Although cold brew coffee is often viewed as a contemporary trend, its origins can be traced back several centuries. The earliest known use of cold-brewing methods is believed to have originated in Japan during the 17th century. Dutch traders are credited with introducing the concept to Japan, where it
became known as ‘Kyoto-style’ coffee, named after the city where it gained popularity. This slow-drip method, now referred to as cold drip, became a staple in Japanese coffee culture, producing a delicate, aromatic coffee, distinct from the hot brews popular in Europe. In the United States, cold brew found its first significant commercial application in the 1960s with the introduction of the Toddy cold brew system, developed by Todd Simpson. This method, involving the steeping of coarse coffee grounds in cold water over extended periods, laid the foundation for the cold leach technique commonly used today. However, it was not until the early 21st century that cold brew truly surged in popularity, driven by a growing consumer interest in specialty coffee and innovative brewing methods.

Global Market Development

The global rise of cold brew coffee has been nothing short of remarkable, particularly over the last decade. In the United States, the cold brew market experienced explosive growth between 2011 and 2016, with sales increasing by over 580 percent. This surge was fuelled by factors such as the burgeoning specialty coffee movement, a shift towards healthier, less acidic coffee options, and the appeal of cold brew as a refreshing alternative to traditional hot coffee. In Europe, cold brew began gaining traction in the mid-2010s, particularly in the United Kingdom and Germany. Initially driven by
specialty coffee shops and roasteries, the trend gradually spread to larger chains and supermarkets. The European market has seen a steady increase in cold brew offerings, with consumers attracted by its unique flavour profile and versatility. In Germany, for example, cold brew is increasingly available in bottled form, catering to a growing demand for convenience. Asia has also embraced cold brew, albeit at a slightly slower pace. In countries like Japan, where cold brewing methods have a long history, the modern cold brew trend has been seamlessly integrated into the existing coffee culture. In South Korea and China, cold brew has become particularly popular among younger consumers who appreciate its smooth taste and lower acidity. The market in these regions has seen significant growth, with both
local cafés and international chains offering cold brew options.

Cold Brew: Beyond a Beverage

Cold brew is often mistakenly seen merely as a chilled coffee beverage, but in essence, it is a sophisticated extraction technique. Unlike hot brewing methods that rely on heat to quickly extract flavours and compounds from coffee grounds, cold brew relies on time and lower temperatures. This process results in a coffee that is noticeably smoother, sweeter, and less bitter, due to the reduced solubility of certain acidic compounds at lower temperatures. Cold brew can be categorised into three
primary extraction methods, each offering unique operational advantages and flavour profiles:

• Cold Leach (Maceration): This method involves steeping coarsely ground coffee in cold water for an extended period, typically between 14 and 26 hours.
• Cold Drip: This technique slowly drips cold water through coffee grounds using gravity,
with the entire process typically taking 3 to 12 hours.
• Cold Press: This method uses pressure, either positive or negative, to enhance the extraction
process, often reducing the required time significantly.
Cold Leach: The Art of Patience and Depth Cold leach, or maceration, is the most widely used
cold brew method. It involves immersing coarse coffee grounds in cold water and allowing them to
steep for a period ranging from 14 to 26 hours. This extended extraction time enables a thorough
dissolution of coffee solubles, resulting in a rich, full-bodied coffee with minimal acidity and bitterness.

Practical Tips for Cold Leach
• Coffee-to-Water Ratio: The standard ratio suggested by the study is 50-100 g/L. Adjust the ratio based on your desired strength and the specific characteristics of the beans.
• Grinding: Use a coarse grind to prevent overextraction. The particle size is crucial in the extraction process; too fine a grind can lead to an overly intense brew.
• Temperature: Extraction should ideally occur at refrigerator temperatures (around 8°C) to inhibit microbial growth while allowing sufficient extraction of flavours. Room temperature extraction (20°
C) is also common but may require stricter controls on extraction time and storage.
• Extraction Time: The study indicates that most extraction occurs within 7 hours but extending
the time to 14 -26 hours can enhance flavour without significantly increasing bitterness.
Exceeding 26 hours may lead to over-extraction, where unwanted bitter compounds become
more prominent.

Taste Profile

Cold leach typically yields a coffee with a fullbodied, smooth taste and lower acidity. The prolonged steeping time extracts a higher quantity of lipids and oils, contributing to a rounder, more velvety mouthfeel.

Cold Drip: Precision and Clarity

Cold drip, also known as Kyoto-style coffee, is more labour-intensive than cold leach but offers a unique flavour profile characterised by clarity and brightness. This method involves slowly dripping cold water over coffee grounds, with gravity driving the extraction. The drip rate is critical, as it directly influences the extraction process. The entire process can take anywhere from 3 to 12 hours, depending on the setup and desired flavour intensity.

Practical Tips for Cold Drip:

• Equipment: Invest in a reliable cold drip tower or system that allows precise control over the drip rate. This equipment can also serve as an attractive focal point in your coffee shop.
• Drip Rate: Aim for a drip rate of about one drop per second. Faster rates may result in under-extraction, while slower rates could lead to over-extraction and a more bitter flavour.
• Coffee-to-Water Ratio: Start with a 1:10 ratio, adjusting based on the desired strength. Cold drip tends to highlight the more delicate and nuanced flavours of the coffee, so using high quality beans is advisable.
• Monitoring: Regularly check the drip rate and water temperature to ensure consistency throughout the extraction process.

Taste Profile

Cold drip coffee is known for its clarity and pronounced acidity. It has a lighter body compared to cold leach and often exhibits more complex and subtle flavours, making it an excellent method for highlighting the unique characteristics of single-origin beans.

Cold Press: Speed and Intensity

Cold press extraction methods, such as using a French press or an AeroPress with cold water, employ pressure to speed up the extraction process. This method can reduce the time required to make cold brew to as little as two to four hours. The use of pressure enables the extraction of more intense flavours and higher caffeine content, making it a popular choice for those who prefer a stronger brew.

Practical Tips for Cold Press

• Pressure Settings: Whether using a French press or more advanced equipment, ensure even and consistent pressure throughout the extraction. This helps avoid over-extraction, which can lead to bitterness.
• Coffee-to-Water Ratio: Start with a ratio of 1:7 to 1:9. Cold press methods often produce a more concentrated brew, which can be diluted to taste or used as a base for other coffee beverages.
• Grind Size: A grind size slightly finer than that used for cold leach but still coarser than espresso is recommended to facilitate better extraction under pressure.
• Temperature: Cold or room-temperature water can be used. Cold water is generally preferable as it results in a more balanced extraction, while room-temperature water may introduce more acidity.

Taste Profile

Cold press produces a concentrated brew that is bold and intense, with a rich and syrupy body.
The use of pressure can extract more robust flavours and higher levels of caffeine, resulting in a brew that is strong yet smooth. This method is ideal for creating coffee concentrate that can be served as-is or used in various creative beverage applications.

