0:00

You are always one decision away from taking your

0:02

business to the next level and

0:04

a decision that's helped me to transform

0:06

my business is moving over to NetSuite

0:09

who I'm excited to share a sponsor

0:11

of this podcast. If you don't know

0:13

already NetSuite is the number one cloud

0:15

financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory,

0:18

HR into one platform and one source

0:20

of truth. It's reduced IT costs because

0:22

it lives in the cloud so you

0:25

can access it from anywhere and the

0:27

cost of managing and running multiple systems

0:30

because it's in one unified business management suite.

0:32

My team and I don't have to worry

0:34

about tasks being manual and clunky and

0:37

it means that I can be more efficient and

0:39

to focus on more important things like bringing you

0:41

the best episodes and guests on this show. So

0:43

I become one of the 37,000 companies that have

0:47

already made the move over to

0:49

NetSuite. NetSuite has extended its one-of-a-kind

0:51

flexible financing program for a few

0:53

more weeks so head to netsuite.com/Bartfloot

0:55

for a free product tour. Back

0:57

to the episode. We

1:02

have five different cups of coffee here from

1:04

five different suppliers. You're smelling them or when

1:06

you're smelling them is there anything

1:09

you're noticing just from smelling them? Yeah

1:11

like so that one

1:13

of the things I can assess pretty quickly is how darkly

1:15

the coffee's been roasted. When you have the

1:17

longer you leave coffee in a roasting machine the darker

1:19

the color of the beans will be and for a

1:22

long time I think people associated darker roasts with with

1:24

better coffee. Oily beans looked kind of fancier whereas it

1:26

swung the other way and lighter roasts now are considered

1:29

better or more expensive because they kind of

1:31

preserve more of the inherent qualities of the

1:33

raw materials. So

1:35

these are all reasonably dark roasts just from smell

1:38

so I can kind of the smells I'm coming

1:40

off there are more in the kind

1:42

of heavy not burnt smells. Well some of them

1:44

actually smell a little bit burnt and kind of

1:46

harsh but nothing's particularly

1:48

fruity or floral smelling so it's just for

1:51

me a kind of gauge of where things

1:53

are going to be so there's going to

1:55

be an expectation with that of bitterness. In

1:58

perfume shops they give us sometimes coffee. Is

2:00

now to kind of even wash our

2:02

our yeah an easel senses are guests

2:04

doesn't work. Yeah to lead us we

2:06

we we are. Since. What dog

2:08

sniff really fast that you're looking for change

2:10

your senses My works quite well on change

2:12

and so yes you will get was called

2:15

suppressing the he smelled the same kind of

2:17

was over and over the become less and

2:19

less intense twice people and that way too

2:21

much of the same perfume they worn a

2:23

twenty years because they can't literally can't smell

2:25

anymore. We can, they can't And its Lsu

2:27

evidenced when you go for a run and

2:29

then to eat and snow yourself you. Have

2:32

to ask your friend if you smell. Cigarette.

2:35

A do I stink to us yeah your

2:37

brain your nose I guess is habituated to

2:39

them either. Good hack if you ever want

2:41

to break apart how likes of my Coca

2:43

Cola smells if you take a components mark

2:45

of color light lime my that is cooked

2:47

just as cooks people but as I see

2:49

lime narrowly cinnamon, orange nutmeg and he smell

2:51

of and cinnamon and then small coke it

2:53

smells weird. Keep deleted cinnamon from Coca Cola's

2:56

legislators are around the profile and you can

2:58

do that was a lime and smoke and

3:00

it's like with. A. friend the balance

3:02

out by kind of deleting mans pressing that

3:04

it's adult but fun can affect scheme anyway

3:06

thing with a tournament can kind of diaries

3:08

or member those coke and Pepsi study from

3:10

back in a day where. People.

3:12

Would rape Pepsi as tasting better

3:14

unless they had it in a

3:16

coke can. So when they can see

3:18

the brand of the. Coca Cola they

3:21

rated about it but when they could see

3:23

in a plastic cup be rated Pepsi better

3:25

and I wonder here as well because you

3:27

you don't know what these coffees i'd animal

3:29

brands they are a needed Why? Yep. I'm.

3:33

With. The results are going to be a coffee number

3:35

one. Yes! From a taste and smell.

3:43

So that's up. To me up pretty

3:46

standard. Can a commercial coffee test? Is

3:49

not a lot going on that relish behind

3:51

business To me as a that's a fairly

3:53

better cup of coffee. and

3:55

that's becoming i was a mostly from roast and

3:57

as them is good or bad a can be

4:00

because it wasn't made that well that day. It could be bad

4:02

because it was not great raw material

4:04

and finding why is sometimes tricky. I wouldn't

4:06

say it's particularly expensive cup of coffee. No

4:08

it didn't take that. Actual station

4:10

coffee. You can say that.

