Our managing director, Chanho, has recently been to a few cities in The United States for the business trip as we are planning to expand ourselves in the global market. We would like to share what he has seen from their coffee culture and what we are dreaming.
The first city I visited was San Diego. It's located southern part of California, and is facing the border between Mexico which has created a more latin-like vibe along with the original bright and dry Cali-vibe. Weather-wise it's pretty similar to Sydney's, warm, dry, bright, sunny and very refreshing. (Sorry for those who are in the wet condition these days, but we know, that's not the Sydney's true beauty.)
Stayed in the city only for 3 days, but I visited 14 coffee shops during that time. (Imagine how much I was over-caffeinated!) Surprisingly, the size of the cup was a lot larger than us in Sydney. (As you know, we use 8oz for takeaways and 6oz for dine-ins.) The American regular was 12 oz which is the large size of us. So it felt like a cuppa latte comes with a never-ending amount of milk. Roasting-wise, they have a bunch of varieties. I visited only high-rating coffee spots that are recommended by locals, baristas and international coffee enthusiasts. But what I could taste from each shop was very different. Some are extremely light, some are very dark like classical French roast. It seems like this represents the diversity of the coffee culture. Thinking the reason why we want to expand ourselves in the States, it seems like there are good opportunities as they adopt diversity. Also, you know what? They sell FLAT WHITE! (Sadly, it was different to what we do in Australia.)
But, as the environment is very similar to Sydney's, the vibe on San Diego felt like a mixture of few suburbs in Sydney, like Bondi + Manly + Marrickville + Crows Nest. As you may know, our coffees are great regarding the quality of the bean and are characteristic regarding the flavour and the roasting, thus, I thought it would be great if our coffees could be sold in this region. (Imagine Normcore becomes popular in The US! How awesome is that!) Not only the vibe fits us but also the American coffee industry captures so many sensitive and emotional elements whereas Australians are great for scientific researches and adoptions in coffee. So, implementing what we do in Australia would be very harmonious.
At the same time, I felt that there were some good things to apply to our business, which are some signature coffee drinks and batch brews. Although we do batch brews, it's not really popular here in Australia, sales quantity-wise. So, we now start to think how we are going to enhance this. Also, for the signature drinks, we have done a lots of barista competitions but have never brought something special to here. (It's our fault, we apologise!) So, we are going to make something delicious to you later on!
For other cities, it is to be continued...
If you need any suggested places, email or dm us!
