Arizona Coffee

In this video, barista Heather Perry demonstrates how she froths milk. Good job!

Jason Haeger just wrote from Texas to pass on news of the 2008 SWRBC:

Hi Chris,

I just wanted to inform you of the latest. The 2008 SWRBC will be held in Austin, TX in tandem with the SCRBC from October 31 through November 1. No word on the exact location yet.

The official machine sponsor for the WBC this season is Nuova Simonelli, which means they’ll be competing with Aurelia machines.

Mahlkonig is the grinder sponsor, and they will be running K30 doserless grinders, and K30 duals.

Take care,

–
Jason Haeger
Owner:
www.tx-coffee.com
www.espressotrainer.com

Thanks for passing that along.

All the way from Australia the Barista Brothers talk about coffee. They’ve got a great start and I wish them success.

I discovered them on Viddler. They have a bunch more videos up there.

A few weeks ago I went into a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf since it had been a few years. I was surprised to see they now offered free wireless internet. Well, apparently it’s a plan to roll out free wireless internet at all of their locations. Good for them!

Ron Cortez also passed along an interesting article with some interesting facts. Granted, the facts are from Australia but maybe they apply here in the U.S.

Females aged 16 to 24 prefer chains to independents, which are more popular with older coffee-drinkers.

Company directors and senior managers also prefer an independently made coffee, while clerical and administrative workers plump for chain cafes.

The study also found Australian-born customers are more likely to buy coffee at a cafe, while overseas-born customers – especially Asians – prefer brand-name coffees.

Dr Chen said the divide was based on “symbolic wants”.

Fans of chains are more interested in a cafe’s atmosphere and decor, and with having a wide variety of products available.

Independent customers are more price-sensitive, want good food with their coffee and want staff to treat them as regulars.

You can read the article here.

Ron Cortez passed along this interesting article which suggests that Starbucks no longer gives small coffee shops the jitters. I would agree. In talking with coffee house owners around Arizona, most don’t fear Starbucks (or never did). It’s obviously a different story if a Starbucks were to move into your retail complex. But that rarely happens.

Starbucks lost its neighborhood feel when it switched to automated espresso machines and started selling blended drinks, he said. He still visits occasionally but does not consider them competition for customers.

“Starbucks is good enough to get them addicted,” Merget said, “and then you take them beyond that.”

Thanks Ron!

Intatto Coffee at Greenway and Tatum is having it’s 2nd Annual Artwalk today. It runs from 11am to 6pm and I hear they will have live music, food and of course coffee. I’m planning to be there around noon today.

Update: I had a really good time at Intatto on Saturday. There were about 25 people there when I arrived at 1:30. They had a musician playing and all of the artwork was outside on the patio. Here are a few photos I snapped.

Iced Mocha (Excellent)

Doug and Leslie Terrill, Owners of Intatto Coffee

Coffee Grinders, Dosers, and Espresso Machine

Musician

Customers

Turkey Panini (absolutely wonderful!)

Iced Mocha

A strange beverage (I think it is from Japan): Hello Boss Iced Coffee.

John Banks wrote to mention that Crave Espresso Bar in Tucson has just reopened.

From this week’s Tucson Weekly: “Crave Espresso Bar has reopened under a new owner, Aaron Triplett, who also owns Safehouse. You will probably still feel at home, because most of the staff remains as well. Crave is located at 4530 E. Broadway Blvd.; 325-3637.”

I lost count at about a dozen. There have been an abnormally high number of coffee shops closing recently. Just this morning reading the comments on Arizona Coffee I learned that Areopagus Coffee has closed its store and decided to focus efforts on coffee roasting.

Its made me ponder the future of coffee shops in Arizona, and quite a bit of the discussion on this site has been about that as well lately. Warren Buffett often talks about diversification. He has been wildly successful because of his ability to invest in many different business types.

Is it time for coffee shops to diversify? To break out into new areas? Can a coffee shop just serve coffee and really be successful in Arizona in the summertime?

Coffee shops have tried everything from serving a full food menu, to operating a gelato lounge on the side. In a few cases we have wine bars and live music events. Scottsdale based Intatto Coffee even serves pizza and I hear it is quite popular.

I don’t have the answers, but it’s an interesting discussion topic. Should coffee shops in Arizona diversify?

In what appears to be a never ending string of bad fortune for The Willow House, they have been shut down by their landlord (for unpaid rent according to an employee).

Recap:

1. Willow House decides to move to a new location downtown. Story goes that the landlord isn’t keeping up the building maintenance.
2. After a few months the previous landlord opens a new coffee house named “Willo House” (note the missing ‘w’) in the same building.
3. Now: The new Willow House is closed due to a dispute and non payment of rent.

For the complete details, visit Chow Bella who has the full scoop.

Steve P. writes to let us know that Anna Bean’s Coffee and Gelato closed its doors this past weekend. I tried phoning Anna Bean’s but the phone number has already been disconnected. They only opened in October of 2007. Not even a year ago.

Steve says “It’s sad because the owners and all the staff were so nice and always welcomed conversation.” I only had a chance to visit once actually, it was recently, and everything looked great and they were happy. It’s unfortunate.

Steve also added “I know your readers already know this, but please remind them how important it is to support your local independent coffee shops; unless you like the taste of over roasted coffee.”

Louis writes:

The Joshua Tree Coffee Company’s roasting house is conveniently located at 26150 Pierce Ferry Rd in historic downtown Lake Mead City, one mile from the West Grand Canyon turnoff, serving Northern Arizona & Southern Nevada with the freshest locally roasted coffee.

We would love to be listed with the other AZ roasters.

Website: www.joshuatreecoffee.com

Beginning at 26:00 in this video you can watch Austin’s talk at Ignite Phoenix last night. The title of his talk was Running A Successful Coffee Establishment.

Austin did a great job, here are his points:

1. Atmosphere – Comfortable, relaxed
2. Drinks
3. Location, Location, Location
4. Seating
5. Wifi and other Amenities
6. Good Music
7. Friendly Staff — Friendly staff can make or break a coffee shop
8. Customers — If you can keep a shop busy, people will come
9. Good Drinks
10. Fresh Roasted Coffee Beans
11. Consistency
12. Great Ingredients
13. Great Presentation — Latte Art means you are doing a handfull of things right
14. Give ‘em What They Want

Great presentation Austin!

A client emailed me a link to a discussion going on over at Serious Eats asking “What are your coffee shop expectations?” and I thought I’d propose that question here on Arizona Coffee.