In the latest example of imaginative local promotion of the beverage industry, the Café Trade company of Chester has run a twelve-week campaign aimed at encouraging local consumers to visit their local cafes and vote for them.  In a local poll, the city’s favourite independent café was found to be the Mad Hatter's Tea Rooms, a relatively new business which celebrated its first birthday in late April.

The point of running the contest was to highlight the value of the city’s independent operators, said Steve Kelsey of Café Trade. “Although the chains dominate the prime sites, we have over 30 independents,” he explained. “The city has an annual Food and Drink Festival, at which the ‘best’ three cafes are awarded prizes. However, these awards are decided by ‘judges’, and not by the regular patrons of the city's coffee houses – so we ran a campaign to find the people's ‘favourite’ independent coffee shop or cafe.

“The campaign was supported by our local radio station, the survey was conducted online, consumers were asked to give reasons for their selection, and all feedback has been passed on to the respective outlets to use in their future development.

“Other such surveys and contests are planned for the future as we hope that Chester's independent coffee sector will rise to the challenge of bringing a better all-round offer to locals and tourists alike.”

 

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Kopi luwak has become the subject of the latest work by the irreverent Java Republic roastery of Dublin.  The palm civet coffee is, they tell us, now selling regularly at 68 euros for 250gm, and is in demand for weddings and birthdays. The company says it has now sold 7,000 euros-worth of the stuff, but has been quick to confirm that its supply has come from wild cats only, not factory-farmed ones.

 

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We are sorry to confirm that the Always Sunday coffee house in the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, has indeed closed, and from what we are now told by owner Mary Mcdonald, was the victim of yet another quite inexplicable demand by a landlord – from the figures we have seen, the requested increase in rent was twice as much as some cafes we know pay in total rent for an  entire year….

 

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An online petition against Starbucks opening in Broadway Market, Hackney, appears to have attracted 1,780 signatures in a couple of days.  The petition refers to premises which Starbucks have apparently acquired there, and says: ‘we believe that Starbucks is totally inappropriate to Broadway Market, a very special place full of independent retailers’. One of the most fascinating comments on the online petition is one which says:  “I’m so very sorry – I work for the agents that found the place for Starbucks. I did say to them that I thought it was an inappropriate place but they thought it was perfect. Business is business.”

 

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John McGinnell has taken on the sales manager role at Fracino, following the retirement of John Cook.  He was previously with the Nairobi Coffee & Tea Company and Tchibo. 

 

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Our readers will recall Darcy Willson-Rymer, who was Starbucks UK & Ireland managing director up to a year or so ago. He is now to leave the company he went to  -  he is one of several directors of Clinton Cards who will depart from  the company after it was placed in administration this week.

 

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Limini Coffee of Yorkshire is looking for trade distributors.  We have very few details, but Limini’s Youri Vlag says that there is a vast amount of back-up support, and distributors will not have to worry about stock, developing coffees, deliveries or paperwork. There is no set-up cost and training will be provided.   coffee@liminicoffee.co.uk

 

Coffee House newsflash 23rd April

 

UCC Holdings, Japan’s leading coffee company, has today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire United Coffee, Europe’s leading independent coffee group.

 

The transaction is expected to complete during the second quarter of 2012 and will bring together two leading coffee groups from Europe and Asia to become one of the top five biggest independent coffee companies in the world. United Coffee will continue to trade as United Coffee across all of its key markets.

 

UCC is Japan’s largest producer of coffee with a turnover of 2.5 billion Euros and employs 3,700 people. It operates a number of coffee businesses with plantations in Jamaica and Hawaii, plus seven plants in Japan. 

Coffee House Newsflash 21st April

 

The Italian Beverage Company has won a Queen's Award for Industry in the International Trade section.

 

The company is the producer of the Simply brand and supplier to the coffee-shop trade of flavoured syrups, sauces, shakes, chocolate drinks, frappes, smoothies, and so on.   It wins the Award for its achievement in growing its overseas sales by  257 per cent over the last three years. The company is currently working with distributors in over 40 countries and has just opened its own office in the USA.

