Inside story: is cheating an unspoken rule in the coffee industry?

The author was fortunate to run his own coffee shop in October 2005, and has since formed a bond with coffee. In a short period of half a year, from blank paper to expert, I have paid a lot of tuition fees and dared not enjoy the experience alone. I hope the following text can give me some references for those who want to run their own coffee shop or have coffee drinking habits.

I have invested more than 800,000 yuan in this store, and it is false to say that I do not want to make money, but my original intention is definitely a spiritual yearning, which is difficult to express in words. I believe that a large number of friends who want to open a coffee shop or are running a coffee shop can understand it.

In order to enable the vast number of coffee lovers to really drink a good cup of coffee, so that friends who want to open a shop can minimize the risk of investment and not be cheated, below I will describe in detail some inside stories in the coffee industry, which Beijingers call fishy.

It's a trick, but don't underestimate it. If you don't know how to open a coffee shop, it's no exaggeration to ask you to spend an extra $35,000, and coffee drinkers don't care, maybe from the time you read this post, you can have your first cup of real coffee. No one's money is from the strong wind, at least you can avoid being deceived in this respect in the future.

The circle of coffee is actually very small, basically everyone can get acquainted with each other, so my provenance is hidden here, we forgive you.

A coffee shop consists of storefront, equipment, store manager (coffee master technician) and raw materials.

First of all, let's talk about how most coffee drinkers are deceived.

Don't underestimate coffee. The reason why I like coffee so much is that coffee has a profound cultural heritage, and coffee is an art, the embodiment of a barista's imagination and creativity in reality. For example, France has barista training universities directly under the Ministry of Culture, which will award bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in coffee. An industry that takes 4 years or more to learn, it can be seen that it still has a very rich connotation and wants to be a high technical content.

Every cup of coffee you drink should be made by a "coffee technician" in a "professional" coffee equipment using "real" coffee ingredients. And the production process must strictly follow the operating rules (a real coffee is the training process is very strict), you can enjoy a good cup of coffee.

"Coffee technician"; at present, there are many "coffee technicians" in the market, which are mixed because of the irregularity of the market itself. Each big coffee manufacturer has its own training system, real pot has MANABEI barista training courses, Shangdao and Starbucks also have their own training courses, and even some small coffee companies recruit trainees from the community. But if you ask a Starbucks barista to work on the island, he can't do it. Why? The reason is simple: there is no standard training course for baristas in China, and the basic knowledge they teach in each course is fundamentally different, let alone the method of operation. Starbucks says Brazilian beans are sweet, real pot says Brazilian beans are sour, Shangdao says Brazilian beans taste bitter, since it's different, someone must be wrong, right? Who is right? If you ask me, it's all wrong! Isn't it a mistake to call out your coffee lecturer, not to mention whether he is qualified as a coffee trainer or not? Isn't this deceiving consumers?

Coffee raw materials: that is, coffee beans, let's not talk about the three major departments of coffee beans: Arabica, Robusta, Liberica, that is too professional, useless!

In terms of our drinking habits, coffee beans can be divided into two types:

1. Italian coffee beans:

Italian coffee beans, or Italian coffee beans, belong to blended beans and originated in Italy. Since Italy's coffee consumption is the largest in the world, and Italy's own climate is not suitable for growing coffee, it is not economical for Italians to drink coffee of all tastes, so smart Italians use some of the more common varieties to make various flavors of coffee beans in proportion, and then Italian fancy coffee is popular all over the world. So now all the fancy (Italian) coffee we drink uses Italian beans (mixed beans), such as cappuccino, latte, mocha, Italian extra strong, etc.

Italian beans on the market range from 26 yuan / kg to 400 yuan / kg, the expensive ones are basically imported beans, mainly due to the high cost caused by tariffs and transportation, imported beans do have their advantages, the advantage does not lie in the proportion of blending, and baking technology, these are now very public, no longer a trade secret, but big-name coffee bean manufacturers all have stable coffee farms for long-term supply. Therefore, as a raw material, the quality of raw beans can be basically guaranteed, that is, to ensure the consistency of coffee bean taste, why can it be basically guaranteed? Because the cultivation of coffee beans is very affected by the climate of the year, including sunshine, precipitation and temperature, and the taste changes due to different soil properties, these big-name coffee bean producers can guarantee the planting of raw beans in the same manor. but can not control the impact of climate on planting, so the quality is basically the same, of course, this will happen. For example, Rain Water's weather conditions such as light this year are very good, and the beans are full and of good quality. Coffee merchants will deliberately "stir-fry" the beans to ensure the same quality (or how to explain to consumers if the weather is not good next year).

And there are two kinds of domestic coffee producers. One kind of high-end market, they buy imported raw beans through the international futures market, then mix a small amount of Yunnan beans, or do not add a Yunnan bean at all, for baking, in general, the taste is very good, but the price is relatively high. On the other hand, Yunnan beans are completely used for blending. Because Yunnan's planting technology is relatively backward and the climatic conditions are not very good, so the taste is very general, but because of its low cost, low price and low quality, there are more of these beans in circulation on the market.

