Don't replicate. Innovate

It's not easy to open a cafe or restaurant. It can look glamorous - can be social and fun but in truth it requires dedication, persistence and a lot of hard work.

Most cafe owners I know have a vision of what they want their cafe to be. Its in their head. If I was to give one piece of advice to anyone before they consider to open a cafe, it would be to create your vision.

Yes there are loads of other really pertinent issues you need to consider but before all that.. before you get caught up in the how will it run, who will I employ, what will it turnover - you need to figure out what this cafe is going to be. This, is the only place to start.

 Map out on paper what you would like your cafe to look and feel like. What message do you want it to communicate to the customers. Then figure how will you communicate that message through everything you do. What values will it stand for. You build everything around this from the toilets to the menu. Let this be the core of everything that your cafe will stand for. Remember, a business is an extension of its owner. It represents you. Without this core and vision you have just an idea. The same idea as everyone else who just wants to open their own cafe. Worse, you have an idea without a plan.

Once you know what you want to achieve, get some ideas and create your own footprint. Don't replicate someone else's idea - because that hasn't come from your heart. Its not yours, its an extension of someone else. You'll tire of that. Innovate and you'll never stop innovating. Create something new.

Does your coffee need a taste lift ?

People are more discerning.  It's a fact.

We are more educated, we can access vast amounts of information at our fingertips and we simply have more answers.

In the coffee world there is always something to learn, you never stop learning. This month we have been looking at coffee harvests, how different countries harvest at different times of the year and how the flavours vary from region to region.  For example some coffee flavours from Central and Southern America can taste of dark fruits, cocoa and bitter chocolate, yet coffee's from Southern Africa have bright ripe citrus fruit flavours and floral tones.  You wouldn't believe me unless you tasted them for yourself when brewed properly.

A properly made espresso will have a balance of flavour, depth and a richness in the mouth.  There will be some acidity, some fruit, some bitterness. Nothing dominant. Balance.  Ideally this balance of flavours carries through into the milk based drinks and the natural sugars in the milk will compliment the sweet tones in the coffee.  The overall effect is a joy to taste and savour.  We strive to teach this to every barista we train and cafe that serves our coffee.  If you can nail this, if you can deliver balance of flavours in your coffees - you will have happy returning customers.  If your coffee tastes of ...well ...just bitter coffee - you are doing something wrong and its time for a Coffee Culture taste lift.

Because you're worth it

Getting a great coffee these days can still be hit and miss. I'm not here to name and shame. I'm just having a little rant.  These days I feel strongly about sending coffee's back if they are anything other than acceptable.  The problem is though what makes a great coffee ? 

And whats the point in sending it back.  Do the cafe staff and owners even know how to improve the product?  Could they care less ?  

Successful businesses care about the customer experience.  They keep themselves current.  The best cafe businesses keep the offering up to date and relevant, aligned with consumer trends.   If a cafe is not serving freshly roasted, ground to order coffee these days it is not current. It is irrelevant.  

And If you visit a cafe and they don't know how to pour a decent espresso, they may as well forget it. This, is the basis of all great coffee drinks.  We are more discerning now.  Most likely we won't tell the cafe if the coffee was less than average.  We just pay and laugh it off.  Is that an Irish thing ? Next time consider sending the coffee back and encourage the cafe to improve, to try harder, to make your experience better.  Because you're worth it.




Upskill your staff with barista training at Irelands first dedicated barista academy and learn how to deliver exceptional coffee.  For a great coffee experience visit our Coffee Culture clients who share this ethos and who have trained with us.

Bear Market Coffee in Blackrock, Dublin
Delish Cafe's, Limerick
Blessington Bookstore, Blessington, Wicklow
Box of Frogs, Bantry, Co. Cork  

Coffee Culture, creating Irelands coffee quality standards.

Don't be so Bitter

Next time you drink a cup of coffee I'd like you to consider its flavour.  Rather than slurping it down, take a second or two to allow the coffee sit on your tongue and in your mouth and see what flavours you can pick out before you swallow it.  Even after swallowing keep searching.  At a typical barista training class we will taste and assess anywhere between 50 and 100 coffees.  We look for flavour and mouthfeel.   More often than not when you drink a poor coffee you get a taste - not flavour.  Usually that taste is bitterness, it is at the back of your mouths or in our throat and is often confused with strength.   The more bitter, the stronger it is perceived to be.  Wrong. 

