Great coffee should be for everyone! For the consumer today though, specialty coffee can be complicated. But it does not have to be! Today we talk with industry legend Tony (Tonx) Konecny, Founder of Tonx Coffee, and Co-founder of Yes Plz (the people behind the $1 cup of coffee at Locol) all about his mission to remedy this issue. In addition to discussing Yes Plz and some of Tony’s professional history that informs the companies philosophy we will talk about: challenging orthodoxy, intentional blending, pricing for accessibility, coffee subscriptions, on-boarding customers, the industries echo chamber and much more. Tony has a lot to say that I think will help shape our approach to customers in the shop and really make an impact on how “into” coffee they get.
Throughout this talk ask yourself: What are we doing to help customers into specialty coffee in the shops? How can I apply these philosophies to how I act and speak with customers in the shop? What rules or orthodoxies am I holding onto that may need to be challenged in the name of progress?
More about Tony “Tonx” Konecny. Tony fell into coffee first as a barista and then head roaster at Seattle’s seminal Victrola Coffee. In 2006 he went on to bend the coffeebar genre as part of Intelligentsia’s Los Angeles project. One of the early weirdos in what has come to be known as coffee’s Third Wave movement, he holds the dubious distinction of being among the first coffee bloggers, for which he sincerely apologizes. In 2011, frustrated with how the top roasting companies focused more on their baristas and selling beverages than in giving honest footholds for would-be coffee connoisseurs, he started Tonx Coffee. It pioneered a direct to consumer subscription service, sourcing great coffees from around the world and empowering coffee lovers to brew stuff at home that could rival the best cafes. In 2014 Tonx Coffee was acquired by Blue Bottle Coffee becoming the Blue Bottle at Home service. Tony’s itch for finding new on ramps for getting people into coffee remained, leading him deeper into a still-unfinished book project and the $1 coffee project for LocoL
YESPLZ.COFFEE
KICKSTARTER
INSTAGRAM
TWITTER
