Having good coffee in a coffee shop

We would all like good coffee in our coffee shop, but how do you ensure that you get good coffee? Is it about finding a good coffee supplier? Or is it just the training?

Serving quality coffee in a coffee shop is a combination of a small number of things. You can't just buy high quality coffee and expect to always have excellent coffee for your customers. Quality coffee in your coffee shop is a combination of:

Quality coffee beans and fresh coffee

There is no barista in the world that can make an excellent cup of coffee without quality coffee beans.

The only way to find good quality beans is to research. The best rule is to make sure that you find a coffee that is very easy to drink and full of flavour. There is a good chance that your customers will like the coffee when you like it.

You also want to get coffee from a coffee supplier that roast their own coffee. A coffee supplier that has their own roastery is more likely to achieve consistency in flavour and will most likely roast your coffee to order. Quality coffee should always be fresh. The fresher the better.

Barista training

Your coffee is only as good as the last coffee you make. Every cup of coffee is important and it's vital that you and your staff know how to make good coffee. Making good coffee is not rocket science but it's very important to get proper barista training before you work behind a coffee machine.

Barista training also gives you and your staff confidence in coffee making. You should know by just looking at the coffee whether it's any good or not. Barista training can do this for you.

Quality coffee machines

Coffee is influenced by many factors such as temperatures and pressures in the air. This means that you need to be able to adjust a coffee machine to the correct settings such as dosages and fineness. The best machines for this are coffee grinders and traditional espresso coffee machines.

We strongly recommend to stay away from bean-to-cup machines as much as possible. Anything that is fully automatic is more likely to break down and will almost always result in a lower quality. Bean-to-cup machines are usually more expensive then traditional espresso machines.

The choice is obviously yours. However, we believe that the skill is in the barista, the coffee and the coffee machine. Not just the coffee and the coffee machine.

Cup sizes

Last but not least! The cups are extremely important.

The material used is important for the feel and the size determines the strength of the coffee. Smaller cups usually gives stronger coffees than larger cups. This is only applicable to espresso based coffees, not to cafetiere and filter coffees.

A cappuccino in a 6 oz cup with 1 shot espresso will be stronger than a cappuccino in a 8 oz cup with 1 shot espresso. The ratio of espresso to milk or espresso to water is important.

We recommend to try different cup sizes with your coffee. The only way to find out what works well with your coffee is to trial and error. Simply make some cappuccinos and caffe lattes in different cups and see which ones taste the best. Remember that a cappuccino should taste slightly stronger than a caffe latte.