Training

The London School of Coffee has enlarged and improved its facilities, to create ‘a state of the art training facility with the feel of being in a café bar’. The new training area is around 500 sq ft with a coffee bar at one end, three other barista stations, and the usual brewing, roasting and cupping equipment.

The LSC’s Stephen Hurst tells us that the new VRQ Level 2 City and Guilds course is now proving popular, and that the concept of a recognised barista qualification has clearly appealed to the trade.

The How to Start a Coffee Shop course is now attracting a steady flow of participants. These, says Steve Hurst, are both people with the dream of their own café, and hard-headed, business-like operators. “The diversity of students is what makes the training so interesting – from home enthusiasts to international managers from multinationals, and sales teams who have to be ‘impassioned’ about coffee.

“I can readily think of quite a few who have gone on to open shops and become success stories.”

A clue to trade trends is in the roasting course.

“We are very proud of this popular course, taken by a very respected and successful roaster from the Copenhagen Coffee Academy. Everyone who comes on the course leaves feeling very inspired.

“This course defines a movement towards the explosive growth of the local neighbourhood roaster/retailer. The commercial advantage gained by learning to roast properly and learn how to add value to speciality coffee beans will more than pay for itself.”

The LSC theory is that true ‘speciality’ coffee is the way to survive in a difficult climate.

“A poor economic climate may hasten the cull, while professionally run places may well thrive. I have no problem at all with people looking at all the options, considering the way their business should go, and deciding that poor quality rubbish has the potential to make them a lot of money and acting accordingly.

“I also have no problem finding poor quality coffee in a basic, ordinary place. The problem is that the people selling rubbish have no inclination that there is a quality pyramid, which is why we I find poor coffee even in the top places who want the very best of everything and who are also willing to pay for it.

“The London School of Coffee can create a greater awareness, and will be developing highly specialized courses that have not really appeared on the trade’s radar to date!”

Steve Hurst has been known to slip a supermarket instant coffee into his cupping sessions to see if anyone notices!