each cup also gives us two minutes to explain to people where the coffee came from and why we roasted it that way. It's part of trying to educate people. We have pictures of our farm around the café, but I'm trying to come up with better visuals to really connect the dots for our customers.
What are the biggest challenges of operating in such a saturated market?
In Hawaii we're handcuffed to the tourism industry. We watch the trends and have definitely seen a stall
in the flow of foot traffic downtown. In Korea, a pound of coffee sells for over $100 retail, but here people are used to coffee—the luster has faded a little and the price can seem high. But we don't charge premium prices; there just really is that much overhead and cost, especially for small farmers like us. Trying to find a price point that keeps it affordable for the customer is a very fine line for us. But people have been telling us it's worth every penny.
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