Should you buy your espresso machine outright, take out a lease, or rent it on a service-included contract? It is one of the largest capital decisions a café owner makes — and one of the easiest to get wrong. Here is the arithmetic, with a worked five-year comparison, and the decision framework we use with our hospitality clients.
Latest from Good Cherry
Renting vs Buying an Espresso Machine: ROI Calculator
Should you buy your espresso machine outright, take out a lease, or rent it on a service-included contract? It is one of the largest capital decisions a café owner makes — and one of the easiest to get wrong. Here is the arithmetic, with a worked five-year comparison, and the decision framework we use with our hospitality clients.
Why We Built Good Cherry: The Centralisation Thesis
There is a quiet inefficiency at the heart of how most hospitality businesses buy coffee. The cup that lands in front of your customer has passed through five different suppliers before it gets there. We started Good Cherry because we believed this fragmentation was costing operators more than they realised — in money, in time, and in cup quality.
The Hidden Cost of an Unskilled Barista (And How to Calculate It)
If you were asked to put a number on what an unskilled barista costs your business, what would you say? Most café owners answer in the wrong currency. They think about it in terms of hourly wage saved by hiring someone less experienced. The real cost is denominated in lost revenue, not saved cost. Here is the arithmetic — and the case for continuous training that follows from it.
Why Fresh Roast Changes Flavour: The Science You Can Use
Two bags of the same coffee, roasted by the same roaster, on the same profile. One bag is two weeks old, the other is six weeks old. Pulled side by side, they taste different — not slightly, not subtly, but noticeably. The older shot is flatter, the crema is thinner, the finish is shorter. Nothing is wrong with the older bag. It has just aged. Here is the science of why, and what to do about it.
The Seven Hidden Costs That Are Bleeding Your Café Right Now
Every café owner can name three line items where they are losing money. They are usually wrong about which three. The biggest leaks in a hospitality business almost always sit outside the items that get the most attention. Here are seven hidden costs we see drain margin month after month in cafés across Europe — and how to audit them in two evenings.
Ethiopia: A Buyer’s Guide to Yirgacheffe, Sidamo and Harrar
Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. Every arabica varietal in the world descends from Ethiopian heirloom genetics. For a hospitality buyer, understanding the differences between Ethiopia's three flagship regions — Yirgacheffe, Sidamo and Harrar — is the difference between sourcing on instinct and sourcing on knowledge. A working primer for your sourcing decisions.
How the C-Market Price Actually Works (And Why Your Margin Tracks It)
There is a number that moves every morning in New York and London. It dictates what you pay for the coffee that fills your espresso machine, regardless of which roaster you buy from. Most café operators have never looked at it directly. Yet your monthly margin tracks it more closely than you might suspect. This is the C-Market — and here is how it actually works.