A prediction round-up for 2016 (Part 3)

In the final part of my round-up of predictions for 2016 I thought I’d take a look at some of the trends which might impact on the home user.

Throughout 2016 and beyond we are likely to see a continued growth in the sales of capsule coffee machines, such as Nespresso. This coffee revolution continues to roll-on with the simplicty and consistency appealling to home users, as well as some restaurants and hotels. While I’ve long admired the technology for introducing many home users to better coffee, I don’t think the quality is particularly good and I do have some concerns about the environmental impact of all those empty capsules. Single cup capsule sales are predicted to grow by around 81% in the next few years and we are aware that some coffee roasters in the UK are exploring technologies to enable them to claim a part of this growth.

IMG_3088At the same time we are likely to see a growth in hand brewing methods being used at home. Over the Christmas period a number of major supermarkets were offering home coffee brewing sets which can be seen as an indication of a potential trend. It appears that the pourover is the favoured brewing method due to its simplicity though I have always been a great fan of the coffee press (cafetiere). I’m not sure this has ever gone out of fashion so it is more likely to continue to hold its own in 2016. We have a range of coffee brewing equipment on our website and are always happy to discuss the various methods prior to a purchase.

We first started playing with cold brewed coffee a couple of years ago, and in 2015 experimented with some really tasty brews. There are now a growing number of companies offering bottled cold brewed coffee and this segment of the market is likely to grow through 2016. We’ve been sharing some of our coffee knowledge with a young entrepreneur who set up Cool Cold Brew so watch out for the development of this brand in the coming year.

We started dabbling in coffee cocktails during 2015, with our coffee cocktail bar becoming a feature of Simon Rogan’s pop-up restaurant at Taste Cumbria. We’ve also ran a couple of coffee cocktail workshops last year. The espresso martini is already a staple item in many of our local bars, and we think 2016 will become a year of experimentation when it comes to coffee based cocktails.

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And finally, we’re likely to see a growth in the coffee subscription market. Various coffee roasters offer a coffee subscription option and we have been approached by various companies who want to offer coffees from different roasters. We offer a coffee subscription on a monthly basis – our customers receive a supply of coffee at the start of each month along with a copy of our subscription newsletter. We aim to send out a coffee from a different origin each month allowing customers to sample a wide range of coffees. If you’ve set a new year resolution to drink better coffee this year then maybe our coffee subscription can help you along the way!