Greater expectations

Growing demand for quality as well as ethical values in the coffee that consumers drink out of home is making a big impact in the marketplace. John Porter and Sheila Eggleston reports.

Fashion being by its nature a fickle beast, there's always someone looking for the next big thing. Now that a flat white – the strong white coffee made with espresso and creamy milk – has moved out of the surfer cafés and into chains such as Starbucks and Costa Coffee, cutting edge coffee lovers are already wondering where their next caffeine buzz is coming from.

Some gourmet coffee aficionados already adapt the vocabulary of wine appreciation to coffee and talk about terroir – the soil type, altitude, and weather where the beans are grown, all have an influence on the taste in the cup, they say.

"It's no longer just about whether to order a cappuccino or latte; people want to know about the components of the blend, its origins, flavour characteristics and preparation method," says Elaine Higginson, managing director of United Coffee UK & Ireland.

"Pubs and restaurants should respond to our growing nation of coffee connoisseurs by treating coffee in the same way they do wine, by highlighting origins and supplying tasting notes."

Parent company United Coffee, formerly known as Drie Mollen, recently restructured its UK businesses and brought together its two British companies First Choice Coffee and Gala Coffee and renamed it United Coffee UK. This is headed by Higginson, formerly First Choice's managing director.

The company's first launch under its new name is Grand Cru, a premium blend "handcrafted credible coffee" made from distinctive blends of coffee sourced from some of the world's finest plantations. All are fully traceable and each coffee adds a different quality to the final espresso.

The 30% Colombian Agua Azul gives mouth feel, 30% Kenyan Gethumbwini adds dry citrus tones, 30% Costa Rican La Pira adds grape-like acidity and toffee apple notes, and 10% El Salvador Las Delicias creates a chocolate finish, the company says.

All the coffee has been selected from the country's best harvest and two are Cup of Excellence award winners. Market analyst Mintel believes that another potential new market for coffee is the health and lifestyle dimension. As ethical coffee, such as Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance, becomes more commonplace, brands will focus on the benefits of what's actually in the cup.

Evidence of this trend came at the end of last year with the launch of Nescafé Green Blend. This is made with 35% unroasted green coffee beans, which contain high levels of naturally occurring polyphenol antioxidants, said to protect the body against daily cell damage caused by excess free radicals.

However it seems likely that, as with herbal and green teas, this trend will take a while to move from retail into the out of home sector.

In the meantime, Fairtrade and ethically sourced coffee is still a growth area. Sales of Fairtrade coffee grew by 12% globally last year, and around 20% of roast and ground coffee sold in the UK is now Fairtrade.

Nestlé entered this market in 2005 with Nescafé Partners' Blend, which carries the Fairtrade mark. Neil Stephens, managing director of Nestlé Professional, says: "Our research shows that unlike organic produce, which suffered during the recession, there remains increasing demand for fairly traded products. It stands to reason that having an immediately recognisable, sustainable offering is vital for publicans or restaurateurs looking to deliver what consumers want.

"Inevitably, in the current economy, we are all thinking harder about what we spend our money on. As a result price is certainly a factor, but interestingly it does appear that ethics matter more to today's customer. The key for operators looking to satisfy this demand is to remember that just because there is a certified mark on the pack it does not necessarily mean what you are buying is good quality."

Peros, distributor of Fairtrade beverages to the foodservice sector, says Fairtrade is clearly an opportunity that operators cannot afford to ignore. "If you offer end users a great tasting product, combined with an ethical and sustainable status, then you are going a long way towards providing value for money," says joint managing director James Roberts. "But the key to boosting sales is to always ensure the quality is top notch in terms of taste and presentation.

"This, above anything else, will ensure customers come back time and time again. Of course, the fact that the products have great ethics and provenance provides an important additional sales advantage. "Ironically, a recession often brings greater opportunities for selling these products because people are looking to change their habits and question how they spend their money. It's a good time to look at what you offer and plan for a changing future.

"Price is a factor, but not as important as the taste and quality of the product and the value for money it offers."

Cafédirect's rich roast and ground coffee and Machu Picchu organic roast and ground coffee won gold at this year's Great Taste Awards. This underscores the belief by the company that current trends in coffee are around quality, sustainability and speciality.