4:12

I like that. I'm gonna just lead you into

4:15

saying terrible things and I'll say nothing. Yeah it

4:17

tasted like it came out of a vending machine

4:19

or something to me. Yeah I'd be surprised if

4:21

that was expensive. I'd be a little bit outraged

4:24

What would you rate that one out of five? Let's

4:28

do ten. For

4:31

me and what coffee can be I'd say

4:33

that's like a two. I would say that

4:35

was a five

4:37

out of ten. Yeah I think it's kind

4:40

of fair. I probably should be fair and call that a four

4:42

out of ten because I've tasted way worse than that. Okay. Let's

4:44

go for number two. Now

4:49

this one would be a little bit more divisive for a lot of

4:51

people because it's got a little bit more acidity and it's like a

4:53

little bit of a salmon-ness almost.

4:55

It's a little ziggy tasting. Generally

4:58

acidity is associated with quality in coffee which

5:00

is a real sticking point for a lot

5:02

of people. It's down to the fact that when

5:04

you grow coffee the higher you grow it

5:06

the slower it grows the sweeter it will

5:09

ultimately be. But you do get more acidity

5:11

in higher grown coffees. Some

5:13

people don't want that in their coffee. They really don't

5:15

want sour coffee. So that tastes like

5:17

it's got better raw materials in there for me than

5:20

this one. Roast a little bit lighter,

5:22

brews a little bit better. I'd like it to be

5:24

a less kind of sour thing. It's a little bit

5:26

old obviously. It's sat around for a while. But

5:28

I would say for me it's a better cup than this

5:30

one. Like it's got a

5:32

little characteristic to it. Like it tastes of something

5:35

that's a little bit fruity in there. Yeah it's got

5:37

a bit more of a personality hasn't it. The Asper

5:39

taste is a little bit something going on there. Mm-hmm.

5:41

And what do you rate that out of ten in

5:43

your preference? These things

5:46

I'd like to change about it. So like

5:48

six, seven, somewhere there. Like but

5:51

it has I think better raw materials in it that

5:53

does appeal to me. Okay

5:55

I'm gonna say six as well. Okay. I

5:59

can reveal. That

6:04

number one was

6:07

McDonald's coffee. That's

6:09

not surprising. That's kind of what I would have

6:11

expected McDonald's to taste like. And it was that

6:14

cup of coffee cost us £1.30. So

6:18

I'd probably the cheapest thing here. I feel

6:20

like McDonald's are aiming at the kind of cheaper end. Okay,

6:23

your assessment there was probably fair. You did originally give it a 2 out of

6:25

10. I

6:28

feel not bad about that, but it's fine. There you go. So

6:31

number two, you talked about

6:33

there being sort of a bitterness to it and then

6:36

like a little bit more acidity in this tastes

6:38

like the raw materials are of

6:41

a higher quality, certainly number one. That

6:44

is an independent local coffee shop.

6:47

Yep. And that cup

6:49

of coffee is double the price of

6:51

the McDonald's one at about £3 per cup.

6:55

Let's move on to number three. Okay. Very

7:01

different taste. For

7:05

me, it's more akin to number one than anything else. Like

7:07

it's again, it's a darker roast. It's got a bit more

7:09

body to it. It feels a bit fuller, a bit a

7:11

little bit richer, bit earthy, but at the same time for

7:13

me. It's fuller, isn't it?

7:16

It is a little bit fuller. The first

7:18

one was quite watery to me. Yeah. And

7:21

that's in part going to be how it's made. In part how

7:23

it's roasted. In part, you know where it's from. This

7:26

wise, I wouldn't expect it to be much more than

7:28

the McDonald's if I'm honest. That tastes again like a

7:35

reasonably commercial grade coffee. I

7:37

wouldn't say it tastes bad. Roast a little dark.

7:41

Yeah. It's another kind of... Yeah,

7:45

three, four, three actually. This is something about the

7:47

earthiness that I don't enjoy in coffee. Some

7:50

people really like earthy flavours. I really don't. And that's

7:52

just a preference thing. So that

7:54

is Costa coffee. Interesting. And that's number

7:56

four. You're

8:01

doing a swirling, I can see. You can do it in real... I

8:04

try... I like to slurp usually. You did a little

8:06

aeration, but down a microphone it's brutal.

