Over the last four weeks, our Vertical Sourcing series has dived into the ethos that drives all of the coffee purchasing decisions behind our roasting program. The final step of that journey is this report, designed to share the details of those purchases. The Coffeebar 2020 Transparency Report lays out all of the green coffee purchases Coffeebar made during the calendar year, as well as the intentionality behind those purchasing decisions, and, as much as possible, the breakdown of that pricing structure back to origin.
Since the beginning of Coffeebar’s roastery program, transparency of process has been an ongoing goal. Our roastery space was even designed to intentionally ‘draw back the curtain’ on the production side of our program. Our quality control is visible to all guests, the roaster takes center stage for the customer experience, and the astute observer will be able to see our roast profiles and blend components on display every roast day. This year though marks the first year that we can draw back that curtain a little more and shed some light on the impact of our work all the way back to the countries producing our coffee.
Producing a report like this is important for two reasons: It holds Coffeebar accountable to the high standards we set, and it gives our guests a more clear view of our work, allowing them to share in the journey. Our goal is to build on this year on year and continue to share ever more information surrounding the work we do. And in so doing, improve on that work and really live the values we set ourselves with our Vertical Sourcing Program.
View the Transparency Report Here:
2020 was a difficult year for everyone. But if it taught us anything it was how to be adaptable. Coffeebar even experienced gains in 2020 compared to 2019, but not in the ways we would have imagined! Our roast volume increased by 9.1% year on year (a grain of salt though, our projected growth pre-COVID was 30%), and our sales of retail bags increased by 47% as more people began working from home. And while all our coffee sales increased, single origins were the biggest winners, going from 35.6% of total retail bag sales to 47.9%. More recently, once the craziness subsided, 2020 gave us the chance to reflect and crystallize the intentionality behind our sourcing program. This transparency report is our first chance to share that work with the world, and is a document we plan to build on and expand in the coming years.
