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06/08/2005: "U.S. Coffee Roasters See Summer Sales Perk"

NEW YORK - Summer is no longer a string of dog days for U.S. coffee roasters,
who have abandoned the phrase "see you in September" as demand starts to even
out year-round.

An old rule of thumb among commodity traders was that coffee drinking declines
during summer's warmth, while gasoline demand rises during the vacation season.
But that doesn't apply much to coffee these days.

"Our business is down about 10 percent in July and August compared with the winter,
but back in the 1960s it was down as much as 40 percent," said Donald Schoenholt,
president of Gillies Coffee Co., roasters in Brooklyn, New York. "After air
conditioning spread from movie theaters to office buildings and then to homes,
people for the first time could sit cool at home and drink a hot cup of coffee."
Americans aren't like the British "who like a hot drink, mainly tea, on a hot day,"
he said.

More recently, chilled drinks like iced cappuccino offered by Starbucks,
Dunkin' Donuts and other chains, along with ready-to-drink brews sold by several
small regional companies and Starbucks have helped U.S. summer sales, Schoenholt said.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. in Waterbury, Vt., has suffered little in the
summertime, according to spokesman Rick Peyser. Sales of the company's specialty beans
are growing at 17 percent to 18 percent annually and are strong year round, accelerating
a little in the year-end holiday season, he said. Green Mountain customers make iced coffee,
and chilled latte and cappuccino, keeping company sales afloat in the traditional dog days.

Ted Lingle, director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America observes,
"coffee is a morning beverage and a cold weather beverage, so U.S. sales decline
in the summer, but exceptions are areas like the far northeastern U.S., where it's
still cool in the morning, and resorts with a lots of tourists."

"Meanwhile, we're very excited about recent growth in iced and cold-coffee drinks,"
which have tempered the summer downturn, Lingle said.

At Gillies and other roasters, "sales are still down a little in July and August and
a restaurant normally buying 50 pounds, might only buy 20," Schoenholt observed. "But
you still have to offer fresh product and pay your staff, rent and electricity bill.
It's a time for maintenance and planning, and if you're moving, doing that."

Most roasters' sales "are strongest from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31 when the weather's cooler
and winter's coming," said Schoenholt, adding that he "used to wish every month was
October and every day was cold and damp."

The United States is the largest coffee-consuming country, drinking a fifth of the world's
java. But today's iced and chilled coffee craze owes a lot to Italy, where cracked- or
chipped-ice coffee called "granita" has been sold for decades, spreading through Europe and to
America, Schoenholt said.

On-the-go Americans sometimes don't like the steps it takes to make iced coffee at home -
brewing a fresh pot, letting it cool, and ensuring that ice cubes are on hand, roasters said.
But that process is only slightly more involved than preparing iced tea, the more popular U.S.
summer beverage. And since some drinkers complain that ice dilutes their java, Peyser at
Green Mountain recommends making coffee ice cubes and pouring a room-temperature brew over them.