Understanding Extraction and Time: Key Compounds

The extraction time significantly impacts the concentration of key compounds in cold brew coffee. In one of our studies, we provide detailed insights into how these compounds behave over time:
• Chlorogenic Acid: This compound, which contributes to bitterness and astringency, continues to increase up to about 120 minutes. However, its extraction largely stabilises after this point.
• Caffeine: The caffeine content increases steadily during the first 140 minutes of extraction but remains relatively stable thereafter.
• Acetic Acid: Acetic acid, which adds to the acidity of the coffee, shows minimal changes after 40 minutes of extraction.
• Lactic Acid: Lactic acid stabilises quite early, within just 40 minutes, contributing to the coffee’s acidity and smoothness.
• Trigonelline: This compound, known for its role in the formation of flavour and aroma, ceases to increase significantly after around 40 minutes.
• 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF): The presence of HMF remains relatively constant throughout the extraction process, indicating its stability. These findings suggest that, while the majority of extraction occurs within the first few hours, extending the time allows for the complete dissolution of specific compounds, which can enhance the overall flavour profile.

Ensuring Quality and Safety: Shelf Life Considerations

One of the key challenges in cold brew production is ensuring the product’s safety and shelf life. Unlike hot brewed coffee, which is typically consumed immediately after preparation, cold brew is often stored for later use, making it susceptible to microbial contamination.

Our studies found that improper handling and extended storage times can lead to the growth of spoilage organisms, including Bacillus cereus, which can pose health risks.

Best Practices for Shelf Life & Safety:

• Sanitisation: Thoroughly clean and sanitise all equipment before each use, including storage containers, grinders, and utensils. Cold brew’s long extraction time and lack of a heating step make it particularly vulnerable to contamination.
• Water Quality: Use filtered or bottled water to minimise the risk of contamination. Soft water is often preferred for cold brew as it prevents mineral build-up that can affect the flavour.
• Storage Conditions: Store cold brew in airtight containers and keep it refrigerated at all times.
The study indicates that cold brew should ideally be consumed within 24 to 48 hours.
Beyond this period, the risk of spoilage increases, and the flavour may degrade.
• Batch Testing: Regularly test batches for pH and microbial activity. A pH below 4.6 can inhibit the growth of many pathogens, making it a good benchmark for ensuring safety.
• Shelf Life: While some commercial products may claim longer shelf lives through pasteurisation or other preservation methods, for freshly prepared cold brew, limiting storage to a maximum of three days under refrigeration is advisable. Any signs of off-flavours or changes in aroma should prompt immediate disposal of the product.

Enhancing the Customer Experience

In addition to perfecting your cold brew techniques, consider how you can enhance the overall customer experience:
• Education: Educate your customers about the differences between cold brew methods. This can create a more engaging and informative purchasing experience, fostering customer loyalty.
• Tasting Flights: Offer cold brew tasting flights, allowing customers to compare different methods or single-origin cold brews side by side. This not only showcases the versatility of cold brew but also highlights the distinct characteristics of your offerings.
• Seasonal Variations: Experiment with seasonal cold brew variations, such as adding spices in
winter or citrus in summer. Nitro cold brew, with its creamy texture and visual appeal, is another excellent option that can attract attention and set your product apart.
• Sustainability: Incorporate sustainability into your cold brew offerings by using lower-grade beans or leftover coffee grounds for certain methods, thus reducing waste. Offering refillable bottles for regular customers can also align with the growing demand for eco-friendly practices.

Elevating Your Cold Brew Craft

Cold brew is more than a trend: it is a sophisticated coffee extraction technique which, when executed well, can elevate your coffee shop’s offerings and help you stand out in a crowded market. By understanding the nuances of cold leach, cold drip, and cold press methods, and by implementing rigorous quality control and safety practices, you can create a cold brew coffee that not only meets but exceeds customer expectations. Whether you are perfecting a traditional cold brew, introducing the precision of cold drip, or exploring the intensity of cold press, success lies in the details — from grind size and water quality to extraction time and storage conditions. By focusing on these elements and continuously refining your process, your cold brew can become a signature offering that sets your business apart and keeps customers coming back for more.

Dr Steffen Schwarz is the director of the Mannheim, Germany-based Coffee Consulate, which he founded in 2005 to meet the increasing demand for training. In addition to extensive workshop programmes, the company is engaged in research and product development, and manufactures
barista tools, teaching and analytical materials.

• Dr Steffen Schwarz is the director of the Mannheim, Germany-based Coffee Consulate, which he founded in 2005 to meet the increasing demand for training. In addition to
  extensive workshop programmes, the company is engaged in research and product development, and manufactures barista tools, teaching, and analytical materials.

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“Alps Coffee is a traditional family-run roasting company. The history of the roastery dates to 1890, when my great-grandfather, the merchant, Josef Schreyögg, established a specialty shop with colonial goods and coffees from all over the world. In the 1980s the company increasingly specialised in coffee production and the export business,” commented Stefan Schreyögg.

“Today, our roasting company produces a wide range of high-quality coffee. Our fine blends are gently roasted in a single-origin slow roasting process: from delicious espresso blends, special compositions for fully automatic machines and filter coffees to practical pods, our range offers products to suit every taste and every method of preparation. Numerous certifications in organic, fair-trade and food safety make us a modern roastery with a respectful approach to our environment,” Schreyögg noted.

Recently, Alps Coffee has achieved significant business growth by leveraging its international experience and competence in coffee roasting, with an intensification of global distribution channels.

When it was looking to expand its production plant, the company needed technology that would guarantee the quality and consistency of its product, while also delivering improvements in terms of energy efficiency. The company decided in favour of a direct partnership with IMA Petroncini.

“When it came to upgrading the roasting technologies, IMA Petroncini’ TMR technology captured our attention for its high-quality manufacture, great flexibility, and reliability to succeed unlimited roasting profiles” commented Stefan Schreyögg.

Alps Coffee partnered with IMA Petroncini to expand the company’s production with a complete, modern, and high-capacity coffee roasting plant. The solution Alps Coffee required was a high-technological drum roasting machine combined with a green and roasted coffee plant able to process a large volume of production.

“IMA Petroncini is a very successful and reliable partner, a company that combines its long experience in the sector with its vision focused on innovation and sustainability: the perfect partner for us. We required a modern roasting plant with a large capacity, and its solid company know-how and expert consultancy in plant engineering convinced us to launch the new project with IMA.”

“After multiple tests on Petroncini TMR lab roaster at the IMA Coffee Lab, we decided to validate the partnership at 360° with the purchase of the largest drum roaster with energy-saving system present on the market – the TMR 720 – combined with a complete coffee processing plant,” said Stefan Schreyögg.

Michelangelo Parro, sales area manager at IMA Coffee Hub and head of product management at IMA Petroncini, added, “We provided a tailor-made, 360-degree solution for every aspect of the project, simplifying both development and management. The mutual collaboration was a natural consequence of the ideals we share with our client: the sustainability and ecological principles that belong to Alps Coffee are at the core of IMA’s developments.”

TMR roasters guarantee superior quality roasting, reliability, and high energy-efficiency performances. Furthermore, this machine allows companies to drastically reduce CO emissions into the atmosphere, guaranteeing emission parameters far below the limits set by European regulations. This is possible due to the use of a single burner which also acts as a thermal afterburner, combined with the roasting control system – Orchestra – able to auto-tune the heat and airflow parameters to roast high-quality coffee with limited energy consumption.

“Since Alps Coffee focuses on a sustainable coffee production chain, we profoundly believe technology is an important added value for the coffee production, especially when it has a respectful approach to the environment,” highlighted Stefan Schreyögg.

