New Shoots

As temperatures rise and light levels increase, the potted Arabica coffee plant that sits on our cafѐ porch, together with the plants on our ‘green-wall,’ have begun to produce fresh, light-green new leaves; a living metaphor for our emerging coffee business.

Once confused for a species of Jasmine, the Coffea genus includes three subspecies, Coffea arabica, Coffea canephora (Robusta), and Coffea liberica. Grown in the ‘coffee-belt’ of the tropics and subtropics, coffee's jasmine-scented flowers appear three to five years after planting. In Nepal, Coffea arabica is the commonly grown cash crop; blooms appear during the rainy season (June-August) and last only a few days, before giving way to self-pollinated cherry fruits that mature to a red colour six months later. Notoriously labour-intensive to pick and process, every 10 kg of red cherries picked yields only 1-2 kg of green beans, which then themselves lose weight on roasting!

How do we nurture the business over the coming year to keep providing fresh new shoots? 

Our main priority right now is to increase revenue and cut costs, primarily of our raw input: green coffee beans. Our coffee bean sales have been way above expectation, and so we now need to capitalise on the volumes we are selling.

For the last few months, our regular customers have largely been expats living in the city, often with some link to the local mission hospital. This is likely to decrease over the monsoon months, as many escape to milder home countries. To boost cafe revenues, we will soon be featuring new summer menu items, including iced-coffees and fresh-fruit drinks. Whilst we do have some regular Nepali customers, in order to attract new crowds, we will soon be giving out student-discount cards to nearby colleges and a variety of other targeted vouchers.

Praying for some monsoon blossoms!

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