We've been putting a lot of thought into how we'll decide what coffees will make it on to the bean menu at any given time. At Great Plains Coffee, the menu was fairly static. I don't think we ever found ourselves without a Colombia, Sumatra Mandheling, or Kenya, despite some close calls, and we always maintained a list of about 10 - 15 coffees.
Maintaining this type of menu served a definite purpose; we had lots of customers that liked being able to purchase the "same" coffee every time they came in, and the large variety seemed to have something that appealed to everyone, but there were a few major downfalls as well:
1) Every coffee is unique. Just because a coffee comes from the Huila region in Colombia, doesn't necessarily mean it will it will approximate the flavor profile of another Huila. A certain origin or region name on a bag label should not be seen as a guarantee of what flavors and aromas are to be found inside.
2) Most coffees are at their best within 9 months of harvest. Much longer than this, and the cup character changes for the worse. With the origins and growing regions that only have one annual harvest season, it is impossible to keep a year round supply of truly fresh green in stock, even if we repack it in air tight valve bags.
3) We cup every day, but even so, the more coffees a roaster stocks, the less they get to know them. With a large bean menu, it gets tough to consistently revise and evaluate the roast profile for each coffee.
4) We taste a lot of samples, and for the major growing regions, it isn't very hard to find acceptable coffees year round. Finding the stand out lots, however, is what gets us excited. With a large bean menu comprised of many good coffees and a few great coffees, it gets difficult for customers to discern between the two.
This issue, in particular, would really frustrate me if I were a customer. We're selling ourselves as a source for the best coffees available anywhere. The way I see it, having anything less than extraordinary would be disingenuous, even if it helped us keep a larger selection available.
At Coffea, we're making big changes to the bean menu, and planning on maintaining a relatively small collection of coffees. With 5-10 coffees, we'll still be able to offer a wide variety of flavor profiles and price points, without carrying anything that we're not genuinely enthused about. It seems like a no-brainer, but very few roasters operate this way, and I get really excited thinking about it.
Here's what we're looking at starting out with:
Sumatra Blue Batak
El Salvador Finca Suiza
Ethiopia Beloya Selection 9
Ethiopia Sidamo Gerbicho Rogicha
Kenya (we've found a few that we like, but haven't decided on one yet)
Two Espresso Blends (yet to be named)
One or two decafs
With a menu like this, we'll really get to know all of the coffees, and I hope our customers will too.
-Jon