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Training .... todays buzz word in coffee - We ask industry expert Hugh Gilmartin for his view ...

We give free training …… who cares about the taste ….

Ten Years ago there was no such thing as Coffee Trainers … It was the salespeople who talked the talk and failed to walk the walk. Today training is the price of entry . Today everybody knows what a Barista is. Today everybody selling coffee will train their customers how to make it. And today most businesses fail to actually buy into the need to properly train and allocate the correct resource to educating their staff about what good and bad coffee actually is. Why ? …. they say its about the money !

Whenever you talk about making money from coffee, you've got to consider it's not about a commodity, it's not about purchasing coffee from your supplier, it's not about a machine, but about how you create that experience when the consumer comes to buy the coffee. That experience is sensual and should appeal to more than one sense at the same time. You have to focus on taste, so you have to brew it properly, but you also taste with your eyes so you need to make sure it looks good and what about feeling good – oh yes give me good service immediately. Now if you can make it smell good and sound good (which might simply be a waiter saying something polite) then you will win – and you will be reaching coffee nirvana.

Now back to reality - its always about the money and I cant afford that. Well I’m afraid good Coffee is a cuisine (You don't have the waiters making the starters in a restaurant, so why do you have them making the coffee) and good coffee means knowing where it came from. Good coffee takes tender loving care and attention with the brewing and then good coffee comes full circle to making proper money. If you are unhappy with your coffee (and 80% of UK foodservice businesses should be) then get yourself trained first by an expert so that you know what you are buying, then implement a straight forward plan to get your staff trained in small steps over 90 days and watch your profits grow. It is not difficult but you need to take action and actually do something about it. Sadly most don’t and I continue to struggle to find decent coffee ……..