Douwe Egberts - Hints and Tips

Coffee selling tips for your business

• Offer 'on the go'/take-away coffee, especially if your outlet is in a high traffic location.
• Use strong point-of-sale material and signage to attract attention to coffee.
• Offer different (larger) sizes of coffee cups and use this to sell more coffee.
• Serve specialty coffees and be creative with special recipes.
• Build repeat business by rewarding customers for their continued patronage.
• Stay alert to special occasions and suggest a special coffee beverage for the moment.

Your Staff

• Staff participation is the key to a successful promotion. Defining coffee themes, or using fun aprons to dress up your staff are ideas to stimulate their enthusiasm.
• Get everyone on board by hosting a tasting session for employees, and discuss ways to "upgrade" customers from regular coffee to more profitable specialty coffee beverages. For customers who turn down a dessert, suggest a delicious coffee beverage instead.
• Train your staff to prepare and serve coffee with style and with a smile.

Coffee specialties and promotions

• Use suggestive selling techniques. Pick your favourite recipe of the week and suggest it to all of your customers. Update your recipes regularly, or change recipes by the season!
• Describe what is in the beverage - syrups and toppings - and endorse them with your own quality rating.
• Use appetising words like "rich," "smooth" and "delicious" when describing the beverage.
• Use a nice menu card for promoting the specialty coffees with the use of enticing pictures.
• Feature specialty coffee beverages in both the beverage and dessert sections of your menu. Use signature names and appealing descriptions.
• Promote coffee for different moments and happenings of the day (after work coffee, coffee for breakfast, coffee lunch, hot summer day coffee, winter warming up coffee).

Serving instructions

• Use attractive cups, mugs or glasses and add a special flourish - like a twist of lemon peel alongside an espresso, a dusting of cinnamon on a cappuccino or a tall spoon for a Cafe au Lait.
• Ask customers for customised beverage orders - let them devise their own beverages! Mix it where they can see it

Hints and Tips from the Douwe Egberts team

• When storing cups on top of your machine to heat them, keep them upright, NOT upside down. That way the cup will be warmer and your customers won’t burn their lips.
  Giovanni Lauretta
  Coffee Specialist
• Do not re-froth milk or mix old and new, this will affect the quality of your foam. Froth only what you need.
  Leanne Carrod
  Finance Department (Barista)
• Once your milk is frothed, gently bang the jug on the work surface to eliminate large bubbles. A gentle swirling movement will get you a nice shining, silky texture.
  Olivier Kutz
  Brand Manager
• Squeeze each pack of beans before you open it, and smell the aroma coming from the one-way valve. If it smells of really fresh coffee and the bag is nice and plump, your beans will be in optimum condition.
  Julian Sullivan
  National Account Manager (Master Barista)
• To maintain the freshness of your coffee, only fill your bean hopper to the equivalent of ½ a days' consumption.
  Giovanni Lauretta
  Coffee Specialist
• Avoid grinding too much coffee in advance, as it will deteriorate very quickly. Best to do little and often.
  Leanne Carrod
  Finance (Junior Barista)
• Avoid leaving brewed coffee on a hot plate for longer than half an hour. It will deteriorate rapidly after that.
  Olivier Kutz
  Brand Manager
• When making Americano, always hot water first - add espresso after. Otherwise the coffee will be burnt.
  Julian Sullivan
  National Account Manager (Master Barista)
• Every morning, flush the water from each group head for at least 30secs to get rid of yesterdays' water left in the boiler.
  Giovanni Lauretta
  Coffee Specialist
• Tamp twice to the right pressure: the correct weight applied should be around 14Kgs for the 1st tamp and 18Kgs for the 2nd.
  Leanne Carrod
  Finance (Junior Barista)
• Clean the group head straight after use to avoid stale and burnt coffee remains. This can damage your machine and will affect the taste of your next brew.
  Julian Sullivan
  Master Barista
• Group handles should always be engaged in the group heads, clean and empty. A cold group handle will loose 10° to 15°C on your coffee temperature.
  Giovanni Lauretta
  Coffee Specialist
• Purge the steam arm before each use to get rid of excess water inside, purge and wipe it clean with a damp cloth after each use to avoid dry milk to build up.
  Giovanni Lauretta
  Coffee Specialist