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There are a lot of us who drink coffee every day. If you're not one of the estimated 150 million daily coffee drinkers, you're one of the other 150 million (given our 300+ million U.S. population) who probably saw a TV commercial or heard a radio ad today about coffee. Or maybe you read a news article, blog or Tweet that mentioned coffee.
Coffee is the focus of more and more marketing. McDonalds is reportedly spending $100 million this year promoting its new "McCafe" brand of coffee. Starbucks launched its own advertising campaign with full-page ads in the New York Times and regional online social networking sites. Coffee is in front of American consumers now more than ever.
Of course, this brings greater visibility to the coffee industry. More exposure means more demand, but it's also an opportunity to introduce higher quality coffee to consumers. With more than $4 billion consistently being imported into the U.S. year after year and an increasing marketing focus on coffee products, opportunities in the coffee industry are strong. While there's evidence to suggest that some coffee shop chains are seeing a decline in business, more coffee is being consumed at home. The advertising focus of companies like McDonalds and Starbucks is designed to counteract this trend and drive millions of consumers out of home to consume more coffee. As consumption increases across the board, it's important to focus on quality. We want all coffee drinkers to learn what goes into quality coffee and to get a consistently excellent cup of coffee wherever they choose to consume it.
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The industry knows us as a cupping house, but maybe what they don't know is that we only buy about one lot of every 10 we cup. We're highly selective and have been throughout our history. While others might rely on their suppliers to do their cupping for them, we get samples daily from our growers and usually cup a dozen to three dozen samples a day; sometimes up to 200 cups per day are tasted. We always do a blind test, evaluate the coffee and then look at the label. And we've been doing that the same way for more than 100 years.
In the company's history there have only been six people who have managed the Origin to Cup process--buying, evaluation, blending, cupping and quality control management for Boyds: our founder P.D. Boyd, his son R.P. Boyd, Ed Perry, Veda Younger, Ron Roecker and myself. I studied under Ron as an apprentice for about 10 years and started buying beans in the mid 1980s. Now I'm mentoring Brian Howard, who has been with the company for eight years. Some might ask why this job requires a 10-year apprenticeship, and the answer is simple. Unlike a degree in medicine or law, you don't go to school to learn how to source, buy, evaluate, blend and cup great coffee, yet it takes years and hands-on experience to learn both the art and the science of the Origin to Cup process we uphold here at Boyds.
Our coffee day starts each weekday in the Boyds Cupping Room where Brian has been learning how to select and purchase coffee from around the world. Over the years, Brian has been studying how to be both objective and subjective to coffees and how to evaluate coffees to ensure the Boyd Coffee Company legacy of producing the best-tasting, highest-quality product for its customers continues. Like R.P. Boyd taught me over 25 years ago, every shipment of coffee we buy is for a specific category and once a flavor is established, you have to hit it right every time for consistency and quality control. So at every cupping, Brian and I ask ourselves, "Does this coffee hit the flavor profile?" With more than two million cups of Boyds Coffee served daily, it's no small task to guarantee that every cup served by our restaurant customers hits that mark, but we take great care to ensure it's perfect every time.
In this challenging economic time, the restaurant industry has experienced fluctuations, and we're all feeling that pinch a bit. Our strategy is to provide prospective customers with an opportunity to serve a better cup of coffee. All of this is in step with what Boyds has been seeing as a trend in the coffee industry--people are looking for exceptional coffee brewed to the highest standard, without compromise. Gone are the days of the bottomless cup of joe that was popular years ago. Now we're seeing more growth in the single cup brewing side of the business--particularly in QSR, hotels, convenience stores, offices and even in the home market. And even McDonald's is making a huge move to promote its single serve offerings. With all this added promotion and hype, now is the time to help consumers learn more about what makes quality coffee and to give coffee foodservice providers the cutting-edge equipment to deliver the perfect cup of coffee each and every time.
Randy Layton is vice president of coffee operations for Boyd Coffee Company. Boyd Coffee Company has served the foodservice industry with vision and innovation for more than 100 years and four generations of family management. Boyds set the standard by being the first certified organic roaster in North America. The company sources much of its coffee from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms to ensure that the coffee is grown to sustainable standards that protect the environment and the rights and welfare of workers, their families and communities.
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