Well no it isn't really but please bear with me,
As you (hopefully) know, I am only an enthusiastic consumer of coffee. I do not have any commercial experience at all in the business except that I am lucky enough to own a (small) commercial single group head espresso machine and grinder. A friend of mine has invited, well pushed and cajoled, me into running a coffee stall indoors for 1 day on the 20th March at a local boat jumble he is organising in our village hall. It will run for maybe 6 hours. I've agreed and I'm approaching this venture firstly to have fun but I would really like to do it properly hopefully leaving any customers I have with the thought: mmmm.....that was the best coffee I've ever had.
So I'm now walking around trying to think this project through. I have no idea of the projected number of people that will coming to the jumble but my guess is that the customers will be the sort of people that are looking for a bargain in whatever they buy so I feel this sets the agenda for a number of decisions I need to make.
These are my thoughts so far,
I'll sell coffee only in quality 8oz paper cups with lids if requested
My list will comprise of
cappuccino
latte
mocha (my friend insists)
americano (the choice for anyone who just "wants a coffee")
espresso
I'll make all drinks with double shots since that's all I ever use at home.
If anyone does ask for an espresso, I'll offer them in an espresso cup otherwise it will be in the 8oz paper cup.
I'm working on the ratio of around 50 drinks per kilo of beans and 12 litres of milk. I'll supply sugar in bags for customers to help themselves.
I'll also offer a shaker to those customers that want sweet powder on their caps.
At this point, I'll work on a plan of 100 drinks but it will probably be much less.
I plan to roast my own beans since I have quite a stock to consume. This leads me into my first question; Can anyone suggest a suitable blend suitable for what will be predominantly milky drinks based on my current stock;
450g Columbia manizales supremo
650g Guatemala huehuetenango
700g Sumatra Lintong
700g Guatemala palencia peak
800g Brazil cacheoira
800g Ethiopian Mocca
1200g Indian Monsoon Malabar
1500g Java old brown
I've been trying out this following blend recently with good success;
50% Brazil
20% Ethiopian
20% Sumatra
10% Sulawesi
But I don't have enough beans for 2 kilos of this blend.
I don't plan to sell anything else since I just want to concentrate on the coffee this time. However, I have an idea to supply biscotti with each drink so I have been eyeing up Carolyn's recipe.
Back to the cups; I have only been searching today for cups but it seems that I can only buy min. quantities of 1000 economically. Does anyone know where I could get 8oz quality paper cups in lots of say 250?
What do I charge? Difficult to decide but I was thinking along the lines of 75p for the Americano and £1 for the caps and lattes and £1.10 for the mocha which leads me to another point. I haven't made mochas before and so I was planning to use that well known UK chocolate powder unless someone can suggest a better idea.
I'll be doing all the barista' ing at the event and I'll press gang my daughter into serving. At this point, the purpose is not even to make a profit. I'm happy enough to plan and enjoy the event and if I can cover my costs, thats good.
I would really appreciate friendly input from the group. Assuming it all goes ahead, I can post my progress with this venture with pictures and a summary report of the proceedings.
Richard