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Comment by turtlebits | Hacker News Reader

I'm not even sure the problem exists. Most people don't care when their coffee was roasted. For me, I'm fine to get what's in the pre-brewed carafe, especially in an office, where it's free. (There is an automatic/on-demand machine as well but I never bother with it.)

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You’re very clearly not the target market for this. There are most definitely people who obsess over good coffee and would never drink, for example, Dunkin Donuts cigarette butt tea. That said, that’s still not evidence for or against product-market fit. That’s what revenue is for.

There are always people who obsess over coffee, but IMO, workplace delivery absolutely does not fit. My father is one of those, (5 expresso machines, 3 grinders), but he does it for the experience/hobby and not the convenience.

haha, I wonder how would your dad feel about you calling them expresso machines?

Your comment doesn't really contradict the parent comment in any way. They said most people don't care and I'd wager that's true. That doesn't mean there aren't people who care, only that they're a small minority.

My naive prior is that there is a very large overlap of

1. People who obsess over coffee enough to care when their coffee was roasted

2. People who obsess over coffee so much that they don’t trust someone else to prepare it The Right Way

3. People who enjoy the ritual of making coffee as much as they do drinking it

…which, I think, probably makes any business like this unviable (but I would love to be proved wrong)

You are correct, but if very few people care and the target market is very small, it means there is no business or is a very small/niche/difficult business, which goes back to the original point. It is no surprise that such investments are likely going to be a failure.

I care! I look at the dates on the bags and try buy the most recent stuff. Most roasters don't bother to even put dates on their bags though.

Maybe we're minority but we exist. There are dozens of us!

Here in Portland you kinda have to put a roasted on date if you want your coffee to sell… that is, if people don’t buy directly from the roaster. If you want some amazing coffee, check out Nossa Familia. They are vertically integrated (own their own farms in Brazil for the last century). They ship anywhere and have great sales online. A lot of the time we’ll just buy the coffee online for convenience, and they’ll always ship it with a roasted on date just a week out or less (not supposed to make coffee directly after roasting). Give it a try! I’m not sponsored in any way, just absolutely love their coffee. https://nossacoffee.com

"Most people don't care..."

"I care!"

I am not sure your comment is helping...

Most people don't care. But I'm betting that a disproportionate number of people who are going to order coffee do.

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