Suggestions on Espresso

[expat]

I've been playing around with some espressos lately because I'm getting more coffee shop owners coming and asking me to sell them coffee. I'll give you the recipe I like in a minute but first my dilemma.

Here in Ireland anything the coffee shops make is head and shoulders better than the automatic espresso/cappuccino makers in the gas stations and grocery stores (yes, that's how it is over here). So taste expectations for most people is not high. They come to the coffee shop more to socialize than rhapsodize over the beautiful espresso.

The problem I keep running into is price. With what I've made, that I like, I'd need to sell a kilo of roasted coffee for somewhere between 16 and 18 euros. That's too much for the coffee shops. They are used to paying 12-16/kilo.

So any suggestions on an espresso blend that would past muster to the cost sensitive shops and still bring a smile to a coffee lover's face?

I'm thinking it would be some kind of Brazil + Robusta blend to keep the cost reasonable but instead of spending lots of time trying to figure a good recipe I thought I'd see if any of you had suggestions. So please let me know what works for you or if I should just walk away from that business.

Oh, the recipe I currently like, because it really has a caffiene ZING!, is 80% Sumatra Lintong + 20% Indian AA Robusta. Great stuff but the Sumatra is pricey and even the Indian is at the top of the price range for robusta. So I can't make that economic sense although I'm happy to drink it at home.:decaf:

 

[eldub]

I think you should pursue the espresso business. Don't the coffee shops also offer drip coffee? I would see the shops as as potential customers for your other offerings and you will be getting your name out to folks who have already developed a taste for products higher up the ladder than instant coffee offered in the grocery stores.

We've found a great organic mexican robusta here in the states. (Currently $2.15/lb) I think you are headed the right direction with the brazilian/robusta idea. You should still get the same caffeine zing as long as the robusta is in the mix.

 

[expat]

Eldub,

I'll look into the Mexican although the cost is much more in Europe mainly due, or completely due, to shipping. Mexico is in your back yard whereas it is a bit of a trip to get it across the Atlantic. That said, I do I have some samples coming from my green bean wholesaler as soon as the ship gets into the port of London.

To answer your question about the drip -- NO (oddly enough) -- there is very little drip coffee in the coffee shops. Yes, there are a few out there and I'm working on getting my drip ground coffee into those folks as I find them, but for the most part all the retail coffee shop coffee is all made with an espresso machine. You get your option of an espresso, cappuccino, or Americano (which is the Irish idea of drip -- pull a shot and add water. I don't know about other folks out there but to me an Americano is about the worst, I can taste the water and espresso separately, like I"m drinking the coffee in layers because the water that was added never had the coffee pushed through it).