Kosher Certification:
More Than Marketing
by Donna Gordon Blankinship
illustration by s.w. tumbleson


The Web site for the two-store operation of Coffee with a Conscience in Milwaukee, Wis., describes the company as having a social, environmental and global conscience. In the same sentence where the organization describes its coffee as certified organic, fair-trade and shade-grown, Coffee with a Conscience also points out that its product is kosher.
   How does kosher fit in a sentence with fair-trade, shade-grown and organic? It's a good question with an interesting answer. Could there possibly be enough coffee-drinking people who also keep kosher to justify the cost of making sure they can buy coffee from your shop? To begin to understand the extent of the kosher market, you may want to start with a little personal research. The next time you go to the grocery store, pay attention to how many of the products you buy have a kosher mark on them (most prominently a "U" with a circle around it, but there are hundreds of other possibilities).
   Next, take a look at some marketing statistics concerning the kosher industry. Believe it or not, about a third of a sampling of American consumers told Mintel International Group, a New York marketing company, in a 2003 survey that they have knowingly purchased a kosher product. Mintel points out that kosher products are not just for people who keep kosher. Muslims, Seventh Day Adventists, vegetarians, and people with food allergies also watch for the kosher mark. Others buy kosher, just because they "feel" the products are somehow cleaner or safer. About 75,000 consumable products in the United States are certified kosher. Integrated Marketing Communications, the New York company that produces Kosherfest, a kosher food trade show, reports that kosher foods grew from $45 billion in sales in 1996 to $165 billion in 2002.
   Many people who keep kosher, however, may find it amusing that coffee companies feel the need to certify their products. The main reason behind this bemusement is the fact that coffee is a product of nature that grows on the ground and that automatically makes it kosher. There's nothing in the roasting or brewing of coffee that takes that status away from it.
   Donald Schoenholt, president of Gillies Coffee Co. in Brooklyn, N.Y., says two developments in the 20th century muddied the brew, concerning kosher coffee. They are decaffeination and flavoring. Both processes add something to the beans, which can bring their kosher status into question. For example, some decaffeination processes add a chemical created by processing a grain. This doesn't affect the coffee's everyday kosher status, because grains are naturally kosher, but it can make a difference during the eight days of the Passover holiday, when Jews avoid ingesting many grains. By the way, we're not going to get into the nitty-gritty of kosher certification in this article, but you may be interested to know that many companies roast and sell kosher certified coffee for everyday use, but few also offer kosher decaffeinated or kosher flavored coffee, because that endeavor is more complicated and costly.
   In the "olden days" when we all cooked from scratch and didn't buy processed and packaged foods, determining whether an item was kosher or not was a lot less complicated. Now, Schoenholt says, some members of the Jewish community have become super concerned about these issues and won't buy anything, even uncooked broccoli, if it doesn't have a kosher mark on it. Fresh vegetables, just like coffee, are inherently kosher, "but some people only feel comfortable if they see a hechsher [a kosher mark.]," Schoenholt says. "The observant community looks at all foods now and says, 'Yes, I know it's kosher, but I want a hechsher on it anyway.'"
   Schoenholt says this concern among observant Jews, who make up a small part of the Jewish community, which as a whole represents less than two percent of the American population, is not what makes the kosher market so large. One explanation is that if a grocery store chain wants to offer kosher products, they may need to stock hundreds or thousands of stores to serve all their customers. The same goes for large coffee chains, most of which offer kosher certified coffee. Another explanation concerns the feeling among some Americans that kosher is somehow better.
   "There is also a perception in the mind of the non-Jewish community that foods that have a kosher mark are, because of their kosherness, a higher quality," Schoenholt adds. "It is almost a very strange middle-American form of people unwittingly--and not realizing they are doing it--having a reserve of anti-Jewish prejudice. It's very weird. If it was pointed out to those communities, they would be shocked."
   There is some disagreement in the industry, however, on whether it is OK for consumers to perceive kosher as better, and even about whether kosher really is an improvement worth paying for.
   Avrom Pollak, president of Star-K, one of the major kosher certification agencies, is not surprised that the kosher market far outstrips the Jewish community in size. "Even if people are not consistent kosher consumers, when given the choice, market study after market study has shown that people will opt for kosher certification over a non-kosher one because they believe there is another level of regulatory eyes watching out for the interests of the consumer," Pollak says, adding that the phone is ringing non-stop with requests for kosher certification.
   Pollak says the most calls concern products that are easy to have kosher certified, like coffee. Even flavored coffee is not that difficult to certify, he adds, because kosher flavors for coffee are widely available, so roasters do not need to seek out custom-made flavors. As a matter of fact, Pollak says that most of the "stock flavors" are already kosher certified because there is enough of a market demand.
   Should coffee shops in smaller towns with no obvious Jewish or Muslim community be concerned about selling kosher coffee? Pollak says that just because customers haven't asked the retailer to sell kosher coffee doesn't mean they are not interested. "If you're in Biloxi, Mississippi, I'm not going to tell you that you will have a significant number of kosher customers, but you will have people who are interested in kosher products because of their perceptions of increased quality," he adds.