TechTaste, The Coffee Interviews, is an initiative which aims to pinpoint the benefits behind the relationship IMA establishes with its customers in the coffee industry, exploring the reasons behind the successes achieved together. Watch the Interview with Stefan Schreyögg, owner of Alps Coffee, and Michelangelo Parro, sales area manager at IMA Coffee Hub and head of product management at IMA Petroncini, here.

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The coffee industry is well known for its strong collaborative community, where individuals gather to discuss opportunities and challenges, share successes, and brainstorm solutions. The concept of collaborative roasting takes this a step further, with roasters joining together to share both space and equipment. The creation of these spaces has helped to make coffee more accessible, while also becoming incubators for advancements in the industry, providing a space to explore new technology and equipment as the costs are shared amongst multiple members.

The Canadian Roasting Society (Montréal, Canada) has adopted the collaborative roasting model to propel the coffee industry forward in its local region. Established in 2018, partners Andrew Kyres and Scott Rao wanted to advance the coffee industry in their local community, including providing space and equipment. Today, they have created a modern roasting facility with a 5,000 square foot warehouse and the ability to store 75,000 pounds of coffee.

The space is open for individuals or companies to use their resources, including a custom-built Probat roasting machine, weighing, filling and sealing machines, reverse osmosis filtration systems, storage space for green coffee, coffee tasting and brew laboratory and access to qualified personnel and on-site data analysis. There is a pre-established fee, avoiding the high start-up costs that individuals in the industry.

Breaking down barriers

The standard process for collaborative roasting involves a founder making a significant capital investment and then sharing their resources with others in the coffee community for a pre-set fee.
Leonardo Azeredo, founder of Co-Roasting, based in France, was intrigued by the concept of this model but pondered if it could be done differently; specifically, if instead of renting a space and the equipment for roasters to use, there was equipment in his community that was currently not being maximised. In 2018, while Azeredo was completing his executive MBA, he began researching if this type of model would be possible. His research, which involved interviewing over 100 roasters in France, revealed that more than 80 percent said that they used their equipment only two days a week.

The collaborative roasting model proposed by Co-Roasting was centered around maximising the existing resources by developing a digital platform that could pair individuals seeking a roaster with owners of roasters that were not used to their total capacity. “If they want to be a host, it’s not only a matter of having equipment that is not being used to its full capacity, but also about having a willingness to share knowledge to help develop the competence of someone looking to get into the field,” said Azeredo. Specifically, he is seeking members who are aligned with the Co-Roasting community’s core values of integrity, respect, sharing, and empathy and are willing to share their equipment and become part of an entrepreneurship incubator.

Checking coffee beans during roasting at Cafés Muda. Images credit: Co-Roasting

“I strongly believe that people need to have accountability for their decisions, and if someone is looking to quickly start their business, collaborative roasting is a good way to start,” said Azeredo. “We can do things differently and continue to innovate with a collective intelligence; our vision is to create a full value chain of collaboration.”

This includes extending the collaborative model beyond the individuals who use the equipment and the hosts of the equipment to other key players in the industry, including equipment suppliers, software manufacturers, and producers. “Our vision is to create this kind of ecosystem, to help accelerate the process of being able to provide and give access to good coffee to the consumer.” Currently, Co-Roasting has close to 50 members, including users, hosts, producers, and equipment manufacturers, in France, Belgium and Brazil, and it plans to expand into other regions.

Building bridges

Could producer ownership be a new form of collaboration? On 22 February 2024, Paso Paso opened its doors, presenting the coffee community with a new version of collaboration involving producer investment. Bram De Hoog, the visionary of this concept, actively sought out producers from across the globe to develop a company centered around producers coming together to co-own a roastery and, in turn, empower producers to represent themselves in the European market.

“Each business has its complications, challenges, and the investments that it needs to succeed, but I could see some of our clients from the importer side opening up a coffee shop and expanding their roasting business from purchasing ten bags to 100 bags over the course of only a few years,” said De Hoog. “I just didn’t see the same potential for growth on the coffee producer side.” All participants, which currently includes five producers and De Hoog, are registered shareholders of the company based in Germany and are actively involved in making decisions and profit-sharing.

“I wanted to be very egalitarian and very straightforward – basically, if you invest money in the roastery, you will get shares in it, there’s no further complication to it,” said De Hoog. The roastery, which is based in Hannover, Germany, is currently being operated by De Hoog, while the producers, who reside in their respective countries, are involved in all company decisions, which includes committing to monthly meetings to discuss strategy and financing.

The producers, who are currently located in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ethiopia and Nicaragua, each have unique limitations that they face within the coffee industry but jointly shared that they were seeking a solution that would actively make a difference in their lives. Part of the motivation for launching Paso Paso was to prove to the industry that the existing model can be changed; specifically, the industry should actively seek ways to increase producer involvement across the entire coffee chain.

De Hoog, who has extensive experience as a green coffee buyer, had previously established positive relationships with each producer involved in the project. He hand-picked the participating producers, who stood out for their dedication, passion, and open-mindedness to challenge the status quo.

“I was inspired by Bram because it really is a unique business model. It is very different from what we see out there and the normal way of selling coffee. We’re feeling like pioneers,” said Diego Baraona, coffee producer at Los Pirineos, El Salvador. “It’s kind of like a redistribution of power, giving a bit more to the producers and essentially starting to change the industry.”

The producers shared that one of the unexpected benefits of creating the company has been gaining insights from the different perspectives of each investor and then using these insights to make decisions about the company. “We are combining our knowledge in our specific fields and putting a team together that is going to make sure that this project will [move] forward,” said Daniela Vega, producer of Roble Negro, Costa Rica. “The business model is so different itself, [which makes it] attractive, [so] you want to participate and give your ideas to help the company grow because it’s your company as well.” Vega explained that she has felt a shift in the coffee industry as a whole as more individuals recognise the value producers provide to the industry and the necessity for increased economic acknowledgement.

Sorting coffee at Bette Buna farm in Ethiopia. Image credit: Hester Westerveld

The journey from concept to company launch has been a complex path. However, the producers have learned a lot about the industry and the logistics that come into play when developing a company with multiple owners from across the globe. “We’re showing already that you can make the impossible possible, and my only hope for the future is that this team will become even tighter,” said Hester Syoum Westerveld, coffee producer at Bette Buna in Ethiopia. “People talk about doing things differently and taking action, but we are actually just doing it and showing that it is possible. It has not been an easy process to start.”

Signing the paperwork, for example, required using embassies and notaries in respective countries or flying to Germany to complete all the documentation. De Hoog shared that he went to 13 separate banks before finding one that would agree to sign on with the company. However, all members persevered in transforming the company from concept to reality. They are now looking forward to a future where there are opportunities for producers to play a more active role in the industry.

“We’re able to break that supply chain and set it up differently. Our goal is to create stability for our producers and develop an integrated loop between what we are producing, what we are roasting, and what we are selling,” said De Hoog. [We] hope to grow the company so that, say, in five years from now, the roastery is buying all of the coffee from a producer and expanding the opportunity to others.”

The continued adoption of the collaborative roasting model will challenge the industry to break down traditional boundaries and continually reinvent how the market can share a good cup of coffee. Coffee has always been a collaborative industry, with players coming together to develop solutions that will help ensure that the industry is sustainable. The model of collaborative roasting is another piece of the puzzle providing current and future players with tools and resources to propel the industry forward.

• Anne-Marie Hardie is a freelance writer, professor and speaker based in Barrie, Ontario. She may be reached at: annemariehardie1@gmail.com.

