The largest grocery store chain in the United States recently announced its earnings. Profits were up almost 3.5 percent.  What is most striking about the numbers is not the increase in revenues and profits, but that more than 25 percent of the total revenue is a result of private label products.  The private label category is the fastest growing for the entire chain.

At Mont Blanc Gourmet, we are experiencing the same thing. Our lab is developing more and more private label products for our customers, and those products represent the fastest growing part of our sales.

We create private label products for well-known, well-established consumer brands, enabling these national entities to effectively extend their brand identity into more aspects of their operations.

One customer offers to consumers a private label retail bottle of chocolate syrup that is the same product they use for making their mochas.  Another client supplies its franchise partners with proprietary products to ensure consistency in drinks served in stores that they don’t operate.

CoffeeTalk, a major specialty coffee trade journal, published a private label article in its September issue entitled “Build Your Own Brand through Private Labeling.”

With both the foodservice and retail packages, Mont Blanc has experienced significant sales increases in the past year.  The private label trend is strong and growing.  In tough economic times, it makes sense to act on the strong trends.

Before leaving for Southern California, all of the trade magazines were abuzz about the latest player in the world of specialty coffee drinks. This player is one to be reckoned with as a late entrant into the mocha wars.

The press attention for the past year or so has been phenomenal as the media has focused on this company; journalists everywhere believe this giant would be able to challenge Starbucks as a nationwide server of lattes, mochas, and cappuccinos.

I wanted to check it out and try their drinks for myself.  So while on my trip, I walked in and ordered a hot mocha. This was the place where one stands to order happy meals, not normally the place to order a venti, dry, extra hot, skinny mocha. I watched my drink being made:  The server took a cup, pumped in some chocolate syrup, and placed it beneath the dispensing head of the super-automatic espresso machine.  She pushed a button and I watched the machine grind espresso beans, begin dripping steaming milk into the cup, and then follow with the rich, dark espresso.  She then placed an insulated sleeve and lid on the cup, using a special tamper-like device to make sure the lid fit snugly. She handed me my drink and I took a sip.

The first taste was strongly, sweetly chocolate, with just a little bit of coffee flavor coming through.  It was more chocolate than mocha, and it certainly wasn’t the best mocha I’ve ever had, but it was good. And for about $3.00, it seemed like a good deal.  I could see where this chain will become a competitive force in the marketplace.

I walked out of the store and down the plaza to another coffee shop.  This one was an outpost of a well-known Southern California coffee shop chain.  I know their offerings well, and wanted to compare their drink to the one I just purchased.  I went in and ordered a small mocha and watched them make it.

The barista — and in this store I can actually call the person who made me my drink a barista with a straight face — combined a shot of espresso and steaming milk, and then added a scoop of their proprietary cocoa powder.  It is always fun to watch them use their little whisks to make sure that the cocoa powder mixes with the espresso in the cup.

I took my drink from the barista and took a sip.  This drink was better than the other. It was more balanced with a stronger coffee flavor, and one that I would be more willing to purchase more frequently – even though it costs more.

It remains to be seen which one people will prefer.

I stopped in to a coffee roaster to visit an old friend.  He had previously been the director of coffee for a very large, well-known coffee roaster and retailer.  He recently changed jobs and is now working for a very small, fairly new regional coffee roaster.  We talked about many of the challenges he faces while trying to grow his business and I was struck by the many similarities between what we at Mont Blanc have gone through and what he is dealing with.

His challenges include finding the right people, growing sales, creating a brand identity in a crowded market place, needing to produce in volume to stay competitive, dealing with difficult customers and unreasonable requests, motivating the sales team — the list seemed endless.

Most businesses face similar challenges. It’s funny how sometimes we get so caught up in the whirlwind of work that we overlook simple solutions. My friend shared a story that really resonated.

He recounted being approached by a businessman who had heard about his coffee. The businessman wanted to try my friend’s coffee and possibly replace the espresso pods he used at the time.  This café owner knew that his offering at the time wasn’t the best, but it was convenient.  After a cupping, the businessman decided to dramatically improve what he served, despite the cost increase.

Knowing what his original volume was, my friend tracked his purchases and worked with him to help launch the program.  Initially, the new customer simply repeated his pattern of ordering every four weeks.  His first order was for 25 pounds. But soon there was a marked change. Three weeks later he placed another order for 25 pounds. Two weeks later he ordered another 25 pounds. And, my friend confided, he is now ordering 25 pounds every single week.

