Before leaving for Southern California, all of the trade magazines were abuzz about the latest player in the world of specialty coffee drinks. This player is one to be reckoned with as a late entrant into the mocha wars.

The press attention for the past year or so has been phenomenal as the media has focused on this company; journalists everywhere believe this giant would be able to challenge Starbucks as a nationwide server of lattes, mochas, and cappuccinos.

I wanted to check it out and try their drinks for myself.  So while on my trip, I walked in and ordered a hot mocha. This was the place where one stands to order happy meals, not normally the place to order a venti, dry, extra hot, skinny mocha. I watched my drink being made:  The server took a cup, pumped in some chocolate syrup, and placed it beneath the dispensing head of the super-automatic espresso machine.  She pushed a button and I watched the machine grind espresso beans, begin dripping steaming milk into the cup, and then follow with the rich, dark espresso.  She then placed an insulated sleeve and lid on the cup, using a special tamper-like device to make sure the lid fit snugly. She handed me my drink and I took a sip.

The first taste was strongly, sweetly chocolate, with just a little bit of coffee flavor coming through.  It was more chocolate than mocha, and it certainly wasn’t the best mocha I’ve ever had, but it was good. And for about $3.00, it seemed like a good deal.  I could see where this chain will become a competitive force in the marketplace.

I walked out of the store and down the plaza to another coffee shop.  This one was an outpost of a well-known Southern California coffee shop chain.  I know their offerings well, and wanted to compare their drink to the one I just purchased.  I went in and ordered a small mocha and watched them make it.

The barista — and in this store I can actually call the person who made me my drink a barista with a straight face — combined a shot of espresso and steaming milk, and then added a scoop of their proprietary cocoa powder.  It is always fun to watch them use their little whisks to make sure that the cocoa powder mixes with the espresso in the cup.

I took my drink from the barista and took a sip.  This drink was better than the other. It was more balanced with a stronger coffee flavor, and one that I would be more willing to purchase more frequently - even though it costs more.

It remains to be seen which one people will prefer.

I stopped in to a coffee roaster to visit an old friend.  He had previously been the director of coffee for a very large, well-known coffee roaster and retailer.  He recently changed jobs and is now working for a very small, fairly new regional coffee roaster.  We talked about many of the challenges he faces while trying to grow his business and I was struck by the many similarities between what we at Mont Blanc have gone through and what he is dealing with.

His challenges include finding the right people, growing sales, creating a brand identity in a crowded market place, needing to produce in volume to stay competitive, dealing with difficult customers and unreasonable requests, motivating the sales team — the list seemed endless.

Most businesses face similar challenges. It’s funny how sometimes we get so caught up in the whirlwind of work that we overlook simple solutions. My friend shared a story that really resonated.

He recounted being approached by a businessman who had heard about his coffee. The businessman wanted to try my friend’s coffee and possibly replace the espresso pods he used at the time.  This café owner knew that his offering at the time wasn’t the best, but it was convenient.  After a cupping, the businessman decided to dramatically improve what he served, despite the cost increase.

Knowing what his original volume was, my friend tracked his purchases and worked with him to help launch the program.  Initially, the new customer simply repeated his pattern of ordering every four weeks.  His first order was for 25 pounds. But soon there was a marked change. Three weeks later he placed another order for 25 pounds. Two weeks later he ordered another 25 pounds. And, my friend confided, he is now ordering 25 pounds every single week.

This businessman’s volume has increased 400 percent by doing nothing other than changing his low-grade espresso pods for a higher quality, fresher blend.  All of the increase in business was strictly attributable to serving a higher quality, more consistent, better tasting drink.

Sometimes it isn’t easy to change suppliers.  But it can be worth it.

This summer I gave a chocolate tasting seminar to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Roasters Group  (MARRG), a group of engaged coffee roasting professionals interested in perfecting their craft. The retreat lasted several days and seminars covered different aspects of roasting coffee and serving specialty beverages, including cupping coffee and measuring water quality as water plays an important part in every cup of coffee.

I sought to illustrate the differences between chocolates and to let the roasters taste for themselves how different chocolates result in very different mochas.  In front of each participant I placed a plate that had six pieces of dark chocolate.  All had approximately the same cocoa content, between 60 percent and 70 percent.

Starting with the first piece, I asked everyone to smell the aroma. The tasters commented on detecting aromas of red fruits, such as cherry.  The next test was the snap test.  Did the piece break cleanly? A clean snap means that the chocolate has a high cocoa butter content and has been properly tempered.  The chocolate broke in half with a sharp crack,   so we moved on to taste.  What were the taste characteristics when placed on the tongue?  Flavors of vanilla, leather and smoke were added to those of red fruit. Did it melt in the mouth? Was the finish smooth or grainy?  We analyzed each of the six pieces in turn.

The first four were single-origin chocolates from Venezuela, Sao Tome, Madagascar, and Papua New Guinea.  The fifth was a well-known grocery store brand, and the sixth was a new product from a well-known coffee company.  It was the least liked by the group and the Venezuela chocolate was the favorite. After the tasting, everyone commented on how unusual it was for them to be comparing chocolate, even though they taste and compare different coffees daily.

Many promised to return to their stores and perform a mocha test, matching different chocolates with their coffee beverages to get different tastes. I looking forward to hearing what they come up with.

