One of the first questions we are often asked when people are beginning to plan their dreams of building their own coffee shop Is “What would be the average total cost to build a 1500 square-foot coffee shop?” In this article we explore some things to consider, and hidden costs you might not have thought about when planning a budget for your cafe.
It's difficult to provide an average total cost to build a 1500 square-foot coffee shop, as the cost will depend on a wide range of factors such as location, equipment, and finishes. In general, you can expect to pay anywhere from $350,000 to $450,000 or more to build a 1500 square-foot coffee shop. This estimate includes the cost of rent or purchasing a space, as well as the cost of equipment, supplies, labor, and other expenses.
It's important to keep in mind that these estimates are just rough estimates, and the actual cost of building a coffee shop will depend on your specific circumstances and location. It's a good idea to work with a professional, such as a contractor or an architect, to get a more accurate estimate of the cost to build a coffee shop. They will be able to take into account the specific features and finishes you want for your coffee shop and provide a more detailed cost estimate.
What are things you should consider when planning a budget to build a coffee shop?
There are several things to consider when planning a budget to build a coffee shop:
Location: The cost of rent or purchasing a space will vary depending on the location of the coffee shop. It's important to consider the cost of real estate in the area where you want to open your coffee shop.
Equipment: You'll need to purchase or lease coffee-making equipment, as well as other items such as tables, chairs, and display cases. Make sure to budget for these expenses.
Labor: You'll need to hire employees to work in your coffee shop, and you'll need to budget for their salaries and any benefits you offer.
Supplies: You'll need to purchase supplies such as coffee beans, cups, and other consumables on a regular basis. Make sure to budget for these ongoing expenses.
Marketing: It's important to promote your coffee shop to attract customers. You'll need to budget for marketing efforts such as advertising, social media, and events.
Legal and professional fees: There may be legal and professional fees associated with setting up a business, such as fees for incorporating or registering your business, as well as any consulting fees.
Contingency: It's a good idea to budget for unexpected expenses that may come up as you're setting up and running your coffee shop. This could include things like repairs or unexpected increases in the cost of supplies.
What are other hidden costs you might not be considering when planning your budget?
Here are some other hidden costs that you might not be considering when planning a budget for your coffee shop:
Permits and licenses: You'll likely need to obtain various permits and licenses to operate your coffee shop, such as a business license and a food service permit.
Insurance: It's important to have insurance to protect your business in case of accidents or other unexpected events. You may need liability insurance, as well as insurance for your equipment and supplies.
Rent or mortgage payments: If you're leasing or purchasing a space for your coffee shop, you'll need to budget for rent or mortgage payments. These costs may be higher than you expect, especially if you're in an expensive location.
Utilities: You'll need to pay for utilities such as electricity, water, and gas to operate your coffee shop. These costs can add up, so make sure to budget for them.
Maintenance and repairs: Your coffee shop equipment and facilities will need regular maintenance and may need repairs from time to time. Make sure to budget for these costs.
Taxes: You'll need to pay taxes on your business, including income tax and sales tax. Make sure to budget for these expenses.
Professional services: You may need to hire professionals such as lawyers, accountants, or consultants to help you set up and run your coffee shop. Make sure to budget for these services.
Once your café is built, what is the average amount of time to expect your full ROI?
It's difficult to provide an average amount of time to expect a full return on investment (ROI) for a coffee shop, as it will depend on a wide range of factors such as location, pricing, and competition. In general, it can take several years to recoup the initial investment in a coffee shop.
There are several factors that can impact the time it takes to see a full ROI on a coffee shop:
Location: The location of your coffee shop can have a big impact on its success. A prime location with high foot traffic can help your coffee shop generate more sales, which can in turn help you see a quicker ROI.
Pricing: Setting your prices too low can make it difficult to generate enough profit to see a full ROI. On the other hand, setting your prices too high can drive customers away. It's important to find a pricing strategy that strikes a balance between attracting customers and generating a profit.
Competition: The level of competition in your area can also impact your ROI. If there are many other coffee shops in the area, it may be harder to attract and retain customers.
It's important to keep in mind that it may take some time to build a customer base and establish a successful coffee shop. It may take several years to see a full ROI, but with careful planning and hard work, it is possible to achieve success.
