Prospects need to know extra about their espresso than ever earlier than—and for some cafés, the QR code has been a part of the reply.
BY BHAVI PATEL
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Featured photograph courtesy of Warawul Espresso
There was a time when having your barista greet you by identify and bear in mind your ordinary order was thought-about to be a benchmark of a very good espresso store. That small café attraction—the place the particular person behind the counter knew you needed your flat white with oat milk earlier than you even requested—was the gold normal of espresso connection.
However right this moment’s typical espresso shopper craves deeper information. The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t simply change how we work and socialize: It basically shifted our relationship with consumption. We’re now not glad figuring out who made our espresso: We need to know the place it was grown, by whom, below what circumstances, and the way it journeyed from that farm to our cups that morning.
To study extra about how our relationship with our espresso is altering, and the way espresso outlets are responding, I spoke to Christian Seiler, co-founder of Berlin’s Warawul Espresso.
An Unlikely Hero: The QR Code’s Caffeinated Comeback
The standard Fast Response code, higher often called the “QR code,” is experiencing a second renaissance within the specialty-coffee world right this moment. The code was born in 1994 within the barcode reader manufacturing factories of Japanese firm Denso Wave. Initially, the design happened as a result of bar codes had been now not capable of sustain with altering instances and meet the should be learn extra rapidly and retailer extra data.
The QR code’s creator, Masahiro Hara, sought to develop one thing that would encode extra data than conventional barcodes whereas being readable at excessive speeds. The ensuing matrix sample can include 4,000 alphanumeric characters inside its distinctive sq. designs, whereas a barcode can solely maintain round 20 characters.
For years, QR codes remained primarily an industrial device. Then smartphones arrived, adopted by a worldwide pandemic that demanded contactless options. Out of the blue, these pixelated squares had been in all places: restaurant menus, retail shows, and now, more and more, espresso packaging.
Scanning the Reality About Your Cup
Progressive cafés and low roasters at the moment are embedding QR codes straight onto cups, creating what may be known as “sensible vessels.”
“Our mission at Warawul is to spotlight the work of the producers and provides them a platform to have the ability to inform the story of their coffees in their very own phrases … to attach them to customers who care about the place their espresso got here from,” says Christian.
“At our espresso bar in Berlin, we regularly have conversations with clients who’re curious concerning the espresso they’re ingesting. For takeaway clients, such prolonged conversations usually are not at all times potential. However we needed to create an avenue for them to study extra concerning the producers behind it. That’s after we got here up with the concept of QR codes on our cups,” he continues.
Past the Bean: Creating Espresso Connections
The genius of this innovation lies within the format’s versatility. From interactive maps displaying the exact coordinates of the espresso’s origin to time-lapse movies of the fermentation course of, or interviews with farmers, or only a web page on the model’s web site sharing all the small print, slightly QR code can supply a healthful peek right into a espresso’s journey.
“We designed our takeaway cups to make it straightforward for clients to see what’s of their cup. Prospects can scan the code and observe the hyperlink to a web page on our web site that shares particulars of every espresso we’re serving that day, each on espresso and filter. We replace this web page as wanted to replicate what we’re serving,” Christian says. “The outline consists of who produced it, the place it’s from, what selection it’s, what roast stage it’s, the way it was processed, and what tasting notes we perceived. We additionally embody hyperlinks to the webpage for every espresso.
”Right here, clients can entry additional particulars, together with how lengthy we’ve been working with the producer, the FOB worth we paid, and the way we imported the espresso,” he continues.
The Sq. Way forward for Round Espresso
As we sip our manner into this new period of transparency, it’s clear that the common-or-garden QR code has turn into greater than only a technological comfort—it’s a storytelling system, an academic device, and a bridge between worlds.
The specialty-coffee business has at all times prided itself on connection and group. Now, with a easy scan, these connections lengthen past café partitions to farms hundreds of miles away. In an age the place customers more and more vote with their {dollars}, this radical transparency isn’t simply good ethics—it’s good enterprise.
The following time you’re handed a cup with that acquainted pixelated sq., take a second to scan it. Behind these black-and-white patterns lies the way forward for espresso—a future the place each sip tells a narrative, and transparency is brewed proper in.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bhavi Patel is a meals author specializing in espresso and tea, and a brand-building specialist with a background in dairy know-how and an curiosity in culinary historical past and sensory notion of meals.
Subscribe and Extra!
As at all times, you possibly can learn Barista Journal in paper or digital format. Subscribe right here to get your personal hardcopy of every situation delivered. Learn the April + Could 2025 situation free of charge with our digital version.
And for greater than three years’ price of points, go to our digital version archives right here.
