An Eye-Opening Conversation: Coffee in Bakeries

“The biggest part of our revenues does not come from selling bakery products; it comes from coffee.” The owner of a craft bakery store was sharing this observation with our group of journalists, visiting during a press tour a few years back.

Some may call it a “millennial trend”; the simple fact is that coffee is ever popular with consumers across all age ranges, income categories, or lifestyles. It is deep in our cultures; it is the first thought of every day for a majority of people, and important enough to join us in many aspects of our lives. Design changes of Starbucks’ coffee cups for special occasions enter the media news cycle (as do new flavor innovations), and collectors get to chase all limited editions on Amazon.

Tall, Grande and Venti Opportunities

Sales data show cafés are the quickest-growing segment in the fast-food sector. We need to differentiate between coffee cafés and bakery cafés, to identify and tap into the huge opportunities in making this “natural” proximity between coffee and croissant available. While coffee cafés are the popular choice for breakfast and beverage occasions, bakery cafés win over midday occasions, according to research from restaurant consultancy Technomic. Innovation and differentiation in beverage and evening program, a better-for-you mindset, and early adoption of technological advancements are among the biggest growth opportunities, identified by the study.

For bakers, this means acquiring solid knowledge about everything coffee, to prove themselves a viable breakfast option, with coffee accompanied by a myriad of fresh, delicious bakery wares. In addition, “Savory bites, upgraded ambiance, and buy-one-get-one beverage deals may help drive after-work social and snack occasions,” Technomic says. Of the consumers surveyed for the report, 36% visit bakery cafés and 25% – coffee-cafés at least monthly. In addition, many consumers say healthy options are important for bakery (50%) and coffee (37%) café menus.

Customers will return for experiences, and for products meeting their preferences, and these translate into a varied range of coffees, as well as healthy, tasty, specialty, and often premium snacks, both types of products driving each other.

Not only a Beverage but also an Ingredient

On the one hand, we have the world’s favorite beverage, coffee; and then, on the other hand, there is now coffee flour, another opportunity for bakers to work with and around the cherry beans and monetize them, at that. Coffee flour is made from the discarded pulp and skin of the coffee cherry.

As it converts the coffee cherry pulp into a nutrient-dense ingredient to be used in combination with other flours, coffee flour is a sustainable product that turns waste into food with environmental, social and economic benefits (all conscious consumers’ dream, not just a millennial-favorite). For bakers, its flavor makes it nutritionally potent addition, as it can be paired with any other flour for baking purposes or can be used on its own as a nutritional booster. The product is available in both finely ground and coarse ground varieties for adding texture and nutrition to recipes for foods like pizza dough and pasta without altering the color of the final product.

Coffee Flour, the brand, does not require any special equipment or techniques to use. It can be used similarly to cocoa powder. It is denser than white or wheat flour, so recipes should be adjusted accordingly. This agricultural innovation won the Global Sourcing Council’s 3S Awards 2017, the Climate Change Award.

The coffee ingredient answers a growing demand for coffee-flavored cookies across developing countries, research finds. This is also the perfect match for companies wanting to use natural ingredients, another key concept with consumers. The products made with

coffee flour can vary from flavored sandwich cookies, bars, to the popular drop cookies. Such snacking options are available from household names like Nestlé, Associated British Foods plc, Kellogg, and Britannia Industries.

Industry Embraces Coffee

Coffee is recognized as an important player in the baking industry; the interest has led to coffee becoming an important part of industry events, to celebrate the perfect match between bakery snacks and coffee. To expand this focus to its adequate degree of interest, SIGEP added in 2014 the ad hoc expo section, RIMINI COFFEE EXPO, to provide a complete showcase, from plant to the finished product, technology, and services, as well as furnishings and decor.

Coffee in all aspects has been gaining well-deserved ground at Europe’s most anticipated industry event. With iba exactly one month away, I am looking forward to the expanded focus the exhibition is giving the entire coffee and to-go concept. On behalf of the organizers, iba’s project manager, Claudia Weidner, recently shared the trade fair’s take on coffee, a trend I’ve noticed extremely popular in Germany, the host country of the event: “Coffee is the most-consumed beverage in the out-of-house market in bakeries and confectioneries. About a fourth of all coffee consumption in Germany occurs out-of-house. But the coffee market is not just growing in Germany, but rather throughout the entire world. And since the margins are very high, this means big chances for bakeries, confectioneries and coffee specialties. The special event iba.TO GO! shows the potential this market has and how companies use this and how to benefit from it. You can find out everything about the right coffee concept for your company, from the beans to machines and preparation to store construction.”

Coffee-powered Bakery: a Fast-growing Sector

Not only a popular nice in the baking industry, cafés of all types represent the quickest-growing segment in the fast food sector. Looking at some of the world’s best known, the trend grew with (and thanks to) companies like Gloria Jean’s, founded by Gregg and Gloria Jean Kvetko in Chicago, in 1979. It was bought by Retail Food Group in 2013 for EUR 131.3 million. Today, Gloria Jean’s has over 1,000 coffee shops in 39 nations including Greece, Czech Republic, Turkey, Ukraine, and Romania. Coffee Republic, Caffe Ritazza, and McCafé are just some of the big chains competing in innovation.

Innovation, however, comes in all (coffee & snack) shapes and sizes, as small and medium-sized businesses are successfully proving. One of my favorite examples comes from Ireland: Krüst Bakery. They were the world’s first smart bakery café when I interviewed them a few years ago, soon after their opening. The chain’s co-founders wanted to reduce energy consumption and increase customer comfort offering more than just wireless chargers, for example, and went for the complete package: iPad checkouts with Bitcoin support, streaming your own music in the bakery, coffee and sandwich ordering via smartphone to cut waiting times with office deliveries, digital loyalty cards, and wireless chargers.

It’s an exciting time for creative concepts combining coffee and baked goods for all tastes. I am looking forward to new trends iba is bound to have in store, and for necessary coffee conversations there!