Hello, everyone, and welcome to the NEXT ACADEMY Podcast. Today’s topic is specialty coffee: bean traceability, the craft of roasting, and how AI fits into it. This episode considers how people running a business alone can balance differentiation with reproducibility.
A Foundation in Coffeehouse Culture, and Intense Competition
HAL:
The Specialty Coffee Association of Japan was established in 2003, and specialty coffee is said to have become widely known around 2015, alongside the full arrival of the third wave. Masa, how do you see the background to specialty coffee taking root in Japan?
Masa:
I think it may have felt familiar because Japan already had a coffeehouse tradition. Rather than accepting an entirely new culture from scratch, it felt like something built on an existing foundation.
HAL:
On the other hand, that familiarity also makes it easier to enter the market.
Masa:
Exactly. I imagine there are a great many rivals. There must be lots of competing shops. Having that foundation also means there are many other people thinking along the same lines.
The Foundation of a One-Person Business: A Sustainable Profit Margin
HAL:
Pricing gets demanding in a highly competitive market. If you were setting prices, Masa, what would you prioritize?
Masa:
A sustainable profit margin is fundamental to running a business, so I would have to prioritize that. There’s no point temporarily lowering prices to attract volume if you can’t keep going.
HAL:
Besides margins, are there other business variables you would focus on?
Masa:
Location and the number of employees matter too. It’s not just about the cost of goods; it’s about how you structure the fixed costs on top. That planning is especially important if you’re working alone.
Roasting as the Core of Differentiation
HAL:
Many small operators differentiate themselves through in-house roasting and unique profiles. You were interested in that area too.
Masa:
I was particularly curious about how everyone handles roasting. Even if the beans they buy have some overlap, roasting is where your own judgment enters, so I think it’s an area where you can show individuality.
The Flavor Direction: Fruity and Lightly Roasted
HAL:
If you designed a profile yourself, what flavors would you want to bring forward?
Masa:
Fruity and lightly roasted. A profile that highlights the character of the beans’ origin and variety. I’d want to bring out what the beans already have rather than build the flavor through roasting.
HAL:
Roasters are said to create their intended profiles by reading measurements such as green-bean moisture and rate of temperature rise while controlling the roast curve. It involves trial roasts for each origin, keeping records, and finding the point that best highlights the desired flavor.
Masa:
So it’s very much a world of recording and repetition.
AI and Roasting Data: What to Delegate and What to Keep in Your Own Senses
HAL:
That was exactly where you saw room for AI.
Masa:
Yes. If it’s a matter of collecting detailed temperature and time data and making adjustments, it feels like there should be room for AI.
HAL:
There are real examples. South Korea’s Stronghold Technology is said to be the first startup to apply AI to roasting machines. Bellwether’s fully automatic roasters also have a cloud library of roasting profiles and support remote roast monitoring, quality analysis for each batch, and profile synchronization across multiple locations. The idea is that sharing profiles allows the same roast to be reproduced anywhere.
Masa:
That’s interesting. But what I want is less the automation of reproduction itself than collecting data and expanding flavor variations. It feels like a waste to use AI only to repeat the same thing precisely.
HAL:
So you want to use it to expand exploration rather than simply ensure reproducibility.
Masa:
Exactly. I think a lot of recording and reproduction can be left to AI. But beyond that, I want to keep control of the direction: what kind of flavor to create. That’s where I think the craft remains.
Today we discussed differentiation in a one-person business through specialty coffee. A sustainable margin forms the business foundation, with roasting offering room for individuality. AI can reproduce results while also broadening experimentation. What should you delegate, and what should remain in your own hands? That question applies to your own business as readily as it does to coffee.
See you next time.
