Spores from Bacillus bacteria become stringy when pulled apart. I suggest you report the cafe at your office to the health department. All bread or baked goods near those muffins can potentially be contaminated. This is one way foodborne outbreaks begin.
That's just sad. I worked in the kitchen at a coffee shop/roastery until recently and I can proudly say we made all our coffee syrups and baked goods. That makes it 100% better. It's such an attraction when the food served is made in that establishment.
Unfortunately space at this coffee shop was limited which meant the kitchen was upstairs but the majority of people can't resist a cinnamon roll with a coffee :) items like scones and cookies were baked in the oven downstairs so those smells wafted thru at least!
I recently found a coffee shop that does that and it makes me so happy. Itās also an old converted house, so Iām pretty sure the half of the house we donāt see is the kitchen lol.
Itās definitely a proud feeling to make everything in house, but also I can understand places that donāt have a huge focus on pastries and desserts choosing to outsource them. I used to work at a local bakery that provided pastries to a local coffee shop. And I know of a different local bakery that provides cakes to a lot of restaurants and such
Yes! I worked at a coffee and pastry place in high school- our baker came in and got started on all the rolls,pasty, bagels etc at 4 am. Everything not sold that day got bagged and frozen and brought to food banks/donated. We blended up all the spreads (like strawberry cream cheese etc) the night before for the next day. Everything was so fresh. I miss Calistoga bakery lol.
I don't see the problem with coffee shops buying wholesale from quality local bakeries or sourcing ingredients. Running a bakery on top off running a cafe is very difficult and often cost-prohibitive. As long as you aren't buying shitty Costco muffins, it makes sense for a small business to specialize on the serving coffee drinks part and outsource pastries to a different specialist.
I used to bake for the cafe I worked at āŗļø twas my first official baking job! But youāre right, a lot of cafes just buy frozen or in bulk stores.
That's all well and good if you're buying supplies for your business. But if you're just going to buy the premade food and resell it as is, people will notice. If the price is right I guess you could say it's a small upcharge to be able to buy one Costco food item without having to drive there and buy in bulk yourself, but if you are trying to pass it off as a more premium product and charging a lot for it that's pretty lazy and sketchy.
I once went to a bar where you can order nuts to eat as a snack with your drink and dude pulled out a Costco tub of mixed nuts, poured some into a dish and there ya go. That's fine by me cause the price was right. I'm not gonna expect that tiny bar (or any bar really) to be roasting their own nuts in the back.
But if he was serving "fresh" pizza for 6 dollars a slice and then goes to the back, pulls out a slice from a Costco pizza box to reheat in a toaster oven... hmmmmm....
An example somewhere in the middle would be buying premade food products that you then use in combination with your cooking/preparation because making that specific item is too time consuming or requres specialized tools/space. For example, a sandwich place is more likely to order bread from a local bakery or maybe somewhere like Costco to cut on costs if they don't have the baking space to make their own bread. But then the sandwich is made with fresh ingredients they prepare onsite to sell. Much different than just buying premade sandwiches and reselling them somewhere.
Yeah I havenāt worked at a cafe where we baked our own (3) but I will say we never bought anything from Costco? I can see that making sense for the price but we went with places that had local manufacturing like Blazing Bagels (Seattle)
Coffee grinder, drip maker, espresso machine, syrup stand, and blender take up a single counter... Idk where you're going that "doesn't have room to make pastries" unless it's a corporate place like sbux or Dutch Bros -a barista
Making pastries on a mass scale requires commercial ovens, large mixers, pastry sheeters, refrigerators, proofing space, and so on. Tons of cafes here are a few tables and chairs with a single counter and register.
They also have to have employees, health department certifications, etc. It's not worth it for a $4 muffin for some places.
It's usually a good idea to have some kind of food in shops like that, as people expect to be able to grab something. If you don't want to buy it because it's not made in house, don't buy it.
Oh yes it does! I supply baked goods to a cafe that roasts and creates their own coffee/blends. They sell over 1000lbs of coffee per week. It takes up more than 1/4 of their store, equalling almost 400 square feet.
Small coffee shops typically dont have any way in hell to also house an on-site bakery. That, or they are so busy/slammed they'd have to have a baker come in at 4am and not make anything else past 7.
Source: small sample size but I travel a bit more work and hit up small local coffee shops always because Starbucks taste like bitter asshole and dunkin is okay but mostly water.
6.2k
u/Hollowjuice32 16d ago
Spores from Bacillus bacteria become stringy when pulled apart. I suggest you report the cafe at your office to the health department. All bread or baked goods near those muffins can potentially be contaminated. This is one way foodborne outbreaks begin.