Welcome back.
The last piece I wrote was 6 years ago... promoting an Art of Espresso sessions gig no doubt.
Well I hope you enjoy this and may it stimulate some thought.
When Gabrielle and I begun making coffee way back in October 1996, I remember then paying on average $28-$30 per kilo of fresh roasted Italian imported coffee beans. This was the premium specialty blend which we prided ourselves on for using in our then, upmarket café.
29 years later, there are some coffee suppliers somehow still charging that similar amount and… In some cases with equipment thrown in for good measure!
How long can this last?? I certainly won’t be placing any bets let me tell you.
But we are now living in a different world.
Post floods, bushfires, droughts , govt. changes, global pandemic... you name it... our beautiful country has weathered some storms. Interest rate rises together with the ever increasing cost of living, has most certainly made that $5 coffee look so deliciously welcome and affordable.
But sadly, that too, is now forced to change due to what all coffee farmers I have personally spoken to, collectively call “climate change”. Hey I’m not going all doom and gloom and hippie here ok. I’m just going to give it to you like a good rock ‘n’ roll band. We’ll throw in some “fun” facts and we got ourselves a show!!
The simple fact is this. It’s nearly 30 years later peeps! Simple.
And a lot changes... including hairstyles or no hair, we use eftpos cards and “embrace” the fees like its’s normal instead of using cash because of convenience, we email each other, we FaceTime, we drink almond “milk”, the word “Barista” is apparently now available in English! (enjoy that one!!)
Tradies drink oat “milk” piccolos, we have apps, we listen to podcasts and Spotify is a music streaming platform… and if I had spoken those last words you just read, back in 1996 it would have made no absolute sense!!!
This is development and we did not even mention Instagram, TikTok or Facebook.
In all seriousness this was all non-existential when I began serving “mug of-cup-of-cinos”.
And just as serious, I recall my mentor, friend and world coffee renowned legend, Mr. John Russell Storey, telling Gab and I that we should look into this new phenomenon called “email”.
Gab and I didn’t even own a computer but we were somehow running a business using a landline telephone connected to a wall to communicate and “connect” with suppliers and customers.
This was the 1990’s friends... last century… I know... I also recall feeling “cool” and “vibey” because we introduced soy milk to our coffee menu.
We were the happening thang!
Mind you I also remember asking Gab if a Caeser salad was vegan. I thought vegan was a cool term for vegetarian. I now know what a Caesar Salad is and that it is NOT vegan/vegetarian friendly.
Or when I apologised to this lovely elderly lady for not having Devonshire Tea but I did proudly offer her English Breakfast, Earl grey and peppermint as an alternative!!
Seriously I had no idea sometimes.
So getting back to the bit where I wrote “It’s Simple...”, I was taking that literally at the time with not a clue and thinking I’m all over it.
A schooner of beer cost me $1.85 and I paid CASH (nothing to do with my ethnicity) and we charged $3.50 for a coffee. A schooner of regular beer recently cost me $12 and a regular coffee was $5.50!!
So why has coffee remained so cheap?
Supply simply remained in abundance and as demand begun to stabilise so did prices.
However, there was money to be made and coffee became the “go to” business product. Margins were good. The hospitality industry was seen as the place to go to and make some cash.
Companies with investors or the buzz term, “Group”, begun popping up absolutely every where and buying out the “mum and dad” businesses… the ones that still had soul.
But with that came absolutely NO IDEA about hospitality backed with Big Dollars and No “Sense”!! And I make no apologies about this obvious state of affairs.
Managers now replaced café owners and businesses were now driven by bottom line results, budgets and profits.
Sorry! Did I miss something about business ETHICS and SOUL??? Customer Service anyone??
Cafes were opening on every corner.
Coffee was becoming the social circuit to networking, dating, mums and bubs clubs, after school goss spilling tea.
Team meeting rooms were becoming available for bookings, the takeaway coffee was and still is the latest and greatest accessory item, coffee carts were expected to be present serving café quality coffees at junior footy games on weekends.
Even hairdressers offer you a coffee from their flash new auto “expresso” machines and “Maccas” advertise “BARISTA made coffee” all along the coast and inland Australia wide.
Fuel stations proudly promote their coffee/café service more than the price of their fuel!!
Specialty coffee consumption began to rise at an unprecedented rate. More so Specialty coffee houses/cafes and specialty coffee roasters began to show up in the most unlikely places.
