to criticise their coffee?

[1charlie1]

DH and I love our local deli/ coffee shop. It is the only one in a town otherwise populated with Starbucks, Costa etc. It was taken over by a young couple fairly recently, and sells lovely local produce - and coffee.

The quality of the coffee is pretty variable, ranging from nice to bloody awful. DH and I are tight on cash, and will be for the foreseeable future. But a coffee a week on Saturdays is our special treat.

This morning we found ourselves going to one of the chain coffee shops, just because we were not prepared to risk a bad one! (The last one we had was almost undrinkable.)

OK, this post seems pretty frivolous, but we feel that an otherwise great little business might be jeopardised by its dodgy coffee! (We bought our bread there this morning, and the proprietor said they had had a slow week.)

Would it be unreasonable to make some 'helpful' comment about their coffee? If so, how could we say this in a constructive way?

YANBU, they can't fix something if they don't know it's broken! Just say 'oh, I'm sorry, my milk is scalded/ there's too much milk,' and that should give them the hint.

Have they an email address?
You could be kindly but anonymous saying you love their business but their coffee is variable- could they get more consistently good.
Love bomb and advise all at the same time!

I'd go for it - politely of course.
If I'm paying for a meal and it isn't right - it goes back!
If I buy something and it doesn't work - I take it back

If I have FANTASTIC service - I say something about it

I'm never rude but given that money is tight, if I'm paying for something, I want it to be right!

You could say- oh it's bit strong/ gritty /weak with apologetic smile and [discretely] and hope they fall over themselves to sort it out and learn something at the same time.

Ask them if they use different coffee each week because the one last week was lovely...

I would tell them. I think they would want to know. Just have a good think WHY it's crap first, and then rather than say its crap you can give them really helpful specifics ( like the ones annunzita mentioned ). Tbh if they are a coffee shop that can't make coffee they will go out of business so you'd be doing them a favour.

Something I find useful if I have to buy from a crappuccino shop "not too hot and lots of foam please" when ordering. That often avoids the vat of coffee scented scalded milk problem.

I wish I could pluck up the courage to say to our local coffee shop, your fancy brand coffee is too strong and your choice of cakes is dull dull dull.

There's Gregs is I'm feeling tight and a French cafe if I'm feeling rich. He could be a very good alternative if only he had a bit of imagination.

also proper coffee machines are an art. They must be perfectly clean and the coffee pressed in just so. Filtercoffee left keeping hot is also vile.

There may be a bit of staff training needed.

Thank you for your replies! I am a bit cowardly, but would love really love to see this business thrive. I think we will go back there next week, and do what you have all suggested - be honest. We don't know exactly what is going wrong, it's just that it is often too bitter, and simultaneously tasteless. Bitter water?

They have probably changed the type of coffee they use. Ask them if it's different, just say you preferred the old type and ask them if they know where you can buy a tub. They should take the hint.

Bitter coffee is usually dirty machine or bad/ the wrong type of grounds.

Is it a problem easily fixed and they're much better otherwise than other stores? I would maybe make the effort in that case, but not otherwise, just changing where you go is so much easier.

It is of course why we brands develop even if they're often not the absolute best, the consistency of quality is more important than actual quality - the risk of the terrible is not worth it.

Bitter can also be due to being kept hot in a jug on a hotplate for too long. That can make it toxic too, I am told, but don't have precise reference on that one.

Thanks again! As I said upthread, we really want this place to be a success, it has a much nicer ambience than the usual chains. Lots of good ideas here, thank you!

If it's from an espresso machine, bitter generally means over-extracted. That could be too fine a grind, too much coffee or tamped too hard.

When I asked my regular coffee shop owner why his coffee was consistently better than anyone elses he said it was because the machine was cleaned thoroughly every night.