The rise and fall of Coffee Republic? (Coffee Republic)

Member Name: Sandra-M

Product:	Coffee Republic
Date:	19/08/01 (429 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nothing if you are a tea drinker, Seats look comfortable

Disadvantages: Serve horrible tea., Can be crowded at busy times

As a non-coffee drinker the other day I paid my first visit to Coffee Republic. My boss asked me to go out and buy a 'wet tall lattee' for him - translated this is a medium milky coffee without the froth.

It was 11.00 am in the morning and the place was buzzing with most tables occupied. There was quite a queue at the counter and about four people busily serving and shouting out orders behind the counter.

There is an extensive coffee menu - espresso, capuccinos, latte, mocha and also a range of iced coffees, hot chocolate and Teazers and fruit teazer (a fruity iced tea). I had been told to buy something for myself and had seen an advert advertising 'green tea' (very healthy!) for sale on the way in so I thought I'd try that.

As I got nearer to the top of the queue I realised that it must have been the server on the till's first day on the job and it looked as though he was not having a good day!

"Yes please?", he said.
"A wet latte - with no froth please", I replied.
"What size?" he barked, without looking up from his till.
"Tall."
"Eat here or to go?"
"Take away. Also, do you do green teas (I could find no mention of this on the menu)?"
At this point a more experienced girl stepped in - "Yes we do the Fruit Teazer but we don't have any of that at the moment, we also do a range of herbal teas that contain green tea."
A herbal tea containing green tea? - that's what I thought. Herbal teas contain no tea at all - not even green!
"Ok, I'll try a herbal tea then. What flavours do you have"
To be fair they had a good range - peppermint, camomile, raspberry and cranberry. My heart sank when she produced a Twinnings tea bag and plonked it in one of their tall plastic cups and I realised that I was going to be charged £1.60 for this. The guy at the till was still looking at hi
s till for inspiration - there was no pre-set button for herbal tea! The girl stepped in frantically pushing buttons.

I paid my money and waited. My server went on to serve other people and I realised that the coffee would just arrive at the serving table at the end when it was ready. Various coffees came and went and two seemed to be standing on their own so I assumed they were mine. The cups had some indecipherable scribble on them so no way of telling.

Now I had to find some lids and a bag, spoons, sugar. Basically you are left to do everything yourself from this stage onwards. By the way the cardboard trays for two cups don't actually fit inside the little bag but two cups do fit nicely and providing the lids are on shouldn't spill.

Well, my boss enjoyed his coffee, although it had froth on it - he'd had trouble getting it without the froth too. I think CR's tea making skills need a little improvement though. My tea was very watery as it had been served in too big a cup - you need a smaller cup to get the full flavour.

I believe the coffee is good at CR so this must be why they are so popular. They closed down 3 shops last year after making an operating loss. Despite making a further smaller loss, they are expanding and plan to open another 30 bars over the next 12 months and hopes to have 200 outlets across the UK by 2004 so if there is not one in your town soon, there soon will be.

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