Coffee has an abundance of flavour. When you taste coffee, the flavours should sit in the middle of your tongue and they should wrap around your mouth.  Caramels, dark fruits and chocolate are just an example of flavours that you might be able to identify.   The mouthfeel is also known as body.  A properly made coffee will be balanced. When you taste it, it will be present in the middle of your mouth, it will be rich in mouthfeel and the flavours should be noticeable on your tongue. Acidity to the front, fruits and sweetness to the middle. It should not be bitter.  Think flavour not taste. 



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Rich Sweet Milk

There are three main properties that affect how the milk tastes in a cappuccino and latte.  
Fat content is high on the agenda - and the reason is that the fat carries the flavour. Think french food - loads of butter and cream.  This is the richness.  
The higher the fat content the richer the texture in the mouth.

The sweetness comes from the lactose (disacharides).. this natural sweetness in milk is accentuated with heat, as the milk is heated the natural sugars are more obvious to the senses. Now heat is another discussion.. and something we touched on last autumn.  Suffice to say that if you over heat the milk, you'll ruin the texture of the milk.  There is a key temperature for this.  Its 65 degrees celsius.  Anything above this makes the milk split into a dry foam and boiled milk.  

The last factor is protein. Protein comes in simple terms as grass, and specifically grass feeding.  Cows fed on a high grass diet will produce higher protein milk.  This is essential for the milk texture.  As you heat the milk you release the proteins. Again too hot and the milk splits and loses its texture. 

For really great milk try different varieties.  Avonmore sell milk that has consistently high values in protein and lactose.  Other suppliers like Adare farm foods sell organic whole milk - loads of natural proteins, happy cows, rich and creamy.

The most important thing is to find what you like.  The sensory taste and texture is really important when making coffee.  If you can deliver this texture and mouthfeel regardless of latte art and all that fancy stuff, you will have great tasting coffee.

Great coffee is not enough

Every week I visit different cafes.  From Dublin to Cork and Waterford to Westport. Last week I was in Ardkeen Quality Foodstore in Waterford.  We train their barista's to deliver the best coffee they can.  One thing struck me while I was there.  It was the sense of community within the shop.  The barista knew everyone by name.  There was no rush, no pressure, it was a really nice environment to arrive into and to be a part of.  Its what a cafe should be.

Mind you, I don't have to travel to Waterford to experience that.  I can experience that here in Limerick too, be it Michelle in Arabica on Shannon street or Laoise out in Delish Cafe Castletroy.  I'm sure you all have your favourite local place.  For many It used to be the pub.  Now, more than ever cafe's are more important in our lives.  As author Ray Oldenberg suggests, they are our third place.  First : home, second : work and then that third place where we go to have a social coffee, a work chat or to fix the world. 

Great coffee is not enough.  What makes a great cafe is the chat, engagement, being able to nod your head at the barista and they know you're having your regular cuppa.  The barista job, and that customer interaction is often overlooked by many cafes.  It is what separates the average from the great.

Coffee Snobbery

Do people really know what the difference is between a good coffee and a bad one. Is it the coffee or the experience? I’ve already wrote about the experience - so lets talk coffee. For me it has to be freshly roasted - and by that I mean roasted ideally by an Irish coffee roaster some time within the last four weeks. The shorter the better. 

As the lads in Two Spots Coffee say, remember when wine came from France and coffee came from Italy ? Well forget that. Ireland has some really fantastic artisan roasters. So this is the only place to start. Buying coffee from an Irish roaster keeps 75% of the money spent on the coffee beans in the country. Importing roasted coffee sends 75% of the money out of the country. Its a no brainer.

At Coffee Culture we roast every week, offering café owners freshly roasted coffee, that can be ground to order and made on demand to give you the best possible opportunity to enjoy coffee at its best. After that, we rely on the skill of the barista to perfect the espresso.  We train all of our cafe staff, starting them all off at Level 1 Barista Skills.

Its really difficult to make great coffee.  It takes time, practise, patience and dedication.  Coffee taste varies, but in some ways its quite generic - people just want a fix.  But that is changing - customers are getting more discerning, recognising great tasting coffee and flavours.