Making Money From Coffee

Coffee is the most consumed beverage on this planet. Most people drink it at least once a day specifically in the morning. Fun Fact: According to Wikipedia and the British Coffee Association there are actually more than 2 billion cups of coffee consumed daily around the world. So you can see there is potentially big money that can be made in the coffee business.

Coffee Negatives

Coffee is an elixir. It increases your energy levels as well as your mental alertness. Coffee however has a tarnished image. There are a lot of people who believe that if you consume more than a cup of coffee a day your health especially your mental health will be affected negatively.

There are however studies that inform us that our body gets used or adapted to the effects of coffee over time. Its effects gradually reduce over time that we need to drink more and more coffee just to maintain its effect on our body. Of course there are varied types and blends of coffee and their effect on the body are varied as well.

Take notice of these studies when you are producing, endorsing or selling coffee products.

Earning from Coffee

There are many ways you can earn from coffee. You can plant coffee and sell it. You can wholesale coffee and then retail it. You can serve coffee to customers and charge them. You can be a barista and work for a coffee serving establishment. You can even become a well paid barista with latte design skills and be featured in social media.

If you intend to plant and sell coffee take note that many coffee farmers are struggling to make an income from planting coffee. Google “do farmers earn a lot from coffee” and you would see a lot of articles about how coffee farmers are not making money and even losing money from planting coffee. Make no mistake there is huge demand for coffee but its price is falling.

Wholesaling Coffee

Being a coffee wholesaler is hard as well and can be tricky unless you know which coffee taste sells well. I watched a Youtube video titled Conor Woodman Around The World In 80 Trades - Africa (Episode 1) which shows a former London finance trader leaving his office job to trade in the real physical world. One of the products he traded was coffee from Africa.

The part of the video where he starts to trade in coffee begins at 15:30 minutes. He first bought coffee from a coffee farmer and then proceeded to transport it to the place where the coffee brokers are. Next shown is how different coffee brokers value the same coffee. One coffee broker rated his coffee based on taste as low quality while the older more experienced broker rated his coffee highly.

This is an eye opener into the world of coffee. It shows how coffee is priced subjectively and more often than not those who can market better their coffee gets the best prices. It also teaches an important lesson not to get disappointed when a coffee broker puts down your product. They could be wrong no matter how much they claim to be experts.

Coffee Culture

Since coffee is a simple beverage already being drank for centuries coffee culture is also important when selling coffee. The coffee giant Starbucks for example found out that many European countries and even Australia have their own coffee culture and taste much different from America.

While Starbucks offers a variety of kinds and sizes which are primarily good sellers in America the coffee drinkers of other countries have more simple and specialised taste and enjoy the more old world coffee shop atmosphere prevalent in their countries. If you intend to make money serving coffee do not just follow the biggest players in the business but know the coffee culture in your area.

The coffee palate of people are ever growing and an enterprising person can earn money with this. You can serve your own coffee blend hot or cold as liquid, frozen or as liquorice, caramelised, candied and so on. Coffee is now considered a lifestyle product because people are so used to its taste and consuming it and have even patterned some of their daily social life around it.

Conclusion

Coffee is a commodity and a simple product that has existed for ages but making money off it has not changed. Those who know how to market whatever coffee they have stands to make the most money from it.