This series is an exploration of how specialty coffee is represented to our consumer base via the internet. I have chosen google to be my search medium, and I have simply typed “specialty coffee” into the box and hit enter. The following is not a review of the quality of the second link, rather a question of how well this valuable cyber real estate being used with new consumers and education as key objectives. Now that all the touchy feely jargon is out of the way… onto PART DEUX!!!!!!!
Listing #2: specialtycoffee.com
Ok, so we have a magazine sitting firmly in the second spot. (it is the first spot above scaa.org sometimes) So, lets take a trip into our imaginations and pretend that we have been to Starbucks a number of times, and had a 20 oz. something or another with carmel and whipped cream. We also grew up with parents that didn’t go to culinary school and fed us what the typical American eats. In this case, I speaking of mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, steamed vegetables, grilled chicken, the occasional celebratory cut of beef and cherry coke.( I know that I am generalizing here but I think if you looked at statistics of the United States you would see that sugary drinks and ramen are more prominent in the American diet that we think.) (Now back to our imaginations) We have heard someone talking about specialty coffee or we randomly ordering a latte somewhere and there was “a flower on top” and we decide to google search “specialty coffee”. The results appear and we click the second one. We are greeted with this…
This confirms, in my already weak coffee mind, that coffee is an ingredient in a drink and not the drink itself; that is not good. I am thinking about mangos and orange slices, not about coffee as a gastronomic experience. This is a bad start but maybe the site can recover. Please recover. (Call the medic!)
The next thing that caught my eye, was the GIANT add space with 12 pictures flipping by. I decided to click on one, and chance where it would take me.
So I, the new novice consumer, am being told how these “specialty coffee” roasters are making more profit off of me. That’s not the best possible imagery for a new customer, but let’s assume that everyone understands that business’ have to make a profit to stay open. With this best case scenario in mind, let me search around a bit for something the consumer can read to learn more about what this mythical, special coffee is. Well, there is nothing about degassing valves or the benefits of storing coffees properly on the resulting page, but I do get to learn about how a pretty label will make me want to buy coffee more. This is all too confusing. Let’s click another ad and hope for an education. I clicked this one…
And now I am thinking about sandwiches. This is futile. Moving on.
The next section is this…
We will start with the negatives and work our way to something POSITIVE! I’ll make the negative quick because I don’t want to be ridiculed for ranting here. Powdered Soy Creamer? Wrong! Fruit Smoothies? Wrong! Flavor your own coffee beans? WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! AHHHHHH!!!
Enough. Onto the good stuff…
Grant Rattray Hired as Managing Director of Cup of Excellence!!!!!!! HOT DAMN, now that’s something! A whole page and web link that tells me all kinds of great stuff about why coffees taste the way they do, and how to choose good ones. It puts me in a good position to learn the farmer’s names and see their faces. I learn about varietals and even get a glimpse into which companies purchase these miracle coffees. A RAY OF HOPE!!!! If the NOOB can navigate the flavored syrup, sandwich and cleaning solution adds to the small print almost at the end of the page, she can most certainly find something to dig her teeth into. But, I doubt the customer would dig that deep; thus, feeding the Starbucks fueled fire of sugar sugar sugar- all the while setting our industry back, the farmer back and the mind of the American public back, all in the name of profit. I really wish this had been a more positive experience.









