09.07.11
Customized Drinks
Michael Szyliowicz

Mass customization has become the mantra for cafés and quick-serve restaurants that allow their customers to order highly customized yet quickly producible beverages. Starbucks boasts that customers can order 87,000 different drink combinations. Although this has been a hallmark of specialty coffee operators for years, it is now working its way into more traditional food service operations.

I recently had lunch with the founder of a rapidly growing gourmet burger concept and discussed beverages. I ordered an ice tea, and he proudly showed me their new tea platform. It is three different flavors of tea stacked next to each other and merchandised in clear self serve containers. The flavors include a black tea, pomegranate and passion fruit.

He confided that not only have iced tea sales increased significantly, but also the majority of customers mix and match the teas. Given choices, customers are willing to pay a little bit more to experiment and spend the time to create their own blends.

Smart operators will continue to create programs that cater to the unique tastes of each customer. Do you agree? Are you a mix-and-matcher at your favorite restaurant?

Beverages, Diary of a Chocolatier
customization, starbucks, tea
04.01.11
New coffee shops are brewing everywhere
Michael Szyliowicz

There has been a marked increase in the last 18 months in independent coffee shops opening to counter the consistent increase in larger, corporate locations. While Starbucks, Caribou Coffee and other major chains are opening new locations or expanding licensed ones, independent operators are striving to take advantage of a slowly strengthening economy. It won't be easy competing against well-established, entrenched operators, but differentiation can certainly play a part in their success. This generally happens in three ways.

First, many of the new locations are serving coffee that is brewed by the cup. Although this approach can take longer since every cup is made to order and the process requires almost five minutes, it allows for more variety on a coffee menu. Stores can both differentiate their drinks and charge customers higher prices to try exotic and unusual coffees that previously could not be made and served profitably.

Beverages, Diary of a Chocolatier
caribou coffee, coffee, starbucks
11.22.10
Drinking Chocolate Revival
Michael Szyliowicz

Is drinking chocolate ready to make its return to cafés?

Producers introduced drinking chocolate about five years ago, attempting to recreate the dark, intense flavor of chocolate in a small cup for café customers. Served in 6-8 oz. cups, drinking chocolate has a strong flavor and is so rich, thick, and unctuous that larger servings are not required. Eyeing the success of drinking chocolate in Europe, several U.S. companies introduced the product stateside, including Starbucks with its “Chantico” line. Mont Blanc Gourmet also got in on the drinking chocolate trend by launching our “Haut Chocolat” product. Today, finding a cup of European drinking chocolate is as rare as it once was to find great wine in the...

Beverages, Diary of a Chocolatier, Innovation
coffee, drinking chocolate, hot chocolate, starbucks
03.10.10
Frozen Yogurt
Michael Szyliowicz

 

 

The old proverb states that there is nothing new under the sun, so I am never surprised when old ideas are recycled and presented as the fresh new thing. This time, frozen yogurt is back. Twenty years ago, frozen yogurt was the rage, and in our own retail stores we used to sell a lot of it. And as quickly as it arrived, it disappeared, leaving a few companies such as TCBY to sell the idea and the product to a skeptical public. It has seemed a lonely struggle. Now, though, frozen yogurt has returned with a vengeance. Red Mango, Pinkberry, Yogurtland and Yogilicious are among the companies trying to make fro-yo, as it is called, popular. Each has a different claim, from tart flavors to active cultures to self-serve stores and kiosks. Fresh fruit toppings cover the yogurt, exotic flavors are offered, and in the self-serve sites one simply pays by the ounce. I enjoy frozen yogurt and hope that this time is different for the segment and category that needs to reinvent itself. And this time might be different. After all, the last time people said something was a fad, a small coffee company named Starbucks had only a few stores in Seattle…

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Diary of a Chocolatier
frozen yogurt, pinkberry, red mango, starbucks, tcby, yogurtland
12.30.09
Revolutions
Michael Szyliowicz

 

 

November 2009 marked 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and celebrations in Prague were held in Wenceslas Square, where Czechs gather to celebrate and demonstrate. The fall marked the end of the Iron Curtain and enabled the explosive growth of Eastern European countries to adapt from controlled economies to capitalist ones. In Eastern Europe, Germany unified, Poland liberalized and the Czech economy grew. Today, some of those economies are among the strongest in Europe, as citizens raced to embrace Western practices and products. Twenty years later, the results of this revolution can be seen in a cup of coffee.

Just off of Wenceslas Square is one of Coffee Heaven’s Prague locations, a Western-style café bar similar to the American chain Starbucks and the British company Costa. Coincidentally, those companies were both founded in 1971. Coffee Heaven is similar, with attractive locations, sleek graphics, good coffee drinks served in china or paper cups, well-trained baristas, comfortable chairs and free Wi-Fi access. They have become a favorite place to enjoy a good but expensive cappuccino and spend some free time with friends or working. Even more remarkable is that Coffee Heaven is based in Poland and has spread across Eastern Europe, operating hundreds of stores in formerly Communist-controlled countries. And imagining a Polish company competing successfully head to head with older, established brands is astonishing.

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Beverages, Diary of a Chocolatier, Travel
coffee, revolution, starbucks