Anodyne Among the Small Minority Investing in Real-Time Coffee Apps

Milwaukee’s Anodyne Coffee Roasting last week launched a new app designed to build loyalty, keep customers informed of current coffee offerings and serve as a kind of one-stop brewing tutorial center.

The app is in large part a response to the fact that nearly 50 percent of visits to Anodyne’s website are from mobile devices and tablets, according to Anodyne owner Matt McClutchy. “We believe that by going native on mobile — Apple and Android —  we can increase the level of engagement and potentially offer better service and information to our customers,” McClutchy told Daily Coffee News. “We do plan on making our website more friendly to mobile devices.”

(related: Square Ditches Wallet App in the Increasingly Competitive Mobile Loyalty Segment)

But from a consumer interest perspective, there is a far more exciting reason Anodyne spent the time and money to develop the app. Says McClutchy, “Some very big fans of our coffee wanted to know what drip coffees were selling at each cafe each day and that is how the idea began to get traction.”

For this, the app lists which drip coffees are available at each of Anodyne’s two retail locations in real time — by syncing with the iPads at the bar counters with a “touch and drag” system — including all of the information found on the company’s 12-ounce retail bags, such as elevation, producer information, cultivar and tasting notes.

(related: Is This Hot New All-You-Can-Drink App a Threat to Quality Differentiation?)

Anodyne is not exactly breaking new ground here — Intelligentsia, for one, has an app with similar information on daily coffee offerings — but they are among the small minority of coffee companies responding to intense online consumer interest through app development.

Of course, the app will also include company basics like hours of operation, locations and maps, as well as an event page. Turning the phone to the landscape position calls up different brewing methods — including French press, pour over, siphon and Aeropress — with instructions on ratios of coffee to water, grind settings and extraction times. McClutchy says future plans for the app may include a directory for other retailers selling and brewing Anodyne coffee, and a more robust news section.