We teach success in specialty coffee and we are proud to share what our customers are saying about working with CrimsonCup®.

“The big thing that CrimsonCup does for you, especially when you are opening up and even later on down the road they’ve got enough experience on their team that when you’ve got a question, or something that your just not quite certain of they’ve got an answer for you. Before opening up a coffee shop I didn’t have a clue about what was in a latte or a mocha or anything like that, and with CrimsonCup they give you the reassurance and the confidence that it was going to be okay, and it was. With CrimsonCup you get all the benefits of a franchise without the franchise cost, and for us that was a big thing because we were looking at franchises and different things and we really liked the whole independents thing where we weren’t answering to another corporation or giving profits away, back to a franchise. The experience all and all has just been wonderful, they have been great to work with and [even] after we got everything open they have been extremely supportive with everything we’ve done.  The Seven Steps [To Success] is a very good book, the whole steps process is a very down to earth, grass roots approach to business.  It’s simple stuff that people just sort of take for granted, but still just because people take it for granted doesn’t mean it gets done.  If you keep up on those things [in the book] you’re going to have a great experience in your store every time.  It’s really about just getting people to try the drinks at least once. Once they try them, their yours.”

Common Grounds
Carbondale, IL
Owners: Jason & Jennifer Bourque

Uptown Coffeehouse opened December 14, 2002. In May 2004, owners Lorna Brennan and Nathan Voght decided to join The CrimsonCup Community of The World’s Best Coffee Shop’s.

“Since implementation of this program, we’ve experienced more than $1,000 increase in weekly sales. Our customers really like The CrimsonCup Community concept, and we love the support. As a small business owner, you spend so much time behind the counter. We would never be able to hire someone to do the marketing that comes from the program and still pay such a small fee.”

Uptown Coffeehouse
Howell, Michigan
Owners: Lorna Brennan and Nathan Voght

“I recently spoke with Janie in customer service about ordering a new coffee grinder. I had noticed in the past month or so, during the busiest time of operation, our grinder was not keeping up, anymore. I had the grinder for several years, so it did not surprise me that I needed a new one. To my benefit, Janie explained the issue I was having to Joe, the equipment specialist at The Cup. He quickly called and told me it sounded like I needed to replace the burrs instead of the entire grinder. That is exactly what it was. I was about to pay nearly $800 for a new grinder, but Joe’s knowledge on grinders saved me $756.99!”

Coffee Amici
Findlay, OH
Lynne & Jayne

“I just think that with the concept of CrimsonCup of what their doing and their approach, letting us still be individual coffee shops, but their giving us the tools to be consistent in quality, and service, and cleanliness, and all the tools that we need to do that just makes my job a lot easier.  The professional marketing posters, the promotions are things that I would never be able to do on my own [and they] are supplied to me [by CrimsonCup], which puts me on the same page with the big chains.  You know when you are an independent sometimes it’s a shot in the dark you know, these guys have gotten their experience, their proven methods, they have taken the guess work out of it for me, so I am confident when I get something from them it will be successful.  I’m open only a half a day on Sundays, so sometimes the other coffee shops are open, my competitors, so sometimes they [my customers] will say well we went to one of my competitors and got the same drink they order from me and they say, ‘oh I couldn’t finish it, I couldn’t wait till Monday came around and you opened, so I could get it.’ You can’t have a better testimonial than that.  Listen to the consultants at CrimsonCup.  I mean if you’ve got the desire, and everything else, they will give you the tools and direct you to make sure that you are going to be successful.”

Coffee Chaos
Midland, MI
Owners: Kim & Denise Krantz

“The support that they offer is you know, you can’t trade that for anything.  You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, they are highly motivated.  They’ve thought of ideas for you and their happy to have your ideas.  We have people drive very far to get our coffee everyday, even though they are passing Starbucks, and Dunkin Donuts on the way, so that makes us feel good knowing that we are serving something good.  Like I never question that, ever...you always know you are getting something good from CrimsonCup.  They provide you with recipes or recipe ideas, you always know that you are getting something good.  Yeah, you always taste everything, before you serve it, but it’s always good.”

