Welcome to the SCA’s Coffee Retail Summit, a home for coffee business resources.
Spotlight: Market Research
Coffee Retail Summit 2023 is proudly supported by
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Featured Video
Exploring the Growth of the “Coffee And” Segment
As a move towards the "functional" grips the beverage sector, how might this trend shape opportunities for specialty coffee products and consumers?
Jim Watson explores the current market categories and trends in the US, specifically the growth of the "coffee and" segment.
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25 Feature
ESG for You and Me
For organizations striving to understand where profitability intersects with non-financial factors, the term ESG may be just as familiar as sustainability. KELLEM EMANUELE offers an ESG primer tailored for the coffee industry. →
Explore the Latest Resources
The Evolution of Business: Understanding the Certified B Corp Model | Re:co 2021
Jessica Yinka Thomas shares a new model of business designed to maximize wellbeing, interdependence, and drive change.
What Can We Learn from Each Other? The Changing Definition of Fine Wine | Re:co 2021
As we grapple with our own definition of “specialty,” Pauline Vicard shares ARENI’s journey of defining “fine wine” and explores opportunities for mutual learnings between industries.
Designing for Innovation: The Role of Uncertainty | Re:co 2021
What if you were told the things you've been experiencing throughout the pandemic—uncertainty and discomfort—are the very things that innovative and adaptable businesses not only tolerate, but embrace? Vaughn Tan explores both concrete examples of embracing uncertainty and abstract thought experiments to inspire exploration of your own business through the lens of innovative uncertainty.
Meaningful Innovation, Mutual Benefit: Creating Value by Delighting Customers | Re:co 2021
As consumers' demand for unique coffee experiences grow, so, too, does consumers' concern about the environment and the welfare of actors across the supply chain. Aleksander Robaszkiewicz asks: What can we learn from products and services creating new, immersive experiences while generating value for everyone involved?
From Procurement to Cobranding: A Path to Better Value Distribution | Re:co 2021
Luis Samper encourages us to shift the relationship between roasters and producers change from “procurement” to “co-branding partners.” This creates increased value for the producer, encourages relationships and innovation over time, and builds strong origin stories that engages consumers.
A Glimpse of the Future: Seven Signs | Re:co 2021
Bill Murray of the US National Coffee Association offers seven signs that point towards our sector’s future post-pandemic.
How Hot is Hot Enough? Brew Temperature, Sensory Profile, and Consumer Acceptance of Brewed Coffee | 25, Issue 15
Brew temperature is widely considered to be one of these key variables affecting the final quality of coffee, with a temperature near 93°C believed by most to be best. And, while it is no surprise then that drip brewers that can’t reach 92°C fast enough fail their certification, it turns out there is little empirical (and even less scientific) evidence, however, to support any particular range of brew temperatures for optimal sensory quality and consumer acceptance.
Manipulating and Measuring a Key Attribute in Drip Brew Coffee | 25, Issue 15
Among all the factors that can impact coffee flavor, the brewing step specifically has been shown to impact sourness. Did you know that about half of consumers in a recent study prefer more acidity in their coffee, and about half prefer less?
When the Signs Point to Coffee | 25, Issue 15
How do we know that a coffee shop is a coffee shop? What can semiotics tell us about how we construct and identify specialty coffee spaces?
Seoul Spaces
Following Starbucks’ successful penetration of the Korean market approximately 20 years ago as a third space for people to escape from their highly standardized, cube-like apartment dwellings and offices, individual specialty cafés now lead the way with new types of spaces. SEO YOUNG YOUN brings 25 on a tour of Seoul’s most cutting-edge coffee spaces.
An Obsession with Scale - 25, Issue 5
If we zoom in on the world of specialty chocolate, we learn that there is a category of companies that fetishizes the small, the handmade, and the laboriously produced. CARLA D. MARTIN, PhD explores the concepts of commodity, craft, and taste in specialty chocolate.
Designing for the Forgotten Sense - 25, Issue 8
What has the taste of your coffee got to do with acoustic design? Professor CHARLES SPENCE of Oxford University’s Crossmodal Research Laboratory explains the impact sound has on your perception of flavor.
French Coffee Refined and Redefined - 25, Issue 9
As the specialty coffee market grows to become an integral part of local culture, it also negotiates “local” and “global” in new ways. NOA BERGER traces how French cafés and roasters navigate the “glocalization” of specialty coffee.
A Career in Coffee: Why It Can and Should Happen
While baristas and other coffee professionals may find it hard to make millions, they should be able to make sustainable wages while also developing as a professional. What are ways that cafés, roasting companies, and other coffee industry organizations can provide this working environment?
The Home Experience: Expanding the "Slow Coffee" Segment
Due to distancing and mobility restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, specialty coffee consumption has been shifted from shops to home. Which marketing tools could be relevant to influence the coffee drinking experience outside the coffee shop? Results on the latest research showing how product-extrinsic factors influence consumers’ sensory and hedonic judgments of specialty coffee will be presented.
A Conversation with Roland Horne, CEO, WatchHouse
Stephen Morrissey speaks with Roland Horne about WatchHouse’s rapid expansion and diversification, the challenges this poses, tactics for standing out, and the reason for the brand’s inception in 2014.
The Importance of a Strong Team to Support Your Vision
Specialty coffee thrives on big visions, but successful retail coffee businesses thrive on more than vision alone.
Don’t Be Afraid of Change: Designing Coffee Business Success
Growing from a specialty coffee takeaway shop to a 500 shops in seven countries requires learning as you go, designing customer experiences, and—of course!—not being afraid of change.
Big Brands, Small Companies
Branding, events, digital engagement, packaging, anchor visuals in the design of the space: is investing in all these things critical for success in a market more accustomed to the novelty of latte art?
The Potential of Sustainable Economics in Specialty Coffee: The Story of Fuglen
Einar Holthe, Founder and CEO of Fuglen, shows us how retail can serve as a model for ways to improve cityscapes and build sustainable value chains beyond coffee.
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NEW Market Research
The 2019 US Coffee Market Overview
Periodically, since 2009, the SCA has published a US Coffee Market Overview, focused on the retail value of coffee in the US and the places where it is consumed →