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,…

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.

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…

When it comes to choosing the best manual coffee grinder, where do you start? Should you get one with a blade or burr? What’s the difference? And what about if you’re looking for an electric grinder? How do you narrow down all of your options? You’re not the only one wondering. In fact, we’ve put together this guide because we know that most people don’t know where to even begin. And not only can we help you navigate the maze of searching for the best coffee grinders, but we think it will also help you know to more about coffee grinding in general. All of this can be overwhelming especially when you’ve never owned a coffee grinder or you’ve never ground coffee before. We get it. Why Get a Coffee Grinder? Here’s the thing: Coffee grinding is not just about pouring coffee beans into a grinder, brewing the coffee and…

When people think about where to buy the best coffee beans, their minds narrow in on a package or a label. But there are different factors to look for when it comes to choosing the best whole bean coffee. A lot it also depends on where coffee beans grow, how they are roasted, for how long they’ve been roasted before being brewed, how they are ground and finally how they are brewed. All of these elements together give coffee beans their unique flavors. A lot of that depends on you too. You have your own unique taste palate and certain coffee flavor preferences. For example, do you prefer light, medium or dark coffee? And what flavors would you most likely go for? Fruity, nutty, or a citrus taste? At the same time, you may not have a favorite yet, or you’re open to trying new flavors. The best way to…

Isn’t pour over coffee so much better than machine brewed coffee? The rich taste that highlights all the flavorful notes. The wonderful aroma that fills the room. There is something special about the pour over method that makes truly makes a difference. Yet, many still opt for brewing coffee using a normal coffee machine. Why bother if you can just push a button? Who needs a pour over coffee when you have the convenience of using your coffee maker? Yes, it may seem like brewing pour over coffee is more labor-intensive. But the process is not that complex at all. Pour over coffee easier to make than you realize. What’s involved? Only a few basic things: Freshly ground coffee, a filter, hot water, and a brewer — a pour over coffee maker. That’s it. What You’ll Need to Make Pour Over Coffee: 1. Pour over coffee maker (We’ll get into…