Best Coffee

How will you be preparing the coffee? Drip? Percolator? Or some other method.

Are you aware of any roasters in your area? This doesn't include Starbucks. Avoid Starbucks at all costs.

You indicated you were willing to spend a few bucks -- a commendable attitude. But are you willing to pay the freight for something like the Intelligentsia Blend at $14 a pound?

You can buy decent beans, decently roasted fairly economically at Trader Joe's if there's one in your part of Michigan.

BDL
Ex owner-operator of Predominantly French Catering, and ex line cook at a couple of decent joints.

The mark up on coffee is huge.....really huge.....it's a pain to bring all the "extras" 1/2 and 1/2, sugar (we use rock or German crystals), sweetners du jour, skim milk, etc....
but at the end of the day you make $$$$ on coffee service.

I get a local fresh roasted blend (only decaf for evening, regular for AM and herb tea). Ethiopean Yergochef (sp?) is one of my favorites.

Check out S and D coffee. It's the coffee served at our fave restaurant. They also have a great 'iced tea' blend that I actually started buying for home. Gourmet Coffee - Coffee Roasters, Flavored Coffees, Wholesale Coffee, Premium Coffees, Specialty Coffee, Gift Basket | S & D Coffee

The people you buy your food from may have a Coffee program. They will give you the equip when you buy the coffee. There is also Boyds and Farmer brothers coffee that do the samething.....................I have been serving Farmerbros for years......$4.80 a lb whole bean.................Bill

Our business was actually a coffeehouse and cafe first, and then became a caterer, so i know a bit about coffee. I would agree with the suggestions to find a local roaster if that's available--it would be great to build a relationship with them and they'd probably work with you to create a nice medium "signature roast" that you can even tag with your name. THis takes your coffee service to the next level and also, lets you charge more than you could if you were just using Sysco coffee or S and D. Most would even bulk grind it for you so you wouldn't have to invest in a commercial grinder. Sam's has $18 airpots which are a great investment and practically disposable at that price. You can charge a deposit on them and refund it to a CC when they return them. Another good resource to check out is CoffeeAM--especially around the holidays they do some great flavored coffee's and offer free shipping if you buy in bulk (only like $50 orders though which is great!)

Intelligentsia

Brands are one thing, but as BDL said, what kind of brewing eqpt are you using?

Brewing on-site, or at the base camp and transporting it?

Vancouver is very close to Seattle, and as such, we have more coffee roasters and suppliers than we can shake a stick at. Most of them will supply brewing eqpt and airpots if you use thier stuff.

Check out your local suppliers and roasters, "bragging rights" to using a good, local roaster can do a lot of good for you....

My sister serves Illy coffee in her place,Not a big fan of Coffe myself but I must say it is pretty nice,and so say the customers also

I can suggest few best coffee so far that being serve in different places in US. It depends on theme of the place, weather, and someone who order it. Here are the list of coffee..

Top 5 Coffee..

Stir Brew
Intelligentsia
Coffee Roasters
Cafe Brazil
Cafe du Monde

That's fabulous it will definitely increase you sale and profit and i think in cold season you will be earning double from it few Top Coffee are

Stir Brew
Intelligentsia
Coffee Roasters
Cafe Brazil

Consider contacting your local Lavazza rep and have them GIVE you a pod espresso machine. Purchasing espresso pods from the dealer should be approx $0.55 each and provide plenty of room for markup.

For brew coffee, I agree that Intelligentsia serves great coffee, however it will cost you and depending on your clientele, this may be overkill. I serve quite a bit of coffee (film crews) and have come to rely on the Costco/Kirkland "House Blend", approx $10/2lbs. for my staple brew. It's roasted by Starbucks. I've served various local roasts, Starbucks French Roast, and many others. The crew tells me, "this is good coffee", so I give it too them :-) I do purchase Intelligentsia for a couple clients who know and appreciate the difference.

Good luck.

Watch out! Pod brewers have one flaw:

You are toatally reliant on someone supplying the pod. Some machines only accept one size pod, some another size. You are locked into the supplier and the price he gives you.

You can not shop around for the beans/roast of your choice.

Caveat emporium and all that....

In my country Indonesia, we have coffee called chivet coffee (kopi luwak). the coffee bean is derived from animal called luwak (kind of fox). this animal eats coffee fruit, it choose a ripe fruit as their food, and the coffee bean that isn't digested comes out together with its feces. it's fermented in its stomach. in other words, we consume its sh*t.. =)

however, it's very nice and special as well as expensive.

you must try this sometimes. i heard, it's sold in america, but can't guarantee the originality.

I do not think that Lindaluz was looking for such an expensive coffee....

Civet coffee is sold in North America....but like you said :

"can't guarantee the originality"....and that is the big problem with it.

As for taste, way to mild for me.

:rolleyes: If your primary business is not a coffee house I would stay away from gourmet coffee and stick with Sysco,U.S.Food or a local coffee supplier because you don't go to a used car lot to buy a BMW you usually go to a BMW dealer There in no need to try to sell a $4or $5 cup of coffee if they came there for a menu item or a sandwich.:thumb:

We are in a catering thread......most do not have a retail sales.

It depends on your business, nothing says you can't have 2 arms and two different qualities of coffee.

*several businesses here have a low "picnic, scoopable food arm" and a high end.....there's nothing wrong in offering

1) basic coffee service

2) premium coffee service

Agreed 100%

It is really great to be able to tell your clients that you are serving so and so locally roasted coffee. You can charge a premium for it. It says "I'm green, I'm local" Take it a step further and try to serve fair trade or direct trade, and you can seriously mark that up as well. Of course, this is all based on the type of caterer you are.