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The Canadian coffee roaster Café William has been continuously striving to reduce the carbon footprint of its products and across the entire coffee production chain. An important step in this direction is the new roasting factory, which is equipped with a purely electrically powered RFB roaster from Neuhaus Neotec.

“It was a great, very transparent collaboration with Neuhaus Neotec. And what we have achieved together has exceeded our expectations. For a few weeks now, we have been roasting purely electrically with electricity from hydropower,” says Rémi Tremblay, CEO of Café William.

The electrically powered RFB roaster with an hourly output of 3-3.5t of green coffee requires a maximum power supply of one megawatt, which is roughly equivalent to the output of four Super Charger charging stations for electric cars. By roasting with green electricity instead of gas as an energy source, greenhouse gas emissions can be significantly reduced. If the roaster is powered by green electricity from renewable sources, as in the case of Café William, roasting is a completely CO2-neutral process.

If a customer wants to keep several heat energy source options open, Neuhaus Neotec has designed this RFB as a dual-energy hybrid roaster, which can be operated both purely electrically and with natural gas. If required, it can even run on both energy sources at the same time, eg to buffer high energy peaks using one or the other energy source.

The system design of the RFB roaster series enables the use of purely electrical energy for roasting as well as the use of other alternative resources without significant structural modifications. In hybrid operation with gas and electricity, the system is simply expanded to include an additional heat source.

Due to continuous optimisation of the process control and system design, the roasting process with the RFB is particularly energy efficient, regardless of the heat transfer medium.

As a result of the use of economical drives and components, high efficiency in the utilisation of thermal energy, the low heat losses due to optimum insulation and the high recirculation rate in the roasting gas circuit, the RFB roasting systems from Neuhaus Neotec are characterised by significantly lower energy consumption compared to conventional roasting technologies.

The RFB is also highly flexible and offers a wide range of roasting profiles. Even when using electricity (or hydrogen) as a heat source, roasters can continue to use their proven roasting profiles. “Initially, we weren’t entirely sure whether these energy sources would offer the same flexibility in temperature control as natural gas,” explained Dr Stephan Sternowsky, head of technology at Neuhaus Neotec. “However, the extensive roasting tests in the field have shown us that roasting with electricity allows the same scope for design as with gas and that roasting curves are just as reproducible.”

The German manufacturer also has good news for coffee roasters who are already roasting on RFB systems: With a manageable amount of effort, many existing systems can be converted to electric or hydrogen operation.

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“Even in an extremely competitive marketplace, demand for our coffee and tea products, especially our nationally famous Santa’s White Christmas coffee, is strongly combined with the ability to maximise and internalise usage of our high-capacity Dietrich roasting equipment,” stated CEO of Barnie’s Coffee, Ron Pecora.

In 2023 alone, more than 10 million cups of Santa’s White Christmas Coffee were consumed year-round. The total roasted coffee production in 2024 is projected to be more than 500,000 pounds.

Barnie’s Coffee & Tea Company, founded in 1980, offers whole bean and ground coffee, plus flavoured single serve cups. Next year, six new Limited Time Only flavours will be created and available to sip. Barnie’s Coffee plans to bring customer favorites back from the Barnie’s vault, too.

In addition to their online store, the 43-year-old company offers products on other online platforms such as Amazon and in select grocery stores like Publix and Winn Dixie throughout the Southeast. Barnie’s Coffee & Tea Company has a flagship café located in Winter Park, but also operates in collaboration with partnered cafés in the Orlando International Airport Terminal C, the Hitt Library at the University of Central Florida, Stetson University, Rollins College, Seminole County Schools, and the Orlando Science Center.

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“I firmly believe that we need to play our part in reshaping the coffee industry for the better,” said Nicolas A Tamari, CEO of Sucafina. “To encourage society as a whole to make more responsible choices, companies must take the lead. Sucafina welcomes this responsibility and will continue to act on it, as we’ve shown through the farmer connect traceability venture and our IMPACT responsible sourcing programme. Together, we can create opportunities to improve lives and drive significant change towards making coffee the first net positive commodity.”

Coffee roasting with zero emissions and superior energy efficiency

At the heart of this project lies CEE’s innovative technology. This utilises electricity powered by green energy to eliminate the need for fossil fuels. As a result, it produces zero CO₂ emissions from fuel combustion. Moreover, this technology boasts an impressive energy efficiency rate, using approximately 2.5 times less energy than the current industry standard and also outperforming hydrogen alternatives.

“We are on the brink of a clean industry revolution,” remarked Koen Bosmans, CEO of CEE. “Our collective goal is to implement this game-changing technology across the entire coffee sector at an industrial scale. Additionally, we are already applying this technology to many large bulk food categories, from coffee to cocoa, malt, and nut manufacturing. Replacing fossil-fuel-based technology in these sectors is our primary objective, and our technology makes it already achievable.”

A new era of coffee roasting

The new technology not only contributes to environmental sustainability but also enhances coffee quality and safety. The high-precision continuous roasting process gently roasts coffee beans at lower temperatures. This marks a departure from traditional roasting methods.

“At Beyers Koffie, our vision is to be the leading sustainable private-label coffee roaster,” said Cory Bush, CEO of Beyers Koffie. “We want to go further and inspire our entire industry to do more. That’s why we’ve partnered with CEE to scale up this zero-emissions roasting line. They are a partner who not only shares our ambition but also our values.”

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Coffee roasters are increasingly exploring ways to make their business climate positive, turning to advanced roasting machines to lower carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency. Roasting machine manufacturers, in turn, are putting ample effort into developing sophisticated solutions to meet their customers’ expectations.

On average, it is estimated that roasting contributes to around 15 percent of the overall footprint of coffee’s journey from field to cup. Making the roasting business more sustainable, among other things, helps the environment and helps companies to capitalise on responsible consumption trends.

A recent study by the United States think tank First Insight showed that a lion’s share of Gen Z shoppers prefers to buy sustainable brands, and they are most willing to spend 10 percent more on sustainable products. The report also found that Gen Z, along with millennials, are the most likely to make purchase decisions based on values and principles, including environmental.

In light of this, the leading coffee companies rolled out sustainability initiatives, looking to lower the carbon footprint throughout the supply chain to the maximum possible extent, including in the roasting segment.

Illycaffè has embarked on a decarbonisation roadmap which consists of actions along all the value chain: from green coffee to finished products, taking into account all the different steps, including transportation, packaging, distribution and use of coffee machines, said David Brussa, chief total quality and sustainability officer of illycaffè. The eventual goal is to reduce the carbon footprint to reach carbon neutrality by 2033 as a company.

“We strongly think that we need to act quickly to avoid impactful problems for the next generations—a climate disaster. As we often hear, the non-return point is very close to being reached, and we need to start acting responsibly for the sake of our planet and of the generations to come. We have a limited amount of time to put in place the necessary changes. But the change we should aim for is cultural first of all,” Brussa explained.

Nestlé has made the commitment for 100 percent of its coffee to be produced sustainably by 2025. In the roasting segment, the company said it considers lowering emissions by working in the field of consumption of energy, water and protecting atmosphere gases at factories. In addition, machinery use, waste generated at factories, employee commuting, and business travel are also to be reviewed and, if necessary, adjusted. Again, advanced technology is due to play a vital role.

