Having the background story certainly makes the whole experience more interesting, but I have to admit that focusing on coffees with an interesting story has made me overlook some phenomenal lots with generic labels.

Cheers,

Luca

IMO, if it isn’t a good grade and expressive, I probably wouldn’t take the time to learn the story behind it in the first place. I do know that story is becoming more and more important and that often seems to be the only thing that bleeds down to the barista and end consumer.

In this industry, as it grows, there’s so much empty hype and noise, it becomes increasingly hard to sort through it.

With coffee the consumer is sold stories in retail – in the UK see Coffee Direct etc. In a cafe bar or a specialist retailer there is only the opportunity to have a story that stacks up – the credibility of the place would be lost otherwise.

I dont agree that buying coffee from an Italian roaster is better than buying fresh from a local roaster – build a story around your local roaster that not only talks about freshness but origin, craft and supporting the local economy and you can win easily.

it seems that people really like stories and that a good story affects the expectations in such a way
that a coffee is rated better. As far as I can tell this also depends on the skill of the customer. The
less the skill is the more it comes to story telling.

I have a concrete example for this in a store I know very good. They are selling the same coffee
using two different brands. One brand has a “plain vanilla” look, nothing special, just telling the
ration of the ingredients (x% arabica, y% robusta), while the other brand has a full story around
it. The story tells about the region in italy where the coffee is roasted, about the family’s roasting
tradition and further details.

The pricing of the story coffee is slightly higher and guess what, it is bought more often.

It seems that people are not only buying the product itself, they are also buying an imagination,
something they are using to tune the mind into relaxation.

For me the question is, who is right? If the customer is fully satisfied, who am I to tell him he shouldn’t.
Bying coffee from an italien roaster seems to fit better than buying an (much fresher) coffee from a
local roaster (until you are really up to coffee).

In my market (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), the struggle is to get people to appreciate coffee for more than a vehicle for caffeine. I could start to tell people about this Mexican coffee, for instance, let them know about the group of Zapatista-aligned Catholic pacifists who grew this very coffee and I get disinterested “mmhmm”s. Then they ask me if it has more caffeine because it’s a dark roast. And then what do I tell them when they want a one-word answer?

A friend of mine brought to my attention the phenomenon of American consumers who are willing to spend more money on food then being willing to swallow whatever half-baked story they’re told to assuage their consciences. She explains it better here>/a>, but hopefully you get the idea.

People want stories, because stories are good, and for a variety of reasons. But people are often busy or lazy, so if one has to find a story, it’s less likely to be told.

That’s really strange, as I’m just putting together an article for someone which touches on this. Story coffee on its own is not enough, but it does act as a hook for the consumer, and makes them think about how and where their coffee comes from.

Toms post made me stop a little and ask the same question, I guess I’m spoilt that I’m lucky enough to have the best of both worlds, but there have been occasions I’ve found a gem in a dung heap of some offerings and just gone out there with them. They tend to be slow movers though unfortunately no matter how much I big them up and tell people how good they are, the story coffees move better every time.

If you give me the choice of two equally great coffees and one has some great info and background and the other doesn’t and I can only take one, well I think you will know where I will go.