The Third Grinder (or The Case for Single Origin and Guest Espresso)

The Case for Single Origin and Guest Espresso

My SO (not Single Origin) and I dropped into our local gem of a shop: Sugar Brown’s Coffee to grab a cup, play some cards, enjoy the live music and atmosphere, and to just have a good time.

Being past students of mine, they are always excited to tell me of news going on.  There is much to tell about their journey, but this is not about their shop, so much as of their latest step forward.

They acquired a third espresso grinder.

Most shops are content with a Decaf grinder and a Non-Decaf grinder for their espresso bar.  That’s all you really need, they say, and they are right.  You don’t need more than that to run a successful retail store.

Let’s back up a bit, and remember why we got into this whole coffee business to begin with.

It’s About The Coffee

I can’t speak for everyone, but there are many people who started into the coffee business because they love coffee.  Sure, there is profit to be made, and yes, we love our customers.  But before those factors were a reality, the coffee was there, and we learned to love it.

If, as retailers, our roll is to represent the coffee in such a way as to “let it speak for itself”, and if our love for coffee included the excitement of the exploration of flavors and new taste experiences, shouldn’t we offer these experiences to our customers?

Enter the case for the Third Grinder.

Having a third espresso grinder opens up possibilities for short-run single origin espresso offerings, and room for a limited time guest espresso from one of your favorite roasters.

Keeping things like these on a regular schedule can give your regular customers something to look forward to.  Just like in the blog world, regular scheduled updates does more for harboring visits than anything else.  (that, and high quality content.. or high quality products, in this case)

Is it expensive?  It can be.  But so is your espresso machine, and so are your other two grinders.  Would you say you get your money’s worth out of your decaf grinder?  I bet most would answer “no” or “barely” if they were to crunch the numbers of average decaf sales matched to the purchase price of their decaf grinder when it was new.  So why do it?  It’s a service to your customers.

The third grinder is a service to not only your customers, but to the coffee itself, and those who grow it.  It increases awareness of the diversity and journey of coffee into your customers’ cups.  This increased awareness focuses demand, which, in turn, helps to promote the quality driven people in this fine industry, from baristas, to roasters, to green coffee buyers, to processing mill workers, to those who grow and harvest the coffee.  The end result is a higher standard across the board.

All this from buying a third grinder?  Not exactly, but it is another way to help work towards these goals.

I understand that there are folks out there who consider single origin espresso to be a non-worthwhile endeavor.  While I disagree, this is a discussion for another post.

Kudos to Sugar Brown’s Coffee for another step in the right direction.  Kudos to others who have done the same.  And Kudos to those of you who now have plans to implement such a program into your retail plan.