Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Curdled Cream With Your Coffee?

On a morning break, I called the front desk to request some extra coffee for my room. When I got back to my room in the afternoon, sure enough they brought more coffee. In addition, I had a voicemail asking me if I received the coffee and if everything else in the room met my expectations.



I was impressed with the follow-up system at Lago Mar Resort. I did get the coffee, but when I made my next cup, I poured one of the little half & half containers into the coffee and it curdled right there in my fresh cup of coffee. Down the drain it all went and I started all over again, hoping that the next little serving of half & half wouldn't curdle. I hate to be wasteful, but I wasn't about to try do drink that cup of coffee. I sure appreciate their effort in stocking all their rooms with half & half, but the problem with these little containers is that it's hard to know if it's bad until after it ruins a good cup of coffee.

I studied the little Wholesome Farms container to see if it had an expiration date. All I found was a series of numbers that would probably allow you to track it back to the manufacturer in the event it was poisoned or something, but this isn't much help to the end user who gets cranky without a good cup of coffee & cream.

I could complain and even blame the Lago Mar and Wholesome Farms, but I see this as my problem. I'm the one who chooses to pamper this coffee habit. I'm the one who will drive miles out of my way for a good cup of coffee and I'm the one who will feel irritated without it. I should challenge myself with my caffeine addiction or at least minimize its impact by switching over to tea. It's much easier to find a hot cup of water for a tea bag than it is to find a good hot coffee and cream. Enough of this whining over the coffee though!

The second creamer was good. So far today I had a two good creamers out of three. Sixty-six percent isn't a very good success rate, but I probably wouldn't complain about this because I wouldn't want to discourage the hotel from offering real creamers.

Very few hotels or resorts offer half and  half in the rooms and this is probably why.  Companies like Wholesome Farms, Coffee-Mate and Land O Lakes seem to be missing out on a BIG opportunity here. There are a lot of hotel rooms around the world without creamers. How about doing some partnering with hotels and resorts to supply creamers in their wet bars, and help establish processes to ensure their freshness? At the same time, you can supply their restaurants & cafes.

Personally, I'd give up the shampoo for the creamers. I can get my ration of shampoo through airport security, but not my cream!

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4 comments:

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