This weekend’s regional heat of the UKBC was in Norwich, and was won by Howard Barwick (above left), a barista with a unique track record in competition – he was the winner of the first Brasilia Barista Challenge in 2009, an independent contest run by the Caffe Society company. That was the first contest he had entered, and at the time he had been a barista for less than a year.  This weekend, he moved straight into fourth place in the UKBC’s progressive ‘leader board’.  Second place in Norwich went to Alex Sargeant of the local Strangers coffee house, and a notable third place winner was Luke Evans – he’s not from an independent coffee house, but entered as Marks and Spencer’s reigning barista of the year.   The UKBC event was part of the inaugural Norwich Coffee Festival, run by Richard Norman, which itself was notable for the astonishingly low prices charged to exhibitors. Richard has said that he has had several enquiries about repeating the Festival next year. 

 

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One of the UK’s major craft roasters, Steve Leighton of Has Bean, is recovering after a motorway accident – he tells us:  “joining the motorway, my back tyre blew out, and I lost control and ended up 15ft down an embankment. I'm ok, car’s a bit of a mess.”  Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the 2010 world barista champ, Mike Phillips, has broken a collarbone in a motorbike accident.

 

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Clipper, the Fairtrade tea brand, has been acquired by Wessanen, an organic food company operating in France, the Benelux, and Germany. It is also involved in fruit drinks and cocktail mixers in America. Last year, Wassanen had a turnover of  706 million euros;  Clipper’s revenue was £16 million. Clipper will be integrated into the UK businesses of Wessanen, which currently includes Kallo Foods and Whole Earth.

 

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There has been an extremely curious development in the espresso-machine explosion saga.  The trade will remember that a machine exploded in a Sainsbury’s café, sending several people to hospital, and that the HSE has now been investigating the matter for quite a long time. The latest thing to happen is that the Elektra machine company of Italy have circulated a letter sent to them by the RSA insurance company, which says, in effect, that the machine from the Sainsbury’s incident has been investigated and found to be in ‘good order’, and that Elektra carries no liability for the accident. (There are, we should add, a few curiosities in translation which we are questioning, to establish exactly what the insurers mean in their explanation of the cause of the explosion – we’d rather do this before we actually reproduce their comments.)

However, the insurer’s decision seems to have come as a surprise to the HSE in Britain. The  HSE has refused to comment in detail, but has told us that the letter has been passed to those involved in ‘the current and ongoing’ HSE investigation. The words ‘current and ongoing’ were underlined.

We also now learn that a technical seminar on the subject of pressure vessels is to be held for environmental health officers in Hampshire, so that they can appreciate the relevance to espresso machines in catering situations.

 

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Another ‘do-it-yourself’ online business is to offer customised blends to consumers.  This is New Beans, which is to promote its CTAPS service. This is a ‘coffee tasting and profiling system’, which appears to work by the customer ‘scoring’ the taste characteristics of the coffee they want, with the roaster interpreting this into a blend. The roaster for New Beans is Smith’s Coffee in Hemel Hempstead.  New Beans have told us that they hope coffee shops will use the service as a way of instantly creating their own private-label blends. In the last issue of Coffee House magazine, we reported on Eightpointnine, who work on a fairly similar principle.

 

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Starbucks has announced what it calls a ‘multi-million pound investment’ to re-launch its latte ‘to suit changing British tastes’.  From what little we have yet been able to find out, this appears to involve telling its baristas to brew lattes with a double shot, but also includes the training of ten thousand baristas in the use of ‘a revolutionary milk-steaming pitcher which spins and folds milk to velvety perfection every time’.  Starbucks has also claimed that for many drinkers, their latte will now be 14 per cent cheaper – we think this refers to effectively abandoning the charge for a second espresso shot.   In a quite delightful message to My Starbucks Rewards Gold level members, the company has added that consumers can, if they wish, now add ‘unlimited’ extra shots to any drink, an offer which invites fascinating possibilities.   Meanwhile, the Telegraph has reported another ambitious Starbucks plan – the brand’s European chief is reported as saying that she wants this part of the world to be as covered with branches as New York. She is quoted as saying that in Manhattan, she can see someone on every block holding a Starbucks cup, and apparently the ambition is to re-create that… right across Europe!

