Think simple, Simple Coffee

Thursday, some friends and I will be hitting up the race track. It is not often that we get the chance to have this kind of fun. Every time I start to think about how exciting the race track, racing, and cars can be I start to wonder why…?

What creates in humans the desire to drive?
Why is man so interested in this seemingly primitive concept? I am speaking of the competitive aspects of driving. Our competitive nature as humans is abit more obvious (pride, power etc.) I am talking about driving; the act of driving, the feeling of driving, and the sound of driving.

I have tried for along time to understand the phenomenon. Why do I get goose-bumps when I think of a tire at its slip angle, or a differential fighting to keep both rear tires hooked up? How can something so mechanical be so inspiring?

Seems like with a brand there is no point at which you stop and say ‘ok we are done’; it’s constantly changing. Every time we sit back and think of where our customers will be in 3 years, what they will be buying, and how we will be the next big thing for them we get overwhelmed. Maybe this overwhelming feeling is meant to teach us a lesson.

Maybe I don’t need to be as concerned as I am.
Maybe if we rely on what got us where we are, we will be alright.
After all what put us ahead of the curve today will do the same tomorrow?

I don’t think the above is completely true. If we don’t stay fresh, don’t stay current, and don’t spend time outside our business we will end up like everyone else. Chasing their own concepts, and not those of their potential customer.
I find that if I spend every waking hour on Simple, I end up with more ideas than what I came in with, but often times not better ones. To make it better I need to maybe step back refocus, and do something NOT Simple.

This week I am going to do something NOT Simple. Steve is away with his Wife and Family in Wisconsin, and Mike is working on projects to pay the bills.

I will report back.
I apologize for how the above may sound; my state of mind is odd right now.

Don’t Think Simple,
Josh

I love to hate sweet coffee drinks.
I love to love sweet coffee drinks.
I am going to try and sum up my feelings for coffee beverages that use flavors, creamers, syrups, or cocoas. This includes espresso based drinks.

Flavored Coffee...
Ok this was a mystery to me. It shouldn’t be a mystery to you. The beans are roasted and after roasting they are put in a large container and a liquid flavoring concentrate is stirred in. If you see the liquid flavoring concentrate on the shelf you might just think you’re in some kind of lab. In its concentrated form its normally clear, or slightly tinted. It doesn’t look like something I want being extracted from my coffee bean and drank.

These flavors also help lengthen the shelf life of coffee by masking the changes in flavor a coffee bean might go through. These changes would normally be obvious and not very appealing to the drinker. Personally I chose to avoid anything flavored in this manner, it flavors coffee at the wrong stage of the process, and I love to know what I am getting. With flavored coffee I never know what I am getting because I can’t FULLY taste the coffee, alone by itself. Don’t sell yourself short, buy unflavored coffee and read below for some more appealing methods of flavoring coffee.

Creamers.
Take the flavor from above insert it into a normally chemically produced creamer and you have flavored creamers.

Syrups.
Syrups are normally associated with the world of espresso. Espresso is just a different way of making coffee involving higher temperature/pressure in combination for a controlled amount of time at a controlled amount of pressure. Back to syrups.

We have all seen them in the Bucks, and our local cafe’s. So you get mocha, but want a dash of vanilla, or camel, or blackberry, or banana, or…
Some syrup is sweetened and some are not. They are normally ordered by shot or by ‘pump’. Most of these syrups are really actually good. The flavors are rich, and because they are added to your coffee drink after the brewing process you still have the ability to drink the coffee in the raw to ensure your not masking anything. A good coffee can be complimented by good syrups assuming you’re either a good barista, or you are serviced by one. Get a bad barista whose idea of flavor doesn’t stretch beyond the Denny’s grand slam menu and you might have problems.

Powders.
Some of the best cocoa’s in the world are powder cocoa’s. You can’t find the broad spectrum of flavors you find with syrups, and they don’t mix well in iced drinks.

Simple and Sweet?
It was never in our plan to offer any flavored coffees. When we say “you haven’t tasted coffee.’ we mean you need to taste coffee, not flavors, not syrups, not powders. Coffee is hugely flavorful; maybe you just haven’t had good coffee.

We do however fully understand that coffee can be complimented by good flavors, our method for doing that is slightly different then what’s currently on the shelves, in or in your cafe’s.

We are coming up with a product which enables you to make the coffee based drinks you buy at cafes, at home.

