One Hundred and Fifty Posts and Counting: A Retrospective

Today represents another milestone for this blog. This blog entry is the hundred and fiftieth (150) that I have written for Destination Cafe. It has also been over three years since I began writing blogs on coffee, tea and chocolate.

Tea and chocolate are latecomers to this web site. My reasons for adding these were mainly due to the fact that I felt I was running out of coffee material to write about; I needed to expand the subject matter somewhat in order to keep the blog fresh and interesting.

Much has changed in the three years that I have been researching and writing these posts. Destination Cafe will soon be opening another outlet in Brampton to service clientele in that area. My own experience has been an educational one. I have come to have the utmost respect for those working in the coffee and tea industry. Not only is coffee and tea a complex and fascinating area to work in, it is also an extremely competitive area in which to be involved. The average coffee shop is in many ways a microcosm for the coffee and tea industry in general; the pressures faced by your typical coffee shop are largely the same as those faced by the industry in general. The economic pressures are largely the same for large and small alike.

What has changed, in my opinion, is a growing public awareness of the plight faced by the small coffee and tea farmer, which has in turn forced the large coffee companies to become ever more cognizant of these issues as well. Increasingly, successful coffee and tea companies have recognized that to remain successful they need to become socially conscious as well as economically efficient. Business can no longer afford to operate in a social policy vacuum; they need to to become aware of the effects of their business on the environment and the public in general in order to maintain their viability. All this is good news for the average consumer, who (surveys show) is generally willing to pay a little more for their coffee and tea if it can be shown to be produced in a socially responsible way.

I hope readers have enjoyed reading these blogs as much as I have enjoyed writing them. And of course, readers should always feel free to leave comments if the spirit moves them.