Black Diamond Coffee
Shrewsbury, MA
Owner: Jackie Marcello

River Road first opened for business on April 1, 2002. After being product customers of CrimsonCup for more than 3 years, River Road’s owners chose to join The CrimsonCup Community of The World’s Best Coffee Shops. Here’s what they had to say a few weeks after joining.

“The training was great. We learned a whole lot of little things about efficiency, to make us faster, without sacrificing drink quality. As a result, we were able to shave 3pts off our beverage cost due to proper milk management. Additional added efficiencies have allowed us to eliminate 6-8 hours per week in labor. Without the bagels we currently serve, we would have the potential to shave an additional 15hrs per week.”

“The visual retail program increased our Ratio almost immediately. Before joining The Community our espresso based drinks made up 58% of our beverage sales. Espresso based drinks now make up 64% of our beverage sales. And, 95% of new guests are now ordering espresso based drinks, which has increased our average beverage ticket.”

River Road
Granville, Ohio
Owners: Mark and Dave Forman

“[Joining The CrimsonCup Community is] the Best Thing I ever did.  They do like Coffeehouse for Dummies.  It’s like coffeehouse 101.  They take you from start to finish. They are just absolutely, amazing, wonderful people and I love working with all of them.  I would like to say ‘thank you’ to CrimsonCup for all that they have done for me in helping to make our coffeehouse successful.”

Sheri's Coffee House
Norwalk, Ohio
Owners: Bill & Sheri Thomas

Edelweiss Coffee first opened for business in October of 2004 and has been a part of The CrimsonCup Community of The World’s Best Coffee Shops since January of 2005. In order to increase the daily customer count and encourage first-time customers to try her products, Jennifer implemented a cross promotion with a local CPA firm, a furniture store and a salon.  Here’s what she had to say at the close of the promotion.

“We implemented a cross promotion with local businesses in our community. The businesses handed out our coffee cards to their customers as a thank you for their patronage. The card offered customers a free espresso based drink on the initial visit, and encouraged repeat businesses by offering their 5th drink free. The promotion brought in 105 customers and 26 cards have already been filled! Over the past two months, I have watched my daily customer count increase by an average of 38 customers per day. That equates to $19,000 worth of straight profit for the year.”

Edelweiss Coffee
Iron Mountain, MI
Owners: Jennifer Zeni

Coffee Attic/Book Cellar is located at 604 Washington Avenue in Iowa Falls, Iowa. The city’s population is approximately 5,200 residents. The Mortons originally opened for business in the spring of 2002. In late July, 2005, they moved their coffee bar and bookstore to a new location and joined The CrimsonCup Community of The World’s Best Coffee shops. Here is their story:

“We entered The CrimsonCup Community of The World’s Best Coffee Shop’s in July, 2005, when we moved to our new location. Since that time, our daily coffee bar sales have increased $200 a day – That is an increase of $72,000 annually!

Our community is thrilled with the Coffee Attic. They bring in families, friends and
out-of-town guests. They want us to succeed. The locals come back from vacation telling us how they craved our coffee while they were away. They say that Starbucks,  Caribou and unidentifiable independents can’t beat the products that we are serving. It’s what makes them come back to us. We even have people from Minneapolis and Des Moines come in and shake their heads in disbelief. They tell us ‘We don’t have anything like this at home.  It is as if we just stepped into a coffee bar in New York or Chicago.’ The CrimsonCup Community gives us a professional edge. It makes our customers feel like they are in a big city.”

Coffee Attic/Book Cellar
Iowa Falls, Iowa
Owners: Bob and Jan Morton

In January of 2004 we opened an espresso bar at Lakeland College in Wisconsin. The college is home to more than 850 day time students. CrimsonCup provided layout/design services, training, training materials and signage. The CrimsonCup team even helped us prepare the presentation for our President to get the initial approval for the bar, which now serves students, staff, and faculty. It has the feel and look of a high priced store without the high start-up price.

“The CrimsonCup Community fits in great with the College. With the program we were able to set our prices based on our needs and expectations. The signage was custom made for our shop and looks great. Our students and guests enjoy the consistent flavors and quality of the drinks. The individualized in-house training was great. The store has an efficient layout and runs smoothly. Since our opening, CrimsonCup has taught us how to take care of our equipment, provided refresher training and given us suggestions on how to improve sales. Thanks to our relationship with CrimsonCup, we supply an excellent product to our students, faculty, staff and visitors.  Additionally, we generate roughly $90,000 in sales during the nine months of the school year.”

