One of the main reasons people start a business is their passion for something. If you run a café, you probably enjoy interacting with people and, of course, serving delicious coffee.
In a café business where most of the menu revolves around coffee, you need to create coffee offerings that build customer loyalty and support your business goals.
Make sure your menu is well-planned and goes beyond just a list of drinks. For example, let customers choose options like less sugar or less ice for their coffee.
Keep reading this article to learn how to create the best coffee menu for your café business.
Align Your Menu with Your Business Goals
A great coffee menu isn’t just about the drinks—it’s a strategic tool that supports the long-term success of your café business. Here are a few ways it can help.
- Want to build a loyal customer base? Offer high-quality coffee blends that are consistent and reliable for your customers.
- Want to showcase rare and exclusive coffee? Offer single-origin coffee to spark customer curiosity and interest.
- Looking to expand into wholesale? Focus on blends that can be scaled and sold to cafés and grocery stores that could become potential partners.
Aligning your menu with your business goals will help you create a sustainable model for your café business.
Also read: Food Court: Definition and Difference from Restaurant
Map Out Your Coffee Menu
At first glance, creating a coffee menu may seem easy. However, beyond selecting drinks, you need to define flavor profiles, pricing strategies, and approaches that support your brand.
To start, organize your coffee menu into two main categories:
1. Drink Options
Here are some coffee drink options you can offer:
- Batch Brew: The backbone of most cafés, offering consistency and efficiency.
- Espresso: Lattes, cappuccinos, and mochas form the core of an espresso-based menu.
- Pour Over: Ideal for highlighting unique, single-origin coffees.
- Iced Coffee: Iced lattes and iced coffee drinks generally have high demand year-round.
- Decaf Options: Offer high-quality decaffeinated coffee to ensure accessibility for all customers.
2. Flavor Profiles and Coffee
After selecting the types of coffee you’ll offer, it’s time to define their flavor profiles. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you want a menu that appeals to a wide audience, or one that offers more adventurous, challenging flavors?
- What flavor profile will define your café—will you prioritize sweet and chocolatey, fruity and bright, or a balance of both?
- What is the local competition like when it comes to introducing new and unique flavors?
Finalize Your Coffee Menu for Your Café Business
With a clear list of drinks and flavor strategies, it’s now time to choose the right coffee for your café menu. Here are the options:
1. Blends vs. Single Origins
While blends are great for consistency and broad appeal—especially for batch brew and espresso drinks—single origins are ideal for highlighting unique flavors, rotating offerings, and specialty drinks.
Most successful café businesses start with:
- A house blend for drip coffee.
- A specialty espresso blend.
- Two or three rotating single-origin coffees.
- High-quality decaf coffee options.
2. Coffee Roast Levels
There are three roast levels you can choose for the coffee you’ll offer:
- Light Roast: Bright, tea-like color with fruity aromas. Ideal for pour-over and single-origin coffees.
- Medium Roast: Balanced with caramel sweetness, ideal for espresso and batch brew drinks.
- Dark Roast: Bold and rich flavors, perfect for traditional coffee drinkers and certain espresso drinks.
Make sure to choose coffee that is genuinely popular with your customers.
Also read: The Best POS Apps Recommended for UMKM Entrepreneurs
Evolve Your Menu Over Time
Your first menu won’t be your last. You need to adapt while learning from customer preferences, seasonal coffee availability, and market trends.
Keep the following points in mind when evolving your coffee menu:
- Use customer feedback to refine your offerings.
- Consider coffee seasons to introduce fresh and exciting options.
- Monitor market shifts to maintain competitive pricing and offerings.
The key is to stay flexible while still offering the signature coffee items that define your café. One way to do this is by giving customers extra options, such as sugar levels or additional toppings—an easy way to boost customer satisfaction!
For example, you can let customers order a Kopi Senja with Normal Ice, Less Sugar, and Extra Vanilla Syrup. It may seem complicated, but with the Labamu app, you can handle it easily.
Introducing Modifier, a feature that lets you offer extra options to customers without having to change the existing products in your Menu feature.
Here are the Benefits of Using the Modifier Feature in Labamu:
- Customers are more satisfied because they can customize their orders to their preferences.
- Higher sales thanks to a wider variety of options.
- Convenient, with no need to add new products.
- Flexible, can be linked to various existing products.
Pretty exciting, right? If you want to use the Modifier feature in Labamu, here’s how:
- Login via Labamu Desktop https://desktop.labamu.co.id/
- Select Manage Products, then open the Modifier feature from the top column.
- Click “+ New Modifier”, then fill in the Modifier Name and other details according to the extra options you want to offer your customers.
- Your new menu is now ready to be sold.
So, what are you waiting for? Start using Labamu’s Modifier feature now to make your café customers even happier with their coffee orders. This feature is available free for all Premium and Pro Labamu members.
Also, make sure to join LabamuHub by Labamu to build connections and collaborate with other UMKM members, all working together under the goal of #GrowTogether (#TumbuhBersama).
By joining this business community, you’ll have a one-stop solution to help grow your business and go digital. Plus, you can gain new business knowledge through onboarding, training, and various workshops.
Come on, join LabamuHub by Labamu today!
