Page 56 - #60 English

c Cover Story

Changing the menu
Imagine next to the extra
shot on the menu, there could be an option to pay 50
cents to plant a tree or to add 10% from the price of
your coffee to help charity organizations or any other
NGOs. It is all possible and it is just a matter of time
when cafes will start doing it. In fact, there is an Aus-
tralian cafe, Handsome Her, that not only cares about
environment but also about people around, stating as Talking about cuppings, there are plenty of coffee
one of their shop’s rule “men will be charged an 18% shops that do it to let people compare coffees and
premium to reflect the gender pay gap (2016) which is understand what good coffee tastes like. Some-
donated to a women’s service”. But let’s be honest about how, most of the time cuppings seem to be a
it, one of the most looked-at spot in any coffee shop is professional event, but if you will let customers to learn
of course the menu, so it is also the great place to start and join cuppings, their general knowledge will increase
any initiative and make it seen by many people. and it is the best way to connect industry with the public.
Screening a movie in a coffee shop is not some-
Gathering people
There are plenty of public events thing new, but screening a coffee movie in a cafe
that a coffee shop can host, just to name a few: cuppings, is something that will definitely show coffee
meetings with farmers, talks and lectures on any topic, drinkers what is behind their drink. “A Film
including coffee of course. Of course all of these events About Coffee”, “The Coffee Man”, “Dukale’s Dream” and
are aiming to make coffee industry more transparent, “Black Gold” are one of the most famous movies about
bring producer and consumer closer and keep conversa- coffee industry. Watching a movie might be one of the
tion open for any new issues there might be. closest experience as most of time people tend to associ-
Public talks and lectures are a great way to tell ate themselves with main characters. So if you would like
coffee story: coffee being an actual seed of a your customers to take a moment and think about what
fruit, place of its origin, how and why it was coffee chain is facing, let them see it from the first hands.
spread all over the world, why we like it, how
we roast it, how we drink it and so on – there are a lot
of topics to talk about in coffee.
Meetings with farmers will make a consumer
more aware of what exactly coffee is. It is not
just a ready-to-drink product on a shelf, behind
those beans are people that work hard to make
your morning cup of coffee possible. For example, there
is a coffee shop called Workshop in Vietnam, that halds
annual New Crop Celebration, where coffee producers
and farmers gather together to meet customers, intro-
duce new crop, drink coffee together, participate in some
small competition and just have fun. Workshop is one
of the great examples of how to learn and have fun at the
same time.

58