Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/661513
F or the successful modern business, maintaining a digital presence is unavoidable. A good-looking and reliable website is important, of course, but increasingly the website needs to function properly on a smartphone or tablet. More so each day, smart devices are vital tools through which people interact with the world and manage their daily lives. Specifically, a mobile device's apps are the platform through which smart devices are so convenient and the services and information they provide so immediate. According to comScore, Inc.'s 2015 U.S. Mobile App Report, time spent on digital media has grown nearly 50 percent in the past two years, with more than three-fourths of that growth directly attributable to the mobile app. In fact, it has grown at such a rate that mobile is now the leading digital platform, according to the same report, with total activity on smartphones and tablets making up 62 percent of digital media time spent, and apps in particular rep- resenting the majority of digital media time at 54 percent. The tea and coffee industry is no exception. Whether a consumer, a roaster or a retailer, apps take on a variety of forms that are aimed chiefly at being as useful as possible in their own respects. A consumer may choose a referential app about types of tea, for instance, a roaster may desire a digital tool to log coffee pro- duction and the retailer another electronic vending platform. This report seeks to examine the roles of apps in each category of the tea and coffee industry. For the average tea and coffee enthu- siast, there's no end to the apps available for download, and more often than not, they are free or under five dollars. One of the most prevalent types of apps is ref- erential or educational, aimed at provid- ing whatever information about tea and coffee is needed (though normally the app addresses either tea or coffee). This could mean an encyclopedic app about origins and profiles, for instance, or an instructional app with how-to guides and videos as well as recipes. Often, an app for a tea or coffee lover will serve mul- tiple functions. KoHi, by KoHi Labs, is a precision brew calculator, timer and recipe manager for hand-crafted coffee that sells for USD $2.99. KoHi's app, like many, represents another type of tea and coffee lover app, one which aims to provide a utility. Through the app's clean and simple interface, the user can choose how much coffee to brew, calculate the exact amount of beans and water to use, and walk through steps included in the pre-in- fusion and infusion phases of brewing, creating a pre- cise and consistent brew each time. The app's recipe manager allows the user to create customizable ratios and store them for future use, as well as share them to social media. Many other apps seek to help the consumer locate tea or coffee, such as Coffee Guru, priced at USD $0.99. Popular among those who enjoy third-wave specialty cof- fee, this app helps users locate independent coffeehouses, with over 7,600 of them for perusal spread across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Paris, France. The app also features information about 74 direct trade roasters, a "news" section regard- ing specialty coffee, information about fair and direct trade for reference, a filter option when searching for coffee- houses, and a section to upload photos and submit and read reviews of venues for and by fellow users. (Of course, many coffee and tea retail giants like Starbucks Coffee and Dunkin Donuts make it easy for users to locate their stores via apps as well.) There is truly a variety of coffee and tea apps out there for professionals as well as the average consumer. Art of Coffee, at USD $2.99, is intended for home and professional baristas who want to learn how to create coffee or latte art, with many designs and several methods imparted by two of Australia's expert baristas. Coffee Run, a free app available on Google Play, is for that poor intern who is always running to the coffeehouse to buy coffee for the office and has to recollect too many orders. This app provides a quick and easy interface for remembering them. Coffivity, also available for free on Google Play, rec- reates the ambient noises of a café to increase creativity and help the user work better, a theory which, the app claims, science and research support. The UP Coffee app by Jawbone (free) helps users determine how his/ her body reacts to caf- feine through data-based reports. By notifying the app each time he/she has caffeine, the user can find out if caffeine is keeping them up at night, how much they should be drinking and the steps they can take to sleep better. And for those who don't know their "skinny moos" from their "half caff's," CoffeeTalk is an app is a user-built comprised of a dictionary of coffeehouse lingo. Perhaps the most popular consum- March 2016 27 COVER STORY In the digital world of today, there's an app for nearly everything. Whether a roaster or consumer, this report examines tea and coffee apps available now and the roles they are playing within their industries. By Zachery Bridgeman This brew timer by Kohi Labs allows you to make a precise and consistent cup of coffee each time.