ale can be extremely challenging. To find the right flavour profile, Coppertail Brewing Company cupped several types of coffee. “The first coffee we tried had neat potential and tasted great but came out too fruity,” said Hughes. “With a lighter beer, you want the toasty kind of aroma there, just so you know that there is coffee in there.” The final product was crafted by infusing the whole beans directly in the tank with the beer. This process infused the beer with the coffee aroma without altering the colour of the pale ale.

Flavour of Stout Enhanced by Coffee

Stouts, on the other hand, seem to naturally lend themselves to the rich flavours of coffee and chocolate. In fact, one of the first recipes that Galen Smith, head brewer, Lonerider Brewing Company, Raleigh, North Carolina, helped develop was Pistols at Dawn, a coffee stout. The goal was to create a breakfast-style stout, and to get there, Smith said, they tried a few different processes, culminating with adding lactose, oats, chocolate, and cold brew from Counter Culture, to the stout.

When Rhode Island icon, Narragansett Beer decided that they wanted to do a beer and coffee collaboration, they wanted to ensure that they had a partnership that both embodied the right flavour and brand. “We decided on Autocrat coffee, since their coffee milk is the official beverage of Rhode Island,” said Mark Hellendrung, CEO, Narragansett Beer. To create the stout, Hellendrung went to Autocrat directly and shared his vision of creating a coffee milk stout. The two companies brought their research and development teams together to create a coffee extract. The stout was released in November, just in time for the holiday season. This year’s marketing campaign played on the idea of having breakfast for dinner, highlighting the fact that the stout contains coffee.

Taking Tea to the Next Level

One company that has brought together beer- and tea-inspired products, is Firepot Nomadic Teas, Nashville, Tennessee. Founder, Sarah Scarborough, is constantly exploring new ways to experience tea from culinary delights to beverages. “My brain wanders around tea and cooking all of the time, and one day, I thought, we should do a beer and chai,” said Scarborough. “So, I brought my masala to a local brewery, Jackalope Brewing Company.” The brewery took their amber beer, Bear Walker and infused it with Firepot’s chai spices, and the result was Chai Walker, an autumn chai beer. Although the product is chai inspired, it does not contain any black tea, as the tannins in Camellia sinensis could result in bitter notes.

Understanding the flavour profile of the core product is essential, particularly when companies are looking to infuse a new flavour. “Historically, coffee works well with beer, tisanes work well with ciders and meads,” said Ricky Klein, brewmaster, Groennfell Meadery, Colchester, Vermont. The fact that Kelly Klein, CEO, Groennfell Meadery, has an extensive tea background has greatly assisted with identifying how tisanes could be used to develop innovative alcoholic products.

Currently, Groennfell Meadery has two tisane-based products, Autumn Spice, which features a chamomile tea from Adagio Tea and Buckland Mead, which brings together, lemon, green rooibos, and honey. For the Buckland Mead, Klein initially tried using green tea, but the result was very bitter. Tea can be particularly challenging to work with, he shared, but despite this, Klein continues to experiment, with hopes of being able to release a product featuring lapsang souchong in the future.

Brass Rings Spirit Brands, Hilton Head, South Carolina prides itself in delivering an artisanal craft spirit. The idea of enhancing rum with espresso came about when distiller Pete Thompson from Hilton Head Distillery was having lunch at a local spot, Java Burrito. Although he wasn’t a coffee drinker, he was intrigued by a mocha espresso milkshake that was on the menu. “We felt that there was a gap in the coffee purist market, and nobody was really speaking to that audience. So that is something that we wanted to do,” said Joe Fenten, president and COO,

Brass Rings Spirit Brands.

Their goal was to create a coffee liquor for the coffee purists. To do so, they focused on the raw materials ensuring that they had the right coffee for their product so they decided on Blue Mountain coffee. “The story of the Blue Mountain coffee tied well with our brand and our brand messaging,” said Fenten. “When we tested the maceration of the beans, it was a big win.”

