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/66983
and working on reforestation and soil conservation to make their operations better equipped for floods and other consequences of erratic weather. A RETURN TO MECHANIZED DRIP? The pendulum was bound to swing back. After several years of increasing numbers of pour-over, Chemex and other hand-crafted single-cup setups on café counters, the industry is now starting to see renewed love for machine-based drip coffee. The most notorious example to date may be Los Angeles' Handsome Coffee Roasters, which opened its much- hyped retail space earlier this year with nary a single single-cup device on bar. Former WBC champ Mike Phillips and his co-owners Tyler Wells and Chris Owens chose instead to feature the output of a highly programmable batch brewer. It's an understandable move for a busy café, theoretically guaranteeing consistency and freeing up time for baristas to focus on espresso and customer service. WINTER WONDERLAND For many U.S. shop owners, late spring marks the time when consumer spending starts to follow the lead of the thermometer and warm up a bit. But many operators in northern states may not see much of an uptick—because a strong end to 2011 set the stage for a better-than-average winter. According to the most recent SCAA Quarterly Sector Report, which looked at the cal- endar fourth quarter of last year, cof- feehouse sales increased 8 percent in November (compared with November of 2010) and then 11 percent in December. According to surveyed operators, the strong numbers could be attributed to three factors: price increases they put in place earlier in the year, unseasonably warm weather in December and increas- ing consumer optimism. The full SCAA Sector Report is available at the SCAA's Online Store at scaa.org. Fresh Cup Magazine 21