Coffee. Business.

Anniversary cake

Originally uploaded by jpscoffee

JP’s celebrated its 15th anniversary on November 23, 2008.

Although I wasn’t sure it was in my best interest to do this interview I did it anyway. Two reasons mainly; first, they say all advertising is good advertising and second, if I didn’t do it who were they going to get their information from?

The Java Dilemma: Saving on Coffee in Tough Times. You Can Skip the Coffee Shop and Make Great Coffee at Home; Here’s How

The weak economy can be a buzz kill — just ask one of the nation’s most prominent coffee retailers. Read more »

Sherry scrubbin’ the floor

Originally uploaded by jpscoffee

Sherry, manager, shows that she isn’t above doing “What it Takes” to get things done at JP’s.

Every independent coffee shop has its own ambience.  Some are funky urban, some are alternative poetry joints, some are woodsy Scandanavian.  Ours is neutral.  You got it:  we “specialize” in being “generalists”.  Everything about us screams neutral:  some tables, some booths.  Some cement floor, some tile, some carpet.  Some basic brews, some frou-frou drinks.  Some over-the-top cheesecakes, some good-for-you yogurt.  We don’t take political stands…or any other kind of stand, either.  We’ve worked REALLY hard to be a place where high schoolers, college students, young moms, professional people and retirees feel comfy. Read more »

the base of all espresso drinks

Ambiance is important; people love a place that is comfortable. Clean bathrooms is a definite must. Mothers with children will stay away in droves if you have dirty bathrooms. Music that fits your demographics and your store are also very important. But what is it that’s key to a coffee house?

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WBC Aurelia from Nuova Simonelli

Originally uploaded by jpscoffee

The Nuova Simonelli Aurelia is an engineering marvel and is the only espresso machine designed using computed theoretical models to achieve temperature stability. In order to achieve its high level of temperature stability, every aspect of the machine had to be perfectly balanced and engineered to exacting standards. The result is an amazing and truly remarkable system that self-stabilizes using its own water and a single heat source to maintain thermal equilibrium. The Aurelia’s scientifically designed brew group weighs over 12 pounds and is a key factor in the machine’s temperature stability, and it allows the operator to customize the degree of pre-infusion, brew temperature, and flow rate individually.

The Aurelia is the only machine in the world certified as ergonomic for baristi by the European Institute of Psychology and Ergonomics thanks to its unique push-pull steam levers, wide-angle visual field, exposed group head, soft-touch silicon buttons, and smooth locking port-a-filters. Each group head on the Aurelia has a one liter boiler of fresh water on reserve that never comes in contact with a heating element. This eliminates the risk of alkalinity spikes associated with stagnant boiler water in contact with heating elements. Water delivered to the coffee is always fresh, controllable and pH balanced.

The Soft-Infusion-System® employed by the Aurelia is an innovative pre-infusion system that is adjustable, consistent and has no risk of user error. The Soft-Infusion-System® is unique due to the fact that it extracts centrifugally by injecting water at different angles into the coffee cake which eliminates channeling and maximizes espresso extraction by creating more contact time between the water and coffee. The superior espresso extraction is evident in the cup and to your senses. All of this technology is packed into a machine that delivers high performance, reliability, and withstands the test of time.

OK, I admit it. I’m a “glass-half-full” kinda guy. I been accused many times of being overly optimistic, of believing to much, of not being realistic enough. My wife loves that about me. She loves what she calls my, “eternal optimism”. I guess for me the alternative is ugly and nasty and not fun. It’s called pessimism.

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I’m the independent sort.  I make up my own mind about things, generally go left when everybody else is going right.  So it figures I’d be part of an independently-owned coffee shop.  But in this tentative time for retail, being independent and staying competitive can be tricky.  The temptation, I think, is to “spread out”:  offering a larger food menu, adding ever more variations to the drinks menu, and expanding the retail offerings.  While on the surface this looks like common sense, we’re going down the road less traveled.

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Look up, open mouth

I started drinking water when I was a wee lad. I drank it from the tap in the kitchen, from the tap in the bathroom, from the spigot outside the house, from the creek running along our backyard and even accidentally gulped mouthfuls when swimming at my neighbors pool. Although I would not have considered myself a connoisseur (actually I’m probably fortunate to be alive), I will say I did notice a difference in the pool water that none of the other sources seemed to have. Chlorine. You know; burning eyes, yucky taste, smell that lingered for hours.

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