To create the product, the coffee beans are placed in a steeping bag, and soaked and steeped in highly concentrated alcohol at an ambient temperature. Since the beans are hand steeped, each batch of Mountain Peak Espresso Rum is subtly different, but the espresso is kept as consistent as possible.

Distilleries Offer New Product Potential

For some companies, it’s not about a merging, but about crafting a roast of coffee that complements their line of alcohol products. This was the case for Jack Daniels, which was looking to add a line of coffee to their offerings. “Jack Daniels actively sought us out as they had liked another of our products, called Maison Camus Coffee, which is a coffee that we created for a cognac coffee,” said Jackie Newman, vice president, World of Coffee. “The coffee line does not contain any liquor but it’s a brand extension for them.”

World of Coffee, Sterling, New Jersey, became a licensee of Jack Daniels, which provided them with control of over the creation of the roast, including selling the product. To get to the final product, they were provided with a set of guidelines from Jack Daniels, with the primary focus being to create a high-end product that was authentic to the brand. The beans are infused with Jack Daniel’s Old No 7 Tennessee Whiskey providing both caramel and vanilla notes to the coffee. “It’s been a great process for us, we are a small family-owned business and this licensing opportunity, as well as being a fun product to work on, has really helped us grow our business,” said Newman.

As the crafts of alcohol, coffee and tea continue to evolve, so do the opportunities to bring the three products together. Still in its infancy, these relationships will not only result in new products but increased awareness on how the notes in coffee, tea and tisanes can be used to enhance alcoholic beverages. “We all kind of roll out the in same circles, we all like better food, better coffee and better beer,” said Hughes. “Bringing the crafts together is a completely natural relationship.”

Anne-Marie Hardie is a freelancer writer, professor and speaker based in Barrie, Ontario. She may be reached at: annemariehardie1@gmail.com.

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In beer, wine, soda, and other beverages, there are global standards for the component flavours of each beverage — a way for everyone to “speak” the same language of flavours by using the same point of reference. For coffee aromas, many coffee industry experts are familiar with the scent-based products. But you can’t drink these references, only smell them. Professional coffee tasters have never had taste references — until now. The 24 World Coffee Research-approved FlavoursActiV flavours standards for coffee enable a new global language of coffee flavours, which allow a taster in one part of the world to taste exactly the same thing as another.

The GMP pharmaceutical grade flavours capsules for coffee were co-developed by FlavoursActiV and Coffee Enterprises with assistance from Square Mile Coffee roasters. Each of the 24 flavours was then evaluated by the same researchers behind the World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon to ensure a match. With these new references, coffee is taking one step closer to reaching a universal language of flavours. Proceeds from the sale of FlavoursActiV coffee capsules will fund future sensory research at World Coffee Research.

FlavoursActiV coffee flavours standards were evaluated by World Coffee Research to determine if they are appropriate and accurate representations of flavours contained within the coffee lexicon. Once validated they were put forward for inclusion within coffee lexicon 2.0. For the second edition of the lexicon, 24 of the attributes have been updated to include FlavoursActiV references: sour, bitter, salty, apple, grape, coconut, pineapple, acetic acid, butyric acid, isovaleric acid, fermented, peapod, fresh, papery, musty/earthy, musty/dusty, moldy/damp, phenolic, petroleum, brown spice, almond, vanillin, floral, and jasmine.

“Our flavour development program is as much a living project as the coffee lexicon itself and we will continue our effort and investment to bringing more GMP flavour references to the ever-growing world of coffee,” says Marie Pohler, head of coffee sensory at FlavoursActiV.

The new FlavoursActiV references, which have been added in a newly released second edition of the lexicon – Lexicon 2.0 – are GMP pharmaceutical grade, shelf-stable, food-safe, and globally available. As such, they will substantially expand the global applicability of the lexicon. (Most of the flavours references in the first edition of the lexicon are “physical” references, ie, items that can be purchased at a grocery store. However, they are only widely available in mass market grocery store chains in the Unites States — for example, Lorna Doone brand cookies or Green Giant brand cut green beans.)

