A busy Friday afternoon at work. I was getting things wrapped up quickly to end the weekly rote and more so, as I was meeting my long-time friend at the ‘Coffee Roasters’. ‘I really deserve this cuppa today’ I told myself as I started to sip the hot brewing coffee. Mmm.. mind blowing and exotic!! Wonder where this cup of coffee finds its roots. I was curious to know that. I went up to the counter to check on the coffee brand and its story. Here, have a look at this pack ‘SLAY Signature Coffee blend’. Scan the QR code and get the details, was the instant reply I got.
How very interesting! I did just that and the story unveiled. The story of the coffee bean from its source to the final package! How is this possible, I asked? Oh, let me tell you this story which I have been closely associated with, ‘The SLAY Coffee Bean Story’, replied my friend.
SLAY Coffee is a leading gourmet coffee brand started by Chaitanya Chitta and his wife and the coffee is sold through a cloud kitchen model.
1Operating in the “coffee outside the cafe” space, SLAY is now present at 150+ cloud locations and at 10+ sites in an on-the-go coffee bar format. The coffees, handcrafted by baristas and delivered in spill-proof, temperature-controlled packaging, include innovative products like the SLAY-X, SLAY Pour Over, and the SLAY DIY Home Brewing Kit.
SLAY facts
- SLAY procures its fresh beans from the plantations based in the mountain ranges of Baba Budan Giri in Chikmagalur, Karnataka.
- SLAY brand believes in Ethical Sourcing and Sustainability.
- SLAY values the efforts of coffee growers and believes in giving them their fair share.
- Empowering the women farmers and concerns for their families is of prime importance for SLAY.
- SLAY believes in adopting Sustainable farming practices to protect the environment and the socio-economic impacts associated with it.
- The different blends range from Arabica, blend of Robusta cherry and Robusta parchment and the traditional South Indian filter coffee and all these are roasted only on order in small batches under suitable conditions to achieve the best yields.
SLAY’s Questionable Flavors
Chaitanya feels, 2As a young coffee brand, we are proud of having made the following choices very early on in our journey.
Building sustainable brands to win consumer loyalty and good intent needs credibility of claims to stand apart. Some of these questions intrigue him.
How do I show that the beans have been sourced ethically from the Chikmagalur belt?
How do I prove that the coffee growers are getting their rightful share?
How credible are my claims on the various blends and flavors?
How do I bring in transparency into my coffee brands?
That’s not all.
The coffee supply chain is brewing with challenges.
- Some of the specialty beans have different grades sourced from different growers.
- These beans are milled locally and sent to central warehouses in Bengaluru. The roasting of these beans is done on a contract roast model which needs further coordination.
- These beans are shipped to the warehouses and then the roasters based on orders and hence need to be tracked carefully.
- The ultimate taste of coffee depends on a roasting profile which has associated factors like roasting temperature, moisture of green beans and bulk density of the beans.
- Finally, just before packaging, the coffee tasting of sample roasters is carried out.
The supply chain is complex with so many activities, inventories to be managed, paper work and maintaining records.
Do I have a one stop solution to all of these problems? Chaitanya asks himself.
SLAY connects to TraceX with SLAYGRID
SLAY Coffee partners with TraceX to implement a blockchain traceability platform for the coffee supply chain. This empowers the SLAY consumers with transparent information about the journey of the bean, thus satisfying SLAY’s commitment to deliver a quality coffee experience to them. It would also help SLAY to streamline all the processes in the coffee supply chain and deliver a credible product.
The Traceability Expresso Journey
The customers can trace the journey of the coffee beans from cultivation, harvesting, roasting, grinding and brewing to the end consumer.
- FOODSIGN, the blockchain platform digitizes the entire supply chain to capture relevant information across the stakeholders in the coffee value chain.
- Multiple participants like the coffee growers, curing workers, roasters and warehousing partners get onboarded to our platform.
- The different stakeholders use a combination of android based multilingual mobile application and the web application to track and trace the life cycle of the bean as it moves from the plantation to the café and eventually to the consumer.
- FOODSIGN is integrated with an IoT enabled coffee roaster to capture real-time information regarding the very important roasting profiles.
- The information exchanged at various intervention points across the supply chain is pushed through the blockchain to generate a digital identity of the product.
- Information like the grower profile, geo mapping of grower land is all recorded to verify sourcing claims.
- The different processes of milling and curing, inventory management and scheduling of multiple batches for roasting are all streamlined to ensure robustness and efficiency in the supply chain.
- The process of quality check of the beans is recorded before being sent for packaging.
- The packaged roasts are then labelled with our generated system labels.
- For every batch generated, QR codes are created and printed onto the Slay packs.
- These batches need to reach different locations. Slay uses our Batch Serialization feature to ensure their bean roasts reach the correct place.
- The consumers scan the QR code to recreate the delightful journey from the bean to the cup.
Coffee makes life better for SLAY and TraceX
Chaitanya says, “3Each cup carries a stamp of the barista that made the coffee. Customers will be able to trace the journey of the bean from the estate to the cup through SLAYGRID, India’s first blockchain enabled supply chain solution giving 100% traceability.”
A feeling of satisfaction for the SLAY brand, giving a unique product experience to the consumer, proving brand transparency and trust. SLAY coffee is currently selling across, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi among other cities.
And a feeling of satisfaction for TraceX, giving a robust traceability solution to help organizations win brand loyalty from consumers and product credibility complying to regulatory standards.
Truly a win-win to both and a new age coffee experience to all coffee lovers….
Check out how our solutions are used across the agri-produce value chains
