Is Latte Art Necessary for Your Coffee Shop?
Latte Art Elevates Your Game
If you visited any trendy coffee shops lately and searched Instagram, you may have noticed just how popular latte art is today.
While it may still be trending over the next few years, it's safe to assume the latte art is here to stay.
With latte art championships and baristas taking the extra steps to be creative with their drinks – pushing the envelope of unique and impressive displays, latte art has forever impacted retail coffee as we know it.
In this post, I want to briefly discuss the importance of latte art and what it may mean for your coffee shop. Then, I want to answer the question held by some coffee shop owners: Is latte art necessary for my coffee shop? The short answer is: you don't need latte art to be a successful coffee shop. However, good latte art elevates your game.
The History of Latte Art
The first latte art was poured in Seattle and made popular by coffee companies like Caffé D'arte and Vivace Espresso in the early 1990s. From Seattle, the local companies such as Starbucks, Uptown Espresso, and Caffe Ladro – the burgeoning of latte art grew among passionate baristas that shared their art through latte throwdowns.
Back then, social media didn't exist. So, visiting coffee shops and talking with baristas was the fuel that would make latte art a mainstay of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest for many years.
Latte art traveled to cities like Portland, San Francisco, Vancouver, B.C., and Los Angeles. But, mostly, it was found in high-end coffee shops where exclusive baristas competed with one another informally.
As with countless ideas that sprung for cafes of previous generations, latte art slowly poured into every city and neighborhood in the United States and beyond. Much like Rock-n-Roll changed music forever, coffee will never be the same since the emergence of latte art. Today, amazing baristas from Japan to Poland to Rio have taken latte art to a new level. It's exciting to see how latte art has been perfected over the years. And coffee drinkers and consumers are loving it too.
It's hard not to see the benefits the latte art brings to coffee shop businesses, but let's dive a little deeper.
Latte Art is Specialty Coffee
Gourmet or specialty coffee has been steadily growing over the last few years. This specialty coffee industry is a subset of a more significant coffee commodity industry that employs millions of people worldwide. To most of the world, coffee is a commodity. Coffee is a staple product, like wheat, oil, cotton, corn, and sugar.
How do you elevate a commodity product and turn it into an artisanal or specialty product with a higher price point and a higher degree of value?
My answer is that you introduce differentiation, customization, and quality. In short, latte art highlights the specialness that we want to achieve with specialty coffee. Sure, we understand that quality coffee and Q-ratings are essential, but specialty coffee occurs throughout the entire chain – from the farm to the cup.
With latte art, you can brew a delicious coffee cup and make it memorable and shareable. While the quality of the espresso is another avenue of uniqueness, it is the latte art that greets each customer and adds to the perception of value.
Latte Art Offers an Opportunity for Differentiation
Pouring latte art for your customers allows you to differentiate your coffee personally to each customer. This differentiation will enable you to stand out among your coffee shop competition. In a competitive retail coffee market, anything that helps you stand out is a winning proposition.
Of course, your coffee still needs to taste good. You need to be able to provide excellent beans and perfect extraction. Additionally, your customer service needs to be outstanding. But the use of latte art in each cup is the icing on the cake.
Latte Art Offers Customization
Offering latte to your customers makes your average latte extra special. By adding different latte art drawings or designs to each cup, you offer unique customized products. This adds greater value to each coffee you serve.
The customized coffee beverage is not only delicious, but it is aesthetically pleasing, appealing, and sharable. Additionally, a customized design provides each customer with a unique experience that's hard to forget.
In a world where many things are mass-produced, people love customization. As a result, people are often uniquely satisfied with customized products, whether it's a tailored suit or dress or an exclusive coffee design.
Latte Art Offers a Perception of Quality
A beautifully designed latte adds to the perception of quality and higher value. Indeed, a beautifully designed rosetta heart or teddy bear generates the perception the coffee is worth more than it is.
This perception of quality affirms the higher prices your customer might be paying for the coffee itself. Sure, they are paying for the coffee. However, your customers are also paying for the “Wow Effect,” – which can dramatically impact your customer's overall experience and willingness to pay.
Encourages Training and Learning
Striving to make a beautiful cup of coffee encourages your employees and baristas to be the best that they can be. It also urges training, practice, and the pursuit of excellence throughout your entire business.
By encouraging latte art design among your baristas, you uplift your entire level of customer service. Each cup of coffee isn't just a latte. It's a chance to deliver something special to your customers. Many baristas will respond to this opportunity, which will spill over to other parts of your business – including customer service, food preparation, and more. Therefore it not only encourages training but it encourages friendly competition. This competition also serves to elevate your entire operation.