“We always knew the WCR Sensory Lexicon could never truly be a global tool as long as the majority of references could only be bought in a US grocery store. But there wasn’t anything better out there. FlavoursActiV has changed the math. Their flavours capsules are relevant, accurate, and globally available — just as easy if you’re in Lima as in Limrick as in Lincoln, Nebraska. FlavoursActiV saw that coffee had a need, and they invested in the R&D to create something completely new,” says Tim Schilling, executive director of World Coffee Research.

The WCR Sensory Lexicon is will continue to be updated with new flavours and aromas, as well as new references for those flavours/aromas, as they are identified.

“The development of the coffee sensory calibration tools will be essential for roasters, traders, baristas, and producers around the world for improved quality control and education, not only for the premium and specialty coffee markets, but for all levels of coffee quality,” says Dan Cox, president of Coffee Enterprises, US distributor of the FlavoursActiV products for coffee.

To download the coffee lexicon 2.0, visit: World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon.

For information on FlavorActiV capsules, visit: www.coffeeenterprises.com.

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By Lucia Solis All photos courtesy of Lucia Solis

For the last three years, I’ve worked in beneficios – coffee mills – across Central and South America attempting to shift the paradigm of how coffee is processed. I’ve leveraged my training as a winemaker in Napa Valley, California, as one tool to empower producers who are often very disconnected from the other end of the supply chain — roasters and cafés around the world.

My work as a winemaker, and now as a coffee fermentation designer, hinges on one simple truth: fermentation creates chemical compounds with sensory characteristics. Though we can’t see microbes with the naked eye, we know they influence taste and aroma because we notice their impact when the fermentation goes wrong: we taste this in the form of cup defects, what is often (and erroneously) referred to as “ferment” or “over fermentation.”

Much of my work includes processing practices, focusing on the traditionally neglected step of fermentation to enhance the quality of coffee. Historically, “fermentation” is described as the time that pulped coffee spends in a tank before it is dried. The goal of this step is to remove the mucilage and liberate the seed so that it can be dried, milled and roasted.

Traditionally, “fermentation” is viewed as a process that, if done poorly, could damage and lower the quality of the coffee, and at its very best, merely maintains the inherent quality of the seed. The skin, which serves as a protective boundary for the seed, is removed prior to microbial demucilagination, leaving the coffee vulnerable to spoilage. That is, the traditional paradigm suggests that fermentation offers no opportunity for flavours enhancement, only risk.

Michael Sivetz, whose work influenced coffee from processing through to roasting, wrote: “It has been well established that coffee does not improve as processing time increases especially while the coffee contains large amounts of moisture.”

This places producers in a posture of risk-aversion: processing is a step where the hard work done in the field can be ruined, so we should reduce the total processing time in order to maintain quality. This was really good advice when Sivetz wrote Coffee Processing Technology, but that was nearly 60 years ago and we have learned a lot since then.

More Than a Mechanical Process

Coming from a winemaking background, I am sensitive to comparisons between specialty coffee and wine. The more I learn about coffee, the more differences I see. To me, coffee is not like wine: but it can learn from winemaking and apply principles from the winery to the beneficio.

Both winemaking and coffee processing begin with a fruit that is transformed into beloved beverages. In wine, the skin and pulp become the final beverage. Much care is taken to exclude the seeds as much as possible as they can produce harsh or astringent flavours. Conversely in coffee, the fermentation step is used to remove the fruit pulp and keep the seed.

Wine could not exist without fermentation; coffee can. This step is not necessary to produce coffee; it’s just one way to remove the mucilage, a step that can be completely bypassed by mechanically removing the mucilage using water and friction. Mechanical demucilagination, its proponents note, allows for a consistent and predictable process, reducing the risk of spoilage or defects in the cup.

