Advice needed...wanting to sell coffee at farmers' market

[LJones]

Hello all,
I am new to the forum, and would like some advice on selling coffee at a farmers' market. My husband and I sold our naturally-grown produce & eggs for the first time last year at our local market, and we think adding coffee would be a fun and much-saught-after item to sell. We have permission from the market director. We want to offer something unique and natural/organic as possible but of course we need it to be cost-effective. No one else sells coffee at our market, so there is no competition. We are in NW Indiana, and our market runs from May thru October, 8 AM to 1 PM....so there are plenty of cold mornings!!! Our market does not supply electricity, and we really would like to avoid running a generator.....we've been close to other vendors who have, and it just makes too much noise. My husband thought of buying an RV battery and using that. (We park our vehicle at our booth.) Or, brewing the coffee at home and keeping it in airpots.
Also, who do you prefer to buy your supplies from?
Suggestions welcome!
Thank you,
Lisa

 

[Mr Shave]

Hello all,
I am new to the forum, and would like some advice on selling coffee at a farmers' market. My husband and I sold our naturally-grown produce & eggs for the first time last year at our local market, and we think adding coffee would be a fun and much-sought-after item to sell. We have permission from the market director. We want to offer something unique and natural/organic as possible but of course we need it to be cost-effective. No one else sells coffee at our market, so there is no competition. We are in NW Indiana, and our market runs from May thru October, 8 AM to 1 PM....so there are plenty of cold mornings!!! Our market does not supply electricity, and we really would like to avoid running a generator.....we've been close to other vendors who have, and it just makes too much noise. My husband thought of buying an RV battery and using that. (We park our vehicle at our booth.) Or, brewing the coffee at home and keeping it in air pots.
Also, who do you prefer to buy your supplies from?
Suggestions welcome!
Thank you,
Lisa

It really depends on how you want to be positioned

Is your objective to sell single cups of coffee? That in turn will drive traffic to your location and increase produce and egg sales?
Or do you want to focus on whole bean sales? Maybe both?

Farmer's markets cliental typically responds better to sustainability, fair trade, and organic coffees.
"Bio degradable / eco friendly" cups is also something I would do

For brewing most vendors I see at FM use air pots for sampling and selling. In the scenario you described, this will probably be the most economical and easiest to execute. The down side is it can lead to luke warm / stale coffee YMMV. Say brew at home (certified kitchen?), drive to market, set up hour before, 4 hour market?, that is some old coffee

If you have hot water, you could manually grind the coffee and set up a pour over bar. This is much more labor intensive, there will be less waste, start up costs lower, CAN yield a better cup of coffee, much more artisan look and great eye catcher / conversation starter for those passing by.



Closing thoughts - if you aren't comfortable with the idea do more research. Think about how many cups you have to move (including waste) to pay for those air pots and all other start up supplies. Delivering a great cup of coffee is a great way to build regulars that will seek you out at the FM

Best of luck

 

[LJones]

Thank you Mr. Shave for your advice! We were wondering how long the airpots would keep coffee hot. Sounds like maybe not too long.

We were thinking of only selling single cups of coffee.....not selling beans at this time. If an interest would come about with the beans, we would add them.

I have just searched for info on pour over bars. Have to say, never heard of it! Don't forget, I'm over here in the Midwest. :/ It looks really cool! I will continue to research this.

I really appreciate your input! Thank you!
Lisa

 

[Sidram]

I suggest you look into. Honda eu3000 generator. They are very quite.

 

[Mr Shave]

The pour over is tricky, it is great in the right environment... you will have to make that assessment

I suggest you look into. Honda eu3000 generator. They are very quite.

I second that the Honda EU are the way to go, the 3000 Handi is still over kill with what you will be doing.
If you are in it for the long haul Honda 2000 $1,2000
Small hot water heater dispenser (Zojirutsi is good enough, you don't need anything heavy duty for what you will be doing) $130
Pour over bar you can build or buy
Misc stuff $xxx

Still a lot of cups to make up. Is there another vendor that has a gen that you could plug into? That would make it a lot more economical.

 

[LJones]

Thank you Sidram and Mr. Shave. We are mulling over our options. I will look into the hot water dispenser.

Mr. Shave, what type of enviroment do you mean, for the pour over?

 

[brewinaroundcoffeecompany]

The commercial kitchen is a good point. You may not need one, however, if you are only serving drip coffee. Check with your health department rep.

The drip coffee would be a great way to get into the game. It is cheap and has a high profit ratio. Are there any other businesses around there who you could approach and ask to use their outlet in exchange for 10% sales? Maybe just fill the pump pots as needed then.

