Would bean to cup coffee instead of barista stop you going to a cafe?

[wh1tbyboats]

I get that we all love great coffee but recently I've found myself queuing for most of my visit or finishing my food before my coffees arrived and a poor barista with orders coming out of their ears. I would just love to enjoy a lovely coffee before eating and sit with a friend instead of queuing separately for ages. What to people think of high quality freshly brewed bean to cup coffee? That then frees up the server to do other things in between like print a bill or log an order ... any thoughts ?

I'm as chatty as they come but I don't particularly want staff circulating and chatting, I either go for coffee with friends or because I want a bit of quiet time with my diary and phone. It's nice if they are friendly when taking your order / making the coffee but that's enough. Keeping tables clear and clean is important too, so you need sufficient staff to keep on top of that.

I wouldn't, I have a bean to cup machine at home and would expect a coffee out (especially when they're up to about £4!) to be substantially better.

I choose the cafe for the coffee, don't really care about chatting with the staff. If you're worried about queues, you could put qr readers on the tables I have seen that done

I don’t think it’s as nice. Ido get one sometimes from service stations etc but I wouldn’t pay cafe prices for making my own coffee. I was also a barista it’s not as good.

I'd rather wait for a good coffee, but prefer cafes that let me sit down while I wait to ones where I have to stand around. Happy to pay extra for this.

I did recently because it was a knitting shop cafe and I really wanted to support them and do some knitting. But I haven't been back. It wasn't much cheaper than good coffee and it just had an unpleasant taste and texture.

I don't tend to get coffee out because it's often not that nice so perhaps I would prefer this other method of making it

I find the whole barista thing quite funny actually- all that effort and it's rarely anything to write home about

I might sound thick here but isn't barista coffee still bean to cup? As in, the coffee is ground from fresh beans ?

For me, bean to cup machine in a cafe is fine. But I'd expect barista coffee in a coffee shop.

Yes I'm wanting to open a cafe in a little market town not a coffee shop but yes coffee is still really important to me thank you for all the advice x

I think it very much depends on what customer base you are looking at as your target audience. If you are marketing as a cheap and cheerful cafe then a button coffee machine serves its purpose and you price your coffee accordingly.

If you want to be an upmarket cafe or coffee shop then you definitely need trained baristas, freshly roasted coffee beans (no more than 1 month old) and hand steamed milk. You obviously charge more for this to cover the additional cost.

Thank you agreed 😊

It’s very much like wine - some people enjoy most wine and can’t tell the difference between a cheap or an expensive glass. The same for coffee.

The biggest differences with a barista coffee is that they will have a local supplier who delivers high quality and freshly roasted coffee beans. After 4 weeks of being roasted then the beans will produce a more bitter tasting coffee. A cheap coffee machine will produce a completely different tasting espresso than an high quality barista machine that has finely tuned settings. And lastly if the milk is hand steamed by someone who has good training then it is a completely different texture and taste.

In chain coffee shops the staff generally have 15-30 minutes of “training” and then there is very little difference between the coffees they are producing- cappuccino, latte, flat white all come out very similar. When they should be distinctly different.

I’d compare it to a beauty therapist - if you went to get a massage from someone who had only 30 minutes of training, then it might feel ok, be pleasant etc. But if you then had a massage straight afterwards from someone who had spent 2 years at college training then you would notice the world of difference.

A bean to cup machine is one that uses whole beans and grinds them, dispenses the correct amount and then uses the ground coffee to make espresso.

Other machines use ground coffee or they grind it and then you tamp it and put it back in etc, whereas a wholly automated one leaves no room for human intervention, which seems like it should give consistent quality, but actually takes the ‘art’ out of the coffee making in the same way an automated toaster at a hotel always ends up either under or over cooking the toast! The bread thickness, freshness and the preference of the person setting the temperature/time will affect how the end result looks. With coffee it’s much the same - the beans react differently as the oils dry out, the machine itself behaves differently as the burr grinding mechanism settles in, the heat of the water, the number of cups made in quick succession can all have an effect on the quality of the espresso . Even a couple of seconds difference in the drop time can make the coffee taste bitter or ‘thin’. Fresh beans, a knowledgable barista and a good machine will bring in customers.

Would attract me rather than put me off

I cannot bear waiting around while a load of clanking and hissing and fizzing and whirling around takes place

I loathe ground coffee- give me instant every time!

Well if you're opening a cafe, make sure you do a decent cup and pot of tea. No UHT milk please, proper, plain old builders tea. You can also offer a load of wanky tea alongside if you wish.

Seconded.

Yes, please do proper tea because if I spot the bean to cup machine I will probably order tea instead.

I just so don't get this ( and I'm quite picky at home with my espresso kettle). The milk is important ( from an ethical pov if anything) but everything else is really not that much of a deal is it, really???
Isn't coffee, pretty much just... coffee? Leaving out the coffee snobs ...?

No, because the phrase 'bean to cup' gives me the actual boak for some reason.

I don't even know why I opened the thread 😆

Ok OP, I'll bite having read the full thread. I've had coffee from various shops and trolleys. All nice. None particularly better than others ( including my own little kettle). Coffee is coffee, really. If you're opening a cafe I would personally think about what else is on the menu. Btw, I'm vegan so oat milk with my coffee would be super (although I generally go for a black americano). Or soy/ almond etc. And a vegan sandwich. But I get that might not have huge appeal.

It depends so much on what sort of cafe it is.

Sometimes we specifically want a really good coffee. Hardly anywhere does one we prefer to what we can make at home with good beans and an Aeropress, even if they are baristas though.

Sometimes we want a tolerably decent latte quickly.

Sometimes we want the food more than the drink and if we're not sure about the coffee (a LaVazza sign usually signifies bitter regret however they make it, for instance) then we'll order tea or cola.

Depends. If it’s an independent coffee shop and the whole point is the coffee, I wouldn’t go in the shop selling Nespresso, no. Especially given the price of a latte these days (about £3.50 round here).

If I was in a National Trust cafe and just wanted a cup of coffee to go with my scone after a long walk, I wouldn’t care too much. But I wouldn’t expect to spend more than £2.50 on it either.

I used to like the days when all you asked for was a coffee and it came almost immediately.

Can't be arsed with all these machines and the 100s of types of coffees you have to wait for now.

No idea even what bean to cup means 😁

This is how I feel about it.

All this writing your name on cups etc I find really OTT and cringey. It's all just such a faff.