The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

[Harlen_Coffee_Kid]

I went to The Coffee Club today and they made a great coffee.
I was just wondering what your thoughts on them were.  
I think it depends who makes the coffee if you go there often enough.
Thanks Guys!

[TC]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

I went to The Coffee Club today and they made a great coffee.
I was just wondering what your thoughts on them were.  
I think it depends who makes the coffee if you go there often enough.
Thanks Guys!

Yer....they have done a heap of training with the coffee academy- so hopefully some things are changing..

They have the weirdest standards I have ever seen with doubles of up to 70 ish ml depending on what theyre going in to and they dont want to know, nor understand why we cut at 25-30 ml  :

Bottom line however, is you you cant do much with Pizza DOreo coffee to make it taste good  ;D

[Not_Perfect]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

Hi HCK

My feelings are that if you think the coffee is great...then it is. If you are the one drinking it, then it is only your opinion that matters.

I do however agree that it will depend on the barista and even they have their occasional off day.

[askthecoffeeguy]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

not too good either...

[pie_in_ear]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

I have hired many barista from the coffee club. As far as barista training goes they are probably the best franchise around. However, product is an entirely different story.

[Harlen_Coffee_Kid]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

Hmmm... Pioneer Roaster, you are right about them being the best franchise. I have not been to starbucks but i have heard a lot of bad things about them!

[Wushoes]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

Hear say is bad. Unless you know first hand and can substantiate a claim, I wouldnt say anything. Go visit a Starbucks, then make up your mind.

I started off my barista career at the coffee club. Back then to me it was a 2nd job to bring in a little more spending money for a poor uni student. Didnt realise how far I would come from my humble beginnings at the coffee club where training consisted of 2x 3 hour shifts watching people make coffee at another store. After that, I was their head barista for a totally brand new TCC. A bit scary, and boy did we get smashed. The line literally was out the door and snaked around 3 more cafes before it stopped. No idea why, the coffee was bad, so was the barista (me - totally new to coffee) and so were the machinery.

Moving on 2 years later, I visted Port Douglas earlier this year and the only cafe open at 7am happened to be the coffee club. I watched 3 meringue cappuccinos go out and opted for tea.....which, still was quite bad - lots of dust. They charged an arm and a leg for a breakfast which was so sub standard it wasnt funny. In Melbourne, you can expect to find a "Big Breakfast" of good quality for about $15. I paid twice as much.

I dont care who you are, if youre going to have any reference to coffee in the name of a cafe, you better darn well serve good coffee.

Ripped off.....Dave

[Harlen_Coffee_Kid]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

LOL.
Sounds like you had a rough time Dave..
Well i really have no intentions of going to Starbucks because there is none around in Armidale. But i will say that the BMW/Starbucks Sirena could be my coffee machine (<<yes the car company) and its only $600.

EDIT: Correction i just found it for $400

[andrewT]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

Hi HCK

My feelings are that if you think the coffee is great...then it is.  

Agree 100%

[Koffee_Kosmo]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

My wife goes to Coffee Club on her lunch breaks at work (Bris)

But cant wait for me to serve her a real good cup of coffee at home
Ahh coffee made with love and good beans cant be beaten.

KK

[lennier]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

My one and only experience of Coffee Club (at Southern Cross station) was universally awful, coffee, food and service!
It sounds from others experiences that this may not be typical, but thats the problem with franchised operations, they can vary a lot.

Dennis

[GregJW]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

I dont care who you are, if youre going to have any reference to coffee in the name of a cafe, you better darn well serve good coffee.

My thoughts exactly, David. Was totally unimpressed by my one and only trip to a CC franchise.

I suppose its possible, however, that HCK has lucked onto a good franchisee there, notwithstanding the quality of the beans they use. Viviane has said that a Michelles franchise down her way makes a good coffee (as long as its the owner that makes it) - not many here would rate them as (overall) makers of quality coffee .

I have had good coffees from a The Coffee Emporium franchise (I understand they are also retail distributors for CS sponsor Diamond C Services - selling the Diamond Italia, etc). Anyway, this franchisee is a dedicated barista (from my observations) and roasts his own beans. (Not sure how he gets around his franchise obligations there .) I wonder how other TCE franchise outlets perform.

Greg

[Lovey]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

Theres a coffee club apparently moving into a shopping centre here soon, I say apparently as quite a few shops have had a false start in there so far.
It will be up against a Gloria Jeans, Michels and a Billy Baxters.
It will be interesting to see how long they last in there, theres a rather large turnover of shops, and quite a bit of competition.

[gregpullman]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

Bottom line I think with chains is whats already been mentioned - it depends who makes your coffee on the day. Some stores may tend to be better or worse than others but youll hear mixed reports of every chain. How can you definitively state the quality of coffee at Cibo, TCC, Gloria Jeans et al when these names might represent a hundred stores employing thousands of staff and making millions of drinks a week? You may be able to pick up a trend that some chains tend to be better or worse than others, but you *will* always find exceptions and plenty of them.

IMHO, the only times you can really come out and say "Coffee at xyz is really good" is when xyz refers to a specific store youve visited on a number of occasions and know the quality is consistently good regardless of which staff member is on on the day. Chain store outlets arent precluded from this but youre more likely to get such a result from an independent store with a passionate owner who has the power to make the right decisions, without being fettered by executive policies on equipment, coffee or training contracts. For this reason, I think it should come as no surprise that the stores which consistently set the standard in espresso quality in this country (or abroad for that matter) are individual stores, not chain outlets.

[Thundergod]

Re: The Coffee Club, Not too bad.

Its not just chains.
I found one good coffee in Terrigal last time I was there.
Different PBTM in the afternoon and the coffee was no good.

I ran into the new owner of another cafe later that night and we got to speaking and she guessed who made the good coffee.