Emails to send your cafés

Short answer. Keep every one under 120 words with exactly one ask. Put the thing itself in the subject line — the date, the deadline, the invoice number — not a category. Name a specific next step with a day attached. Send it in the café's own language. And accept that email's job before an account exists is only to make the next phone call less cold; the call is what wins it.

Six rules that do more than the wording

• One ask per email. Two questions in one message reliably produce no answers. If you need a decision and a date, ask for the decision.
• Under 120 words. The templates below are mostly under eighty. Every sentence you cut raises the reply rate.
• The subject line says the thing. "Our prices from 1 November" beats "Important update". A café that knows what is inside opens it now instead of later, which in practice means instead of never.
• Name a day. "I'll ring you Thursday afternoon" and "cutoff is tomorrow at 12:00" both work. "Let me know when suits" does not.
• No attachment on first contact. A PDF on a first email goes to spam or goes unopened. Send the sheet after a conversation, when they are expecting it.
• Write in their language. Not the one you are most comfortable in. See the note on languages at the end.

One more, for the whole category: email does not win cold accounts. Fresh Cup's review of a year of its RoasterLink matchmaking programme found roasters who prioritised email underperformed by a wide margin against roasters who consistently called, while roasters who followed up actively reached response rates as high as 75%. Use these templates to support the calls in how to get wholesale accounts, not to replace them.

Before there is an account

1. After a visit where you left samples

The highest-value email in the set, because it follows a real conversation. Send it the same afternoon, while they still remember your face.

Subject: Two coffees for [café name], dropped this morning

Hi [first name],

Good to meet you. I left two coffees with [name of whoever took them]:
the house espresso and a [washed Ethiopian] for filter, both roasted
[Monday]. Recipe card in the bag: [18 g in, 40 g out, 28–32 seconds].

I'll ring you [Thursday] afternoon to hear how the espresso dialled in.
If you'd rather I came and dialled it in with you, that takes twenty
minutes and I can do [Tuesday or Wednesday] before you open.

[Your name], [roastery], [mobile]

2. Cold first contact

For a café you have not managed to catch in person. Four sentences, no attachment, and the only ask is permission to drop samples.

Subject: Coffee from [town], [15] minutes from you

Hi [first name],

I'm [your name], I roast at [roastery] in [town]. I was in on [Saturday]
and noticed [one true, specific thing: the EK on the bar, the batch brew,
the decaf listed properly].

Can I drop two coffees in for you to try? No obligation, and I won't
turn up during your morning rush.

I'll ring on [Thursday] in case email isn't your thing.

[Your name] · [mobile]

If you cannot write the specific thing honestly, you have not been in the café yet. Go in first. The generic version of this email is the one that gets deleted.

3. The quote, after they have asked

Send prices only once someone has asked for them, and put the headline numbers in the body. A café should not have to open a PDF to find out what a kilo costs.

Subject: Prices for [café name]

Hi [first name],

As promised. Prices per kilo, without VAT:

  House espresso           €18.20
  Seasonal single origin   €24.50
  Decaf                    €21.00

From [10] kg a week the espresso is [€17.30].

Order by [Monday 12:00] for [Wednesday] delivery, minimum [3] kg,
free delivery from [5] kg, payment [15] days.

Full sheet attached. Shall I call [Tuesday] to go through it?

[Your name]

The sheet itself is in the wholesale price list template, and what goes underneath it is in the terms and conditions template.

4. Proposing a trial

A trial with edges is easy to say yes to. A trial without them becomes free supply. Name the coffee, the kilos, the weeks, the price and the review date.

Subject: A two-week trial on your filter, starting [6 October]

Hi [first name],

Here's what I'd suggest, so neither of us is guessing.

Two weeks on [the Ethiopian] for batch brew only — about [4] kg a week.
First week on us, second week at [€24.50] a kilo. I'll come on the first
morning and dial it in with your team.

On [Friday 17 October] we sit down for fifteen minutes and you tell me
whether it stays. If it doesn't, no hard feelings and no invoice for the
first week.

Does [6 October] work?

[Your name]

What a trial costs you, and why a filter or guest slot is an easier yes than the house espresso, is worked out in samples, cuppings and trials.

5. The quarterly check-in with a café that said no

Most cafés you want already have a roaster they like. You are not trying to change that today; you are trying to be the name they think of when something goes wrong. Send news, never a question about switching.

Subject: New [Colombian] landing next week — want one?

Hi [first name],

Not chasing. We've got [a new washed Colombian, the one I mentioned]
arriving [next Tuesday] and I'm dropping samples to a few people whose
palate I trust.