8:10

Okay. So that's

8:13

probably the darkest roast of all of them. I

8:16

would say it doesn't taste like the raw

8:18

materials are particularly bad, and so I could

8:20

have a guess at who that's from. But

8:23

it is definitely a darker roast, so more

8:25

bitterness. Again, quite full. So, my

8:29

gut says that's a sort of Starbucks-style thing to

8:31

me. Try the last one

8:33

as well then before we reveal. Okay. Very into trouble.

8:40

That's kind of weird. It's a

8:42

little bit vegetable-y to me, if I'm honest.

8:46

It's not my favourite. Again, it's within

8:48

the world of coffee roasting, it's darker. It's not as dark

8:50

as this one. Yeah, I like it

8:52

probably less than this one here, so I'd probably

8:54

be back to like a four again. So,

8:57

number four, which was the one you gave

8:59

five out of ten, is Pratt. Is it?

9:02

Wow. And then number

9:04

five is Starbucks. Is it?

9:09

Yeah. There you go. So, with

9:12

the high street chains then, the coffee

9:14

that you rated highest in our taste

9:16

test was Pratt.

9:19

Second was Costa,

9:22

and then third was Starbucks. But

9:24

I would say from my point of

9:26

view, the variance between them is surprisingly

9:28

small. I don't think they

9:30

taste particularly different to each other in a

9:33

big way. I think the independence stood out

9:35

a long way from the

9:37

others. It was clearly different. It has a lot

9:39

more flavour and character going on, which

9:41

is good, which is what I like about

9:43

coffee. But I

9:45

think the experience

9:51

may be different, but at the root, there's not

9:53

a huge variance in the coffee. I agree. I

9:55

wouldn't really, I mean, there are, I can taste

9:57

differences, but it's not as a profound difference.

10:00

is a McDonald's taste and

10:02

then the independent taste which was really

10:04

full of personality. Yep. And interestingly, the

10:06

price variances, the independent cost three pounds,

10:09

cost is three pound 20, press three

10:11

pound 20, Starbucks is three pound

10:13

60. Really? Yeah.

10:15

It always blew my mind for years

10:17

and years. I would work with loads

10:20

of like, essentially, startup coffee shop owners.

10:22

And their mindset would be, oh, I need to be like

10:24

the same kind of price of Starbucks or maybe a little

10:26

bit more. And you're like, what are you possibly thinking that

10:28

you have the same kind of supply chain that they do

10:30

that you're going to make? And, you know, they make great

10:32

margins. You're not buying 20 million

10:35

paper cups a week. You know what I

10:37

mean? Like nothing makes sense, but people feel

10:40

very tied to this idea that, you

10:43

know, the price is set by the chains. And

10:46

I think that's changed now. And people are more

10:48

comfortable charging above that. But for a long time,

10:50

people were terrified to charge more than the chains,

10:52

even if the product was noticeably better. And,

10:54

you know, a real frustration for me.

10:57

And that's why I'm always going to bat for

10:59

independence, because it's not like you can spend more,

11:01

you can get a better product by someone who

11:04

cares deeply about it. And I think it's there's

11:06

a risk in going to an independent if you're

11:08

traveling and you know, Starbucks, the

11:10

model is built on I know where to queue who to

11:12

talk to where to stand after I place an order, what

11:15

kind of food I can get that it's very safe.

11:18

If I dropped you in Moscow, until you get coffee,

11:20

you'd go to a chain because you know how it

11:22

works and you get it done. Independence feel like a

11:24

risk, but the reward I think is often there

11:26

for sure. And there's more independence and they're better than ever

11:29

now. So, you know, I'm very

11:31

pro independent coffee shops. You

11:37

are always one decision away from taking your

11:39

business to the next level. And

11:41

a decision that's helped me to

11:43

transform my business is moving over to

11:45

NetSuite, who I'm excited to share

11:47

a sponsor of this podcast. If you

11:50

don't know already, NetSuite is the

11:52

number one cloud financial system bringing accounting,

11:54

financial management, inventory, HR into one

11:56

platform and one source of truth. It's

11:58

reduced IT costs. because it lives in

12:01

the cloud, so you can access it

12:03

from anywhere. And the cost of managing

12:05

and running multiple systems, because it's in

12:07

one unified business management suite. My team

12:09

and I don't have to worry about

12:11

tasks being manual and clunky, and

12:13

it means that I can be more efficient and

12:16

to focus on more important things like bringing you

12:18

the best episodes and guests on this show. So

12:20

I've become one of the 37,000 companies that

12:23

have already made the move over to NetSuite.

12:25

NetSuite has extended its one of a kind

12:28

flexible financing program for a few more weeks.

12:30

So head to netsuite.com/Bartlett

12:32

for a free product

12:34

tour. Back to the episode.