Venturing Outside Your Coffee Comfort Zone

Working in the coffee world requires a considerable amount of patience and diligence. You might think that you could reach for the big coffee companies and have that be the end of it. On the contrary, there are so many facets and players in this industry that it’s essential that you dig deeper if you want to truly understand. A person can go their entire life without trying more than one type of coffee. That's a shame. I was one of those people before I started this blog. All the types of coffee I’ve sampled since then have made the coffee people commonly reach for seem ordinary.

I want to shed the label of pretentiousness that people stick to smaller specialty roasters. There’s nothing pretentious about wanting a good cup of coffee. We should not settle for below average brew when there are so many other wonderful companies out there doing things the right way. The cost shouldn’t matter. The fact that we use affordability as an excuse is not acceptable. Our unwillingness to invest in something that's seemingly important part of our lives funds the mega corporations that push the below average grounds into the marketplace. Nothing will change unless we demand better.

No one will demand better unless they have a reason to do so though. Being able to buy coffee for a few bucks lulls the consumer into a false sense of security. They believe that what they are getting is good just because they can get it for less. Major grocery chains reinforce this problematic state of affairs by devoting their shelf space to nothing but coffee from the big brands. Little coffee roasters are forced to sell their wares online or in smaller coffee shops in their local area. Granted, every coffee roaster has the opportunity to work their way through the ranks. When they get to the mountain top, the chances of them being able to rub elbows with their more prominent competitors are slim.

Brand recognition is something that sinks anyone who wants to enter the coffee marketplace. A newer coffee company has no chance against competitors who have been around for a century or more. The fact that a company has been around forever is no excuse for their products being substandard in quality. It’s difficult for people who have had nothing other than the brands they can easily access to understand that what they’re working with is crap. Nobody likes to challenge their sensibilities or do anything that makes them uncomfortable. They find their coffee and that makes them happy. Why change things and risk being unhappy?

Life isn’t about maintaining the status quo though. You have to step outside of your comfort zone to experience what's really going on in the world. I did just that when I started this project. I got tired of drinking the same coffee day after day. I wanted to see what was out there. I wanted to send a message to the coffee world and see what it returned.