Denver temperatures remain in the 80s after a month of record-setting heat. It’s hard to believe that the winter holiday season is almost upon us.

But at Muppet labs we have been hard at work creating seasonal drink mixes for this fall and winter, and two projects are now complete. Both are following the trend this year toward comfort-food drinks. This will be a strong season for flavors associated with a traditional home kitchen.

For one customer, we developed a Pumpkin Spice syrup. Our second formulation involved creating a ginger spice latte.  We are extremely happy with the results in both cases.

From a flavor standpoint, customers also have begun inquiring about our spicy chocolate syrup which has a chocolate base and is flavored with peppers, ginger and cinnamon.

As people grapple with political, economic, and financial uncertainty, the consumer shift to the comfortable becomes even more pronounced.  So this year, get ready to enjoy the taste of pumpkin pie, gingerbread and chocolate and cinnamon in your special beverage.

Last post, I recounted a story of a chain that switched from making its own chocolate syrups to Mont Blanc products.

Let me say now that I would never discourage someone from trying to create their own products to use in their stores. A unique mocha is a wonderful drink and, as the most popular flavored beverage served in a café, becomes something of a signature beverage.

For those do-it-yourself mocha makers, I would say that it’s good to consider the following:
1. Consistency is the hallmark of any successful café, so having a consistent chocolate drink is important. Understand going into it that this is very hard to do when mixing different ingredients every day. And consistency becomes exponentially more difficult when different employees are making the chocolate syrup. Trying to get every employee to measure different ingredients accurately and make sure that they blend properly is challenging at best.

2. You will need to make the syrup fresh every day. The mixture of cocoa powder, sugar, and water doesn’t contain any preservatives and has a high water activity. Therefore, it is very susceptible to mold growth. Refrigeration can help slightly, but it isn’t feasible to keep the chocolate syrup container refrigerated and bring it out for every chocolate drink you make.

3. Portion control can be a challenge. This gets back to a consistent drink and one that isn’t left to the odd measurement by employees. One of the things Mont Blanc does is pack a ½ oz. dispenser pump in every case of product that we sell. That way, operators have consistent measures and recipes for every drink they serve. One forum participant said his recipe used equal parts cocoa and sugar and water, mixed until it seemed like the right consistency. Not exactly precise measurements! For sanitation and consistency, the best method is a stainless steel bowl and pump. Expensive, but precise. If you go this route the bowl and pump will need to be thoroughly cleaned every day or two. Don’t forget to completely dry every component of a stainless steel pump or the trapped water will create microbial growth in the fresh product you add. By packing a disposable pump in every case Mont Blanc sells, we actually encourage our customers to use the pumps in all four bottles and then throw away the pumps without worrying about cleaning them.

4. A successful mocha is a unique mocha. All of our customers are known for their unique mochas. For that reason, we currently produce three different chocolate syrups with unique taste profiles. Sweet Dark Chocolate is for people who prefer a sweeter drink, Semi Sweet is for customers who want a more European taste, and our newest syrup using chocolate from Ghana is made using Omanhene cocoa powder. Combining any of those tastes with unique espresso blends is sure to create a signature drink.

5. Take a careful look at cost. The issue of cost came in the discussion forum and several people commented that it is cheaper to buy the ingredients and mix them in the store daily instead of purchasing a ready-made chocolate syrup. Appearances can be deceiving. The costs of all of the raw materials need to be considered. The most important is cocoa powder. Different cocoa powders will yield different tasting syrups, so in creating your recipes it is important to realize that there are many kinds of cocoa powders and each one will give you a very different taste profile.

There are innumerable questions that can be raised in regards to which raw materials to use – and the costs associated with those materials.

For cocoa, will you use a low-fat or high-fat powder? Alkalized or natural? Domestic or imported? Single origin or blend? Once you have sampled enough different cocoa powders (in syrups, of course) to make a decision, keep in mind that you need to purchase a sufficient quantity from your supplier to enable you to make enough syrup every day. Buying in small quantities will increase the cost. Next, there is sugar. And this, too, will influence the taste and final cost of your syrup. Regular granulated or baker’s sugar? Brown sugar? Organic or Fair Trade? Finally, are you adding any additional ingredients, such as vanilla? Pure vanilla, of course, is expensive (I found several suppliers online selling it at about $60/gallon). If you do use vanilla, I recommend buying an eye dropper to help measure the number of drops per batch.

Trial and error will help determine how much to add to your recipe. But that will bring you back to the over-arching questions related to the cost and value of creating your own syrup.

• Is there any waste or mess when mixing the product?

• Can your employees measure a precise amount every time? Spilled drops of vanilla and an ounce or two of sugar and cocoa powder left on the counter adds up when you are throwing that much money away every day.

• How long does the mixture keep before a fresh batch needs to be made? If any gets thrown away, that is another cost. And do you have a backup container ready to go? Running out of syrup always seems to happen just before the big rush of mochas are ordered, and it is a time consuming process to make a fresh batch while customers are waiting.

• How consistent is the product, and is it made the same way each time by every employee? Remember that your customers will need to know what to expect each time they order their mochas.

After you consider all of these points, you might consider the blind taste test I wrote about in my Aug. 9 post. I’m more than happy to send samples for comparison.