Foodservice controller Chris Haddy says: "Single origin coffee delivers great taste and taps into the strong consumer desire to understand the provenance of their food and drink. By working directly with smallholder growers around the world, Cafédirect has superb expertise in single origin coffee including award winning products from Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Picchu in Peru.

"Ensuring your coffee is sustainably sourced is becoming more important for consumers and corporations, so ensuring your ethical credentials are up to scratch and you are buying from a trusted ethical brand is crucial. When you marry origin and sustainability with a drive towards high quality beans, you get exciting times for the coffee industry."

The company says brands like Cafédirect, which are able to demonstrate a holistic sustainable approach and go beyond Fairtrade to ensure environmental as well as economic and social sustainability, are winning through.

"Cafédirect was the first Fairtrade coffee in the UK and it's great to see Fairtrade in such a healthy state. Organic suffered a little in the recession, but we've been seeing a definite recovery and demand is once again growing for quality organic coffee.

"Caterers are demanding the best coffee to serve to their customers and recognise that as a result of working with growers and reinvesting profits into quality improvement programmes and training, Cafédirect is able to provide that."

Douwe Egberts has recently extended its sustainable Utz certified offering, which now includes its Piazza d'Oro espresso brand. The range is made from beans produced at sustainable farms, as certified by nongovernmental organisation Utz.

Helen Cridge, customer marketing manager at Douwe Egberts, says: "Having high quality sustainable beverages on a menu will satisfy modern day coffee drinkers and ensure they return to the outlet."

The fact that the larger companies have Fairtrade certified many of their most popular products hugely benefits the category, says DBC Foodservice. Senior hot beverages buyer Dawn Dempsey says: "It brings the Fairtrade category to the forefront of debate, encouraging other brands to follow suit and ensure that farmers and workers in the developing world receive fair prices which never fall below those of the market. Supporting such a worthwhile cause can only be seen in a positive light.

"Regular coffee and tea sales are slightly down as customers choose to buy from the healthier sub-sectors such as green tea and fruit infusions, which are booming. I would put this shift down to heightened consumer awareness – you only need to switch on the TV to see these healthier teas being advertised "Likewise, decaffeinated coffee sales are up slightly, again following this trend for healthier options within the category."

Two years ago research conducted by Kenco, part of Kraft Foods, showed that 83% of consumers thought quality was important when buying a hot drink out of home. In 2008 the research also identified that 56% of consumers considered an outlet that offered sustainably or ethically sourced hot beverages created a positive impression on them. A year later, this figure had risen to 65%.

The company says its recent success demonstrates how positively this combination has been received in the marketplace, with the Kenco brand driving sales of the ethically sourced coffee market and 78% of out of home consumers giving Kenco top quality ranking, plus 87% were willing to pay more for it.

Within a site, Kenco says operators should consider their offering from the consumer perspective to maximise sales, and it has a five-step analysis to do that involving working through the consumer decision process from selecting a hot beverage in an outlet through to consumption. Simple steps such as having clear and visible menus and appropriate point of sale help and add value.

Also stressing its ethical approach is the Drury Tea & Coffee Company, which is supporting its Rainforest Alliance certified filter coffee Cuidado Filtro with new point of sale material. An image of a tree frog, the Rainforest Alliance's symbol, will appear on posters, swing signs, and window stickers.

Director Marco Olmi says: "Generally, there's an increased interest in premium coffee and we're seeing a bit of a move upmarket by our customers."

He says this may be for the same reason that chocolate sales are said to have increased during the recession – people are buying themselves 'small' treats. "We have 16 blends and you would expect customers to be choosing the value for money blends but they're asking for our top of the range coffee," says Olmi.

"Having said that, even our most expensive blend is about 10p to 12p a cup at cost price. For an operator, the expensive business is getting bums on seats – once they're in, what you want to do is sell them a second cup of coffee at £2.50, which you'll do if the quality is right.

"Until recently, I think there was a trade off on quality with Fairtrade. With Rainforest Alliance, we haven't found any compromise on quality at all. In price terms, our RA certified blend sits right in the middle of our 16 blends, but we find many customers are selecting it purely on quality in blind tastings."

Café Bar is convinced Fairtrade products still have a strong place in the hot beverage market and has relaunched its best selling Fairtrade brand Sense with a new and exclusive traceability feature.