 

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The Norwegian ‘kitchen barista’, Torstein Bjorklund, has created what he tells us is ‘the most high quality coffee film’ in the training sector. Most unusually, this is aimed at the domestic market – it is a full 45-minute instructional film designed to teach home consumers how to make good coffee. There is a launch campaign to consumers which offers the digital download version for £6.99, and there is a DVD version.  Tor himself is an actor, which perhaps accounts for the fact that his speech on the film sounds remarkably British, but he does have one very notable qualification as a barista – he trained in one of the world’s most northerly coffee bars, sitting above the arctic circle, and in a championship in his native country, he once came out ahead of the national coffee hero Tim Wendelboe!  

Details:  http://thekitchenbarista.com/about/

 

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The Roy Ireland Espresso Services engineering company has devised an ‘espresso machine scrappage scheme’, based largely on the motor vehicle scheme which the government introduced in 2009.  Ireland is offering beverage operators an incentive to give up their old machine for disposal, in the form of discounts on new Rancilio equipment – the discounts go from £450 to £1,000.    “It's an incentive designed to help people get rid of the really decrepit machines out there,” Rory Ireland told us. “Obviously we wouldn't encourage it with machines that are perfectly repairable, but we have seen some shockers, including some features we’re pretty sure aren’t allowed any more. We have probably scrapped four machines already this year – if there are any parts salvageable we keep them for other older out-of-production machines, and we send any metal for recycling.  It seems fair that the customer gets rewarded for getting rid of a machine that has turned into a bit of a money pit for them.”

 

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Mike Riley, former Head of Coffee at Taylor’s of Harrogate, has opened his Kipanga Coffee Consultancy. Still in Harrogate, he proposes to import coffee beans for distribution to the small-roaster sector.

 

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Expect to see tea and coffee in the soaps soon – the TeaJay brand, which was launched in December, is said to be appearing in the café in Emmerdale. The brand’s founder has said that she paid no ‘placement’ fee.  And we’re told that a coffee cart is about to turn up in Coronation Street…

 

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We are going to be just a little ‘satisfied’ about the result of yesterday’s south-western regional heat in the UK Barista Championships – we said we could predict the top three placings, and although at the last moment we hedged our bets and added a fourth outside chance, we still came away with three out of four.  And there is now a distinct feeling here in the south-west that the national winner could come from this area. 

 

The Exeter heat became another clean sweep for the winner – the extremely experienced competitor Dale Harris of Has Bean won, taking also all the individual drink categories (best espresso, best cappuccino and best signature drink), ahead of Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood of Colonna and Smalls in Bath, and Dave Jones of Origin Coffee Roasters in south Cornwall. 

 

Dale’s signature drink was intriguing, and he carried the theme through his whole presentation – this is how he explained it to us:

 

“Coffee was two lots of a single varietal from Finca Santuario in Cauca, Colombia, red and yellow fruit from separate 100-per-cent bourbon lots. I used a single varietal of tomato (Santini, Spain) that fruits in red and yellow and offered the judges a choice of red or yellow for each drink - they chose red for cappuccino, yellow for espresso.

 

“For the signature drink they chose yellow, so tasted yellow bourbon coffee, then yellow bourbon coffee with a dash (3ml) yellow tomato water, and hot water (7ml) which increased sweetness, then tasted with ice which muted sweetness and brought delicate tomato acidity to the fore.

 

“Simples!”

 

Just as entertaining, we think, was the presentation by Barry Cook of Cafelicious in Swindon.  It is rare for a contender to use a proprietary flavoured syrup – Barry used two, both from Taylersons, with a crème brulee in the piccolo and vanilla in the cream topping. “It was a local drink for our business,” Barry told us. “Coffee from Rave in Tetbury, syrup from Malmesbury and milk from Tewksbury, all made to the backing of ‘Senses Working Overtime’ by XTC, a  Swindon band!”

 

The next regional event is being organised by Pumphreys in Newcastle, on 17^th February.  The editor confesses that he is still considering his predictions...

