Finding cafe suppliers

Say you have a small cafe with, oh, one or two staff or, perhaps, it’s just you and your significant other. Running a cafe is a LOT more complicated than it seems, and I’d like to share my experience running one with you.

In this post, we’ll deal with finding suppliers.

Finding Suppliers

As a cafe owner, you;’ll be inundated with salespeople calling on you, both in person and on the phone.

The first thing to remember is that the salesperson is NOT your friend; s/he has only one objective, and that is to get you to carry her or his company’s products. So commit to nothing; listen, get their literature and select ONLY what you want to carry. Often, though, you may find that the products being offered are generic - every other cafe and convenience store carries them - and you want something special or specific to you so you can give your cafe a unique identity.

How do you find suppliers?

Well, you can look them up on the Internet or in the Directory of Food Service Distributors (available at your local library) or in the Yellow Pages.

Call up the suppliers you have picked, ask them to send you their brochures with wholesale pricing, pictures, if any, indications of frequency of delivery to your area and the minimum order requirement. Let them know that you will call them if you’re interested. This is crucial: You will be inundated with phone calls and visits otherwise, and that will cut into your productive (i.e. selling) time.

Take your time about making your selection of potential suppliers. Then ask for samples of their products. Taste the samples yourself, and put some up for sale to see how fast they move before placing a definite order. This should be applied to coffee roasters, suppliers of pastries and other baked goods, and anything else you want to sell in your cafe.

Pay especial attention to your coffee beans. Are they freshly roasted? When were they roasted? Coffee beans are good for up to three weeks after they're roasted, though I personally ordered freshly roasted beans every week. The difference is amazing.

Were the beans roasted correctly, or were they burned or under-roasted. You can tell burned beans by the smell and, when you brew the coffee, the taste. But eyeball the beans first. Crack open a few with a small hammer. If the inside is almost black, chances are it was over-roasted. That's when you grind and brew a sample and drink it to find out.

If the beans are darker on the outside and much lighter on the inside, chances are they were not fully roasted. That's not good; coffee is a very complex food, with twice as many aromatics as red wine, so improper roasting will fail to bring out the nuances and subtleties of the bean.

Also, some beans are naturally light roast beans, others medium roast beans and still others dark roast beans. Some beans can be pushed in the roasting, which means that, while they are normally roasted light or medium, they can be roasted medium or dark, respectively; however, that's not common and the roaster must be very good indeed to be able to pull this off.

Bottom line: If you don't like the smell or taste of the coffee beans or the brewed coffee, don't buy it.

Should you order whole beans or grind for your cafe? Well, grind stales out after 3 days or so; if you keep it in airtight containers, it might just possibly survive for a week but it's just a little better than used dishwater. I recommend buying beans and grinding them fresh before brewing.


Next post: Dealing with suppliers.