There’s no shortage of coffee roasters who can sell you a very nice bag of beans.
And yes, the coffee matters. Quite a lot, as it happens.
But if you run a café, restaurant or hospitality business, you’ll know the beans are only one part of the job.
- What happens when your machine decides not to cooperate five minutes before the Saturday morning rush?
- Who trains the new member of staff who has never textured milk before?
- What happens when the coffee suddenly tastes different and nobody can work out why?
That’s the bit we think can get overlooked when choosing a coffee supplier.
At Capital Coffee, we’ve spent more than 40 years roasting and supplying coffee, but we’ve also worked on the other side of the counter.
We’ve run cafés, serviced machines, trained teams and dealt with plenty of the everyday problems that come with serving coffee for a living.
So when we talk about choosing the right supplier, we’re not just talking about what’s in the bag.
Why choosing a coffee supplier is about more than the beans
Of course you want good coffee.
You want something your customers enjoy, something your team can make consistently and, ideally, something people come back and order again.
But the best coffee in the world isn’t much use if the machine is unreliable, your team doesn’t know how to get the best from it or you can’t get hold of anyone when something goes wrong.
A good coffee supplier should understand the whole setup.
That means the coffee, the machine, the grinder, the people using them and, importantly, the realities of running a business.
Consistency is what keeps customers coming back
Coffee people can spend a lot of time talking about origins, processes, extraction percentages and tasting notes.
We like all that stuff too.
But in a busy café, consistency matters just as much.
The flat white someone loves on Tuesday needs to taste like the flat white they come back for on Saturday. Your coffee needs to work during a quiet afternoon and during a queue out of the door.
That means choosing beans that suit your customers and your menu, but it also means making sure the equipment is set up properly and your team knows how to use it.
It’s not particularly glamorous. It is, however, quite important.
Machine support matters when something breaks
Coffee machines have an uncanny ability to develop problems at exactly the least convenient moment.
And when the machine stops, it isn’t really a machine problem anymore. It becomes a sales problem very quickly.
When you’re comparing coffee suppliers, ask what happens after the equipment has been installed.
- Who services it?
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Who do you call when something isn’t right?
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How quickly can they help?
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Is ongoing maintenance part of your arrangement, or are you expected to organise it separately?
Depending on the setup, Capital can supply the coffee, commercial machines, servicing and ongoing support from the same team. Our free loan arrangements, for example, include servicing, maintenance and breakdown cover.
Having one number to call is considerably easier than spending Monday morning working out whether the problem belongs to the machine supplier, engineer or coffee roaster.
Your coffee is only as good as the person making it
Put brilliant coffee and expensive equipment in front of somebody who hasn’t been shown how to use it and the results can still be fairly terrible.
Barista training shouldn’t just be about making one beautiful flat white while somebody watches.
It needs to work in a real café.
Your team should understand how to dial in the grinder, pull a consistent espresso, texture milk properly and spot when something isn’t right.
They also need to be able to do it when there are eight orders waiting rather than when the café is empty.
Training is particularly important when staff change. Hospitality teams move around, new people join and standards can slip surprisingly quickly if nobody is keeping an eye on things.
Capital provides training when equipment is installed and can arrange further barista training either at your premises or at our Wimbledon showroom.
Do they actually understand how a café runs?
There’s a difference between supplying cafés and actually running one.
We know because we’ve done both.
Capital has built and operated coffee shops of its own over the years. The former Caffè Capital cafés were later rebranded as Hapi, and the family still operates Hapi Cafe in Cobham today. Andy also spent years working in his own shop in Melbourne, across roasting, servicing and developing the lunch menu.
That experience changes the questions you ask.
- Is the setup practical when three people are trying to work behind the bar?
- Can staff learn it easily?
- Is the machine right for the number of coffees you’re actually going to sell?
- Are you spending money where it will make a difference, or buying something because it looks impressive on Instagram?
We like nice coffee machines as much as anyone. We also like businesses that make money.
Look for a supplier who’ll tell you what you actually need
A good supplier shouldn’t automatically try to sell you the biggest machine, the most expensive equipment or the fanciest coffee.
Sometimes the expensive option is absolutely the right one.
Sometimes it isn’t.
The important thing is finding a setup that suits your volume, customers, staff and budget.
That might mean buying a machine outright, leasing one or looking at a free loan arrangement. It might mean starting with one coffee and changing it later when you understand your customers better.
There isn’t one correct setup for every café.
Anyone who tells you otherwise probably hasn’t spent enough time in cafés.
A long-term supplier should make your life easier
The relationship with your coffee supplier doesn’t stop when the first order arrives.
At least, we don’t think it should.
You’re probably going to have questions. Staff will change. Equipment will need looking after. Your business might grow. Your menu might change.
And occasionally something will go wrong.
What matters is knowing there’s someone at the other end of the phone who knows your setup and can help.
Capital has been family-run since 1982. Some of our relationships with customers go back years, and that’s the way we like it.
We’re not interested in dropping off a few boxes of coffee and disappearing until the next invoice.
And yes, the coffee still matters
After all that, we should probably mention the coffee.
We take it seriously.
We roast coffees that taste great and work properly in the environments our customers actually use them in, whether that’s espresso, milk-based drinks or batch brew.
But our focus isn’t on creating “wanky coffee” for the sake of it.
Good coffee doesn’t need to make people feel stupid.
It needs to taste good, work consistently and give your customers a reason to order another one.
That’s the standard we care about.
Questions to ask before choosing a coffee supplier
If you’re comparing suppliers, it’s worth asking a few questions before committing.
What happens if my coffee machine breaks down?
Find out who provides the servicing, how breakdowns are handled and what support is included in your agreement.
Do you provide barista training?
Good training can make a bigger difference to consistency than upgrading an already capable machine.
Can you help me choose the right equipment?
The right machine depends on your volume, menu, available space and budget. Bigger isn’t automatically better.
How flexible is the coffee range?
Your customers may not want the same coffee as the café down the road. Your supplier should be able to help you find something that suits the people actually drinking it.
What happens if my business grows?
Ask whether your coffee, equipment and support can change as your volumes increase.
What if I already have a supplier but want to switch?
Changing coffee supplier doesn’t have to mean replacing everything behind the bar. Start with a conversation about your existing setup, what’s working and what isn’t.
Looking for a coffee supplier?
If you’re opening a café, reviewing your current coffee setup or simply wondering whether your supplier could be doing a bit more for you, come and have a chat.
At Capital Coffee, we supply freshly roasted coffee alongside commercial equipment, training and machine support, with more than 40 years of experience behind us.
We’ll happily talk through what you’re doing now, what you need and what you probably don’t.
And there’ll almost certainly be coffee involved.