Reach out to our team here at Fratello Coffee Roasters to dig in further to this topic. Our coffee consulting can help you think through topics like this, and others.
Analog Coffee Named Best Coffee Shop
Coffee isn’t just coffee anymore. Now, it’s all about the brand, the merchandise, the location, the story, but it has always been, and always will be, about the taste. Lucky for you, Analog Coffee checks off all of these boxes. Learn more about the history and creation of Analog Coffee below.
Coffee has run in the Prefontaine family since 1974, when the father Cam first started a wholesale coffee company out of his home. His three sons grew up helping him with sales and watching him roast his very own coffee. The parents produced the coffee and the sons started selling all the commercial coffee equipment, making them the whole package to share their love of coffee with the world. Eventually after many years in the industry, the family decided that it was finally time to open their own shop.
With seven current locations in Calgary and one soon to be available in the University District, Analog Coffee first started out in the Calgary Farmers’ Market in 2011. As business boomed almost immediately, the company bought their dream location that we all know and love today on 17th Avenue. As the coffee’s popularity grew and more and more people fell in love with the taste, the business couldn’t help but to expand their reach and provide more Calgarians with their delicious brews.
Learn more about the history of the company and see which trendy Analog Coffee location is closest to you.
To see the original article, and other winners check out The Best of Calgary website.
Artisan coffee goes to suburbs as Analog Coffee opens in Westman Village
Coffee purveyors in south Calgary can rejoice as on Monday, Feb. 18, Analog Coffee (Analog) officially opens its doors at Westman Village. This is the sixth location for the Calgary-based coffee roaster. This storefront is unique to other Analog locations as it will be home to its first in-house bakery, top-of-the-line equipment - which will be the first-of-its-kind in Western Canada - and a liquor license so Westman Village residents and neighbours can enjoy an after work or weekend drink in Analog’s hip, trendy café.
Analog Coffee’s sixth storefront in Calgary will feature an in-house bakery, a liquor license and top-of-the-line equipment
This new location will harmonize downtown-city vibes with the comforts of the suburbs, while providing craft coffee that is anything but ordinary. It joins the likes of other more urban retailers such as Diner Deluxe, 5 Vines Wine, Craft Beer and Spirits and Chopped Leaf as part of the local, gourmet offerings at Westman Village, Jayman BUILT’s one-of-a-kind lakeside community in Mahogany.
Why did you decide to build in the suburbs of Calgary?
Russ Prefontaine, president and co-owner, The Fratello Group, is passionate about providing coffee connoisseurs in the south with coffee as fuel for a busy day, or an escape from it.
“Being a native Calgarian myself, my team takes great pride in providing a variety of communities a little sense of home and a place to come together creating a fulsome experience for our customers,” says Prefontaine. “This new café is taking us in a direction where we can do more in-house, which enables us to control the quality of products we are executing. We are driven by the need to create an epic, unmatched experience for our customers and this new model of Analog allows us to do just that.”
This location will feature a unique food program that includes soups, salads, cheese boards and other treats - which is new to Analog. The liquor license will enable it to offer a small selection of wine by the glass and local craft beer. However, coffee is still a priority at this location as it will have the highest tech coffee gear in Western Canada: The Slayer Steam Espresso Machine and The Mythos 2 Gravimetric Grinders and Marcos SP9 single-serve brewers.
The vision behind Westman Village is underpinned by the values of Jayman’s founder, Al Westman, weaving convenience, diversity and accessibility into an all-inclusive community. Westman Village is the most recent undertaking by industry-leading, Calgary-based home builder, Jayman BUILT. The community is the first of its kind in Calgary, with buying and leasing options for residents of all ages, including an active adult living, retirement living and starter to estate component. Retail and commercial partners are set to open from early 2019 onward.
“We want Westman Village to be a hub for our residents. We have strategically chosen boutique retailers, like Analog, to bring our residents unique and local offerings,” says Jay Westman, chairman and CEO, Jayman BUILT. “With the opening of Analog, we are bringing an urban, artisan experience to our residents right outside their front door.”