The Daily Grind – Lakeland College
Sheboygan, Wisconsin

An email from a current customer to a prospective:
The best advice I can give you to start off with is -- before you do anything else -- call our roaster, CrimsonCup Coffee in Columbus, Ohio. They have a program that's similar, but far more intensive when it comes to the actual nuts and bolts of the coffee business than you'd get from [other coffee consultants]. In fact, the reason that the past few weeks have been particularly busy is that we just finished a special promotion -- all conceived and paid for by CrimsonCup -- designed to give our business a boost.  You see, you'll get nominal advice and fairly good training from [other consultants], but the folks at CrimsonCup stay with you to make sure you actually succeed.

Via Cappuccino
Rocky Mount, NC
Owners: John & Gayle

The Beanery first opened in June of 2004.  Here’s what they had to say just a few weeks after their menu system was installed:

“Our menu system, both interior and drive thru, arrived and were installed three weeks ago. The system has been successful at helping us drive sales of higher profit menu offerings. We immediately saw a 13% increase in daily sales, which will amount to more than $16,000 a year in additional sales.”

“The CrimsonCup team rocks!”

The Beanery
Gretna, NE
Owner: Ryan Matzen

Shortly after opening South Main Coffee and becoming acclimated to the coffee business, owner, Georgia Treece, was approached by a businessman to open another coffeehouse (Aversboro Coffeehouse) in the nearby town of Garner.  Below is their response to their blowout which offered 50 cent drinks.

“We have seen a 20% increase in business since the blowout promotion. In addition to the increase in sales, it has been amazing to see the community embrace the new coffee shop and make it their own. The customers are taking ownership of the success of Aversboro Coffeehouse. Between the initial visit with Armando and the visit for our Grand Opening, we have learned new things that greatly benefit our business".

Aversboro Coffeehouse
Garner, NC
Georgia Treece & Lynn Citron

“I keep telling the staff at CrimsonCup this...they feel like my training wheels.  I know what I want to do, and I know what I need to do, but they are just like your dad holding onto the back of your bike.  I know they just aren’t going to let me teeter.  It’s just that I feel very secure with them behind me.  I could hardly wait for that book [Seven Steps to Success] arrive and the coffee.  We perc’d (brewed) that coffee as soon as it came to our door, and we loved it right away. But the book, we pass it around the family.  I’ve read it three times, my husband has read it a couple of times, and my daughter also has a business and the Seven Steps applied to her business as well.  We actually own three copies of that book [Seven Steps to Success] and all three of my kids have read it a couple of times.  CrimsonCup product, it’s incredible! This is what I love to hear everyday, when I go into my shop and people come in who have never tried the CrimsonCup product and they taste our coffee, they say things like ‘this is better than Starbucks!’ and I say, ‘yeah, I really think it is too!’  It’s a dream come true!”

Spill the Beans Coffee Bar
Lakeside Marblehead, OH
Owners: Jude & Dave Foulk

“We just recently opened and were very happy with the level of sales considering how new our coffee shop was. The day of the Grand Opening was great. We saw so many new customers that day. We served five times the number of drinks than an average day. Since then, our sales have increased 125% and consistently stayed there.”

Sister’s Bean
Louisville, KY
Corky & Teresa

“Michael came down a day prior to our grand opening to spend some time with us setting up our Profits & Losses sheet and go over our financials in more detail. The Grand Opening went great! I can not believe the exposure we received. We saw so many new faces and we had three different news papers write about us!”

Go-Go Espresso
Port Charlotte, FL
Christina

“When we first opened, everything about the coffee business was new to us. We did not even know how to put the beans in the hopper. It was nice that Armando was there to show us the ropes and walk us through everything, visually. We picked up a lot of tricks of the trade. CrimsonCup did a lot of marketing support too. We would never have had the money to get the printed materials done with the to-go menus and grand opening support. The press release CrimsonCup wrote was written with a professional edge with techniques we could not have achieved on our own.”

Fireside Coffee
Eldora, Iowa
Owner: Diana