SCAE Guest Blog
My friend, Hugh Gilmartin, asked me to put some thoughts down for an SCAE Guest Blog - maybe a trademark rant, maybe some top down view of the specialty coffee business, maybe a wide angle perspective, maybe some punditry for the World Cup this Summer? What could I write...?
The World Cup is appealing, not least because I will be going 2 days after the SCAE/WBC/Caffè Culture show is over. But the SCAE is not about football, so I will have to get back on track.
It's tempting to look at the specialty coffee business in light of the unprecedented financial chaos that has engulfed the world in the past 12-18 months. By all rights, the specialty coffee business should have suffered alongside the rest of the economy - but it appears (at least to us at Mercanta as a supplier to specialty roasters in 30 countries) that the opposite is true.
Defined provenance, innovative and exciting packaging, pure and natural source, widely differentiated prices, presentational awareness in fine food venues, vast shelf space on retailer shelves, completely international.
Coffee?
No...water!
And that's my point. If a product that honestly (besides being ''free'' from a tap) tastes quite similar from one bottle to another can develop into a differentiated multi-billion dollar international mega-business, does anybody really think coffee (where at least 8 totally distinct consumer aware flavours can be readily identified - let alone one thousand nuances) will not eventually be bigger still? It is inconceivable that coffee will not become a widely appreciated and differentiated product - finally about the bean itself and its own inherent taste and source.
So, financial meltdown or not, specialty coffee is on a roll. It's not about the High Street coffee bar chains, it's not about Fair Trade, it's not about Rainforest Alliance, it's going to be about coffee. Coffee the bean with its own character, its own source, its own taste and, when you know who you are buying it from, you get all the ethics and environmental protection and authenticity that consumers really want.
Information, professionalism and education about coffee will lead millions to make a better = more informed choice. Buy what you like, but buy it for the right reasons.
If you think a regular feature blog on the SCAE website might be interesting, there are plenty of subjects to cover from our perspective as the sourcing people and based on our truly international reach. Let Hugh know if you would like to see more, I know he will have a sweet deal for me.
Wishing you all health, prosperity and happiness in 2010.
Stephen Hurst
Comments
never occurred to me to look at the bottled water industry - great thought! here's to better informed customer choices!!
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