For more information on Westman Village and its amenities and service offerings, please visit http://westmanvillage.com/
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About Jayman BUILT
For 38 years, Jayman BUILT has continually redefined the way new homes are built, bought and, most importantly, lived in. Participating in community developments in Calgary, Airdrie, Cochrane, Edmonton and Sherwood Park, Jayman BUILT is the largest homebuilder in Alberta. For more information, visit www.jayman.com
About Westman Village
Westman Village embodies the harmonization of the values of Jayman's Founder, Al Westman, by thoughtfully weaving convenience, diversity and accessibility into an all-inclusive suburban community concept.
About Analog Coffee
Analog Coffee is part of the Fratello Group who have been roasting coffee in Calgary since 1985, and owned by local brother’s Russ and Chris Prefontaine. Analog is well known on the local Calgary coffee scene, focusing on single estate, direct trade coffees that are acquired from grower partners around the world.
Media inquiries
Lisa Libin
Brookline Public Relations
403-538-5641 ext. 104
Colombia Las Rosas Coffee Coop
Las Rosas Women's Cooperative
Recently, our President Russ Prefontaine had the opportunity to visit La Plata, located in Huila Colombia. He went to visit Las Rosas (formerly Las Marias) the women’s cooperative that we have been working with for some time.
Las Rosas was founded in September 2010 by women in the region, overwhelmed by the lack of credit available to them to use as working capital for their farms. This lack of critical credit combined with traditional household roles and duties, was weakening their families. So, they sought to change it
The major objectives are:
Gender equality and the importance of an inclusive family
Revolving credit to finance their farms
Economic education
Overall cup quality and farming processes
Overall infrastructure improvements to their homes and coffee process equipment.
Las Rosas Family Training MeetingFratello started working with this cooperative in 2014. We are the majority supporter in this project. We have committed to continue working with them and are working on further incentives to improve cup quality and reward the top producers.
While there, Russ joined a family training day in the village of Monserrate located in La Plata. This lesson focused on the value and roles of women and the importance of gender equality. 40 members of Las Rosas were involved and that was inclusive of their entire family. At the end, they shared stories of how this program has literally changed their lives and transformed their village.
Nelly, the president of this cooperative just received her high school diploma at the age of 50 through this program!
Today, Fratello and Analog Coffee purchase 30% of their total production, however could reach 50% by the end of this year.
We take great pride and joy in knowing that we are making strategic decisions like this to improve the areas we are working in.
Our goal is to do a similar program in Brazil, starting in 2019.
At the forefront of bringing the café culture to Calgary
Russ Prefontaine of the Fratello Group talks about why quality, skill and hospitality are at the core of his family's coffee business
Calgary’s Business: How and when did Fratello start?
Prefontaine: Our family’s history in coffee dates back to 1974, when our dad, Cam Prefontaine, first started a wholesale coffee company, which was operated out of our garage and basement. Our parents involved all three of us brothers (Russ, Chris and Jason) in the family business from the start, earning our allowance by helping dad service old coffee brewers.
In 1985, our dad started roasting his own coffee. He was passionate from the start, experimenting and learning how to source and roast better coffee, as well as helping his wholesale customers make better coffee.
He was one of the first coffee professionals in Calgary to focus on higher-quality beans, and became a pioneer in what we now know as the modern café culture in Calgary.
This planted the seeds that would eventually grow into a family of brands known for their focus on premium quality: Fratello Coffee Roasters, Corbeaux Bakery and Analog Coffee itself. These companies, and their predecessors, played a huge part in bringing café culture to life in Calgary and Western Canada.
All three of us brothers started selling commercial espresso machines in 1991, helping local entrepreneurs start their own shops. We supplied all the equipment and training, and our parents’ company supplied the coffee. We bought the roasting company from our parents in 1997 and changed the name to Fratello Coffee (fratello means brother in Italian).
Over the years, we’ve never stopped learning, expanding our knowledge of coffee, working to keep up with the rapidly-changing trends in the industry. We started travelling to the countries and farms where our coffee was grown in search of the best coffee, and to meet the farmers and families who produced the raw product.
We learned from Dad’s increasingly obsessive attention to detail, not just in the way he focused on roasting great coffee but in how he presented it. For Dad, hospitality and community became critically important. He was making the argument – with every new cup poured — that coffee could be something special. Everything had to be as good as possible. Or why bother doing it at all?
