Terms like espresso, cappuccino, latte and mocha may have seemed exotic 10 years ago, but these days they're part of the average coffee drinker's vocabulary - and it's not stopping there. Chances are that, if they haven't already, customers will soon be specifying Colombian, Kenyan or even Yemeni coffees, and asking if you grind your own beans.
Caterers who want to keep up with this new coffee dialect need to know something about blends and whether their coffees are made from beans from a specific estate or country of origin, or a mixture of beans from several sources.
Colombian is currently the most popular blend in the UK because of its relatively mild taste, but as consumer palates become more sophisticated, other blends are likely to come to the fore, says Café du Monde's director, David Latchem. According to Latchem, consumers are already becoming more aware of Continental blends. Here, Continental refers not to the coffee's place of origin, but to blends that have been roasted longer, giving them a darker colour and stronger flavour, traditionally preferred on the Continent. The extra bite created by the darker roast makes them particularly popular for after-dinner use.
"The trick is to produce a dark roast without it being bitter," Latchem says. "We spent a lot of time looking for a coffee that offered this. Kenyan coffee will also achieve this balance. Kenyan is a connoisseur's coffee, something coffee drinkers will mature into. Kenyan has acidity and a dry quality, which non-connoisseurs may equate with bitterness. We suggest restaurants limit their offering to three choices plus a decaffeinated variant. They should offer a soft flavour such as Colombian, a connoisseur's coffee such as Kenyan and an after-dinner Continental coffee."
Continental-style blends are a must for the Ponti's group, a family business that has been serving authentic Italian cappuccino and espresso in and around London for 40 years. Trading as Ponti's, Caffé Italia and Caffé Alba, the company serves only coffee roasted in Italy and has had a relationship with Lavazza since the 1960s. "Our coffee is a truly Italian experience," Ponti's director Stefano Ispani says. "The American-style coffee shops have been very good at picking up the Italian market and filling the gap, but our coffee has always been authentically Italian and never compromised. I intend to continue to offer our customers the real Italian experience made in the traditional way."
Finding the right coffee blends was as important as deciding on any other component of the menu at chef Tom Aikens's 60-seat restaurant in Chelsea, London. "Some companies may throw free machines at you and then sell you an inferior product at much lower prices, but that goes totally against what we're trying to achieve," his wife and co-owner, Laura Aikens, says. The couple approached Union Coffee Roasters for their coffee supply, opting for the company's Revolution Espresso blend, which combines beans from four major growing regions for a well-rounded flavour. "It's very rich without any bitterness, even though it has that espresso kick," Laura says.
The restaurant also serves a single-estate Yemen Mocha Mattari in a small three-cup cafetiŠre in place of filter coffee. "This has the most wonderful, almost wild smoky flavour and is great after dinner," Laura enthuses. "It's not a coffee you'd want to drink for breakfast, but after meals it's superb."
A Colombian blend is the main choice for Kershaw's, a small chain of upmarket caf‚-bars in the Midlands, and is supplied ready-ground by specialist supplier Coffee House. But for making espresso coffee only freshly ground beans will do. "We grind our own beans for use in the espresso machine because it's all part of the offering," director Richard Shaw says. "Customers expect to see beans being ground as part of the service so we use a separate grinder rather than an automatic bean-to-cup machine."
While freshly ground beans are becoming the preferred option for a growing number of outlets, all forms of coffee have a role to play in the catering industry's numerous channels, says Nicholas Webber, buyer at foodservice wholesaler 3663. "Different channels prefer different formats of coffee. A lot of independent operators will buy instant for their staff and a lot of caf‚s still use instant for their customers. The quality of soluble coffee can be very good for this role. However, a lot of places are moving towards the espresso style of coffee because soluble just can't offer the same variety. Cafetières remain a popular affordable option for many caterers to offer various coffee blends as there's no machinery required, while some smaller outlets will still use a bulk-brew machine because of the convenience."