I believe that “fermentation” is more than a mechanical process. I consider the fermentation step to be the entire period between the cherry being plucked from the tree and dried on a patio or mechanical drier. “Fermentation” is a biological process, a metabolism by which microbes like yeast and bacteria derive energy. As soon as the cherry is harvested, there is opportunity for microbes in the environment to begin to act upon the fruit — they don’t wait until the coffee reaches the tank (there is microbial fermentation activity in honey process and dry process/natural coffees as well!).

Wild yeasts, bacteria and fungi present in the environment – on the cherry skin, in the tank, in the water, and virtually every surface of the mill – break down the sugar and pectin-rich mucilage layer thereby “cleaning” the seed and preparing it for the drying process. This process happens without human intervention. The time it takes the microbes to break down the mucilage varies drastically in time depending on ambient temperature, water temperature and quality, the ripeness of the fruit, cultivar, and whether it is the start or end of the harvest season. Many producers are familiar with these variations but few think about another important variation: the identity of the microbes present at the site.

How a producer chooses to remove the mucilage from the seed can determine whether the flavours produced are desirable or undesirable and influence the resulting coffee. The fermentation step is a powerful opportunity to create flavours. Given enough time, the seed can absorb by-products from the fermentation happening around it. Any flavours produced in the tank could impact the cup.

Therefore, I would like to propose a revision to Michael Sivetz’s statement: “It has been well established that coffee quality will change as processing time increases especially while the coffee contains large amounts of moisture.”

Controlling fermentation is key to unlocking the power of this metabolism and harnessing it to create positive attributes. Fermentation is an opportunity to impact flavours, and all the steps from the farm to the patio can impact the quality (including consistency) of the coffee.

The Benefits of Yeast Inoculation

Farmers deal with many inconsistent, often uncontrollable variables such as rainfall; ambient temperatures; the cost of fertilizer, labour and pesticides; pest and disease pressures; and market prices. One less-obvious variable impacting quality is the microbial population of farms and beneficios.

Instead of relying on the climate and chance to dictate results, producers can actively select the microbes in the tank. This selection empowers producers to participate in the quality of the resulting coffee. The results are predictable and consistent. Active selection of microbes can combine the complexity of flavours and acidity of traditionally washed coffees with the clean consistency of a mechanically washed process. There does not need to be a compromise.

Selecting the microbe population for the coffee fermentation no longer has to be a conversation about mitigating risk or reducing defects — it satisfies these concerns and can turn the focus to increasing value and quality. Industries like wine, beer, distilled spirits, cheese, yogurt have been selecting their microbes to add complexity to their raw material and maintain or enhance quality while reducing risk. Active selection of microbes empowers coffee producers to utilize the same tools that have been available to other industries for decades.

While coffee processing technology provides a great foundation for processing, science and our understanding of processing continues to advance. This level of risk aversion is at odds with the changing market as consumer demand increases for traceable, higher-quality coffees. Many in the supply chain will be left behind if certain processing practices are not critically reviewed and updated.

You can’t keep up with today’s market using last century’s techniques.

Microbiologist Lucia Solis, specializes in microbial demucilagination, or the use of microbes to process coffee following pulping. Born in Guatemala and raised in San Francisco, Lucia studied Viticulture and Enology at UC, Davis prior to working in the wine industry in Napa Valley. In 2014, she started at Scott Laboratories and travelled to Central America applying commercial yeast strains at coffee mills to modulate flavours coming from the tank. Today, she is an independent consultant working directly with coffee producers in origin countries to improve processing practices to increase quality.

The post The Hidden Power of Coffee Fermentation appeared first on Tea & Coffee Trade Journal.

Previously available only by wholesale and online ordering, East Pole offers around six single-origin coffees at any time, plus one always-present blend named “Traffic,” which is a nod to East Pole’s hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. East Pole roasts all beans on-site. The coffee shop will also offer a small food menu, including breakfast burritos from Atlanta’s Yumbii taco shop and local pastries. When the shop is closed, East Pole will lead brewing trainings and other coffee education classes for wholesale clients.

