A specialty coffee program should be an integral part of your hospitality business, supporting a high-quality experience for your guests all the way through to the end of the meal.  A 2021 National Coffee Association survey shows a higher percentage of specialty coffee drinkers in afternoon and evening dining dayparts, underscoring the need to offer a variety of specialty coffee beverages in venues that operate in those times.  A craft beverage program should be selected with the same care that you use in for your food menus. What criteria should you look at to choose a craft coffee program that reflects your values, your attention to detail, and that will ultimately delight your guests?  Who can you partner with that can enhance your craft beverage program with equipment, employee training and menu support?  Here are a few criteria you can consider in selecting the right specialty coffee partner for your business.    Coffee Quality Specialty coffee roasters look at multiple factors that determine quality, like sustainable growing…

Tradecraft is proud to work with the best craft coffee and specialty tea partners around the country. Our success depends on the relationships we’ve built with our roasters and growers and our portfolio represents the best in the country. It’s a privilege to be a part of this global community and we support it through working with carefully vetted craft partners. Each of our partners we vet for transparent and responsible sourcing practices, a traceable supply chain, and conscientious use of natural resources to best ensure long term accessibility to the products we cherish. We also recognize that diversity is key to innovation, providing insights into our business that allows us to provide culturally sensitive products and services across all markets. Continued partnerships with our vast supplier network allows us to expand the breadth of available products to satisfy multicultural marketplaces across the country. In honor of AAPI heritage month,…

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Choosing a coffee supplier is an important choice for the success of your business — whether you’re making the decision for a restaurant, hotel, or cafe.  It’s not enough to be able to deliver a product that keeps customers coming back. You need to look beyond what the customer is expecting.  Coffee and tea sit at the top on the list of items customers want. There are no replacements for a smooth cup of craft coffee, and if you leave that customer craving unfulfilled, you forgo important business and risk alienating your customer. To keep your customers coming back, it’s crucial to find a sustainable, effective way to make sure coffee falls into their hands when they need it.  That’s why a long-term relationship with a trusted coffee supplier will go a long way. You want your customers to walk away from their experience telling their friends how great your…

The coffee industry, like so many, has evolved and changed greatly, especially during the past twenty years. You walk into basically any coffee shop now and you see more than simply “Drip Coffee” followed by three prices for three sizes. There are standard drip coffees for immediate service and then the, sometimes daunting, pour-over menu, with words like V60, Kalita Wave 185, Aeropress, Chemex….wait, isn’t a Chemex how the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. brewed coffee? It’s true, in countless episodes you’ll see a Chemex in Rachel and Monica’s kitchen, and you’re also likely to see it in a coffee bar being prepared by someone who wasn’t even alive when Friends was airing! Why would you go with a pour-over instead of drip coffee? Is there a difference? Is one superior to the other? To explore this we are going to break it down into three parts: Various pour-overs and what they do/basic recipes, Automatic…

During the last few days in February coffee people from across the United States flew to Costa Mesa, CA for a weekend of coffee competitions. Every year, the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) hosts competitions for coffee professionals testing their skills in making espresso, brewing coffee, roasting green coffee, crafting coffee cocktails, or a cup tasting competition. If you’ve ever wondered what the coffee equivalent of Chopped or The Amazing Race is, read on! From top left to bottom right…The newly crowned US Barista Champion, Andrea Allen from Onyx Coffee Labs in Arkansas. She has been serving judges 4 espressos, 4 milk drinks, and 4 signature beverages for seven years and has officially claimed the title as champion! She will be representing the US at the World Barista Championships in Melbourne, AUS May 4-7, 2020. First time competitor and national Brewers Cup qualifier, Kristina Jackson, an educator for Inteligentisa Coffee. Kristina…

As the workforce skews younger, the lukewarm pot of freeze dried coffee is rapidly becoming a relic, pushed aside in favor of an experience more vibrant and meaningful than a can could provide.  Younger workers have come of age with a view of coffee sharply in contrast with that of their parents, considering it not as a commodity but as a craft, not just fuel for the day but a social experience and connection to a larger community.

T.Ben is Founder of Glitter Cat – a barista training program for underrepresented groups of people. He is also the latest addition to our growing training and education department! We sat down with him to learn a little more about his coffee background and what he’s doing when he’s not showing off his latte art skills.

The perfect espresso: a lifelong pursuit for us coffee nerds. At it’s best, espresso is a harmonious balance of acidity, bitterness, and sweetness. At its worst, it can be aggressively sour or bitter. So how do you avoid these pitfalls? One of the first steps is to look for the “three phases” a shot goes through while it’s pulling. Each phase brings something different to the table. Coffee experts talk a lot about extraction, and that’s essentially what we’re looking at here. Different compounds in the espresso extract at different times. Too much of one phase will throw the shot out of balance. Part One: The Heart This is the most concentrated part of the shot. It’s heavy in body, and often it shows itself as deep, rich brown drips. This phases carries most of the bright, vibrant flavors of the espresso such as citrus and other fruit notes, but can be…

Whether you’re a casual tea drinker or a seasoned tea connoisseur, you’ve undoubtedly come across your local coffee shop offering the tasty and popular beverage known as chai tea. The History of Chai Tea The Hindi word for tea, the term chai was originally derived from the Chinese word for tea, “cha.” Chai tea is one of the most popular types of tea enjoyed worldwide and for a good reason. Not only is chai tea incredibly delicious, but it is also believed to provide a whole host of benefits when consumed. Chai tea has been the tea of choice for cultures around the world for thousands of years. Today, chai tea generally refers to a type of tea that consists of a wide variety of spices, sweeteners, and flavors. There’s even a chocolate chai tea. In this brief guide, we’ll be exploring the many types of chai tea and cover…