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esson 1: The trip from "black coffee" to specialty beverages Just like every coffee bean has a unique story from how it got from origin to cup, indus- try professionals can tell the story of how they ended up working in such a fascinating business. Like many in the industry, my introduction to cof- fee began early on in life watching Grandma's stovetop percolator. When I got my frst job at McDonald's in 1968 we made coffee in glass bowls from flter pouches in a Bunn-O- Matic and poured it out into Styro- foam cups, no matter how long it had been on the heater. At that time cof- fee was just a hot beverage I served. The concepts of "origin" and "favor profle" didn't exist for me. In fact, I didn't even drink coffee. It wasn't until college that I began drinking the beverage out of the des- peration to wake up. Even then, the drink was consumed out of a need, not in fondness. A few years later, however, my eyes were opened to coffee the way Europeans drank it in 1976. On a fight to Europe I asked for "cof- fee" and the fight attendant replied with a one-word question "Nescafe?" She anticipated my soon-coming confusion, because she knew what I wanted, and she knew there was neither percolated coffee on-board nor probably anywhere in my Euro- pean destinations. She was kindly preparing me by offering the only alternative: Nescafe — the ubiquitous European version of "American" cof- fee at the time. It wasn't until I got to Paris that I had my frst religious coffee experience. Along with my croissant I was given a huge bowl of steaming, creamy, coffee-smelling milk. This single incident changed my perception of coffee, and later cir- cumstances would conspire to catch up my life in the art and science of preparing and serving specialty cof- fee beverages. Operators today cannot assume that their customers remain inexpe- rienced in coffee as I had been years ago. Just last year the National Coffee Association reported that coffee was the second most consumed beverage in the U.S.; past-day coffee consump- tion was nearly 60 percent. And consumers today are more aware of specialty and gourmet. In fact, according to Mintel the majority of coffee consumed in the U.S. is now specialty coffee. In order to serve a 'specialty coffee', however, operators frst have to understand the art and science behind what makes the bev- erages special. The perfection of specialty coffees begins with unique genetic and agri- cultural origins of coffee plants and their cherries and seeds. The poten- tials of these seeds are enhanced by processing techniques and careful preparation, so that they may bear up under the transit from origin without losing their treasured essences. An appreciation for the distinct origins and favors of coffee beans is a key part to being able to sell that bean to a location. Lesson 2: The recovery from errors made Not only is it important for operators in the OCS industry to understand the story behind the coffee they sell (or should sell), but one of the biggest lessons I learned was to pay attention to market trends surrounding coffee. My frst personal experience with Starbucks coffee was inauspicious. I was visiting an industry colleague in Philadelphia during the 1990s when he asked if I had tried Starbucks. Too hot and too dark, the cup inspired my proclamation: "This will never sell!" — the frst of many confrmations of my unerring gift for predicting mar- ket trends by dismissing them. My colleague graciously overlooked my arrogance, and, insisting that this was a harbinger of things to come, disclosed a plan to launch a "specialty brand" developed for offce coffee ser- vices. I remain in awe today for folks like that who really can detect the impulse of a wave in time to catch and ride it. Suddenly, the excitement for specialty coffee was palpable. In that decade before the millennium, I became involved with the SCAA Technical Standards Committee, where I learned to appreciate the intricacies of controlling the processes that create quality beverages. I learned about the agro sciences of growing and harvesting, process- ing and transporting which prepare and preserve the essences of the special coffee seeds — so that they might be transformed by the work of coffee roasters. I watched jour- neymen roasters select the nascent favors and aromas from specifcally chosen lots to marry with other ele- ments of a union called simply "the blend." The roast masters elevated the combined essences in the fres, and I experienced the perfection of the blend, which is father and mother to the beverage. And in the end I under- stood and helped to teach that these blends of specialty coffees deserve the intelligent application of specifcally chosen technologies to extract a cof- fee liqueur worthy of all that careful planning and labor that went before. I learned to love coffee. We wanted coffee extractions to bloom in the cup, unfolding aromatics like an exotic fower, inviting us to smell and sip and relish the indulgence of such a precious extravagance. I learned to appreciate fresh-roasted coffees that L April 2016 VendingMarketWatch.com Automatic Merchandiser 33 C O F F E E 1 0 1