Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

Today we get to chat with 2004 U.S. Barista Champion and legend, Bronwen Serna!   Bronwen has been a practicing Coffee Professional since 2000, a Professional Barista, Roaster, and Barista Trainer, a Certified Instructor and Assessor with the Specialty Coffee Association. Her love of coffee precedes her experience, where she manages to frequent many coffeehouses all over the world and became a Bar...

Boy do we have a Founder Friday for you! Today we get to talk with the founder of MadLab Coffee in L.A., Andrew Sinclair.   Andrew has been in coffee for over a decade going from an enthusiast to barista, head barista, manager, then owner and operator all before he started MadLab in 2015.   Mad Lab's mission is to love people a whole lot more, instead of a whole lot less and to push everyone that...

Looking out into the world of specialty coffee and the sheer number of complex problems both locally and globally that need to be addressed, it is easy to get overwhelmed. The question of, How can I make a difference? Is often left unanswered because the opportunities for contribution seem too small. Or we try to answer the question in with unsustainable efforts that fizzle out and make us worry o...

Consumers. What we assume to be the end of the value chain in coffee, may in fact be the the beginning. In reality, as we will learn today, coffee is more a circle than a straight line, and in many ways it begins and ends with the consumer.  How we serve, market to, and communicate with the consumer, literally shapes the industry through curating the demand that we then supply. The question for al...

As we have explored all that has gone into the product of coffee and the many ways that sustainability can be achieved in farming, Importing, and Roasting. Now we come to the place where coffee's potentially is ultimately on display. The cafe.  Next to the farm, the cafe has been the focus of much of our sustainability efforts, and with good reason. The cafe is hands down the most wasteful link in...

Sustainability is a collaborative effort that relies on solid networks, relationships, and communication. This is mainly the responsibility of importers and roasters whose job it is to provide connection, accurate representation, and to realize the potential of the now harvested coffee and the farmers who grow it. While providing these platforms to those they serve, importers and roasters must als...

Welcome to the Sustainability Series from Biocaf and Keys to the Shop!  To kick off this series we will be exploring sustainability where all the potential of a coffee and the foundation of our industry is concentrated. The farm.  How we define and understand sustainability here creates a ripple effect that impacts every action we take along the value chain.  As we explore sustainability on the co...

How do we gauge the markets our coffee shops serve? On top of being engaged in our own local ecosystems we must also pay attention to large scale trends as they influence the perception and habits of our customers. The SCA and NCA have recently teamed up to produce a robust, first of its kind report called, "The National Coffee Data Trends Break Out Report" that is free to the public and chock ful...

Exciting news! On Wednesday, September 22nd, Keys to the Shop along with Biocaf , will be releasing a 4 part narrative series focused on exploring sustainability all along the value chain. Throughout the series will be talking to 20 of the most inspiring farmers, roasters, managers, importers, thinkers, and academics to both understand what real sustainability looks like, and how their ideas and w...

Baristas are obsessed with it! The question we have to ask is, why? Most of us don't need to get people interested in latte art. In fact many of you probably wish your baristas would focus on other things. Contrary to what we might assume, baristas that gravitate toward latte art are not trying to avoid work so much as they are compelled by what latte art offers.  Today we will be talking a little...

Ideally, the nature of your relationship with your wholesale customers is less like a transaction and more like a partnership. How do we approach caring for those who have decided to serve our coffee in a way that is true to our values, supports their success, and creates growing trust and mutuality? In this episode these questions and more are answers as we talk with the Partner Program manager f...

If you want to do well in competition you have to study the rules. Without this you are flying blind and will probably get a less that stellar result for your effort. The same thing is true for your career.  Today on Shift Break  we will be talking about the importance of learning the "rules" as it applies to your professional journey in coffee and why doing this will give you a much better chance...

There is a lot of information available to us through our POS systems that show us the numbers behind the business. Owners and managers read these numbers to get a sense of not only how the business is doing, but also to get an idea of where it needs to go and what decisions need to be made to make that happen. So it is quite important that we have a sensible way to approach and use the data so th...

If your shop does not have specific standards for the products your serve and the way you serve them, then you are leaving a lot of the success of your coffee shop up to chance. Question is, how do you go about setting standards? Where do the parameters come from? In today's Shift Break we will be discussing an equation for how to set up the basics of your cafe's quality standards in a fashion tha...

These are the two most important and intensive processes in the cafe yet they often are the most rush and poorly thought through. The preparations we make and the actions we take when hiring and training staff will and does create a ripple effect that is felt by everyone who interacts with your business for years to come. Maybe more than ever, a proper focus on hiring and training with excellence...

New York City is undoubtedly one of the coffee capitals of the world. With a seemingly endless number of options to choose from, it is hard to stand out and create something that makes people notice and even hard to keep their attention and patronage. Birch Coffee in NYC was founded with the intention to level up the hospitality and customer service one can expect in a coffee house and has been bu...

At work there is unnecessary difficulty and then there is just…necessary difficulty. The trouble is that sometimes we can blur the line between the two and generally will default the thinking all difficulty is to be avoided or is a sign of something wrong with the system, ourselves, or the people we lead. On this Shift Break I channel my inner old man (kinda) as we will be discussing the necessary...

What makes a successful coffee bar? This whole show is dedicated to exploring the depths of the question and yet there are a few fundamental elements that, if practiced, will greatly help your coffee bar succeed. Were are not going to be talking about the common things you might associate with success such as location, Cost of Goods, and great customer service. Those things and many like them are...

Quality control and assurance is common in most well established coffee shops. Even if it is not a dedicated position, it at least is an area where we invest a lot of time and effort. What we don't see very much of is a focus on care. How do the staff and customers experience the business and what are we doing to make sure we are dialing in that experience?  Today on Shift Break we will talk about...

Winning coffee awards and competitions is pretty cool. There are many benefits to pursuing accolades for your coffee shop through such as marketing opportunities, sharpening skills, energizing staff, and networking. The question we have to ask ourselves though is, just how critical are competitors and awards tot he success of our shops and what metric should we be using to gauge the health of our...

On a daily basis we have opportunities to take a customer's genuine curiosity and excitement and either affirm it and guide them or to stamp it out and push them away. In coffee shops all over the world the former scenario play out but what we see too much of these days is the latter. Customers being essentially scolded for their budding enthusiasm for coffee.  Today on Shift Break I am re-airing...

A big issue with coffee education is accessibility. Much of the practical information that leads customers and coffee professionals alike to understanding, buying, and brewing great coffee is either locked away in our roasteries and cafes or hurried in a sea of misinformation. That's where Leaderboard Coffee comes in.  Today we are going to talk with the founder of Leaderboard Coffee, Suneal Pabar...

How do I motivate my staff? This was a question I received at Coffee Fest regarding managers and I believe the answer is applicable both to baristas and to managers. Heck, it's pretty much true for anyone. It starts with culture.  In today's Shift Break we will be talking about a few of the usual ways we motivate staff in the coffee shop and then discussing why creating a great culture is the prim...

Training staff to become productive, competent, and confident members of the team is a massive challenge all coffee shops face. In spite of our best efforts we often end up with baristas who have completed training but are still not ready to work the bar effectively and this brings about frustration for everyone. There is a better way and today we are going to explore that way with one of the nati...

It's Founder Friday! I am very pleased to be presenting a conversation with someone who I have wanted to have on a Founder Friday for quite a while. Not just because he has been quite successful, but because in the course of achieving that success he has created a model of a healthy and resilient business through rooted and wise decision making, refinement, expansion, and putting values into actio...