Sherri Johns

Top tips for better coffee

Sherri Johns is president of WholeCup Coffee Consulting LLC, and founder of Ultimate Barista Challenge

How many times have you been served a delicious meal, only to be sorely disappointed with the quality of brewed coffee served at the end of the meal?

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Sadly, this is the normal situation in most restaurants, even fine dining. If chefs and restaurateurs understood more about coffee quality and the true benefits of serving an incredible cup, they would rethink their entire coffee service.

Coffee taste represents a ‘place’; a micro-climate, just like wine

Here are a few simple, easy to implement steps to retaining your customers and brew profits with delicious coffee:

5 steps to brewing your best coffee

• Use fresh, filtered water
• Buy whole bean, high-quality, fresh roasted coffee
• Grind just before brewing
• Brew on clean, well-maintained equipment
• Serve to the customer fresh.

Profits of brewed coffee

• One location
• Buys coffee at $14 a pound (USD)
• Using 4oz to brew a 64oz pot
• Serving an 8oz cup
• 32 cups per pound of coffee
• At 100 cups a day, with 50 refills at no charge
• Selling each cup at $1.95
• At 54 cents a cup COGS, you profit $44,484.38 in one year.

Coffee is Grown between the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer and is the seed of a fruit. One coffee shrub produces approximately one pound of roasted beans per one year. Think about that the next time your server spills a bunch of beans on the floor!

Arabica and Robusta are two of the most common species of coffee, with Arabica considered specialty coffee. Coffee is identified by individual country, specific region, cooperative or farm and coffee taste represents a ‘place’; a micro-climate, just like wine. How’s that for a quick coffee primer?

Great water = great coffee (no, but it’s a start)

• Each cup of coffee is 98.5% water
• Make sure water is free of impurities, taints and off flavours
• Filtered water brews the best coffee
• No reverse osmosis unless water is re-mineralised
• Best to have water at 50-100 ppm, or 3-6 grains of hardness.

Get fresh. Coffee is perishable

• Buy fresh, whole bean coffee from a reputable local coffee roaster
• Coffee is a perishable, so buy what you plan to brew within a 2-4 week window
• Look for a valve on the bag
• Look for a roast date on the bag
• Coffees’ enemies are heat, light, moisture and oxygen
• Store away from heat (not on top of the brewer), light (not in a window) and moisture (never in the refrigerator or freezer), nor leave opened bags on a shelf.

Grind just before brewing

• For optimum flavour
• Use 3½-4oz for a 64oz brew
• Weigh coffee out or use a constant measure cup.

Brew on clean, well-maintained equipment

• Brew at 198-202 degrees F
• Serve coffee within 30 minutes of brewing for most delicious flavour.

Starbucks put specialty coffee on the minds and in the mouths of consumers everywhere. The company strategically educated consumers, encouraging the purchase of $4 caffe lattes, and bringing coffee awareness to the general population. Now, educated consumers seek out the best.

The specialty coffee market is (still) the fastest growing coffee market in the US. Customers are getting more sophisticated and are demanding better quality coffee.

So, don’t let your customers be deserters. From crop to cup, brew your best.