Image: Bühler

Engines of sustainability

Sustainability consists of three basic pillars; all are necessary but not sufficient. Therefore, all must coexist to have a sustainable process: lower environmental impact, lower social impact, and lower economic cost, commented Elena Parmi, a spokesperson for Brambati Spa.

“The first engine of sustainability is tangible affordability for the user, basically lower energy consumption, lower maintenance cost, and lower operation cost. Automatically it leads to less environmental impact, meaning less energy is equal to less greenhouse gas, less social impact, meaning less need for night staff and emergency intervention leads to greater worker welfare, and greater economic sustainability as less need for energy, less need for spare parts, greater staff efficiency allows lower cost of operation,” Parmi said.

Brambati’s development program, which is already in place includes reducing the consumption and reuse of residual energy, reducing the number of components that make up the machinery, and permanent monitoring of the entire system with AI (artificial intelligence) that allows all operating variables to be under permanent analysis.

Parmi said that this is similar to if a person were being monitored with an electrocardiogram, blood analysis, and brain activity while doing a swimming competition or other physical and/or intellectual activities.

“Any deviations from optimal values are promptly identified when they are incipient, thus enabling timely intervention when appropriate and not in an emergency, avoiding the costs of interventions, spare parts and lost production,” Parmi said.

Among the concrete examples of how Brambati’s technological solutions help lowering carbon footprint, Parmi lists the elimination of transmissions with mechanical gearboxes, resulting in increased efficiency and reductions in components, weight, lubricants and maintenance. In addition, the reduction in energy consumption is achieved with regenerative and other innovative exhaust air abatement systems, as well as through intelligent system monitoring and management.

Preserving energy

Other companies also see energy consumption as the key segment, which could do wonders in terms of lowering carbon emissions. For instance, Berkeley-based coffee roastery Bellwether Coffee told Forbes in 2020 that its recirculating roasting technology eliminated particulates and volatile organic compounds in real-time during the roast process, eventually reducing the carbon footprint of each roasting cycle by 90 percent on average.

The company estimated that if a roaster uses renewable energy sources, it can save more than 157 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions. In addition, traditional coffee roasters use a single-pass system that intakes fresh air from outside the roaster, flash-heats it to roast the coffee, then releases it as exhaust through ventilation stacks. Bellwether’s roaster takes the exhausted air, cleans it, and reuses it. This provides hot, stable air throughout the roast cycle.

Image: Scolari Engineering

Energy efficiency and renewable energy are in the spotlight of several technology suppliers. “We focus on the efficiency of the roasting process by means of very fine control of the burner and energy recovery from the roaster stack, always focused on the coffee quality,” said Fabio Clivio, coffee roasting machinery engineer with Scolari Engineering SpA. “We have been doing this for years, so we have fine-tuned the software and the roaster to always get the best aroma from the coffee. We are using a smart green coffee preheater totally synchronized with the roasting cycle.”

In addition, Clivio said, the company has been continually reducing the quantity of CO2 emitted for a batch of roasted coffee by reducing the use of fossil fuels. Scolari realised that the roaster does not need a long warm-up, and when it is on standby, the software activates the energy-saving mode to reduce airflow and gas consumption.

“The preheating follows a specific profile of temperature and time; in this way, as the roaster is ready to load the new batch, the software ensures that the green coffee reaches the target temperature at the same time, with no risk of leaving the green coffee ìn the GBPH longer than necessary. In that way, the quality of the roasting process is guaranteed,” Clivio said.

“We are testing a roaster using a mix of natural gas and hydrogen. Also combined with electrical heating. The combination of hydrogen and electrical heating is the key for carbon-neutral coffee roasters,” Clivio explained, adding that the company uses the last generation of burners already designed to run with a mix of hydrogen and natural gas. “As the hydrogen will be available on industrial bases, our customers will be able to switch to hydrogen.”

Smart heat use

Bühler Group also has a roaster, though not for coffee yet, in its portfolio, running on hydrogen, commented Michael Blatter, head of business segment coffee and nuts, Bühler Group. “We are not only looking at the roaster but the entire value chain, and I think with our sustainability team, we are capable of offering unique customised solutions which are helping in various aspects of sustainability. The roasting process is one step, and we do have solutions in reducing fuel consumption, changing the type of fuel used and using the energy for alternative processes within a factory.”

Among the concrete measures applied to lower carbon footprint, Blatter lists, recirculation of hot air to reduce fuel consumption, preheating of coffee beans with off air from the roaster, and the use of heat recovery systems. In addition, a sustainability service analyzes the CO2 footprint of a factory and implements solutions into existing plants.

“We are working together within different businesses to use ideas and concepts, which already exist,” Blatter said, adding that the company has an R&D roadmap and is working on several solutions called to curb carbon emission of the roasting operations. However, Bühler is not disclosing the concrete details to the public, he added.

• Vladislav Vorotnikov is a Batumi, Georgia-based multimedia B2B freelance journalist writing about the tea and coffee industry since 2012.

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Today this collaboration earns a significant confirmation: Lavazza has in fact commissioned three new latest generation roasters from Brambati S.p.A., choosing to rely on the cutting-edge technological solutions of the Oltrepo Pavese company and its know-how in the creation of customised coffee processing systems. The historic Piedmontese company, which boasts over a century of excellence and which has become the symbol of Italian coffee in the world, “ambassador” of our lifestyle and the values of our country, has decided to assign an extremely significant order to a Made in Italy company for the supply of roasting machines and relative plant engineering. In addition to the roasters, in fact, Brambati will assist Lavazza in the expansion of the existing green coffee and roasted coffee plant. In particular, for green coffee, the expansion consists in increasing the storage capacity of the current plant, with the addition of complete conveyor lines for increased flexibility. For roasted coffee, the expansion includes product dosing and control systems, with the addition of different types of pneumatic, mechanical and disc conveyors, in addition to the development of the storage section.

It is a great commercial success for Brambati Group and a further positive confirmation of its production and manufacturing philosophy which has achieved great acclaim in the international market and which, in this case, is the culmination of a collaboration that has already lasted seven years, during which the authoritative Turin-based company, with over 125 years of history behind it, was able to test the reliability of Brambati Group and the validity of the proposed design solutions, with automation systems, services and “turnkey” plants,” which cover all raw material processing stages prior to packaging.

One of the key strengths of Brambati Group lies in its capacity to differentiate its proposals based on the specific needs of its customers, a direct result of a strong ability to listen and to develop “ad hoc” solutions, combined with excellent and constant customer assistance service, active 24/7.

This is precisely one of the aspects highlighted by Fabrizio Brambati, chief executive officer and president of Brambati Group: “We have made great strides and an enormous effort, even during the pandemic, to ensure our assistance never fails: our customers have always been served even remotely, we have organised remote webinars for companies all over the world, we make extensive use of virtual commissioning, so our technicians are able to carry out tests and train operators online abroad to ensure the continuity of our high quality standards, a crucial aspect for a company that produces over 30 tons of coffee every hour, 24 hours a day. We are extremely satisfied that this commitment has been recognised by a major company such as Lavazza, which has achieved the excellence known to consumers worldwide thanks to its use of high quality raw materials and the utmost attention to production processes.”