This mindset would play a key part in how we eventually built the Analog business. Over the years, we have led, pioneered and challenged a vast variety of innovative coffee and coffee-related businesses, which include the creation of Slayer Espresso machines with our brother Jason in 2007. We envisioned inventing and creating a specialized machine unlike anything else on the market. The ambitious decision to create a machine from scratch that would dramatically expand brewing possibilities was born because we knew there was specific demand from coffee professionals for a machine that could ‘flavour profile’ the unique varietals of coffee that were being produced.
Our family also owned a bottling facility for coffee chai/syrups/smoothies.
We hope you’ll quickly see how completely and totally obsessed we are with every decision that goes into our coffee and its products. It’s simple: ‘good enough’ is never good enough.
As these things often go, it was the original lessons from Dad – the ones about quality and hospitality – that would bring all the promise of our businesses, finally, into reality. We threw ourselves full-bore into expanding our knowledge of growing and roasting coffee. We travelled around the world where we found kindred spirits in farmers who cared as much about coffee as we did.
As business thrived, we started thinking more and more about how best to present the coffees we were working so hard to perfect. This was the moment we decided it was time to create a line of cafés, each reflecting everything we believed a coffeehouse could be if done right. We would take everything we had learned and become so obsessed over, and share it with our community.
CB: Can you give me a scope of your business today and what you do?
Prefontaine: We continue to focus on what we grew up doing. Sourcing and roasting exceptionally good coffee and using our expertise to help other like-minded companies achieve their goals. Our core business is wholesale roasting and now with Corbeaux Bakery, we are also offering a wholesale food solution.
This ambitious project has had a very steep learning curve. But we press on, continuing to put as much effort and intention into our food as we do our coffee. In fact, our team of chefs and master bakers make virtually everything from scratch.
Our natural sourdough bread is fermented 48 hours before baking, our pastries are made from scratch with all-natural premium ingredients, we laminate our croissant dough by hand using real butter, we slow roast our own meat, and even make our own all-natural yogurt, which is a 24-hour process. We don’t add preservatives, we only use natural ingredients.
Simply put, we don’t cut corners. This has started to get a lot of attention because it’s so unique.
Our newest customer, Calgary Co-op, recognized this passion and has begun offering our bread program in a few of their locations. They realize that this was a segment that wasn’t being offered or served in their stores, or most of their competitors’ stores. We’re excited to say that we will be expanding to most of their Calgary stores over the next few months.
Aside from working with our wholesale customers across Western Canada, we spend a tremendous amount of time with our Analog Coffee team fine-tuning our operations. Currently, our focus is on culture and our customer experience. We believe we’re all hosts, and want our Analog team members to feel the same way when greeting and serving our guests.
CB: What are your growth plans for the company in the near future?
Prefontaine: We definitely have some fun and exciting plans for growth in the next five years. Much of these plans are to expand our roasting capacity and distribution in order to make it easier for people to find and enjoy our products. This will primarily be based on where we have our brick and mortar Analog Coffee locations, which is also the perfect place to enjoy our Corbeaux Bakery food products.
One challenge for us is we don’t do anything without going all the way. This does make it challenging when looking to expand outside of Calgary, as there are so many details to systemize to ensure a successful launch. How do we bring this same attention to detail, quality and care to another city with certainty that those guests will experience everything we do in Calgary?
We have been asking this question for a few years now and we believe we are on the verge of something great.
CB: Why have you been able to be successful in a market that seems to be saturated with coffee players and big ones such as Starbucks?
Prefontaine: We’ve been successful in this competitive marketplace because I believe our customers can see we authentically love what we’re doing. Analog is the realization of everything our family has been building for over 40 years. Every detail of the guest experience is considered, calculated and very intentional, from the décor, vibe and food, to the coffee itself. It’s decades of passion made tangible.
We had thought about starting our own café since the 1990s. And in 2011, we couldn’t resist the temptation any longer and opened the first Analog Coffee in the Calgary Farmers’ Market. It exceeded our own expectations. In 2012, our dream location came available for our second shop on Calgary’s 17th Avenue, right in the heart of the city’s Beltline community. More stores followed.