You may say that there is too much difference between 26 yuan / kg and 400 yuan / kg. Don't worry too much. You can't buy beans worth 26 yuan / kg, and I can't buy them either. Of course, I won't buy them. Why is it cheaper than raw beans? I also heard what my friends in the circle said: "expired beans with flavor!" Essence is the kind of coffee flavor agent that is installed in Starbucks air conditioning system and sprayed every 60 seconds. Starbucks is used to make coffee shop fragrant. Off the island is sprayed on beans with inferior quality. Basically, it is very difficult for you to buy beans below 100RMB / kg. People in the circle do not dare to go so far, but they dare to go down to the island!

2. Individual coffee beans.

Including Mantening, Brazil, Colombia, Blue Mountain and so on, these coffees have not been blended, and there is only one variety in composition, so they are called individual products, and each kind of coffee has its own unique taste to meet the different needs of different coffee lovers. The taste can be imitated, and the blending method of Italian beans mentioned above can also be used to match the taste of individual coffee, such as Blue Mountain and Brazil, but the cost is much lower, so most cafes begin to sell dog meat on sheep's head. this is very common, but not completely disallowed, for the following reasons:

It is very difficult to buy aristocratic coffee like Blue Mountain, even if it costs hundreds of yuan a cup. This is not the best coffee in Blue Mountain. Due to different elevations, the quality of Blue Mountain coffee produced on Blue Mountain is also different, so there are very few of them. Basically, they are not available in the hands of the British royal family, the White House of the United States, European aristocrats and UCC companies in Japan. So what the market sells are basically blue mountain mixed coffee beans, a small amount of blue mountain and other beans to match the taste of blue mountain, or completely cobbled together, not a single blue mountain bean, so some regular cafes do not sell blue mountain coffee, or marked blue mountain mixed coffee, 99.9% of those who dare to write about the best Jamaican blue mountains are liars, a dozen and a check, you can let him grab a handful of beans to see, you won't mind. Mixed beans are made from a variety of beans, different shapes and sizes, if the blue mountain coffee beans are at least the same size and bean shape.

The same is true of other individual coffees, which are often blended. Excessively, Brazilian coffee does not even have a single Brazilian bean. This is really a lie, but this is not necessarily caused by the coffee shop operator. He may also be the victim of being deceived by the supplier. After all, these things are too professional.

3. Professional equipment

Making different kinds of coffee requires different equipment, making Italian (fancy) coffee requires a professional coffee machine, while making individual coffee requires siphon or trickle coffee pots, and so on. There are some coffee shops that do not have a coffee machine. They make coffee by brewing. I am very opposed to this practice. It is necessary to talk about a sensitive topic, "caffeine". We all know that excessive caffeine in coffee is harmful to the health. therefore, there is a saying that decaf coffee is treated by washing with water after picking raw beans (another method is natural drying). Because caffeine is soluble in water, washing can reduce the amount of caffeine in coffee beans. Some merchants mistakenly guide consumers, saying that the coffee treated by this method is decaf, but it is not. Since drinking too much is not good for your health, who drinks "caffeine" coffee? Always treat consumers as fools.) Coffee with a caffeine content of less than 0.1% is decaf, which we call coffee. If the caffeine content is too high, you can't drink it at all, so you won't call it coffee. (except Turkish coffee)

This is the caffeine extraction curve. When the extraction time is less than 30 seconds, the caffeine content is very stable and low. Once the extraction time exceeds 30 seconds, the caffeine content will double by an order of magnitude. So to extract coffee in a short time (within 30 seconds) requires a lot of pressure and high water temperature, which requires professional equipment. The substance extracted by a professional equipment in 20 seconds is equivalent to boiling coffee for 30 minutes, and if you really want to cook it for 30 minutes, you will drink real caffeine coffee. The same is true when making individual coffee. The so-called 180-second extraction in some coffee shops is unavailable, unhealthy, undrinkable, and the most important point. We all know that all Italian (fancy) coffee is based on Espresso (Italian extra strong). It can be said that Espresso is the soul of fancy coffee, an Espresso+ milk is a latte, and 1/3Espresso+1/3 milk + 1 ram 3 milk foam is Cappuccino. Connoisseurs who often drink Espresso know that a good Espresso must have a certain thickness of oil, the color of the oil must be golden, and there are no black spots, the oil is very much like beer foam, it is the essence of coffee, the collection of nutrition and delicacy, and can only be extracted from coffee by high pressure treatment. therefore, it is impossible to make a cup of standard Espresso with golden oil without a professional coffee machine. How can you make a delicious Espresso without a standard Cappuccino?

If you don't believe that you can't drink coffee, you can do an experiment to make sure that you never dare to drink coffee like this again. Don't follow the Turkish practice of coffee. Habits and traditions are not necessarily beneficial. Buy some beans, grind them into powder or not, and then boil them in a pot over low heat. Don't cover the lid. When the fragrance comes out, you will smell it. Smell it for 3 or 5 minutes to make sure you have a headache. It will evaporate into the air with the water, when you inhale the aroma of coffee contains a lot of caffeine, you must not drink coffee in the pot, really will die, do not! Don't!

China Coffee Trading Network: www.gafei.com