Transcend: Coffee Education

Coffee has become an integrated part of life in modern times. As a result, companies have taken full advantage of this economic opportunity such as Starbucks and Second Cup. It is hard to imagine that small coffee shops can hold their own against these massive corporations. However, Transcend has recently opened its third shop in Edmonton, growing slowly but surely.

I did not think too much about it when I walked into a Transcend store for the first time by Argyll; I thought it was a small little coffee shop hidden between commercial buildings. After looking around some more, I saw the neat condiment station, the coffee bar and behind a massive glass window in a well-lit room, a coffee bean roaster. I was absolutely fascinated with the bean roaster, just watching it churn out roasted coffee beans. It definitely added to the experience for me as a customer. Right next to the window was the coffee bar, which is a great transition in terms of drawing customer attention. The menu board for just coffee was overwhelming with the number of selections there were. My experience at Transcend is different than my experience at Starbucks or Second Cup. I felt that Transcend had a lighter feel to it, mainly because the lighting was incredibly bright for a coffee shop and the fact there is a bean roaster that you can stare hours on end at.

Transcend Coffee is an interesting store in that it not only serves specialty coffee, it also seeks to educate its customers on coffee. Transcend offers a huge variety of coffee types, which the baristas skilfully make for you behind the coffee bar, and some snacks that are generally found in coffee shops. An interesting thing to note is that the baristas undergo a minimum of 40 hours of training before they are ready to serve customers, showing that customer experience and product quality is indeed a top priority. However, what makes Transcend different from other coffee shops is that they seek to broaden the customers' knowledge of coffee. Transcend believes that "the more people learn about coffee and how it's grown, processed, roasted and brewed, the more they tend to enjoy it." And they definitely stick with this motto; there are blog posts about coffee and tea, podcasts, e-newsletters and twice monthly public coffee tastings. On their website, brewing equipments and accessories are sold as well as monthly coffee subscriptions and packs of coffee beans.

What Transcend excels at is definitely in the area of experience as well as the selection of coffee beans. And seeing how Transcend is expanding into higher traffic areas, they are improving on the convenience factor as well. Next time you want to have a cup of coffee and want to know more about coffee, think Transcend.

Sources:

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Transcend+opens+third+Edmonton+location/4404451/story.html

http://transcendcoffee.com/