How small town is small town?

Q&A
1

Ok. So we operate a coffee shop selling a speciality grade blend which all our customers love.

We go through 20-25kg a week which highlights that it’s not the biggest town in the world (25k and catchment area of circa 150k in County).

I’d love to change to single origin menu (maybe 3-4) and NO house blend. Using either couple of grinders or perhaps pre dosing and using an EK.

However - is this sustainable/workable in a small town? Any similar experience out there?

This is what I’d personally love, but I’m also a realist. We do operate a brew bar offering which is my only outlet for my true passion of single origin coffees.

Cheers.

2

My quick reply, No.

Small market, always need blends. So slowly introduce single origins and still maintain original blend. Then branch out, but part of that will be new blends.

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3

Cheers for that. Makes sense

4

We only buy 350g of single origin every 2 weeks to go alongside our blend, but we only offer it as V60/areopress depending. Allows people to try the speciality side whilst still being accessible. I tend to believe its very tough having multiple espressos dialled in for a smaller shop that doesn’t sell a lot of single origin. Will often mean the SO espresso is sub par.

5

agree! We had a second grinder doing single origins, but totally useless as dialling in every 4 or 5 hours was both expensive and quality not great. :slight_smile:

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6

I’ve never understood the whole guest espresso thing. They are generally never great.

Keep your special offerings to manual brewing. Charge good money for them as appreciators will always be willing to pay.

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