Start with your own numbers
Every supplier conversation goes better when you know what you pour. Minimums, pricing tiers and delivery frequency all hang on volume, and a roaster can only quote honestly if you give them a real figure.
Work it out from cups served, not from what you think you spend. Count a typical week of drip cups and espresso drinks from your register, then convert to pounds.
| Drink | Coffee per drink | Drinks per 1 lb bag |
|---|---|---|
| 10 oz drip at 1:16 | 18.5 g | about 24 |
| 12 oz drip at 1:16 | 22 g | about 20 |
| 12 oz drip at 1:17 | 21 g | about 21 |
| Double espresso | 18 g | about 25 |
A pound is 454 g, so divide 454 by the grams in each drink. Drip at 1:16 to 1:17 lands between 20 and 25 cups per bag depending on cup size.
A worked example
Say a small cafe serves 100 drip cups of 12 oz and 80 drinks built on a double shot each day.
- Drip: 100 cups x 22 g = 2,200 g
- Espresso: 80 drinks x 18 g = 1,440 g
- Daily total: 3,640 g, or about 8.0 lb
- Plus 5 percent for dialing in the grinder each morning and the odd remade drink: about 8.4 lb a day
That comes to about 59 lb a week and roughly 250 lb a month if you are open every day. The 5 percent is a planning allowance, not a rule; track your real waste for a month and adjust. Also plan for seasons. A Shore town cafe in July and the same cafe in February can be two different businesses.
Questions to ask a wholesale coffee supplier
Ask every supplier the same list so you can compare answers side by side.
- Roast dates and delivery frequency. Is the roast date printed on every bag? How often do they deliver or ship, and how far ahead do you order? As general guidance, most specialty coffee tastes best within a few weeks of roasting, so you want deliveries sized to use each batch while it is still at its best.
- Who roasts it and where. A good supplier answers plainly and can trace every batch back to its roast date.
- Minimums. Is there a minimum per order, per month, or per year? What happens if you have a slow month?
- Consistency. How do they keep a blend tasting the same from one batch to the next, and what do they do when a component coffee runs out? Will they tell you before a blend changes?
- Grind and equipment support. Will they help dial in your grinder and espresso machine? Do they lend, lease or service equipment, or recommend someone who does? If equipment comes with the deal, read what you owe if you leave.
- Training. Is staff training included, how often, and is it on site? A great coffee pulled badly is a bad coffee.
- Pricing structure. Price per pound at your volume, what changes it, delivery charges, and how often prices are reviewed. Ask how they handle green coffee price swings.
- Samples. Will they send samples of the coffees you are considering, in enough quantity to test on your own equipment?
- Contract terms. Length, exclusivity, notice period, and any equipment buyout. Get it all in writing before you commit.
Red flags
- No roast date on the bag, or only a "best by" date a year out. You cannot manage freshness without it.
- Pricing that only exists on a call. Negotiation is normal, but you should get the final terms in writing.
- Long exclusivity tied to "free" equipment. The machine is never free; it is paid for in the price per pound, often with a buyout clause if you leave early.
- No samples, or samples that do not match what arrives. Ask for a sample from a regular production batch.
- Vague answers about where the coffee comes from or who roasts it.
- Slow replies before you sign. It rarely gets faster once you are a customer.
Talk to other owners. Ask a supplier for two or three current New Jersey accounts you can call. A cafe owner will tell you in five minutes what a sales sheet will not: whether deliveries arrive when promised and how problems get handled.
How to run a tasting that actually decides something
A tasting at the roaster's place, brewed by their team, tells you how good the coffee can be. A tasting at yours tells you how good it will be. Do yours.
- Narrow it to two or three suppliers and ask each for the coffee you would actually buy, roasted on a normal production day.
- Brew on your own equipment, with your own water and your own staff, at the recipe you would use in service.
- Hide the labels. Have someone code the cups with letters so nobody knows which is which.
- Taste it the way customers drink it: black, and with milk if most of your drinks carry milk. A coffee that sings black can disappear in a latte.
- Taste it again as it cools, and taste the drip after it has sat in the airpot for the length of time it normally sits during service.
- Score simply. Would you serve it, would you drink it, and which one would you pick tomorrow? Then add the business answers from the questions above.
If two coffees tie, choose the supplier with the better answers on consistency and service. You will live with those every week.
Putting it together
Write down your weekly volume, your format (whole bean for anything with a grinder on site, ground only if you brew with a regular coffee machine and no grinder), and your must-haves. Send the same short brief to each supplier. The ones who reply with clear, written answers are already showing you how they work.