Recently received this testimonial from a coffee shop owner in an email to his distributor, Barista Pro Shop.
“BTW, we LOVE the FoamAroma lids… I never thought that I’d see people geek out about lids, but they have! I’ve got customers at the bar telling other customers about the lids, too funny. I am truly a BIG fan of the product! We work VERY hard to get perfect crema and perfect foam, and now our carryout customers are getting a better sense of the qualitative differences in our drinks. Also, curiously enough, I think it fits the Eco cups better than the Eco lid (though I’m not sure that they’d want to hear that).”
• Paul Kemerling – Relax, It’s Just Coffee (Mansfield, OH)
Category Coffee, coffee cup lid, Customer, New Experience, Review, Testimonial | Tags: aroma,carryout,coffee,enjoy,first time,new customer,take away,to-go
The April/May 2012 edition of Barista Magazine has an article entitled FIRST YEAR – Dispatches from Handsome Coffee Roasters, Est. 2011 written by Michael Phillips of Handsome Coffee Roasters. In this article Michael wrote:
“If we as a community truly have faith that a well executed cup of amazing coffee is really worth what we seem to be telling each other and ourselves it is worth, then finding an easier, more consistent way to make it is the obvious choice. We can’t build the future of specialty coffee on gear and flare. We need better execution every single time so that – just as with beer and wine – the product is not diminished by the server before it gets into the hands of the customer.”
One thing I realized early on in my quest to learn about coffee and to offer an alternative lid was that most baristas and shop owners do not drink from paper cups with plastic lids, but many of their customers do. My challenge is to get the baristas to do a side-by-side taste test to learn what the lid does to their product. After the taste test it is obvious to them how the conventional lids diminish the coffee experience. Also, it is very important to realize that the take away hot drink product is not complete until a lid is put on it because that is part of the finished product the customer interacts with.
A few weeks ago I was reading a book on managing emotions while performing sports which contains the following factoid. “DID YOU KNOW: The only sensory input that goes directly to the amygdala is that of smell. Input from the other senses goes to another brain center – the thalamus – to be distributed. That’s why smells can have such a powerful influence in triggering our feelings and emotions.” FoamAroma is all about the total sensory experience for the maximum coffee time enjoyment.
Your coffee is worthy to insist on the best of everything and your customers are worthy of the maximum enjoyment of their personal reward, their coffee time. FoamAroma is not just a lid, it is a sensory portal.
The story below is so typical of the affect FoamAroma will have on the daily life of millions of people. They are all worthy of a better coffee experience on the go.
In Heathrow airport coming home from London Coffee Festival I passed out a few lids in the terminal. I was at the gate for the flight to Minneapolis/St. Paul and started talking with a lady about the lid on her Costa coffee. She did not think there were any problems with the lid. As I began discussing the issues I saw a man eyeing FoamAroma and listening to our conversation. When I got to the problem about the geyser squirt he gave a big nod and smiled. I then moved over between both of them and chatted. He explained that he lives off a long gravel road and drives a 4WD truck. He drinks two cappuccinos a day and has a problem driving the bumpy road while holding the coffee trying to prevent the geyser squirt. Both of these people typically get their coffee from Caribou Coffee. I gave both of them some FoamAroma lids.
The man sent me an email the next day. Below is our email thread.
Hey Craig - I tried the lid this morning and it does everything you said it would. I passed the other lid onto my morning coffee stop “Caribou Coffee” in Elk River, MN and it was passed onto the store manager with your coaster card. Good Luck with your Invention. Successfully Caffeinated with No Spillage – K.M.
Hey K.M. - What a nice surprise this morning to get your email. Thank you for the effort and time to reach out and say hi. I am constantly amazed how this little lid can make a difference in people’s lives. Feedback like yours is what drives me. May I use your email below as a testimonial? Besides preventing the geyser squirt effect, did the Caribou coffee taste better and could you feel the foam? Thank you again. You Are Worthy! (Twitter = #URworthy) Foam On – Craig
Hey Craig - Yes! On all accounts! It was the best cup of Joe I have tasted in a while. The cup was empty by the time I arrived at work. Thanks again – K.M.
