Cafés & Events
How to Start a Mobile Coffee Business
A mobile coffee business is really three businesses: a cart, a trailer, and a truck. How the choice between them changes your cost, parking, and ceiling.
Guide
Notes from the roastery: what we buy, how we roast it, and what we have learned building coffee programs on the Gulf Coast.
Cafés & Events
What Should Be in a Coffee Cart Business Plan?
What should be in a coffee cart business plan? Our own cart's data on throughput, power, and footprint, plus the budget line most plans skip entirely.
Cafés & Events
How to Start a Coffee Cart Business
Starting a mobile coffee cart means managing power, permits, and bookings as much as espresso. What a Pensacola roaster learned the hard way at an event.
Cafés & Events
How Many People Does a 100-Cup Coffee Urn Serve?
A "100-cup" urn is rated in old 5-ounce cups, not the cup on your table. Here's the real math for a church, hotel, office or restaurant urn.
Roasting
Why Does Coffee Need to Cool Right After Roasting?
A roast keeps developing after it leaves the heat until the beans cool. Here's why fast, forced-air cooling matters, and what happens when it's too slow.
Cafés & Events
Does Roast Level Affect How Coffee Holds Up in an Urn?
A lighter roast keeps more chlorogenic acid than a darker one, and that acid's breakdown is what makes held coffee turn harsh. Here's the mechanism, and which of our c...
Cafés & Events
How Many Coffees Should a Cafe Offer?
Why wholesale cafes usually run three coffees instead of four, what dialing in a new one actually costs, and when two is the right number instead.
Roasting
Who Should Rent a Co-Roasting Space?
Most people who call about renting a roaster have already sold coffee somewhere else and outgrown the machine that got them there. Who the Lab actually serves, and who...
Cafés & Events
What Should Be on a Coffee Cart Checklist?
The things that end a coffee cart service are small hand tools no venue can lend you. How to rank the list, when to read it, and what belongs on the breakdown half.
Cafés & Events
Should a Restaurant Install an Espresso Machine?
Most restaurants don't need the equipment until someone on staff is already pulling shots by hand. Here's the cost, the volume threshold, and when a French press is si...
Roasting
How to Roast Coffee Beans at Home
Green coffee, heat that keeps the beans moving, fast cooling and your full attention. The methods, the cracks to listen for, and the batch-size mistake I made early on.
Cafés & Events
What Does "SCA-Approved" Water Actually Mean?
The SCA does not certify water filters or mineral packets. What it actually certifies, what it only publishes as a target, and what to check before buying.
Roasting
Should a Coffee Roaster Publish What It Pays for Green Coffee?
We publish what we paid for green coffee, and right now only two of the four coffees we can sell carry the figure. What the practice actually costs a roaster, and wher...
