Survey: Workflows for Coffee Roasting, Part 1

We’re working on a new tool for RoastPATH® and could use your insight and experience. We’d really appreciate it if you could give us a few minutes and answer these questions!

Size & Scale of Operations
What brand coffee roaster do you own/use?*
- Mill City Roaster
- Loring
- Probat
- Coffee-Tech
- Diedrich
- San Franciscan
What is the model capacity of your roaster? (If you have multiple roasters, you can select more than one capacity.)*
- 500g or smaller
- 1kg
- 2kg
- 3kg
- 5kg - 6kg
- 10kg - 12kg
- 15kg - 18kg
- 20kg
- 30kg
- 60kg
- Larger than 60kg
How many batches of coffee do you roast in a week?*
- 1-10 roast per week
- 11-20 roast per week
- 20-29 roast per week
- 30-39 roast per week
- More than 40 roasts per week
What operating system do you use for data logging?*
- Mac
- Windows
What are you currently using to log your roast data*
- My notebook
- RoastPATH
- Artisan
- Cropster
When bagging coffee for retail, what is your most common bag size/capacity?*
What is your second most common bag size/capacity?
Incoming Orders
Do you have your own website where you sell bags of roasted coffee?*
- Yes
- I do not have a website
- I have a website but do not sell bags of roasted coffee there
Which e-commerce platform do you use for your website*
- Big Cartel
- Big Commerce
- Magento
- Pattern by Etsy
- Shopify
- Squarespace
- Weebly
- WooCommerce
Of all the coffee you roast in a year, what percentage is used to fulfill orders from your website?*
Please enter a number from 0 to 100.
Do sell bags of roasted coffee on an online marketplace (Amazon, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace)?*
- Yes
- No
Which online marketplaces do you use?*
- Amazon
- Etsy
- Ebay
- Facebook Marketplace
- Others
Of all the coffee you roast in a year, what percentage is used to fulfill orders from an online marketplace?*
Please enter a number from 0 to 100.
Do you sell bags of roasted coffee at a cafe or shop that you own?*
- Yes
- No
Of all the coffee you roast in a year, what percentage is used to fulfill sales made at your own cafe/shop?
Please enter a number from 0 to 100.
Do you sell bags of roasted coffee at in-person events such as farmers markets or pop-up events?*
- Yes
- No
Of all the coffee you roast in a year, what percentage is used to fulfill sales made at an in-person event?
Please enter a number from 0 to 100.
Click all that apply*
- I accept cash
- I swipe cards and each sale is automatically integrated into my orders/inventory system
- I swipe cards to collect payment only - there is no automatic orders/inventory integration
Wholesale & Invoicing
Do you sell your roasted coffee via wholesale/b2b relationships?*
- Yes
- No
Click all that apply
- I sell bags of coffee with my brand's name & label for resale.
- I sell bulk roasted coffee to be brewed in cafe with my brand name noted on the menu
- I sell bulk roasted coffee without my brand noted
- I do special projects or collaborations with some of my wholesale accounts
Of all the coffee you roast in a year, what percentage is used to fulfill orders from wholesale accounts?
Please enter a number from 0 to 100.
How do you request and receive payment for wholesale orders?
- I send invoices and receive payments via check
- I use Quickbooks to send invoices and process online payments
- I use PayPal or similar to send invoices and process online payments
- My website allows me to invoice and process payments for manual orders
- Customers send me money via venmo, cash app, bank app, etc.
Do you take direct orders from retail customers for bags of roasted coffee via email, direct message, phone, etc.?*
- Yes
- No
Roughly how many orders a week do you take via email, direct message, phone, etc?*
How do you typically request and receive payment for orders taken via email, direct message, phone, etc?*
- I send invoices and receive payments via check
- I use Quickbooks to send invoices and process online payments
- I use PayPal or similar to send invoices and process online payments
- My website allows me to invoice and process payments for manual orders
- Customers send me money via venmo, cash app, bank app, etc.
Order Management & Processing Timelines
Do you have one system that tracks all incoming orders?*
- Yes, all orders are brought together in one place
- I have one system for retail orders and a different system for wholesale orders
- Orders are not brought together - they are tracked differently depending on the source.
Which method/app/platform do you use to bring all your orders together?*
- A spreadsheet or list/document of my own design
- My e-commerce site
- Quickbooks
- Sellbrite
- Order Desk
- Netsuite
- Ordoro
- Zoho Inventory
- inFlow
- Brightpearl
For direct-to-customer sales, which is closest to the timeline you provide your customers?*
- If you place your order today, I will roast it and ship it tomorrow.
- If you place your order today, I will roast it tomorrow and ship it the following day.
- I roast on specific days of the week. Have your order in if you'd like coffee this week
- I have stock of this roasted coffee on the shelf. I will ship your order asap.
For wholesale sales, which is closest to the timeline you provide your wholesale customers?*
- If you place your order today, I will roast it and ship it tomorrow.
- If you place your order today, I will roast it tomorrow and ship it the following day.
- Please have your orders in by "X" day of the week to be on our weekly production schedule
- I roast wholesale on specific days of the week. Have your order in by day "X" if you need coffee this week
- I have stock of roasted coffee on the shelf. I will ship your order asap.
Production Roasting
Do you manipulate your batch sizes to match what you need to fulfill open orders?*
- Yes, I typically try to only roast what is required to fill my open orders
- No, I tend to roast full batches and any extra coffee is added to "stock".
If you are manipulating batch sizes, have you 'standardized' a few partial batch sizes for yourself that you commonly use on your roaster?*
- Yes, I have a few partial batch sizes I use over and over again
- I have a few favorite batch sizes sizes but nothing I'd call standard.
- Not really - I tend roast exactly what I need down to the pound.
If a "full batch" is 100% what are your most common batch sizes on your roaster?*
- 120%
- 110%
- 90%
- 80%
- 75%
- 70%
- 60%
- 50%
- 40%
- 30%
- 25%
- 20%
If you are manipulating batch sizes, do you have a few different saved profiles for each coffee to use depending on what your batch size is?*
- Yes, for a coffee I will often develop & record two or more profiles or "recipes" that reflect different batch sizes
- In theory I do roast differently for different batch sizes but it isn't something I have formally recorded
- I have one profile I use regardless of batch size
Anything else we might find interesting about how you plan and execute your workflow? We're all ears!
If you ship coffee to retail customers, how do you print your mailing labels?
- I print mailing labels through my website
- I print mailing labels through my online marketplace
- Shipstation
- Shipeasy
- Shippo
- Via the direct website for USPS, UPS or Fedex
- I go to the post office
How can we help?
What are two things you wished your data logging software did that it doesn't do now?
What are two things you wished your orders/inventory software did that it doesn't do now?
What two (or more) parts of your digital business life do you wish worked better together?
Any other notes for Mill City Roasters or the RoastPATH team?
If you're open to answering more questions, pass us your email address.
Comments
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Survey: Workflows for Coffee Roasting, Part 1

Commercial Coffee Roaster News, Roaster News

Survey: Workflows for Coffee Roasting, Part 1

Size & Scale of Operations

Incoming Orders

Wholesale & Invoicing

Order Management & Processing Timelines

Production Roasting

How can we help?

Coffee Roasters

HERE TO HELP

LEARN & GROW

OUR COMPANY

Newsletter

Survey: Workflows for Coffee Roasting, Part 1

Commercial Coffee Roaster News, Roaster News

Survey: Workflows for Coffee Roasting, Part 1

Size & Scale of Operations

Incoming Orders

Wholesale & Invoicing

Order Management & Processing Timelines

Production Roasting

How can we help?

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