This businessman’s volume has increased 400 percent by doing nothing other than changing his low-grade espresso pods for a higher quality, fresher blend.  All of the increase in business was strictly attributable to serving a higher quality, more consistent, better tasting drink.

Sometimes it isn’t easy to change suppliers.  But it can be worth it.

Cocoa powder is the fine powder that results from pressing cocoa butter from chocolate liquor. Different cocoa powders yield different flavors; to understand this more it might be helpful to first know how cocoa powders are processed.

After cocoa beans are roasted, they are shelled and the nibs are separated and ground.  The grinding produces a dark brown liquid called chocolate liquor. The liquor is comprised of fat and solids and it hardens at room temperature.

In 1828, a Dutchman named Coenraad Van Houten sought to separate the two components and, in turn, invented the cocoa press. The press took the solidified chocolate liquor and, by using a screw process, separated out two distinct products:  pure cocoa butter and a cocoa “cake.” Van Houten then took the cake and pulverized it to create the first known cocoa powder.

Different types of cocoa powders

•    Dutch process cocoa powder – Cocoa powder in its purest form is quite acidic. Our Dutch inventor, Van Houten, cleverly added alkali to mellow its naturally acidic taste in drinks. To this day, the addition of alkali is known as Dutching and the end product is Dutch process cocoa powder. Alkalized cocoa powders tend to be smoother and darker in color.  When reading ingredient labels, alkalized cocoas might also be described as cocoa powder with alkali. A natural cocoa powder with no alkali added will have a more acidic flavor.

•    Low-fat and high-fat cocoa powders – When the cocoa cake is pressed, most of the cocoa butter is removed. But invariably some fat is left behind. And the amount of fat present in the powder leads to another classification. High-fat cocoa powders have 18 percent to 24 percent cocoa butter, while low-fat cocoa powders contain between 10 percent and 12 percent cocoa butter.

•    Single-origin cocoa powders – Cocoa powders can be made from blending cocoa beans from different growing regions. Powders also can be made using beans from a single origin.  Differences in flavor will result from both types with single-origin powders yielding a fruitier, richer chocolate.

At Mont Blanc, we like to use cocoa powder because of its versatility and concentrated flavor. In addition, because we make so many syrups, it works better than chocolate because having too much fat in the form of cocoa butter can overwhelm the finished flavors of a drink, giving it too much mouthfeel and affecting the viscosity of the syrup.  We constantly experiment with different cocoa powders, low fat and high fat, natural and alkalized, blending them to achieve what we consider the perfect combinations for our syrups.

This summer I gave a chocolate tasting seminar to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Roasters Group  (MARRG), a group of engaged coffee roasting professionals interested in perfecting their craft. The retreat lasted several days and seminars covered different aspects of roasting coffee and serving specialty beverages, including cupping coffee and measuring water quality as water plays an important part in every cup of coffee.

I sought to illustrate the differences between chocolates and to let the roasters taste for themselves how different chocolates result in very different mochas.  In front of each participant I placed a plate that had six pieces of dark chocolate.  All had approximately the same cocoa content, between 60 percent and 70 percent.

Starting with the first piece, I asked everyone to smell the aroma. The tasters commented on detecting aromas of red fruits, such as cherry.  The next test was the snap test.  Did the piece break cleanly? A clean snap means that the chocolate has a high cocoa butter content and has been properly tempered.  The chocolate broke in half with a sharp crack,   so we moved on to taste.  What were the taste characteristics when placed on the tongue?  Flavors of vanilla, leather and smoke were added to those of red fruit. Did it melt in the mouth? Was the finish smooth or grainy?  We analyzed each of the six pieces in turn.

The first four were single-origin chocolates from Venezuela, Sao Tome, Madagascar, and Papua New Guinea.  The fifth was a well-known grocery store brand, and the sixth was a new product from a well-known coffee company.  It was the least liked by the group and the Venezuela chocolate was the favorite. After the tasting, everyone commented on how unusual it was for them to be comparing chocolate, even though they taste and compare different coffees daily.

Many promised to return to their stores and perform a mocha test, matching different chocolates with their coffee beverages to get different tastes. I looking forward to hearing what they come up with.