 

 

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There is voting currently going on for the role of UK national co-ordinator at the SCAE.  It’s rather interesting to see the political manifestos of the three candidates:  Lynsey Harley of United Coffee is a Q-grader (a holder of the rigorous international coffee accreditation which is far too complex to explain here) and an experienced barista contest competitor. Her intention is to organise events, talks, and education, and to ‘utilise the wealth of knowledge and expertise we have in the UK to bring the industry forward leaps and bounds’.  Andrew Webb is the head of Crediton Coffee, and has ten years’ experience with the International Coffee Organization working on numerous worldwide projects; he moved to Devon to become a roaster.  Jamie Banwell of Base Coffee is a start-up coffee wholesaler, is a member of the UKBC organising committee, and wants to create an organisation at the centre of the debate about coffee – 'our role, through the web and social media etc, should be to inform, direct and help those who want a career in, or just wish to learn about, the coffee industry. '

Voting, for SCAE members only, is, we think, open for another week or so.

 

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There is a terrific new coffee-related song based on Bar Italia of Soho – you can see it and hear it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKIKoe_13QA  It’s performed by the wonderfully-named Ray Gelato… which is Italian for ice-cream. The video shows off the wonderful ‘Soho-character’ customer base of the café.

 

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There’s an interesting variation on the ‘pound shop’ theory from Cheltenham, where Tam Emirali has opened up the Bon Appetit 99, a cafe in which all food is priced under a pound. Apparently the portions aren’t big, but we’re told of one customer who bought and ate four meals and thought he had still got a bargain. There is word of a second opening, in Dublin (with the concept changed to one and a half euros).

 

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The director of the Loo of the Year awards, in which the coffee-house trade always fails entirely to distinguish itself, has taken radical action against us for the 2012 awards, the 25^th year of ‘Britain’s favourite competition’.  He is now mailing coffee-houses direct to hustle them into entering the contest for ‘the best places to go’ (his phrase, not ours!)

 

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The highly-regarded London cafe St Ali, which also runs the Sensory Lab brew-bar café, has re-branded as Workshop Coffee. The name is to ‘reflect the company’s artisan approach to speciality coffee and food’.

 

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Clive Danby, formerly trade sales manager at Caffe Society, has become National Accounts Manager at Mokarabia. 

 

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Coffee #1 has applied to take over the former Ballantyne’s wine merchants premises in Pontcanna, Cardiff – it is the first application by the chain’s new owners, brewers SA Brain & Co. Residents are reported to be relieved that the incomer is not a supermarket.

 

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Consumer spend moves increasingly away from the high street, according to the latest work by the Local Data Company. Their latest Shop Vacancy report reviews the state of 700 town centres and says, generally, that prime centre 'core' areas remain healthy but secondary centres and outlying areas struggle as multiple retailers move out or fail. Worst vacancy rates are in the Midlands and North (Stockport, Nottingham, Grimsby, Stockton, Wolverhampton, Blackburn, Walsall and Blackpool all have vacancy rates over 25%). The researchers also point out that one-fifth of UK shopping malls are now estimated to be in financial difficulties, with around 20 ‘secondary shopping centres’ already on the market.

 

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There is astounding news from Kenya, where it is reported that coffee growers are ‘caught up in a whirlwind of thefts and violence’. In the coffee plantations, growers are sleeping in fields to protect their crops, and armed guards are protecting dried beans. Organised crime gangs are reportedly using violence to steal the coffee stocks, and the agriculture ministry says that violent theft is occurring daily. Eleven people died in one incident, including a man who alleged that police were involved in the robberies, and who was shot dead while speaking out.

It is a big week for contests…

 

It might be reckoned that things are already going according to the form book after the first heat of the UK barista championship.  In the London regional event, Sang Ho Park of Tapped and Packed came out top, and also took the best espresso, best cappuccinso, and best signature drink prizes as well (we regret we have no information on his signature drink).  Matthew Robley-Siemonsma, also of Tapped and Packed, was second and Rummy Keshet, barista trainer at Darlington’s, was third.  The next heat will be the south-western one at Exeter on 8/9 February, and although we didn’t get the entry lists in time for our usual form-book predictions, we can see at least three names in the Exeter line-up on which we would risk a fiver.  Although the organisers of the northern regional events will argue, we think the south-western contest will be a tight one and will produce someone to watch in the final…

 

We are, as you know, always fans of alternative barista contests, and we enjoyed the one which has been run for the Loungers chain by the people at Clifton Coffee. The challenges included cupping, grind calibration, manual filter-coffee brewing, drinks preparation, blindfold deep-cleaning (!), and a written test. Clifton’s Ed Buston has told us that any tie-break situation might be decided by a game of table football!