Opportunities for Marketing
If you're providing your customers with a product to take a picture of and share, you create an army of marketers. If your coffee is shared on Instagram 100 times a day, your coffee business will benefit from the marketing. Delivering a high-quality product that people want to share is one of the most effective ways to promote your coffee shop. And best of all – it's free!
That's right, free marketing. It's hard to price or the level of effectiveness of your loyal customers sharing your coffee online.
What Latte Art Does for a Coffee Shop
We discussed the benefits that latte art does for a coffee shop. We will list them below. But, remember, these benefits are just the start. There are plenty of “spill-over” effects that can be enjoyed by serving up latte art with your coffee.
We will list them below:
- Affirms the “Specialness” of specialty coffee
- Opportunity for Differentiation
- Customization
- Perception of Quality
- Encourages Training & Learning
- Extra Marketing
The best part is that all these benefits are free or very low cost. There is nothing listed above that costs anything or goes way beyond your operational budget. In other words, you can't use the excuse that providing latte art with your latte orders costs you money.
Create a Culture of Excellence
While latte art doesn't impact your operational costs, it does take effort to promote and encourage your employees to create latte art. This is where your hiring practices come into play.
While hiring amazing baristas should be your priority, you may also look for barista candidates who know how to pour latte art.
They don't necessarily need to be great – as they can continually improve – but you may want your new hires to be confident enough to try to pour latte art.
By hiring baristas with latte art skills, encouraging them to experiment with latte art, and investing in barista training or coffee education, you will set the tone for pursuing excellence.
When Should Latte Art Take a Back Seat?
We've reviewed the benefits of serving latte art at your coffee shop. But to be fair, there may be times when the serving latte art should be paused or stopped altogether.
- Waste
- Time Constraints
- Straining Customer Service
Serving latte art won't necessarily save a failing coffee business, but it will provide that extra shine on your coffee beverages. This in turn helps boost sales.
Waste
At times latte art can generate lots of waste and a loss of inventory. If pouring latte art is causing your baristas to toss out perfectly good coffee because their design was off, you may need to reign in the latte art. Communicate to your baristas that mistakes often may occur while pouring latte but wasting coffee for the sake of latte should not happen.
Time Constraints
You may work at a busy coffee shop. Even adding a few extra seconds or a minute per coffee drink to design latte art may not be feasible and practical. While customers care about how their drinks look, others will be looking to get out the door as quickly as possible. If you are seventh or eighth in line, watching a barista design latte art may be too frustrating. Therefore consider the time constraints that your customers are in before taking the time for latte art.
Constraints on Customer Service
Latte art can be fun for baristas, but sometimes the pursuit of the perfect design could impact customer service. Just be aware that time pouring latte art can lesson other essential barista duties, such as cleaning, bussing tables, sweeping, and ensuring that your customers are delighted.
Related Questions:
How do I improve my delivery of latte art to my coffee shop customers?
There are some simple ways to improve the latte art at your coffee shop. The first is hiring great baristas with the attitude, experience, and expertise to be knowledgeable baristas and excellent latte artists. Next, encourage latte art. Simply encouraging and acknowledging creative work will go a long way to promote latte art design at your coffee shop. Finally, hire a coffee trainer or get barista training that includes latte art design and pouring for your employees.
How to hire good baristas?
There's a dilemma that every coffee shop owner faces: should I hire baristas with no experience or baristas who already know how to pour excellent latte art. There are pros and cons to both situations. If you hire a barista with extensive experience, you'll have to pay more for the privilege. However, you might save on barista training. On the other hand, a barista with some background might be more stubborn and less flexible in his or her ways to brew coffee your way. This may be an issue if you want your coffee to be made in a particular way.
A new barista with no experience will be easier to teach to extract espresso and make latte art the way you want. Of course, this might take you some additional barista training – but it'll pay off in the long run. In any case, it's highly recommended to hire for personality, not experience.
How to start a coffee shop?
Starting a successful coffee shop doesn't necessarily mean making excellent latte art designs. However, it'll be a great bonus for your customers. In the process of opening a coffee shop, look for employees early on. Your future employees have to fit into and share your coffee shop mission and vision outlined in your coffee shop business plan.
Opening a coffee shop requires multitasking. So besides hiring decisions, you need to focus on your coffee shop budget, permitting requirements, and coffee shop design and build-out.
Brought to you by Barista Training Academy, “The Beginning Barista,” Your Ultimate Prep Guide to Getting Your First Job as a Barista” is an ultimate resource that is available online and is affordable for anybody who is looking to start a career in the coffee industry. For more information, visit our blog.
