Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/139019
provide. Leto at Brew Pony is a programmer by trade and was able to conceptualize a site and concept that he thinks is tailored to the modern online consumer—signing up is straightforward and the benefits of subscription are clear. "It's just three or four clicks and you're on," Leto says. "That comes from me being in the tech world, where people get paid six figures, have very little free time and are willing to pay lots of money to not have their time wasted. Brew Pony knows that customer set." SIP AND LEARN: Craft Coffee puts a premium on information and education. Indeed, reaching the tech community seems to be a goal of many roasters—coding and coffee have proven to pair well—and subscription entities are positioned to grab the loyalty of that increasingly affluent segment of the American workforce. "We're trying to become a normal coffee for tech people, bloggers and Web-based companies who do development and things like that," says Regular Coffee's Foster. "They're right on that edge between wanting really high quality and just wanting coffee all the time." the-industry roots have helped them develop brewing guides and videos that teach the importance of grind and extraction in an easy-to-follow manner. "We want to make great coffee accessible to anyone," says Meis. "We'll do anything we need to to show the average Joe how to make really incredible coffee at home. It's not as hard as one might think." Craft Coffee, meanwhile, recently raised $10,000 on Kickstarter to put toward its own consumer education program. The company already provides engaging stories, photos and descriptions for each of the coffees sent out to subscribers, and the goal is now to deepen that effort and provide more Web-based resources. "Brewing is both complicated and simple in the weirdest way," says Horn. "Figuring out the perfect way to communicate that to a consumer is a really hard challenge I think the whole industry constantly faces. One of our biggest goals is to move the needle on that point, to be great at it." PUSHING KNOWLEDGE FORWARD AHEAD OF THE CURVE The Web-based subscription model is also opening up new opportunities to engage consumers and teach them the basics behind their beans, a crucial step toward bringing those drinkers deeper into the specialty fold. For one thing, the very fact that most of these companies are built on variation and fresh options each month can help pull consumers out of the coffee-mustalways-taste-the-same mindset that Folgers and then Starbucks poured into the consumer consciousness for decades. In addition, the coffee-curator services are pushing to help subscribers understand how to brew the beans that end up in their mailboxes each month. MistoBox's founders say their outside- The trend of subscription-based coffee sellers is not going to turn the industry upside down any time soon. The heart of specialty coffee remains in the physical café, where unique drinks and a sense of place and community provide the ultimate entry point into specialty coffee. But as more consumers latch onto the attributes of quality coffee and seek to engage with the expanding tapestry of small roasters nationwide, e-commerce is poised to serve as a great connector. These subscription companies are proving that discovery, education and ease of use are key elements to consider as roasters look to tap the ever-evolving population of coffee-loving consumers that support the industry. THINKING LOCAL: Brew Pony features roasters from the Portland area. freshcup.com July 2013 35