Analog gives us a place where we can carefully craft our brilliant single-origin coffees for guests from across all walks of life.
Analog allows us to practise what we have been preaching with a direct voice to the community. At Analog, average is completely unacceptable. We’re always in search of the finest coffees for our customers and our community. We’re driven by the need to deliver epic, unmatched coffee experiences to our customers. Every day. In every way.
We want to share our coffee with everyone from the longtime aficionado to the newcomer who just wants something a little (or a lot) better to drink. It’s not about attitude or elitism. It’s about how everyone who orders our subscriptions deserves the best coffee we can find.
We know good coffee is everywhere. But great coffee is surprisingly rare – whether you’re drinking it as fuel for your busy day or an escape from it. So, we’re here for those who want a life less ordinary. If only for the time it takes to finish a cup of our Analog Coffee.
CB: Why has coffee taken off in recent years as a burgeoning consumer trend?
Prefontaine: We have been watching coffee grow in popularity since we first started roasting in 1985. I remember the day that Starbucks announced they were coming to Calgary. We were excited. We knew that they would bring an enormous awareness to the public on what specialty coffee is, and we knew that to compete against someone like them, that you would have to raise the bar on everything we did.
Today, truly exceptional coffee isn’t as hard to find as it used to be in most cities. It’s now expected that if you are opening a café, or serving coffee in a restaurant or hotel, that the coffee you’re serving has been given attention. Even Swoop Airlines is offering our coffee on board because they wanted to serve their guests something special.
All the fancy grinding and brewing equipment in the world won’t make a difference if we don’t first find perfectly produced coffee. That’s why our producers harvest by hand-picking. That way only perfectly ripe cherries are selected while overripe and green cherries are sorted out. Our growers spend day after day moving from tree to tree, harvesting only the best cherries. This ensures that the quality of our coffee is not hindered by any shortcuts.
Our growers utilize a variety of different processing techniques from honey processing to fully-washed and beyond – all depending on what they believe will coax the best flavour from the varietal. By the time the coffee leaves the farm on its journey to our roasterie in Calgary, hundreds of people will have contributed to its creation.
This philosophy is the same with many coffee roasters these days and this started the third wave of the coffee movement. When we roast our beans we want to create a profile that best expresses the varietal and the region where it was grown. That’s both an art and a science. We roast every offering with a custom approach, all with the goal of telling a story in every cup.
Our roasters are always on the leading edge of their trade. They’re highly skilled at managing the variables of a roast, producing beans with vibrant aromas and creating the best possible flavour for each coffee.
Skilled baristas are the last important link in this movement. They should be well-trained experts in the art of brewing. They’re working with state-of-the-art machinery and a fine eye to detail. In fact, when one of our Analog baristas is standing behind the counter brewing your coffee, you should feel confident that they’re making sure this final step is done with all the care, attention and intention shown by each and every person who has cared for the coffee bean since it was planted.
That’s how you know that when you’re handed a cup of Analog Coffee, you’re tasting some of the best coffee in the world. Every time.
– Mario Toneguzzi
Respected business writer Mario Toneguzzi is a veteran Calgary-based journalist who worked for 35 years for the Calgary Herald in various capacities, including 12 years as a senior business writer.
Analog Coffee Delivering "urban-vibe" to suburbia Calgary
Analog Coffee is well known in the Calgary 3rd wave coffee scene; particularly noted for its flagship location on 17thAvenue; which serves upwards of a thousand guests per day. Fratello Coffee Roasters has been an institution in the craft coffee roasting sector for over three decades and has been family owned for almost 40 years.
CALGARY, Nov. 23, 2017 /CNW/ - Analog Coffee, a division of Calgary's Fratello Group Inc.; continues its successful expansion with two new select upcoming locations.
Analog made its debut in 2011 at the Calgary Farmers Market on Blackfoot and also sports locations at Southcenter Mall, Bow Valley Square and at the coffee Roastery itself.
Russ Prefontaine; the group's President states that, "our choices for new locations are very specific and demographically intentional." Prefontaine revealed that a new Analog will anchor both the upcoming locations at Westman Village in Mahogany, located in Calgary's far Southeast and the new University District in the heart of Northwest.
