The coffee anything market has been booming since the start of the pandemic. It is the hottest market of all of our flavor type customers and we feel it will stay that way. Coffee has always been a commodity second only to oil. We do not believe the coffee bean market will experience shortages that many other food categories are experiencing. Why? Because South America and Africa want to work! And imports via Miami or West Coast is easier than the ship container issues Asia is experiencing.
Cold brew coffee has become a more ‘social’ event and many people are supporting their local ‘cold brew’ makers, as opposed to say, Starbucks. We have seen Facebook and even Instagram pages sprout up with cold brew ready announcements and customers report they sell out within hours, every time they make a batch, more so with our flavor. So making even a side income in any areas of the coffee market seem to be low financial risk entry points with high rewards.
We make a highly concentrated flavor that withstands heat to apply onto already roasted coffee beans. Example, our formula for pecan anything is so unique and in demand we have been considering entering the syrups market. I make my Pecan formula with roasted organic fenugreek seeds (for those who really want a glimmer of how flavor is formulated) at our facility. Most other flavor houses will not spend that kind of money on materials. We know we can save coffee shops a lot of money on syrups while still offering dynamic ‘three dimensional’ flavor profiles not found at other flavor houses. Most coffee shops do spend a lot on syrups. (I discuss syrup making at the bottom of this newsletter.)
New flavor profiles we have been encouraged to make include Carrot Cake (we included cream cheese notes in that flavor profile) Banana Caramel Crunch, and Caribbean Gold which was inspired from one of our chocolate customers who uses our Rum flavor and Nut flavors in his commercial pirate chocolate bars. When he first sent us his finished bars as a gift, we could not believe just a bit of our flavoring in his milk chocolate made for such a luscious chocolate, fruit, raisin-y and nutty tasting final product – when he used no real fruit or nuts. Our profile of Caribbean Gold does include the milk chocolate foundation.
Other coffee bean flavors sellers report brisk sales on includes our Chocolate anything, (I formulated a very unexpected roasty but mellow spin on it) as well as our Hazelnut, Blueberry anything. Our Crazy Jamaican is not a hot seller but I want to discuss it because we get a lot of calls as to if we sell “Jamaica Me Crazy.” Short answer, we do not. We are not licensed to sell it nor do we desire such. The Jamaica Me Crazy flavor issue… To me, it is basically the formula for Irish Cream. Period. For some reason two “Registered” companies have been going at it and apparently Wolfgang Puck coined this mark. I think his also includes a splash of coconut, but I have not been a follower to be positive. We do want to avoid infringing on any rights of anyone’s intellectual property and changed our interpretation and name as not to conflict or confuse his buyers, or any other similar marks buyers. Basically we do not sell Jamaica Me Crazy or Jamaican Me Crazy.
Making Simple Syrup 1:2 Ratio – Water 2 Sugar
Until we have time to get to the syrups market our customers can add our flavor to existing finished cups of coffee – but doing so needs attention. The tip of a toothpick dipped in our flavor and stirred into an 8 ounce cup can be too much (based on the flavor of course.) This could be helpful because the entire syrup market is pushing to no calorie. Our flavor has no calories. When we do sell finished syrups we will use a blend of stevia and sucralose. You do not need much of either, a slight dusting can be too much if your dealing with 100% of either zero calorie sweetener. Until then coffee houses can make their own to cut expenses by using a simple syrup formula or a no calories (more watery) formula. Shelf life is an issue here and any self made syrups should be done weekly to avoid a fridge or preservatives. The preservation of syrups typically rely on citric acid or other tart acids – which simply do not pare well with dessert type flavors such as chocolate. So preservation decisions is one of our hold ups. They can impact a good flavor in a not so good way.
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