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 practices and transparency in the supply chain. These criteria are likely similar to what you use when choosing proteins, produce, and other ingredients on your menu. Coffee roasters like Colectivo and Metropolis visit coffee farms at origin, providing insight into growing practices and sustainability measures that can be a determinant of quality. These roasters continually evaluate coffees from growing regions around the world, looking for flavorful coffees that provide your guests with the perfect cup at the end of the meal. Partnering with roasters like these provides you with a great story to accompany your specialty program.
Transparency and Values
In your own business, you work to understand where your ingredients come from down to the farm level and want to partner with suppliers that mirror your own values around the environment, worker conditions and the long term health of the community. The highest caliber specialty coffee providers do the same, ensuring they can trace their coffees back to the land where it was grown and supporting the community around that land with investments in clean water, better farming practices, and educational opportunities for families of producers.
These are just some of the number of criteria you can use to evaluate a coffee roaster for use in your specialty program. If this seems overwhelming, why not partner with someone who has done the evaluation for you and can present a variety of high-quality coffee programs you can grow your business with. That’s what Tradecraft Outfitters does for hundreds of hospitality clients across the country. We vet all of our roaster partners for their commitment to quality, transparency and community support to provide the very best coffees in the market along with equipment support and training. We do all of this so you can focus on providing the very best hospitality experience to your guests, right down to the last cup of coffee with their dessert, the great finish that will bring them back time and again.