Analog Coffee intends to take the acclaimed "vibe, culture and community" created at locations such as 17th Avenue and bring them to the emerging ultra-trendsetting new suburban experiences being developed in Calgary. "Developments such as Westman Village and the University District in Calgary's, appeal and serve many of our loyal customers in our downtown settings. We want to bring the urban-vibe home for them. These two new locations are the quintessential examples of perfect matches for us and our customers," says Prefontaine.
Westman Village - At Westman Village, in the Lake community of Mahogany states, "life happens when you open your door, look around and find so much more. We've built a resort-style community where convenience, relaxation and pleasure are found right outside your home. A place where hand-selected retail supports the community and extraordinary amenities keep it moving forward, always offering more. We believe people in a community should never be strangers – that's why we built more places to be together."
Analog Coffee will open fall of 2018.
University District - in the heart of North West states, "University District joins the ranks of campus communities around the world that combine culture and convenience with flourishing commerce and tremendous livability. An environmentally sound, socially responsible and intelligently designed 200-acre community that will change the way Calgarians live, work and play forever."
Analog Coffee will open spring/summer of 2019.
"Analog is proud to be a part of the Calgary 3rd wave coffee scene and shares the space with great fellow roasters such as Phil & Sebastian, Rosso and Monogram. We have the utmost respect for our colleagues in the community and hope we all continue to grow and prosper while raising the (espresso) bar for Calgary's coffee enthusiasts," Prefontaine concludes.
Analog Coffee - Now Hiring - Quality Assurance Manager
This is a rare opportunity to join a dynamic team of coffee professionals and further your career in coffee and business. Please forward your resumes to info @ fratellocoffee.com.
Summary
The Quality Assurance Manager is responsible for the consistent excellence of every cup of coffee served at Analog Café’s. Our Quality Assurance Manager is the quintessential coffee connoisseur who is as passionate about coffee as they are the overall coffee experience. They are the key resource for coffee quality at Analog.
Areas of Responsibility · Quality Assurance
o Key resource to Café Managers and team members, working alongside them to educate and encourage the highest quality of Analog products.
o Ensure Analog products meet expected quality standards and consistency by conducting quality reviews and testing at each Analog café. Provide Café team members feedback and encouragement to continuously improve their skills.
o Develop and document Analog product quality standards and procedures.
o Collaborate with the Quality Assurance Manager at Fratello to assist in the constant improvement of all roast profiles.
o Act as Analog “Ambassador” at regional coffee events such as Barista Competition, Coffee Association of Canada and Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) conventions, as necessary.
o Create and maintain Café equipment Preventative Maintenance standards and procedures.
o Maintain equipment and ensure equipment supplies are available at all Café’s as required for preventative maintenance needs. Schedule preventative maintenance and report status and discrepancies to Café Managers.
· Coffee Knowledge Training
o Design and develop training materials, workshops and communications that support and improve overall coffee knowledge of Café team members.
o Coordinate with Café Managers to facilitate regular training sessions and follow up with them to ensure all training materials are up to date.
o Coordinate Train-the-Trainer sessions and regular meetings with Café trainers to ensure the consistent execution of Analog product quality standards and procedures.
o Proactively recommend and implement improvements to product quality standards and procedures. Maintain and update training materials to reflect continuous improvements.
o Design, write and distribute regular communications, i.e. newsletters, to Café team members, highlighting best practices and changes, recipes, new coffees and other information as required.
o Present quality assurance updates and information at regular Café Manager meetings. Maintain a close working relationship with the management team.
o Coordinate with Café Mangers and District Managers to ensure weekly and monthly scheduling of training and quality meetings meet the needs of the Café’s.
Experience and Qualifications You’re a great fit if you have:
· 3+ years of experience in retail or hospitality or equivalent experience.
· 1+ year of specialized quality assurance responsibilities.
· Experienced trainer, assisting individuals and/or teams to learn new skills or processes.
· Passion for exceptional quality of products and/or services.
· Strong verbal and written communication skills.
· Excellent collaborator and team player.
· Demonstrates effective time management.
· Available to work a flexible schedule to meet the needs of the business; may require weekends and evenings
· Proficiency in using Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and POS systems.
