Almost every branch of the service industry has some specialists in it that crow to consumers about the purity of their ingredients and their motives. The other day I came across a bag of potato chips that had a heartfelt message from the “chefs” on the back, including the tagline, “We just might be crazy about this whole potato chip thing!” Such sentiments are exceedingly common these days. Whether the honest words of true artisans or fakes straight from the marketing department of a corporate office often makes little difference. In the end it adds up to more noise.

The specialty coffee industry is not immune to coming across this way, as just more marketing noise. Merely hitting your customers over the head with lots of brochures and placards and signs and pamphlets can’t separate a café from any other modern business.

Luckily there are better ways to reach people, especially in the coffee business. The first line of education is naturally the barista. No café should be without knowledgeable, friendly baristas who willingly engage without condescension even the most misinformed customers. Coffee is a face-to-face business, and that is a unique advantage.

Beyond normal, daily barista-customer interaction, there is an opportunity for even greater engagement. Public cuppings and tastings are a perfect way to reach out to people. They showcase everything that is best about specialty coffee: congeniality, dedication, and above all, great coffee.

Public tastings can be impromptu, hosted on the spot whenever a barista has a little free time. Or they can be formal events requiring attendees to register in advance and pay a fee. Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters’ Olympia, Wash., operation includes an entire Tasting Room, where the public can visit with baristas about what new coffees are on offer and taste beans at their leisure. Similar to the Stumptown Annex in Portland, Ore.—where consumers may participate in free, twice-daily cuppings, and try a variety of beans from the Clover— Batdorf & Bronson’s Tasting Room has the sole focus of showcasing beans in straight brews. Though each company prepares celebrated espresso-based beverages in their other cafés, neither the Annex nor the Tasting Room features espresso drinks. There are dozens of ways to reach out to your customers beyond just taking their money and handing them a drink.

A Cupping Primer

Simply put, cupping is a mode of preparing coffee in order to eliminate as many variables as possible, so that you can focus on the qualities of a given coffee. Coffee is a famously touchy bird, sensitive to water temperature, exposure to air, grind variations, steeping time, and brewing ratio (and the list goes on). In a cupping, you systematically eliminate these variables one by one until you are left with as neutral a playing field as possible. Coffees are put side by side under the same conditions. If you are doing it properly, you can be assured that the differences you taste are differences in the beans (or the roast, if that is your focus), and not in the mode of preparation. As a method of understanding the flavors, texture, and aromas of different coffees, cupping is an indispensable tool.

Right now, cupping is rapidly moving from being a strictly behind- the-scenes industry tool to being a means of engaging the broader public. The trend of teaching cupping and sensory evaluation to non- specialists has grown much more popular in the United States in the last two years alone. More cafés and roasteries are offering regular cupping classes, and amateur clubs have even sprung up.

Sharing the practice of cupping with the public makes sense. First of all, for many participants it is the first time they have seen coffee presented as an agricultural product rather than as a canned and bagged commodity. A side-by-side cupping forces them, in an agreeable way, to consider how coffee is a product of specific soils, climates and hands. Even customers who already pay careful attention to how their daily cup tastes will rarely have had the chance to taste two different coffees side-by-side, let alone five or six.

Smart Business

For companies that go to the trouble of putting on public cuppings, there is an added advantage. These businesses get to present themselves—in an honest and straightforward way—as people who really care about what they are doing, who are diligent and meticulous, and who take joy in their craft. Cupping is intimate and friendly and a rather intense sensory experience. Participants come to associate these qualities with that particular coffee company, and with good cause. Even customers who can’t attend, or who are shy or skeptical, will hear about what you are doing at your café.

Victrola Coffee Roasters in Seattle has been doing public cuppings for a while. Victrola holds both formal coffee-tasting classes and more informal, on-the-spot cuppings. Owner Chris Sharp says, “Five minutes before the [informal Wednesday] cupping we announce to the café [patrons] that we are holding it and we always add a couple of takers. This is where we see a lot of first time cuppers.”

Victrola tries to vary the offerings on the table, perhaps showcasing a couple of different roasts, or presenting coffees that the company is considering purchasing. “I don’t know what it does for our bottom line,” says Sharp, “but the Wednesday cuppings are a lot of fun because we usually hear someone mention that they never knew coffee could be so interesting.”

Join or Start the Club

But public cupping is not limited to roasteries and cafés. Cupping societies and clubs are beginning to form around the country, spurred in part by the activities of the cafés and roasteries. In New York City where I live, we have created the New York Coffee Society (the name is only partly a joke). The purpose of the club is just to give coffee lovers an opportunity to taste great coffees in a non-commercial setting. There’s no pressure to sell or buy anything, and the agenda can be whatever the members decide it is.