   Perception is the key to marketing and sales. "The real life of coffee is that the more things you can ID your coffee's goodness at, the more chances you have [to beat your competitor]. Kosher is another identification that will help you single out your product as being a cut above," says Schoenholt, who was drinking a cup of Sumatra, hand-picked in the Lingtong district by a company called Kuda Mas, while being interviewed. "It's the fanciest damn Sumatra you've ever consumed." Gillies sells nearly $5 million worth of kosher coffee beans each year to coffeehouses, restaurants, caterers and hotels all over the United States.
   Schoenholt believes retailers are not taking advantage of the marketing potential of selling a kosher brand. "They promote the quality of their baristas and where their coffee comes from, but they are not highlighting the fact that the coffee is kosher," he says. "The consumer likes to hear that it's fair-trade, that it's bird-friendly, that it's Rainforest Alliance-approved. Everyone wants to save the world when it doesn't cost them anything."
   One main reason more coffeehouses are selling kosher coffee today is that their customers are asking for it, according to Henry Stein, senior director of business development for the Caribou Coffee Company, which is based in Minneapolis, Minn. The president of this 12-year-old, privately held chain of 260 stores in 12 states (the second largest non-franchised coffee company in the U.S. after Starbucks) discovered that it was one of the few national companies without a kosher mark on its bagged beans and ground coffee. That, combined with the clamor from its customers, led Caribou to change its ways. As of July 3, 2004 bagged Caribou Coffee will be certified kosher.
   "We did what many companies do and some don't and probably need to do: we listened to our consumer. We have a very significant consumer base in Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. Thirty percent of our stores are in neighborhoods with customers who have been asking for kosher. They asked why we weren't doing it," Stein says.
   It turns out that getting the kosher certification was not all that expensive or complicated. "It was not a big deal to make it happen," he says, adding, however, that there are many ways to "go kosher." Some would have taken longer than the 90 days it took Caribou to become kosher through a Minneapolis agency; they would have had to wait in line for the required certification visits from the kosher authorities in some of the bigger East Coast cities.
   Stein believes that there is no difference between the evaluation and procedures of the different kosher agencies. He compared the checklists and requirements of several certification organizations before deciding to use the local agency, Blue Ribbon Kosher Certification, and to save some time and travel money. By the way, each agency has its own kosher mark, which is why the products on store shelves display such a variety of kosher symbols.
   Caribou Coffee Company will be doing some additional training of its staff to help them understand how to communicate the fact that the coffee is now certified kosher, but the company doesn't plan to do any overt advertising. "There needs to be caution taken in terms of marketing this. It's not a value added. It doesn't affect taste," Stein says.
   Rich Serpe, master coffee roaster for 30 years and owner with his wife, Rene, of Coffee Roasters of Las Vegas, says the fact that the coffee they sell is certified kosher is just part of the way their product is a "cut above." He likes the way the rabbis who certify his plant certify what he already knew: that the plant is so clean you could eat off the floor. The wholesale roaster, which also has a retail operation, invites every customer to take a tour of the roasting facility, so its cleanliness has been on display since way before the company started selling kosher coffee, which now makes up about 2 to 2.5 percent of the business. Serpe sells a little over 300,000 pounds of coffee each year.
   Most of Coffee Roasters of Las Vegas' kosher business is with hotels and caterers, but Serpe says he also makes some sales to people who have tasted his kosher brew at a banquet and then contact him via the Internet. The process to make the coffee kosher was relatively simple, according to Serpe. He had to dedicate one grinder to just grinding kosher flavored coffee. He had to buy two large stainless steel containers to store kosher flavors. "Outside of that, our operation really hasn't changed much," he says. "It's not really an inconvenience, once you do it once."
   The process for selling bagged kosher coffee in your store is even simpler: just order coffee from a kosher roaster or have your in-house roaster go through the certification process with a kosher organization. Brewing kosher coffee to sell in a cup is a little more complicated, as a kosher customer may also be concerned with the kosher status of the milk and whether non-kosher coffee was ground and brewed in the same equipment. To understand this issue from the other side of the counter, consider the guidelines that Star-K Online (www.star-k.org) provides kosher customers for drinking coffee in shops. They may feel free to drink all unflavored, roasted coffees, both regular and decaf in a disposable cup. They may add sugar and milk, but not creamer. It's OK to add creamer or flavors if they check the bottle first to see if they have a kosher mark. Kosher customers are advised to stay away from drinks made in blenders or coffee sitting in a carafe or pump pot because these may not be used exclusively for kosher beverages.
   If the customer feels like having a kosher pastry with her cup of coffee, then you need to consider a whole other list of questions. The kosher board in your city or region can tailor the answers to these questions to your circumstances.

Donna Gordon Blankinship is a frequent contributor to Fresh Cup. She can be reached at donna@ghostwriteronline.com.