For those running a high-volume, high-speed operation, or wanting to offer hotel guests a self-serve option in their rooms, instant coffee still has a place. Nestlé offers a Nescafé branded in-room condiments unit with both Nescafé and Gold Blend sticks. The company also offers a range of instant speciality coffees for in-room use. These come in individual serving sachets of cappuccino, latte and mocha. For conference refreshments, the compact Nescafé Allora machine offers guests a range of soluble coffees that they can serve themselves, using an individual drinks capsule system.
However, soluble coffee isn't the only answer for high volume. Patients and staff at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire are offered real coffee via two Douwe Egberts Cafitesse 400 machines in the Sodexho-run Garden restaurant. Catering manager David Soutar decided to reappraise the beverage offering after a refit was carried out earlier this year. He says: "Our biggest challenge was to attract more people to use the Garden restaurant - especially hospital staff. We had to improve the quality of our drink offering, and with a daily visitor turnover of 700 people, it was essential to get the right machine."
All the coffee is liquid roast and ground - a concept that's unique and patented to Douwe Egberts. Immediately after roasting, the coffee beans are ground and brewed into fresh coffee. It's then concentrated, packed into a bag and frozen. Once an operator receives it, it simply needs to be stored chilled. The machines use three blends of Douwe Egberts coffee: Gourmet - a blend of Colombian, Guatemalan and Salvadorian beans plus a small proportion of African robusta, making it suitable for milk-based drinks such as cappuccino; Arabica Gold - containing 100% Colombian arabica beans with an aromatic taste suitable for black coffees; and Prestige - made from arabica beans and giving a mild roasted taste.
Optimum quality
Whatever form of coffee a caterer chooses to offer, there can be little excuse for not serving it at it optimum quality, with most suppliers only too happy to advise and train staff. Tudor Tea and Coffee has installed a fully operational sales and demonstration room at its head office in Purfleet, Essex, where coffee sampling and barista training can be carried out. Customers can roast and pack their own coffee and then sample the product in the cup within 30 minutes of it coming from the sack.
At Coffee House, managing director Soner Yilmaz stresses the importance of caterers understanding the product they're serving. "We want the caterer to understand what goes towards creating a good coffee so they're able to talk about it with their customers. They should be able to talk about the blend and the regions from which the blend originates," he says.
And a last word of advice on what to stock comes from Yilmaz: "A small restaurant or caf‚ doesn't need to offer a large range, but must have a good quality espresso coffee and a small selection of filter coffees that can be served in a cafetière. Remember that 80% of sales come from 20% of range, so it's not worth stocking too many."
WHAT'S NEW
- Percol has launched a Fairtrade coffee. The instant Colombian variety has been sourced from selected small farms in the foothills of the Andes, and is made from arabica beans for a full-bodied rich and aromatic flavour.
- Food service wholesaler 3663 has launched its own-brand Barista coffee. Barista is a range of premium quality coffees available in a choice of pour-and-serve blends, bulk blends and espresso beans.
- Nescafé Specialty Cappuccino is now available in a 500g catering tin, providing 40 servings. The new format comes with a free scoop to aid portion control.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Two-thirds of coffee drinkers consume coffee with food.
- People in the UK drink more than 2,652 tonnes of coffee out of home each year.
- More than 16% of all coffee drunk in the UK is drunk out of home.
- On average, people consume between one and two drinks away from home each day.
- More than half (53%) of those who drink out of home regularly choose coffee as their out-of-home drink.
- Nearly a third of coffee drinkers demand speciality coffees at work.
- More than two-thirds (70%) of UK coffee drinkers will pay more for a good cup of coffee.
- About half of coffee shop customers order cappuccino.
- Among UK out-of-home coffee drinkers, 45% are keen to try new types of coffee.
- In pubs and restaurants, 62% like a choice of speciality coffee.
Source: Nestlé
CONTACTS
3663 01494 555900
Percol 020 7978 5300
Nestlé 020 8686 3333
Union Coffee Roasters 020 7474 8990
Coffee House 020 8455 3055
Café du Monde 01322 284804
Douwe Egberts 020 8236 5000
Lavazza 020 8994 6382