Ep. 211: The Complex World of Coffee

Guest: John Neate, JJ Bean

Here’s an idea: why not open a coffee shop? Heck, why not a chain of coffee shops?

After all, how hard can it be? You buy coffee that’s cheap, you brew it; that’s easy and you watch the money roll in!

With so many designer coffee shops, you’d think it was easy. That is, until you look behind the counter and start to work your way through the myriad rules and regulations that stand in the way of simply brewing coffee and selling it.

Fair trade coffee: is that organic? Does it mean it’s better coffee? The answer is no, but it’s a designation you have to be aware of – a designation that has nothing to do with taste or organics. And when it comes to organic coffee, where do you get that from and why does it cost so much?

Did you know Brazil is the number one coffee producing country in the world? Did you know the best coffee is grown above the 1,2oo-meter level on the warmer side of the mountain with three levels of canopy? Oh, and there has to be birds but not bugs. Birds are good, bugs are bad.

We invited John Neate of JJ Bean to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the amazingly complex world of owning, operating and succeeding in the competitive world of coffee.