Lavazza is in fact rightly demanding both in terms of quality standards and attention to the selection of suppliers according to criteria of merit, reliability, competitiveness, respect for the environment and social commitment. Brambati Group was confirmed after an accurate examination step, including not only tests and trials on the machines, but also an evaluation of the company from a corporate point of view, as well as financial reliability, corporate welfare and impact on the environment and on the territory, and in this context the results achieved by Brambati Group, in collaboration with prominent Italian university institutes, are highly significant: from energy saving to process tolerability, with the use of the most advanced emission abatement systems.

With these words, Eleuterio Quagliarini, chief operations officer of Lavazza Group, comments: “High technology, reliability and attention to environmental impact are the values that led us to choose Brambati as a partner for this project to expand our production plants. Lavazza seeks excellence on every level, from the selection of the coffee to the cup: the production process, therefore, thanks to the introduction of cutting-edge technological solutions, plays a crucial role in guaranteeing the excellent quality of each of the over 30 billion cups of Lavazza coffee consumed each year around the world”.

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“We are beyond excited to announce the launch of Bellwether’s Roast Accelerator that aims to lower many common barriers to entry for the coffee industry,” said Ricardo Lopez, founder and CEO of Bellwether. “We designed the programme with the understanding that not all small business owners have the same opportunities when starting a business and believe that empowering diverse communities to sustainably source and roast their own coffee will create positive change for the entire coffee industry.”

Through its Roast Accelerator programme, Bellwether is committed to creating a more sustainable, accessible, and equitable coffee industry by empowering businesses that typically experience barriers to capital and infrastructure to be able to roast their own coffee in-house. The Bellwether Automated Roasting System incorporates the same fundamental processes and techniques as a traditional commercial coffee roaster, however, Bellwether’s innovative technology achieves artisan results without the need for gas lines, ventilation or special permitting. Bellwether is the simplest commercial coffee roaster to install and operate, featuring an all-electric, ventless design and digital roasting software. Bellwether enables anyone to plug in and roast incredible coffee.

Roasting on a Bellwether can reduce a business’s carbon footprint from roasting by 87% and save them 30-50% on coffee costs compared to wholesale. It also provides an opportunity for higher sales and additional revenue streams only available through selling their own brand of coffee. As the first Roast Accelerator recipient, Mir Marshall will receive a Bellwether Roaster that will be installed with zero upfront costs and a subsidized monthly rental rate for the first year.

“To be the first-ever winner of Bellwether’s Roast Accelerator is huge and is changing everything for us,” said Mir Marshall, owner and coffee director at Verb Coffee Roasters. “It’s a game changer to have a roaster with a larger capacity and that I don’t have to go through a bunch of crazy financing to get. It’s a big deal, especially in a space that is very saturated with people who don’t look like me.”

Bellwether hired programme ambassadors Chris McAauley of Getchusomegear, a grassroots organisation with the mission of getting free coffee gear in the hands of marginalised coffee professionals; Iaisha Munnerlyn of MoodTea, mood supporting teas that support mental health; and Jake King of Gyst Coffee—all with many years of experience building accessibility and inclusivity within the coffee industry, to choose the first recipient of the program and ensure fairness and equity throughout the process.

Bellwether Coffee’s second round of applications is currently open to small business coffee retailers, specifically located in the San Francisco Bay Area, who are looking to grow their business through roasting and will continue to open applications for various metro areas throughout the year. Businesses must have been in business for a minimum of one year and must be minority-owned in order to be eligible.

To learn more about the Bellwether Roast Accelerator, visit: www.bellwethercoffee.com/roast-accelerator-program.

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On 25 September, the cornerstone ceremony of the project, which runs under the name of Probat GO, took place in the innermost circle of Probat shareholders, the advisory board and the executive vice presidents while adhering to strict hygiene measures. The objective is the revitalisation and new construction of the production and logistics halls at the Emmerich location on the basis of a future-oriented factory concept. As a guarantee for the successful future market cultivation, Probat GO is an important pillar of the overarching corporate strategy. Moreover, the start of the project, especially in a time of crisis such as the one caused by the coronavirus, not only sends special signals to the global coffee industry, but also underlines Probat’s market-leading position within the industry, according to the company.

In all measures carried out within the framework of Probat GO, the focus is on the specification of an economically, ecologically and socially oriented “manufacturing of the future”. A process-oriented factory design with optimal arrangement of the production and organisation areas distinguishes the Probat future factory. The design of the production process is to be optimised as a whole through the more efficient use of decisive production factors. A clear routing, directed material flows and modular structures reflect the focus on increased value creation. Potential expansion areas and changeable structures facilitate future growth.

In addition to the special significance for the company itself, Probat GO also has a signal effect for the business location Emmerich, which will be significantly strengthened by the realisation of the project. The clear industrial architecture corresponds to the functional task of the new production and manufacturing halls and takes into account Probat’s idea of a modern working environment with attractive workplaces by integrating an open and communication-promoting office structure. In addition, the modern factory being built on the Probat premises underlines the company’s claim to be an employer with strong future prospects in the competition for the best talents in the region.

In his speech to the assembled guests of the cornerstone ceremony, Probat CEO and managing partner Wim Abbing put Probat GO into historical context and emphasised the importance of the project within the international coffee industry: “This cornerstone ceremony is a very special event for Probat, as it marks the official start of the revitalisation and the new construction of the manufacturing facility. The current production exists since the reconstruction after the complete destruction during the Second World War. With the creation of this sustainably oriented modern production site, we are also setting an international benchmark in our core markets, as it reflects the constantly increasing quality demands of the customers on our products and services”.

In conclusion, the chairman of the advisory board, Nils Erichsen, expressed his appreciation to the Probat shareholders and project managers on behalf of the entire Advisory Board: “Taking the courageous step to tackle such a trailblazing project in the current times is what distinguishes a family business like Probat. Fortunately, the current order situation holds a growth potential that not only underlines Probat’s strong position in the world market for roasting plants but can also be even better exploited by implementing Probat GO”.

Probat GO is realised in individual expansion stages. The conversion of the production site is to be completed by the end of 2022.

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Started in 2016 by Mark Wilson, the idea behind Blendly was to create a one-stop online coffee roasting and blending service for Baristas and cafés owners.

After the national lockdown was announced, Wilson decided to open Blendly to customers of these cafés to either buy coffee blends created by their favourite cafés, or create their own.

In opening to domestic customers to buy coffee blends, the Blendly is giving businesses that are currently closed or operating at a reduced capacity a chance to reach customers they might not normally be able to.

Visitors to the Blendly website can start creating their own coffee blend or buy from ready made batches. Created blends can be shared electronically with QR codes or referral links.

Blendly offers both individual purchases and a subscription service – Barista Home, from £4.99 per month. Commercial plans start at £12.99 per month.

The team at Blendly said: “People are always looking out for products that identify with them, reflecting their character and personality, traits that are unique to themselves.

“The coffee market has grown significantly over the past 20 years and blends are consistently evolving to accommodate changing palates and preferences. These are amongst the many reasons why more and more people are switching away from their usual coffee brands to Blendly.”

For more information, visit: blendly.co.uk.

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Emeryville, California-based Peet’s Coffee is a major player in the specialty coffee retail sector. Its coffee selection includes both single origin coffees and blends, including the Big Bang, a medium roast blend that features fruitiness from natural processed Ethiopian coffee and brightness from washed processed coffees from Latin America. “The name nods to how some have described Alfred Peet as the “big bang” of craft coffee—the one who started it all,” Doug Welsh, roast master for Peet’s, told Tea & Coffee Trade Journal. “When he set up shop in Berkeley in 1966, he transformed America’s expectations of the depth, body, and flavour in our cups.”