Each individual packet features a tracking number, and careful registration makes it possible to trace the origins of the ingredients in each packet to their sources ensuring customers can track down exactly where in the world their products are from and what sustainable initiatives they support. The company says by visiting www. sensetraceability.co.uk customers can use the tracer to reveal the source.

"Our customers were crying out for something new and innovative," says marketing manager Marie Caulfield. "The traceability side of Sense is completely unique and gave us the perfect opportunity to relaunch the brand with a new story to tell. The fact that it is Fairtrade has not changed; we know Fairtrade offers a fair deal to our farmers and their communities and it is therefore important to us to continue with this initiative."

Café Bar acknowledges though that the only way a sustainable offering can work is to ensure the quality of the product sold in order to maintain customer retention. Great care is taken to carefully select the best ingredients for their special balance of character and quality, it adds.

Quality was the key driver for Baroosh, the high street bar chain owned by brewer McMullen & Sons, in changing its coffee range. Working with United Coffee, three Baroosh bars now feature traditional Adonis espresso machines serving United Coffee's Grand Café triple certified coffee.

Paul Robbins, food development manager advantage of the new machines and beans has been the benefit to our customer – they now receive a consistent cup of coffee every time.

"Our staff received professional barista training from United Coffee which has not only educated the team in the art of coffee making, but has instilled a similar passion for coffee that many of them previously had for cocktails and wine.

"We now have a strong coffee offer in our bars that creates a whole new part to the business day through a solid morning and afternoon trade – something that we would have previously lost to local cafés and coffee shops. With a breakfast menu and afternoon tea offer, coffee sales have become a vital part of our business. Coffee has huge profit potential, and the new machines, coffee and training give us the competitive edge."

Among all the hype surrounding fl at whites, macchiato and cappuccino, the humble cafetière is sometimes overlooked. Mike Osborne, sales director of Café du Monde, says: "In the clamour for speciality coffee, some establishments are ignoring cafetières, when for many that would be a more apt coffee solution."

As well as the elegance at table and the theatre of coffee making, there is no waste because every drop of coffee made is paid for, and there are never any complaints of stale coffee, he says.

The Celtic Manor Resort in Wales, the venue for golf's Ryder Cup contest in 2010, is using the company's cafetière system at its prestigious new Twenty Ten Clubhouse.

Clubhouse manager Matthew Lewis says: "We knew from our previous experience of Café du Monde at Celtic Manor that we could rely on them to provide the right taste as well as a reliability of service. They were the obvious choice when it came to equipping the clubhouse."

New from Marco Beverage Systems are improvements to its Filtro Shuttle bulk filter coffee brewer. It now includes features such as three programmable brew batch sizes, pre-infusion, and pulse brewing for improved extraction control.

The pre-infusion feature and pulse brewing allows different brews for different coffees to be defined without assistance. The machine can be used with proportioned sachets or is suitable for grind on demand systems.

Being insulated, the urn keeps coffee hot with minimal deterioration for up to two hours, and is ideal for venues with a medium to high volume need for coffee such as hotels and restaurants where coffee needs to be prepared in advance. UK sales director Chris York says: "The Shuttle is now a versatile mid volume bulk coffee brewer with a performance that delivers gold cup quality time and time again."

But let's not forget the finishing touches. Kerry Foodservice says its DaVinci Gourmet syrups and sauces add value to drinks menus. These had a strong presence at this year's Caffe Culture exhibition in London, with leading baristas from around the world hosting live demos on the Kerry stand, showing operators how to maximise the use of flavours in their drinks menus.

Best selling syrups include hazelnut, caramel and vanilla in classic and sugar free varieties, and sauces such as chocolate, caramel or white chocolate to drizzle over a cappuccino or latte. Commercial director Will Richards says the company lined up some talented baristas to highlight the products' benefits, and they developed their own, exclusive recipes especially for the show and offered help and advice to operators.

"We really wanted to demonstrate how easy it is to stay on trend with the high street branded offering, and the real benefits of creating flavoured speciality drinks. In that respect the show was a great success – raising the profile of quality coffee, as well as the opportunity for flavoured drinks," he adds.

Words John Porter and Sheila Eggleston