I know a bloke who built a purpose built coffee roasting shed on his farm in Central west NSW. He still roasts coffee to this day but had to move his business to town due to logistics and growth. His son now roasts coffee as well, making him Australia’s youngest ever commercial specialty coffee roaster when he began roasting at the age of 14! He is now 17 and working on his own new blend.
Globally, demand for coffee is at an all time historical high.
Supply has been at best maintaining this increase in demand over the years reasonably and at a comfortable and sustainable rate.
However this is all about to change due to what the farmers adamantly blame on climate change.
Let me put some flavour and facts into the emotion here.
The following will wholly enlighten and lighten concerns as this is not just a domestic issue but a global one.
Since February 2024 the price of raw coffee has spiked up to 150%... and rising. The reasons are “simple”. Coffee is a fruit and totally reliant on significant rainfall and warm sub tropical conditions.
Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer last few years has experienced one of the worst droughts in its recent history. This came off the back of the 2021 frost which stinted crop quality and volumes. Vietnam, the world's second largest coffee producer recorded smaller crop volumes over the last several seasons due to drought and typhoons.
The world's coffee reserves are sitting at the lowest ever which in turn is putting pressure on world market as demand for coffee maintains its rise leaving little buffer for the coming months.
There are stories recently coming from the US of semi trailers full of raw coffee being stolen or simply disappearing... to a black market. Rising costs of farming practices and equipment, transportation, labour shortage and economic instability keep pushing expenses up right across the supply chain making the basic cost to produce the humble bean a lot higher.
September 2025 will welcome the next flowering in Brazil which with fingers crossed create an optimistic shift.
As an industry we will need to make that collective change in pricing in order for the coffee industry to maintain its vibrant culture and survive in a sustainable fair manner.
Yes, the price per cup will rise in some cases by up to 80 cents to $1.
Do not be surprised to be paying up to $10 for a quality coffee in major Capital cities before the years end!
It is our duty of care to you the consumer to share with you why this beautiful product is worth what it is.
The VALUE not only comes in the value of trained staff, café ambience, big name brands of coffee equipment, food quality and the cool tunes you play but ultimately in the quality product of the bean itself.
If a place is selling its coffees cheap they are UNDERVALUING THEIR OVERALL PRODUCT.
And that product is NOT Just the coffee!! Think about it.
Again... Simple!!
As Gabrielle and I enter our 30th year in business together in the café/specialty coffee industry (26 of those years being “Art of Espresso -Specialty Coffee”), we feel this need to celebrate.
There is SO MUCH to celebrate!
The one thing we both cherish without a doubt in this diverse industry is the DIRECT TRADE relationships we have established with Indian, Colombian and Guatemalan coffee farmers and their families.
We are so grateful to have had the courage and foresight back in 2012 to gently venture in those uncharted waters.
Naivety sometimes fuels courage based on idealism… if that is a thing.
It CERTAINLY was for Gab and I at the time and coupled with youth and a sense of wonder, we dived in! Simply put, we had NO PLAN B!!
It is 2025 and we now have the incredible support and backing of these farmers as we work together to maintain quality specialty coffee to our loyal customers and discerning consumer.
This celebration has also prompted us to revamp our online shopping experience and create a true Art of Espresso Community.
It is here that we feel most connected to our customer.
It is here where I get the feedback.
So together with my good friend and Digital Consultant from Code Chisel, Michael Yates, and the current and most youthful AOE team ever (Xav - 17, Em-21, Elisa- 32) we plan to offer the AOE online community something special to be announced soon.
The ingredients are finally right for this new experience which will “blend” together nicely when we launch our brand spanking new anniversary coffee blend.
Our current online subscribers will be first to know about the “Vault” (our temporary name prior to release).
I cannot say much as we are in building and brainstorming mode... just like putting together a new record... so much excitement, little time, lots of fun and frustration (ying/yang) and always more fresh ideas as the creative juices flow unrestrained.
So I hope this love letter has shed some light.
I also want to thank everyone who has encouraged me to write again.
Massive "Thank You" also to AI for its ZERO input thus inspiring me to add flavour to my words with human energy, emotion and soul without the aid of algorithms but human rhythms.
Much gratitude.
So here we are excited to be alive and to be witness to a whole new generation of specialty coffee lovers entering our 30th year with a renewed and value added brand of coffee.
It’s the coffee which gives our soul purpose and it’s the soul which gives our coffee its purpose.
And that to me is enough purpose to celebrate.
Stay calm
Stay you
Stay beautiful
IA
(I am Adrian )