East Pole is located at 255 Ottley Drive, Suite 105, on the street-facing façade of Armour Yards, a 190,000-square-foot loft-office campus adjacent to the planned Belt Line trail, and two buildings down from SweetWater Brewery. East Pole’s 2,000-square-foot roastery and coffee bar feature walnut surfaces and brass finishes throughout, separating café seating from the production area with a glass partition that leaves the roasting process visible to guests. East Pole will be open seven days per week, 7am to 3pm on weekdays and 8am to 2pm on weekends.

A free and open-to-the-public Grand Opening weekend will kick off the night of 15 September at 7pm with a beer collaboration from Second Self brewery and nacho bar from Yumbii. There will be live screen-printing by Baron Press and special edition East Pole t-shirts. Festivities for Saturday and Sunday will be announced soon.

Atlantans Jared Karr and Jules Tompkins founded East Pole in 2015. The partners first met during high school and reconnected over a shared love of specialty coffee after Karr returned from living in Indonesia, where he worked directly with coffee farmers. East Pole sources single-origin, green coffee from importers who are committed to sustainable agriculture. The company’s name is derived from a video blog Karr hosted while living in Indonesia, the “East Pole” of the world.

East Pole’s coffee is currently served at restaurants and coffee shops around Atlanta, such as 8Arm, Yumbii, Taproom Coffee, Copper Coin (Woodstock, Georgia), and Bread & Butter (Covington, Georgia), and services offices around Atlanta, with wholesale clients including Industrious, Mailchimp, and Switchyards.

For more information on East Pole or to order coffee (single 12oz, 2-pound, or 5lb bags, bi-weekly and monthly subscriptions, and wholesale), visit eastpole.coffee.

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The café offers customers ample coffee (and tea, mostly of the iced variety though) choices—coffee ranging from medium roasts to special dark roasts, to cappuccinos, to mochas, to iced mochas and iced hazelnut lattes, and so forth. As of this summer, the café is now offering the well-known and well-respected brand’s cold brew coffee. While cold brew is a great addition to the deep coffee selection, the problem—for both the brand and the customers—is that the café’s employees do not know the difference between “iced coffee” and “cold brew” coffee. They believe cold brew and iced coffee are one in the same, and did not know if cold brew had replaced iced coffee in all the iced coffee drinks.

I doubt these foodservice employees are alone in their misunderstanding of the difference between cold brew and iced coffee. While cold brew has quickly become a favorite among coffee aficionados, it is still new and unknown to many average coffee drinkers (and forget non-coffee drinkers). The café’s employees are not baristas, they are not hand-crafting artisanal coffee beverages—they are pouring cups of regular coffee and tea, as well as soda, and preparing a limited selection of specialty coffee drinks, while also making breakfast and lunch items for rushed and frazzled hospital employees, patients and visitors—as fast as they can. Have they been properly trained to understand the difference between iced coffee and cold brew and explain the nuances of cold brew that make it a premium coffee? It doesn’t seem so and this could affect the café’s revenue.

In an NCA webinar in July, entitled, “Cold Brew Coffee—Why is It Hot?,” the presenter, John Bruckner, senior vice president, national accounts for S&D Coffee & Tea, noted that cold brew coffee is so popular in the United States that it can likely offset declines in drip coffee. Sales of its new cold brew coffee have also apparently helped Dunkin’ Donuts offset lower customer traffic. Starbuck sells both iced and cold brew coffee, while Peet’s Coffee replaced all iced coffee with cold brew in its cafés in 2015.

Bruckner asked, during the webinar, “Is cold brew going mainstream?” Which implies—accurately—that despite its immense popularity and rapidly growing availability, cold brew coffee is not yet a mainstream item. In fact, it is just beginning to enter many foodservice establishments (nearly 25,000 independent and chain restaurants in the US now have cold brew on their menus).

The NCA webinar revealed that 68% of respondents knew the difference between cold brew and iced coffee, while 54% percent found cold brew more appealing. Furthermore, cold brew coffee is particularly popular with millennials—54% males and 46% females.

