United Baristas Audio Articles

Coffee tasting notes are broken because the SCA’s Flavour Wheel is incoherent. We need a new framework that’s accurate, intuitive and grounded in how people actually perceive flavour.Tasting notes should help coffee drinkers identify beans and brews they like.Unfortunately, flavour descriptions often confuse consumers more than they help. Poor quality tasting notes give the impression that tasting coffee is difficult, subjective or even a hoax. This is an unpardonable position for an industry that defines itself on the basis of flavour.United Baristas wants to kickstart a community-wide conversation on how we can better communicate coffee’s distinctive flavours. Better tasting notes are fundamental for the industry’s viable future. More accurate communication can empower consumers and support specialty coffee’s price premium.This is the first in a series of three articles equipping baristas to write better tasting notes. Explore more at https://unitedbaristas.com/article-series/coffee-tasting-framework/Plus start using the coffee tasting tools at https://unitedbaristas.com/coffee-tasting/

Specialty coffee has made notable progress reducing customers’ sugar intake. That’s good news for business, our customers and the planet. The new year is an opportune moment to refine the role of added sugar in your business. So, here's three ideas to further reduce your customers’ sugar consumption in 2025.

50 years on, specialty coffee’s founding ambitions have been realised. As the industry identifies new goals, it stands at a crossroads. Better market data would illuminate the path forward.

In the final article of this mini-series we share reflections from people that have scaled specialty coffee chains, plus add some ideas of our own.View the full mini-series at https://unitedbaristas.com/articles/series/specialty-coffee-chains/

The profitability chasm starts when headquarters’ costs become greater than the profit generated by the shops. Many operators experience the edge of the chasm at three or four sites.This audio article is part of a mini-series exploring why specialty coffee chains fail. View the fill series: https://unitedbaristas.com/articles/series/specialty-coffee-chains/

In a new mini-series exploring why specialty chains keep failing, we start by identifying the hurdles that must be surmounted when expanding from one shop to two.View the full mini-series athttps://unitedbaristas.com/articles/series/specialty-coffee-chains/

Science, industry research and carbon calculators agree that coffee production is a key cause of coffee’s carbon footprint. However, the carbon footprint of green coffee production varies depending on the specific farming and production methods. Some studies calculate emissions to be as low as 0.5 Kg per kilogram of green coffee at milling. Other researchers estimate the carbon footprint of green coffee to be as high as 12 Kg per kilogram.With such a large range, how can coffee businesses identify an accurate figure to estimate their carbon footprint? This article explains that there is currently no good way to pick a figure. Plus, the carbon models require updating, so any figure you choose is likely to be wrong. At present the uncertainty is so great that, for most coffee businesses, calculating your green's carbon footprint is a fool’s errand. There are, however, a number of workarounds. We explain where the science is at, what scientists are current doing to improve the accuracy of carbon calculators and how you can start cutting your carbon footprint now. This article was originally published on United Baristas. You can read the full article and view the references at https://unitedbaristas.com/articles/insights/green-coffee-carbon-calculators-are-wildly-inaccurate/And how are you cutting your coffee's footprint? There's many things you can do from crop to cup. Feel free to drop us a line and tell us what you're doing, United Baristas is on all the usual channels.

In the latest United Baristas managing people and building teams newsletter we look at the skills required to help the people on your team progress from the shop floor to taking on management responsibility – whether that's better managing themselves on the job, or beginning to manage their colleagues, a project or even a business unit.These four steps are based on Zarvana's Critical Thinking Roadmaphttps://www.zarvana.com/how-to-building-your-teams-critical-thinking-skills/ If you found these tips useful, make sure you subscribe to our managing people and building teams newsletter. Every other month you'll get a tip specifically for coffee people whose job it is to manage other coffee people.  https://unitedbaristas.com/newsletters/ Finally, we'll be exploring topics like this at Total Coffee 2023, a new talks programme at Caffè Culture curated by United Baristas. Find out more and get your free ticket at https://unitedbaristas.com/events/total-coffee/  

Today we announce the first sessions of our new talks programme, Total Coffee. We’re bringing together a range of practitioners, experts and industry leaders to empower coffee people.Join us at any of the dozen sessions taking place at Cafè Culture this October for powerful insights plus actionable ideas.You can find out more about Total Coffee and register:• unitedbaristas.com/events/total-coffee • caffecultureshow.comWe look forward to seeing you at Total Coffee.