· Minimum High School education.
El Salvador Coffee Sourcing Trip
We are very excited to bring you some of the great El Salvador coffee that will be arriving in July, we recently visited 3 producers in El Salvador, two that we have worked with before, Mauricio Salaverria and the Dumont family, and one producer that will be brand new to Fratello, Café Pacas. Though this is new to Fratello this is by no means a new producer as the Pacas family has been cultivating coffee for over 150 years.
If the name sounds familiar there is a good reason for it, they were the ones to discover the Pacas varietal, a natural mutation of the bourbon. Known for it’s slightly larger bean and tastes similar but generally brighter than bourbon it is a fantastic coffee. This was also one of the varietals that were combined to make the Pacamara varietal, along with the Maragogype. And that brings us back to what we have coming this year, we are very excited to offer 2 Pacamara’s this coming year, one a fully washed 5 Bag lot from Malacara B and one a 3 bag Fully natural lot from Finca Himalaya. Although both are fantastic lots we are particularly excited for the Full Natural lot.
Micro lot of Natural Pacamara
While we were visiting Mauricio’s drying patios we came across a fully natural coffee (pictured below) that smelled liked dried blueberries, as luck would have it this coffee had just finished drying and both Mauricio and I were very excited to try it. Mauricio took a small plastic bag of it, had it processed and roasted so we could try it. Although it was a blind cupping there was no mistaking this coffee on the table, as soon as it was ground it filled the room with the fragrance of blueberry candy.
That delicious fragrance carried right through to the taste, even beside other very good natural coffee’s this one stood out with the sweet caramel and blueberry taste a full rich body and a slight tangy tartness of blackberries on the aftertaste. This was just an experiment of Mauricio’s which is why it is such a small lot but we are thrilled to be the exclusive roaster of this coffee.
Fully washed, honey and natural Bourbons drying
Watch for this coffee in Mid-July I am sure it will not last long!
We also have another rather interesting pair of coffee’s that will be coming from Finca Joaquim of the Pacas family , We have a Red bourbon from there which by itself is great but we are also getting the Peaberry selection of the very same coffee!
A Peaberry is a slightly mutated bean, it is still a Red Bourbon but instead of having two beans growing in a cherry the Peaberry is a just a single bean in the cherry. This allows it to soak up all the deliciousness of the cherry giving it a generally sweeter taste with more intense characteristics. This is another very small lot (2-3 Bags) but if you get the chance we would definitely recommend trying the Red Bourbon alongside the Peaberry to really experience how even the smallest change can vastly affect the taste.
Fratello's Analog Coffee and Why we Built Them
Many people have asked us why we started Analog Coffee at the Calgary Farmers Market as well as our new flag ship location on 17th Ave SW. Our Analog Café's were not designed to be “just another coffee house”. They were designed and created to give Fratello Coffee Roasters a voice directly who matters most. People who drink and enjoy our coffee everyday.
The idea of having our own cafe isn't new. We have been talking about this for over 15 years when we first purchased the roasting company from our parents in 1997. Back in the early years of our roasting company, our father Cam Prefontaine did his best to buy better coffee from his competitors. He would experiment with different ways of roasting this coffee with the equipment he had and would service his customers way better than his competitors.
These were also the days before “2nd Wave” coffee was the norm, and back before anyone had even heard of Starbucks. Trying to convince the early bakeries and deli’s to buy what was “gourmet” coffee was a challenging thing to do. It was only the early/mid 90’s that Starbucks, Second Cup, Grabba Jabba (now Timothy’s) began to pop up on every corner that the ability for us to roast/sell higher quality coffee began to become easier.
In these years, or the 2nd Wave of coffee, we began working closer with our wholesale café customers with education on what espresso based beverages were all about. We did our best to encourage them and get them excited about wanting to sell better and better coffee. We would offer our brand image to them in hopes that they would represent us in a way which would create recognition for quality. This unfortunately is very challenging to do when you are required to rely on others to be your voice on the streets.