The NCA webinar, as well as a 2016 SCA Symposium session, compared cold brew coffee to craft beer. Craft beer has a method, distinctive taste and a design aesthetic. So too does cold brew, according to both sessions. “Cold brew is the craft beer of the coffee industry,” said Bruckner.

Cold brew is being developed and promoted as a premium coffee beverage, thus, it costs more than iced coffee. But with this premium status, higher price point and growing availability in non-traditional coffee establishments, comes the need to explain what distinguishes cold brew from iced coffee and why it costs more. Are foodservice employees being taught that cold brew coffee is never heated, rather, the coffee grounds are steeped in cold water for an extended period of time, and the resulting brew is more balanced, distinctively smoother, and subtly sweeter than iced coffee? Do they understand that it is this cold brewing process, which is more time consuming and laborious, is what creates the premium product—and price?

To preserve cold brew’s premium positioning and premium profits within foodservice establishments, employees must be properly educated on the difference between cold brew and iced coffee. If not, the result could be unhappy customers and lower coffee sales—one “bad coffee” experience and customers may go elsewhere for their daily coffee fix.

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• Turkish Indulgent Imperial Stout with Coffee (10% ABV) is inspired by the country’s robust coffee traditionally served with a piece of rock candy. 45kg of Thai coffee beans, roasted by Reading’s Tamp Culture coffee, are added at three different intervals of the brew. The brew also includes the addition of vanilla and orange zest in the spinbot, orange zest and nutmeg in the whirlpool, and 420kg of figs to the fermented beer. The beer has smooth spicy notes, a nice citrus sweetness and a sound body. SRP £76.32
• Americano Devious Double IPA with Coffee (9.1% ABV) is a Coffee Double IPA that uses a debut method designed to preserve the delicate nature of this natural coffee’s high-end berry notes. Quarter House Coffee in Birmingham brewed a strong hot coffee using 17kg of natural Ethiopian coffee which was added to the beer directly before packaging. Americano features Citra, Columbus, Cascade, Chinook hops, and Mosaic Cryo Powder, to the tune of 21 grams per litre. SRP £65.76
• Crema Deceptive Sweet White Coffee Stout (4.9% ABV) is a German Whiskey Barrel Aged Coffee White Stout that builds on two of Siren’s other aged beers: Black Light Banana and Bourbon Coffee Broken Dream. Siren steeped Tamp Culture’s coffee in a fermenter at both 21°C and 0°C to accentuate the low notes of the coffee, whiskey, wood, vanilla. Cocoa nibs and vanilla were then added to 25kg of German Whiskey Aged Coffee to create a beer that enriches the character elicited from ageing the green beans in barrels. SRP £35.28
• For CapHeine Kettle Sour with Coffee (6.2% ABV) Siren paired with artisan coffee roaster Climpson and Sons in London to deliver a kettle sour beer. The most nuanced coffee beer of the four, CapHeine’s biscuit, bready malt notes utilise hibiscus and raspberries along with a floral and fruity Kenyan coffee bean to create a cacophony of flavour. There are notes of redcurrant, cranberry, plum, red fruit and some light hibiscus florals. Mosaic, Palisade and Bravo hops are added during kettling and as a small dry hop addition. There’s hibiscus in the boil, and 120kg of raspberries were added to the fermentation. SRP £40.68

Traditionally craft beers are somewhere between 5-6% ABV so these beers have a slightly higher ABV. Launched in July, Siren’s Turkish, Crema, Americano and CapHeine on draft at six sites across Britain and in bottles at online retailer Honest Brew (https://honestbrew.co.uk). Siren plans to release the coffee beers annually.

Siren Craft Brew has been included in Ratebeer’s ‘Top 100 Brewers in the World’ for the third year running and has undergone recent expansion at their home in Finchampstead, Berkshire.

More information about Siren Craft Brew visit: http://sirencraftbrew.com or for information on Project Barista, visit: www.sirencraftbrew.com/projectbarista/.

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