One unexpected outgrowth of the explosion of single origin specialty coffee is the creation of coffee growing celebrities, producers whose name-recognition inspires awe among industry peers for the scarcity and novelty of their coffee more than it inspires enthusiasm among coffee customers. The blend, on the other hand, is all about the customers. Blends are often named for bits of company history or the names of neighbourhoods and local landmarks.

Along with Big Bang, Peet’s other most popular blend is Major Dickason. “Inspired by one of the first ‘Peetniks’ and refined by Alfred Peet, this premier dark roast blend is our all-time best seller,” said Welsh. Blends appeal to a wide customer base and remain popular over time.

Rich Nieto, founding roaster of Sweetleaf Coffee in Brooklyn, New York, also finds blends to be customer-centric. “The roasting competition at the 2019 New York Coffee Festival asked us to create a blend that represents a community, so we created the 7 Line blend to represent the 7 train in Queens. Everyone loved it,” said Nieto. “Even if people weren’t from Queens they felt represented in the blend, which included coffees from Africa, Latin America and Sumatra.” The 7 Line blend was so popular Sweetleaf decided to incorporate it into its menu.

Blends are inclusive and customers identify with their accessibility. Each single origin offering appeals to different customers – acidic Central American coffees for one palate, earthy Sulawesi for another – but blends are crafted to satisfy a wider audience. Mark Howell, vp of green coffee with Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Community Coffee said, “We consider a wide variety of factors, and the consumer plays a huge role in helping us evolve our portfolio. Once we determine a general blend profile, we then go out and look for those high-quality beans that would get us there. In the case of Private Reserve specifically, we are looking for coffees that would qualify as specialty coffee under the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) grading criteria for both physical and cup.”

Third wave roasters cut their teeth building a niche of customers excited about the outer limits of coffee’s flavour, from Geishas lighter than floral tea to coffees as savoury and spicy as pasta sauce, but as specialty coffee businesses grow in volume and in maturity, they are sourcing coffees for the whole family, building welcoming blends into their menus as complements to striking single origins.

Consistency to Limited Time Offer

Allie Caran is the director of coffee education at roaster-retailer Partners Coffee in Brooklyn, New York. “The first beautiful aspect of blends is the consistency they bring to your menu. You can create unique profiles and continuously offer singular flavour flagships that can be celebrated year-round.”

Consistency is one attribute commonly associated with blends, and this reliability provides balance to the variability among single origin coffees. “Coffee can taste like just about anything, and a single origin menu is how we communicate our own excitement over the possibilities of flavour,” said Caran. “We believe that blends can be the easiest way to get people to care about specialty coffee.”

Blends can be the way in, the cup of coffee that keeps a customer coming back. According to Nieto at Sweetleaf, blends are “something to give your customers that they come in and like and can get again and again.” With regard to supplying wholesale coffee to new cafés, he noted that “cafés want to build a loyal base to start a business. Customers know that the next day [the coffee they like] is there. The next week, it’s there.”

Consistency for customers and for wholesale clients is a key benefit of blending. “Sweetleaf introduced two more blends to meet the needs of wholesale customers,” said Nieto. “Just because Sweetleaf’s cafés are focused on single origin coffees doesn’t mean our [wholesale] customers want the same thing. We have a different client base than restaurants. Customers come into a café looking for specialty coffee.”

Blends cover lots of territory within specialty coffee, from being a tool for consistency to deliver reliably crowd-pleasing coffee to restaurant wholesale accounts to being the way into specialty coffee for curious café customers. Blends can also be a limited time offer to highlight a particular flavour profile, parallel to what single origins offer. Welsh noted Peet’s 2019 Vine & Walnut as a seasonal fall limited offering and Ethiopian Super Natural as a seasonal winter limited offering, both sold only at their coffee bars or online store.

“With each sip of a Peet’s Single Origin, consumers enjoy a true expression of that specific region — like the black currant flavour of Kenya or the jasmine-like aroma of Ethiopia. Each cup is truly evocative of where it is grown and produced,” said Welsh. Offering a blend and a single origin as equally special limited offerings shows that neither is inherently superior. “By ensuring a breadth of high-quality offerings across segments, we are able to meet the range of taste preferences of coffee drinkers.”

Building the blend starts with the coffees sourced. Of Peet’s sourcing, Welsh said, “we are very selective about the beans we purchase, sourcing from the top one percent of the market and verifying how they are grown. We bring together coffees that could each stand on its own.”

Community Coffee sees blends as a perfect combination of coffees that appeal to a particular flavour profile and create something unique but balanced, while single origins are sourced to respect the unique terroir of a particular coffee. According to Howell, “We balance our portfolio with Private Reserve specialty-level [blends] coffees from all over the world. Single origin is a way to honour a specific origin, region, community or farm. It’s about telling the story of the farmer and region through its unique flavour.”

Smart Sourcing

Blended coffee is consumed as one, but its components might be sourced on opposite sides of the world. Jonathan Withers is the green coffee buyer at Partners Coffee and knows that coffee purchasing must begin with the end in mind, considering both single origin offerings and blend components. “Not only are we trying to find the best microlots in the world, but we are doing so vertically so that the same people who grow these microlots are also supplying us with the coffees that we use in the blends,” he said.

Partners considers the seasonality of coffee in its sourcing plan. “Building a thoughtful and fully integrated program for both blends and single origins allows us to encompass the entirety of the coffee without challenging the inherent issues that come with coffee as a live, organic and fleeting product,” said Withers. Partners started their blending program as a response to what coffee buying could be. “To be able to buy someone’s entire specialty farm output gives us better access to coffee, stronger relationships, and complete transparency,” Withers explained.

As specialty coffee producers and exporters become more familiar with the tastes of both niche and broader market coffee drinkers, they offer special stand-out microlots while also producing coffee that meets the requirements to become a specialty blend component. Many parts of today’s specialty coffee menus can be sourced from the same farms.

Blends also require teamwork across company departments. “Developing blends is a dance between what the consumer wants and what story/flavour we want them to experience,” explained Community’s Howell. “Ultimately, it’s a team effort between marketing, sales, operations, supply chain, the farmer and the consumer.”

Perfecting the Recipe

Each roasting outfit perfects the art of its blends over time. It helps to start with the right ingredients, but without putting them on a pedestal. “No coffee is too good to blend,” reminded Welsh. “That’s a principle Alfred Peet lived by and one still carried on by the company to this day. Blending is fundamentally about adding one great aroma, flavour or texture to another. Body from a syrupy thick Sumatra, bright bittersweet chocolate from a Guatemala, juiciness from a Kenya AA. In this way, one can experience more in a blend than in a single origin.”

Great coffees mutually reinforce each other in a carefully crafted specialty coffee blend. Of Sweetleaf’s espresso blend for its coffeehouses, Nieto said, “we approach our espresso blend 50/50: sweet, low flavour tones like maple, milk, chocolate, or cocoa then something sweet to layer on top of it. I love jam, but I need some base to put the jam on.”

Creating and maintaining a specialty coffee blend is an opportunity to play with flavour, to fit the taste jigsaw together to reveal a new work of art in the cup. “A beautiful coffee with nice acidity pairs well with something with a lower bass. It’s very important for our espresso blend to also play well with milk,” noted Nieto.