A big decision was made in 2007/2008 when we as a company decided to down-size and re-focus on what we cared most about. And what we cared about was quality. At this time we changed our name to Fratello Coffee Roasters (Italian for brother) and began to focus on our accounts who aligned with the same principles as us. If an account didn’t “fit” we simply decided to end the relationship. Over the course of 4 years, a 50-60% reduction in business as well as an entirely new company culture was formed. It was only during this process that we could begin our transition into becoming a “3rd Wave” coffee roaster.
The Third Wave of Coffee refers to a current movement to produce high-quality coffee, and consider coffee as an artisanal foodstuff, like wine, rather than a commodity, like wheat. This involves improvements at all stages of production, from improving coffee bean growing, harvesting, and processing, to stronger relationships between coffee growers and coffee traders and roasters, to higher quality and fresh roasting, at times called microroasting (by analogy with microbrew beer), to skilled brewing.
At Fratello we understand coffee because it has – literally – been our passion for over a quarter century! Hundreds of thousands of people have tasted our coffee without ever knowing it! With the opening of the Fratello Analog Café in the Calgary Farmer’s market in early 2011 we took the plunge into retail, and we’re delighted we did. We continue to learn new experiences each month which empowers us with new knowledge to better train/coach our wholesale clients. Our brand has become more recognized in this city as the leading quality coffee roaster and has enabled us to have a “voice” in the street (away from business to business) of our own, and put our brand in our own hands.
With the 2012 opening of our flagship store on 17th Ave and 7th Street we are again able to begin sourcing coffee an entirely new way! It wasn’t typical of us to introduce 2 or more coffees from the same growing region at once, but this is something we are starting this year. We find it’s such a great opportunity for our customers to discover different flavour characteristics a country has to offer when you are able to taste different farm/cooperative offerings, from the same growing region, side by side.
Therefore, What makes a great cup of coffee? Simply put, pride! Pride in how we source our product, by knowing our producers and knowing our regions, and not being afraid to always make the call that quality is more important than quantity. Attention to perfection then continues back here in Calgary, where we use our many years of roasting/training experience. Lastly, the magic plays out in our cafes, Analog Coffee, where our amazing staff – who all understand and live the Fratello philosophy – bring you the perfect cup of coffee every time you order it. Come and check us out.
Calgary is Awesome! Great Coffee Makes for a Great City
It’s like a chicken or the egg thing; what came first – the great coffee house or the great city? At Fratello we’re obviously biased, but we believe that you have to have great coffee houses to make a great city. And just look around, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver and Seattle – they all have remarkable cafes. Take it a step further. How many movie sets or TV shows profile coffee shops? Tons of them, and there is a reason for that. Because great coffee houses bring out the very best in us. They allow us to appreciate the good things in life; things that often get missed in the hurly burly of our daily existence.
In a great coffee house we socialize, we think, and we somehow become instantly gracious and appreciative. Perhaps it’s the magic aroma of magnificently roasted coffee, or the professional skills of your barista, but somehow a good coffee shop ‘brings you inside’ and gives you as much value from the experience of the place as from the taste of the product.
At Fratello we understand coffee because it has – literally – been our passion for over a quarter century! Hundreds of thousands of people have tasted our coffee without ever knowing it! With the opening of the Fratello Analog Café in the Calgary Farmer’s market in early 2011 we took the plunge into retail, and we’re delighted we did. We continue to learn new experiences each month which empowers us with new knowledge to better train/coach our wholesale clients. Our brand has become more recognized in this city as the leading quality coffee roaster and has enabled us to have a "voice" in the street (away from business to business).
With the upcoming fall 2012 opening of our flagship store on 17th Ave and 7th Street we’ll be in the heart of the action, helping to sustain the pulse of that vibrant part of town. Again, great café help build great cities.
What makes a great cup of coffee? Simply put, pride! Pride in how we source our product, by knowing our producers and knowing our regions, and not being afraid to always make the call that quality is more important than quantity. Attention to perfection then continues back here in Calgary, where we use our many years of roasting/training experience. Lastly, the magic plays out in our cafes, Analog Coffee, where our amazing staff – who all understand and live the Fratello philosophy - bring you the perfect cup of coffee every time you order it.
Coffee should be all about the people. The people who produce it, the people who roast/find it, the people who serve it and most importantly at Analog Coffee, the people who come in to enjoy it. And, great people make a great city!