We give you.
Part A. 2oz of coffee for 1 pot full.
Part B. Packet of powdered flavor, Mocha, Vanilla, or Carmel.

You Provide.
Part C. Soy Milk or Traditional Milk

Brew Part A. Mix it with part B, and add Part C slowly tune it into your desired strength, then ad Ice. This is an opportunity to experiment, design, create your own flavor. Your guests, family, friends will love the treat.

Think Simple,
Josh

6.

5.

4.

Check ignitions, and may God’s love be with you

2.

1.

I am not totally sure as to why my mind is filled with David Bowie right now but it is. Maybe I am comparing our recent progress like that of a spaceship taking off. We have not taken off yet, and I have a feeling we will be counting down for along time.

At what point do we take off?
Anyways we finalized everything with Butera Markets. Butera is a Chicago land based grocery store chain. We negotiated a deal to be in 2 of there 8 stores. Those store locations are Lindenhurst, and Naperville Illinois. This partnership will hopefully grow. It is our goal to be by the end of this week doing sampling in store.

I now hate Frappachinos. I used to think they tasted like something. Now it just taste’s like nasty milk, weak coffee, and depending on the flavor a weak syrup. It leave’s this chalky confusing taste in my mouth.

I want to make my own drink. I don’t particularly like the idea of a pre-made iced coffee based drink. I think coffee should be more hands on, that being said I understand not everyone owns a coffee company, or an espresso machine, or has the 10 minutes each morning/afternoon/evening to make a quality drink (I barely do).

So should I be working on making it easier to make these mixed style drinks, or should I just make and sell this drink?

In a perfect world everyone would buy an espresso machine, experiment, learn, and love the art, process, and science of coffee drinks.

Think Simple,
Josh

p.s. I think I answered my question after signing my name

Now, I (Mike) work from home right now because I live about an hour or so from the other guys… So from time to time, when my beard gets too thick and the heat kicks up I trim it or buzz it… Now in light of working from home, I get to do things most people would not. Like…

Mustachio!!!

It can look good…

Now I don’t suggest anyone that needs people to respect them, to go this route. But, sometimes, I need a good laugh, sometimes my current girlfriend needs a laugh… Sometimes, my friends need a friend with a handlebar mustache.

This has nothing to do with Simple Coffee, or coffee at all. But if this freaks you out all, don’t worry, I don’t handle the coffee, it’s packaged at our roasters.

Stay classy & Think Simple,
Mike Minor

PS: You should think twice about any negative views because of this.

Go to Jewel/Dominicks/Albertsons/Tom Thumb/wherever.
Buy a bag of coffee. Look at the dates on the coffee. The date you find may be surprising. Most coffee company’s in an effort to maximize sellable inventory, have huge shelf life on there coffee sometimes 6 month’s sometimes over 1 year.

2 weeks. After 2 weeks the whole bean coffee starts to loose flavor.
1 hour. After 1 hour ground coffee starts to loose flavor.

Part of me hates the idea of getting into price bashing, inventory crushing mass merchants. Its hard work, demanding, and would probably require us to do things we dont want to do. On the other hand I want to get fresh coffee into the hands of every consumer. I really think that they (you maybe) have not tasted coffee.

You have tasted what coffee is after 3 months.

So many of my friends rant about how coffee sucks. For it to be drinkable to them they have to add 3 spoons of sugar, and a half cup of creamer.

They have not tasted coffee.

I have to stop rambling.

Think Simple,
Josh

Seems like every day is something new. It seems the moment I figure out where we are going, it changes. I have come to adopt this constantly changing picture.

Relating to that very idea is a short story.
A friend of ours lets call him Jay is a dreamer, just like us. He talks of ideas, and plans of greatness. He is wise in many ways, and one day if we dont hire him, he will do his own thing and succeed.
He was talking of selling his car a few weeks ago to pay for central air, and to pave his driveway at his newly purchased home.
Something came along an opportunity to purchase an even nicer car than the one he has, he immediately put his previous plans on hold to explore the option.
While explaining this to another friend named Jay, he was asked why he just changed it up like that, made up his mind, talked about it, and explored other options instead.

His response; ‘my picture is constantly changing’
I love it, Simple loves it.

Sounds uber lame but we believe its an important business concept to grasp. We have concepts which are concrete, and ideas which are in stone, but the bulk of our company needs to be constantly changing, ever evolving, and very adaptable.

I am rambling.

Think Simple,

Josh