At Community, blends are all about how the parts create a greater whole. “We look at the individual coffees and their characteristics, and how to combine them appropriately to build flavour into a final unique combination. We look at attributes like acidity, body, flavour and finish,” noted Howell.

Getting back to the idea of blends having personality and reflecting both the story of the company and the story of its customers, that personality can be apparent in the blend recipe as well as the name. “Over the years, Major Dickason’s blend has become the coffee that epitomizes Peet’s: rich, smooth and complex, with a full body and multi-layered character,” said Welsh.

“We’re understandably coy about the specific ingredients of this, our most famous blend, but customers know it well as combining the sparkling notes of high altitude Central American growths with the body and satisfying finish of the Indo-Pacific.” Like most hard work, blends appear effortless, full of balance and flavour that customers recognise and return to. As specialty coffee evolves, blends are poised to be an ever-more meaningful part of the industry’s future.

• Rachel Northrop has been covering coffee for T&CTJ since 2012, while she lived in Latin America’s coffee lands writing When Coffee Speaks. She now lives in Miami, Florida. She may be reached at northrop.rachel@gmail.com.

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With nearly a hundred years of beverage innovation to our name, S&D Coffee & Tea, based in Concord, North Carolina is the largest custom coffee roaster and iced tea blender to restaurants and convenience stores across the United States. As a private label supplier, we adopted the phrase, “the most important brand is yours” more than 20 years ago. That mantra still holds true today and continues to influence every aspect of our business.

Industry Expertise

To be a successful custom roaster, you must position yourself as an expert in both your and your customers’ fields. This means demonstrating you understand their needs, the needs of their consumers and are fully invested in helping them grow their business. Your experience with a variety of distribution models and a diverse customer base – from national distributors to commercial and non-commercial foodservice – will be the foundation of your success.

Once you have won the business, you will have to be vigilant to keep it. Building equity in the new brand will help you cement your relationship with your customer. It is critical as their private label roaster you help them build brand loyalty with their consumer base. Their consumers enjoy the best coffee, your customer enjoys increased profits as they see cup sales increase. Success begets success and is the best way to defend against any competitive pressure you may get from big national brands as well as other private label manufacturers.

While nationally branded manufacturers likely find it difficult to compete in the private label arena, other private label roasters may try simply by undercutting your price. This is a common disadvantage of being a private label roaster. Being vigilant with delivering value-added services is one way to protect the business from other private label roasters.

Understanding the marketplace and forecasting trends is essential when you’re a private label supplier. You need to be able to demonstrate your expertise and predict what will drive your customers’ business. At S&D, our product development team helps our customers develop differentiated and profitable menu items. This can be a huge asset for customers looking for extra support.

Operations

Customised blends and innovative beverages are also key to helping your customers build their beverage programs. We work closely with our customers to develop proprietary blends that are then white-labeled and offered as our customer’s own product. This is a great benefit for brands looking to set themselves apart in the beverage space.

It is important to make sure you have the resources and flexibility to deal with the operational challenges that can often arise when offering custom blends. From procuring the right bean and developing the perfect blend to being able to roast, grind, pack and ship to the exact specifications required for each distinct customer can be a challenge. Not to mention having to do this for large scale customers. You must examine your ability – both that of your team and your technology – to be able to meet the demands. For us, we learned and refined over our 90-plus year history and continue to adjust to the ever-changing demands of the customer and the consumer.

Marketing

If you want your own brand to have national recognition, being a private label supplier probably isn’t the direction to go. You need to be comfortable sitting back and letting your customers take credit for your product. With that said, part of being a private label supplier is working with your customers to create mutually beneficial success. For example, when a customer pushes a proprietary product, they may own it, but you benefit from the innovation process and potential variations of the product that can then be sold to other customers.

At S&D, we help develop everything from the packaging to the marketing materials for a brand’s new beverage program. It’s a major differentiating factor for us and it’s a huge help for our customers. It can also present challenges for your team if you’re not equipped with the right resources. When offering custom blends for every client, marketing, merchandising and even managing inventory can start to get complicated. Cost is also a factor to keep in mind. Whether you need to source special materials or hire more people to manage different audience segments (eg, national restaurant chains versus healthcare foodservice), these things can lead to additional costs. It’s all dependent on the services you want to offer and how you want to set yourself apart in this industry.

Should You Be a PL Supplier?

Our company’s vertically integrated partnerships, starting at point of origin, ensure a mutual respect and deep understanding of our products from end to end — delivering quality every time, no matter where in the world the end consumer is located. By investing in sustainable practices at origin, a transparent, ethical supply chain and customized marketing program, we are committed to helping our customers meet their own business and sustainability goals. As a private label supplier, our success comes from our customers’ success, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

• Helen Griffith is vice president of marketing at Concord, North Carolina-based S&D Coffee & Tea. Under Griffith’s leadership, the marketing team develops strategies by channel and product. She also leads oversight of the Sustainable Sourcing team — and S&D’s signature Raiz Sustainable Sourcing platform.

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Stronghold Square is a web-based roast profile sharing platform, where users of Stronghold roasting machines upload and share their roasting profiles, and can download profiles of other users to use on their own roasting machine.

The profiles give detailed profile graphs and heat source control steps, and users can post comments or share the profile on social media.

Square is a place where roasting know-hows and information about coffee is gathered together and shared among the community. It is designed to give users an extended experience with mobile and PC beyond the tablet built into the roasting machine.

“Stronghold smart roasters have been a true game-changer in South Korea, constantly delivering solutions for customers to break through challenges of running independent coffee shops,” said Jason Woo, CEO of Stronghold Technology. He added: “Square is a profile sharing platform developed to construct an environment where everyone can roast easily. We believe that the Square will provide roasting solutions and infrastructure to users in various ways by sharing profiles, roasting tips, and know-hows among users all over the world.”

Stronghold Square is available free-of-charge to anyone, however, only those with Stronghold roasting machines S7 PRO or S9 can upload, download and share profiles. Further details may be found here.

Stronghold Technology will be exhibiting at SCA Expo 11-14 April. Visit them at booth 379.

About Stronghold Technology

Stronghold Technology is the developer, manufacturer, and retailer of the world’s first smart coffee roasters, the S Series. Its mission is to break through business mediocrities by developing technologies to ignite every customer’s potential. With integration of unprecedented fully-electric hardware and smart technology, Stronghold is making new waves in the roasting industry. Stronghold roasting machines have been the WCRC(World Coffee Roasting Championship) official sample roaster for five consecutive years since 2015 and have been selected as the official roaster of 2017 KCRC(Korea Coffee Roasting Championship). Learn more at http://www.stronghold-technology.com/

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The Japanese champion Yoshiyuki Nakamura of Mamepolepole came in second, while third place went to Veda Viraswami of Le Café Alain Ducasse in France.

Twenty-three WCRC national champions competed in this year’s event, which took place over four days in conjunction with the Sigep show in Rimini, Italy.

This year’s global competition involved three stages, including pre-roasting and green coffee evaluation, a production roasting stage designed to follow each competitor’s roasting plan, and a sensory evaluation stage, in which a group of calibrated judges performed a “double blind” cupping of the coffees.

The 2018 champion, American Ian Picco of Topeca Coffee, placed 18th.

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