FROM THE PUBLISHER
Connie Blumhardt
ECONOMIC DOWNTURN. Heard that phrase lately? Reading newspapers or worse,
watching news snippets on TV may have you contemplating adding a bunker
filled with soup cans to your home, office or secret mountain hideout.
According to the talking heads, we little people, are too absorbed in
the minutia of our lives to realize it, but we may be selling pencils
in the street by this time next year. The underlying impression given
is that we should be afraid of the future.
At the risk of being indicted for the crime of optimism, I would
like to provide a different take on how we might approach the business
of coffee during this period of economic turbulence. Making drastic cuts
in training, product development or capital investment will leave individuals
and businesses behind the curve when the business cycle swings back.
Now is the time to make wise, cost-effective investments in the future,
both personal and professional.
Necessity, being that mother of invention, has produced a fantastic
opportunity to make such a cost-effective investment: regional roaster
groups. Always hungry for continuing education, roasters have established
a grass-roots effort to augment the traditional, national SCAA offerings,
such as the excellent Roasters Guild Retreat and the annual conference,
with smaller, geographically based communities. Initially drawing people
into these communities was the opportunity to learn and network with
limited travel expenses and time commitments. What keeps people coming
back to these groups are the quality of the events.
The recent third annual Mid-Atlantic Regional Roasters Group
(affectionately known as MARRG) training weekend gives an idea of the
quality of training and networking opportunities. On the training side,
there were classes on water quality and chocolate, as well as sensory
development through a tasting and comparison of mustards to coffee.
On the networking and personal development side, Brian Babcock,
a roaster for Nova Roast, says, “I do it because it forces me to
be a better roaster by raising the bar across the industry. Long term,
it serves a dual function to weed out folks who shouldn’t be in
the industry and makes the strong roasters even stronger. All of this
for a hundred dollars plus some gas.” Babcock’s point regarding
the culling of people who are not investing in training and development
is very astute, as economic downturns tend to accelerate this process.
Regional groups that currently exist are: Gulf Coast Roasters
Group (Terry Davis at terry@ambexroasters.com), Southeast Roasters Cult
(Billy Claxton at bclaxton@microroaster.com), Northwest Roasters Group
(contact myself at connie@roastmagazine.com or Paul Thornton at pthornton@coffeebeanintl.com),
Mid-Atlantic Regional Roasters Group (Brian Babcock at bbabcock.marrg.org),
Northeast Roasters Group (Donny Raus at donny@rauscoffee.com) and the
Midwest Regional Roasters Group (Jim Kubichek at coffeegems@yahoo.com).
There is definitely room for additional regional groups (Southwest anyone?)
as well as foreign groups.
From my point of view, these groups are essential to not only
the success of individual people and companies, but to the ultimate continuing
success of specialty coffee. Roast has been and will continue to support
each of the regional groups through sponsorships, organizational assistance
and personal participation. So cheer up, step away from the newspaper
or TV (but not your magazine, of course) and plan for your emergence
from the dark days as an individual or business that is stronger and
better positioned to excel in your market.
Warmest Wishes,
Connie
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