 

Cafes with the appropriate food might care to go in for a specialist contest sponsored by Magnet, the builders’ merchant people. Entries are now open for the Best Builder’s Breakfast, and only one-site independents or chains of less than five sites are eligible - entries close on February 14.

 

What we expect to be the most entertaining contest of all is about to appear from the Local Data Company, the research organisation which specialises in the state of Britain’s high street business. For several years one of their entertaining sidelines has been a collection of retail businesses with funny or quirky names – now they’re holding a vote for the favourite one of the lot. Voting starts in February.

 

Oh, and while we’re at it, the BSA begins the second series of its new-style ‘beverage standards’ awards in February. 

 

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It is also the season of café guides – the latest Allegra one to coffee-houses in London is, we understand, currently being printed, and we also know that an event is being planned for 15^th March in support of their appeal for fresh water supplies to African coffee-growing regions. This will involve a sponsored walk along the Thames, but it’s not just as easy as that… entrants will be required to carry containers of water, to simulate the situation of the African villagers being helped. (Readers may recall that Peros have occasionally used a similar water-carrying theme). 

 

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Readers may recall that just before Christmas, the Times included its usual coffee supplement.  It had some interesting aspects, although we have to say that we did question some aspects of it with the publisher.  They have now developed an i-pad app to go alongside this which is free for download from the app store.

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/raconteur/id441248065?mt=8

 

 

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The Crumbling Cookie café bar in Leicester has a new sign – a giant mosaic made from more than 55,000 coffee beans. It took 150 hours to glue the beans individually to two giant wooden boards, features different colours by the use of raw, medium-roast and high-roast beans, and promotes a forthcoming comedy festival. 

 

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There has been a rather unusual compliment for the Urban Coffee business in Birmingham, which has received an approving review in, of all places, the New York Times – which called the bar ‘eclectically stylish, with spacious rooms, clean-lined décor and beanbags’.

 

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Teknomat, has opened ‘Room 71’, its new training and presentation facility at its head offices in Buckinghamshire. The company is to push its recently launched Synchro espresso machine range from Treviso.

 

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The Paper Cup Company has moved to a larger site in Clitheroe, opened by the mayor. Seven years after opening in Mark Woodward’s front room, the company now distributes to many other countries, has taken on four more staff in the last month or two, and expects to take on eight more this year.

 

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We have omitted to mention an interesting CD released a few weeks back – Paul Ettinger, a director of Caffe Nero, won a day in a recording studio in some kind of contest, and turned it over to his daughter Sophie. The result is a rather good and slightly-jazzy album, Through the Looking Glass, available through www.justgiving.com/throughthelookingglass , in support of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. As a result of someone hearing it, she is singing one of the tracks off a forthcoming British film City Slicker, starring Tom Conti, out later this year.

 

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Also in charitable mode, it is now possible to sky-dive in aid of Shelter from the Storm, the London homeless centre supported by many in the coffee trade. There are 40 places available for a group dive tentatively planned for the second weekend in July. The request is that participants raise £400 for Shelter from the Storm. An email to comms@sfts.org.uk will bring details.  For some suppliers to the trade, parachutes will be optional.

 

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Costa have confirmed to us that they are now stocking their sites according to a grading system – not all cafes now carry the same food. Following an enquiry as to why customers could no longer buy certain items they liked, Costa told us: “At the beginning of the month we introduced a banding system. This system splits stores into three different bands, bronze, silver and gold, according to each stores average weekly food sales. The band the store falls into will determine which products are stocked. This system has been put in place to make sure we have the right products in the right stores and help to prevent food wastage.”