In this note
The short version
Grab-and-go specialty coffee is coffee made to the standard of a specialty cafe, served from a small format with no seating and no reason to linger. You walk up, pick up and carry on. P.S. Coffee is building it as compact Pods in and around Ahmedabad's offices, campuses and gyms. No Pod is open yet.
Key takeaways
Grab-and-go specialty coffee keeps the cafe's standard of cup and removes the room around it.
What stays: specialty grade coffee, ground at every order, prepared by a trained person.
What goes: the seating, the Wi-Fi, the table service and the hour a cafe asks of you.
P.S. Coffee is building this format as Pods in and around Ahmedabad's offices, campuses and gyms. No Pod is open yet.
A format, not a lesser cup
Specialty coffee describes the cup: coffee graded to a specialty standard and prepared properly. Grab-and-go describes the format: a small, staffed setup where you walk up, pick up and carry on. Put the two together and you get the standard of cup a specialty cafe serves, without the cafe around it.
Most coffee has been sold in one of two formats. The cafe was built for the planned visit: a table, a playlist, an hour. The pantry machine was built for procurement: always on, asking nothing of anyone. The daily drinker stands between the two, and very little was built with them in mind.
P.S. Coffee is building that format as Pods, placed in and around the offices, co-working spaces, campuses and gyms where the day already runs. No Pod is open yet. Ahmedabad comes first.
What comes out: everything that was not the coffee
A cafe is a room that happens to sell coffee. The seating, the Wi-Fi, the dining floor, the table service and the address are all part of what you are buying, whether you stay an hour or a minute.
Take those out and what remains is a serious machine, a grinder, good coffee and a person who knows how to use all three.
The cafe was built for the person who visits once a fortnight. We are building for the person who comes twice on a Tuesday.
None of this is a case against cafes. A cafe is the right answer for meeting someone for an hour or working from a table. It is a different job.
What stays: the grinder, the machine and the person
The standard of the cup does not shrink with the footprint. The brief for every Pod reads the same:
Specialty grade, every lot.
Ground at every order. Not this morning. Not in bulk. Now.
18 grams in, 36 out, for every shot.
Prepared by someone trained to do it.
What is small is the space, somewhere between 50 and 200 sq ft. What is not small is the attention. A compact format removes the room, not the preparation.
Ninety seconds is the target, and it shapes the menu
Speed is the first rule of the format, and it decides more than you would expect.
The board will hold four drinks, P.S. Black, P.S. White, P.S. Green and P.S. Strong, so a first-timer can order without asking anything. The rotating versions behind them are numbered rather than named, because P.S. Black No. 3 can be said at 8:45am in a queue and a poetic name cannot. The planned app will let you choose a pick-up time, so the cup is made for the minute you arrive.
| Format | Specialty cafe | Grab-and-go Pod | Pantry machine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | The planned visit | The daily cup | Always-on availability |
| Seating | Yes | None, on purpose | Usually none |
| Prepared by | A barista | A trained person, every cup | A fixed machine cycle |
| Range | Varies by cafe | Four fixed drinks, a rotating few behind them | Usually one version of each |
| Time it asks of you | Often an hour | A 90-second target at the counter | Seconds, unattended |
This compares formats, not better and worse. Each is the right answer somewhere. The machine and the counter get their own comparison in The pantry machine and the counter.
What grab-and-go is for, and what it is not for
Good for
- +A daily cup on the way in
- +A second cup between meetings
- +Mornings with four minutes, not forty
- +The same good cup, with something new behind it
Not for
- –Meeting a friend for an hour
- –Working from a table with a laptop
- –A slow weekend coffee as an outing
- –Anyone who wants the room more than the cup
A Pod has nowhere to sit, and that is the point. It is designed that way on purpose.
Who the format is built for
The daily drinker. Knows good coffee from bad and has it every working day. Wants the same cup at the same time without thinking about it.
The four-minute morning. Has a 9am and a route already. Needs the stop to fit the route, not change it.
The floor with no good option. Works where the choice is the machine or a walk. A Pod is designed to sit inside the building, or on the corner you pass on the way in.
The month-six regular. Will want something new by month six. The P.S. rotates behind the four fixed drinks for exactly that reason.
Frequently asked questions
Be there when the first Pod opens.
Ahmedabad first. Locations and dates go to the waitlist before anywhere else.