 

[Hankua]

Hi there! I know just the right roaster for you, built in the USA by Lloyd in the Dallas/FW area. Last one sold on the bay for less than 1k. It's called the "Hand Cranked Roaster" and weighs over 80lbs. Never seen one and since I'm in FL it's too far for a visit. Lloyd and I have exchanged many emails, it's a part time thing, none for sale at the present time. Roaster has a 3/16" solid carbon steel drum vented in the back, naturally vented, hand cranked, drop gate, tryer, and cast iron burner. Oh, and a handle in the front for variable speeds. No electricity needed!If this is something yor're interested in, get in touch with me and I'll give Lloyd a shout.Hank

 

[LJones]

Thanks people. Maybe we should just start with drip coffee and see how it goes, then expand to the pour over. We don't need a health permit to sell the coffee. Didn't ask though if that was only if it was brewed on location. This area, however, doesn't seem to be too strict with regulations.

There wasn't a permanent vendor close to us that we could share power with. Still considering RV batteries. Anyone think that would work?

Hank, the roaster sounds great! Definitely something to consider once we decide how far to go with the coffee.

 

[Hankua]

Sorry, my bad. Thought you were planning on roasting. Lloyd has customers roasting at farmers market, outdoor vegetable stand, and coffee farm.

 

[devindmoon]

LJones, I know a coffee roaster (who also has 2 coffee houses, one in Pittsburgh and one in his home-town, Indiana, PA, and he distributes to a few other coffeehouses). He's a great guy, and would be very willing to work with you.He roasts the kind of coffee that farmers market clientel would appreciate--lots of organic and fair trade.He's very good at what he does. And is great at quality control. He could help a lot. He's helped me a ton.PM me if you're interested.

 

[edells]

Hello all,
I am new to the forum, and would like some advice on selling coffee at a farmers' market. My husband and I sold our naturally-grown produce & eggs for the first time last year at our local market, and we think adding coffee would be a fun and much-saught-after item to sell. We have permission from the market director. We want to offer something unique and natural/organic as possible but of course we need it to be cost-effective. No one else sells coffee at our market, so there is no competition. We are in NW Indiana, and our market runs from May thru October, 8 AM to 1 PM....so there are plenty of cold mornings!!! Our market does not supply electricity, and we really would like to avoid running a generator.....we've been close to other vendors who have, and it just makes too much noise. My husband thought of buying an RV battery and using that. (We park our vehicle at our booth.) Or, brewing the coffee at home and keeping it in airpots.
Also, who do you prefer to buy your supplies from?
Suggestions welcome!
Thank you,
Lisa

So, just wondering what/how you did at the farmers markets. I have been selling fresh roasted beans and iced coffee (from cold brewed concentrate) at my local farmers market and am now thinking about selling 'fresh' hot coffee at our indoor winter market. I'm thinking of using the cold brewed concentrate and hot water (an Americano, if you will) to make the hot coffee. I'm planning on using the concentrate because I think it would greatly simplify the process - no brewing, no filters, no waiting, etc., just add hot water to the concentrate. Quick and easy. Of course there is the time involved in making the concentrate ahead of time which you have to factor in. For the hot water I would use either an electric kettle or a two burner propane camp stove.

Hoping to open this dialog again as I would like to hear other opinions or success stories.

All the best,
Ed E.

 

[HRC]

^^^To be honest, that sounds weird. We have a setup that allows two people to hammer out pour-overs about as fast as people can order, if the process is tight. It starts with a wooden pour-over stand that holds 4 drippers. We have two electric kettles. We serve only one size, 12 oz cup. We bring our grinders and grind enough for about 5 drinks at a time and put these grounds into little plastic cups with lids. If we're slammed, we just grind and pull grounds out of the hoppers. The trick is to have everything "measured" to allow fast movement. We chose 12 oz cups because this equates to 20g of grounds. One aeropress scoop and one espresso scoop gets us close to this weight (so we don't have to weigh every brew). The electric kettles hold 1 liter of water each and that's enough for two pours and a little extra for wetting filters, etc. The idea is to always keep the kettles full and boiling or near boil.

 

[Nicki]

Wondering how your business went. I have solar panels that might help out with the electricity problem.

 

[MelissaJones]

Hmmm that's a tricky one. Have you tried using a thermal of some sort? I also recommend using an electric kettle to make the coffee. That way the water stays hot and you just need to add the instant coffee when you are ready. Check out a Hamilton Beach 40865 Glass Electric Kettle, 1.7-Liter they work super well for me!