A few times over the past week a customer has said to me:
“what? you’re sold out of coffee xyz? again? really?”
Yes, for really. We sold out. I told the customer that if we had an inexhaustible supply of coffee xyz sooner or later that coffee would be stale, so I’d rather sell out frequently and know that it’s tasting great than nervously watch fresh roasted beans turn into… well… beans. We want everything you drink here to taste like it should, and sometimes that means we sell out. We try to order enough so that there are always several choices for coffees, plus a nice selection of beans to take home.
So let’s talk about The 21st Street Menu… new Direct Trade Ethiopia (Kurimi) and Direct Trade Nicaragua (Flor Azul) are in!
While the Guatemala (Itzamna) and Costa Rica (Flecha Roja) (and Honduras for that matter) are all still “In-Season” and delicious, we have learned that too many wonderful choices can lead to customers developing “analysis paralysis”. They’ve been bumped for the new offerings. We’ve decided that around three or four single origin coffees was about right, and we throw in our one dark roast and a couple decaf choices and that about fills up our menu. Last year at one point I think we had 16 coffees going at once! Needless to say this created some issues moving the line. A tight, fresh menu allows us to guarantee that everything brewed and sold in our shop is typically within a week or so of the roast date.
Over the last month we’ve experienced our best sales for coffee and whole beans (take that stupid economy). It’s taking some time to learn what the new order numbers should be, so we’re adjusting our orders up each week accordingly. We’re always trying to balance freshness and having enough stuff to brew/sell. Just to make sure we stay on top of things, and you help keep us in line, we get all our bags roast dated. This way we don’t lose track of a coffee, sell it to you, then you take it home and wonder why it tastes flat and stale.
By the way a certain national chain is proudly displaying roast dates in their stores now… something along the lines of: “your coffee was freshly roasted… TWO MONTHS AGO… hope it tastes like something” (I added the last bit in my mind when I read it). Here we are freaking out about whether the coffee is at worst 9 or 10 days off roast, and they’re ANNOUNCING they’re stuff is dead on arrival. That’s part of the reason why our coffees taste like something other than “regular coffee”.
We knew the day would come- even though we ordered thousands of the things… we “sold out” of our punch cards! For the past two years we’ve been giving away a free drink after you buy ten- provided that you could hold onto the card. It’s our way of saying thank you for being a regular customer. We appreciate your business.