Want a bag? I'll leave it with whoever's on bar, no call attached.

[Your name]

Once the account is running

6. Opening the account

The first message a new account gets sets its expectations for everything after. Put the operating facts in it, not a welcome paragraph.

Subject: [Café name] — you're set up, first delivery [Wednesday 8 October]

Hi [first name],

You're on the books. The practical bits:

  Order by      [Monday 12:00]
  Delivered     [Wednesday], between [7:00 and 11:00]
  Minimum       [3] kg, free delivery from [5] kg
  Payment       [15] days, bank transfer, details on the invoice
  Your prices   [espresso €18.20 / decaf €21.00] per kg, ex VAT

I'll be there myself on the first delivery to dial in and leave recipe
cards. Anything at all: [mobile]. If I'm roasting I'll ring you back
within the hour.

[Your name]

What happens across the rest of the first month is in onboarding a new wholesale café.

7. The cutoff reminder

Send it to the cafés that are due and have not ordered, not to everybody. A reminder that arrives when you have already ordered teaches people to ignore reminders.

Subject: Cutoff is tomorrow 12:00 for [Wednesday]

Hi [first name],

Nothing from you yet for [Wednesday]. Cutoff is [tomorrow at 12:00].

Last time you took [4 kg house espresso, 1 kg decaf] — reply "same" and
I'll put it on.

[Your name]

Why the cutoff should exist at all, and how to hold it without losing accounts, is in order cutoffs and lead times.

8. When you are late, short or wrong

Send this before they notice. A roaster who reports their own problem is a roaster the café stops checking up on.

Subject: Your [Wednesday] delivery is running about two hours late

Hi [first name],

[The van broke down outside Évora.] You'll have your coffee by [11:30]
instead of [9:30]. Nothing else changes.

If that leaves you short on bar this morning, ring me on [mobile] and
I'll get [2] kg to you another way.

Sorry.

[Your name]

One apology, no paragraph of explanation, and a concrete offer. The reason belongs in one clause, in brackets, and nowhere else.

9. The price rise

Short version below. Call your largest accounts before this lands. The full letter, the notice period and how to work out the per-cup figure are in how to raise wholesale coffee prices.

Subject: Our prices from [1 November]

Hi [first name],

From [1 November] our prices go up. On your house espresso that's
[€18.20] to [€19.10] a kilo — [90] cents, or about [1.6] cents on an
[18 g] double shot.

Green has moved [12%] since we last changed prices in [March 2024], and
we've absorbed as much of it as we can.

Nothing else changes: same delivery day, same terms, same coffee.
Orders up to [31 October] are at the old price.

Ring me if you want to go through it.

[Your name]

10. The account that has gone quiet

Name the gap against their own pattern, not against the calendar. "Five weeks when you usually order every two" is a fact they can respond to; "long time no see" is not.

Subject: Haven't had an order from you in five weeks

Hi [first name],

You usually order every couple of weeks and it's been five, so I wanted
to ask rather than assume.

Is it quiet, have you changed something on the bar, or have we done
something annoying? Any of the three is a fine answer.

If it's us, tell me and I'll fix it. If it's just the season, I'll stop
wondering.

[Your name]

How to spot this before five weeks have passed, with the spreadsheet formulas, is in spotting café accounts going quiet.

11. Chasing an invoice

Two written steps, then the phone. Both name the invoice and the date, and neither apologises for asking.

Subject: Invoice [1042], due [last Friday]

Hi [first name],

Invoice [1042] for [€412.60] was due on [3 October]. It may have been
missed — copy attached.

Could you let me know when it's going out?

[Your name]

Subject: Invoice [1042] — [14] days overdue

Hi [first name],

[1042] for [€412.60] is now [14] days past due and I haven't had a date
from you.

I'd rather not hold [Wednesday]'s delivery, so can you either pay it
today or tell me a date you can commit to? Happy to split it over two
weeks if that's easier — just say.

[Your name] · [mobile]

The full ladder, the call scripts, when to stop delivering and how to set terms per account are in late-paying café accounts.

12. Winning an account back

Ninety days after you lost it, not nine. Ask one question, offer nothing, and do not mention the roaster that replaced you.

Subject: One question, no pitch

Hi [first name],

It's been a few months since we stopped supplying you and I've stopped
being annoyed about it, so this is a genuine question rather than a
sales email.

What should we have done differently? One line is plenty. It's useful
to me and it costs you nothing.

If you ever want to taste what we're roasting now, I'll drop something
in. No call attached either way.

[Your name]

Roughly one in five answers, and the answers are worth more than the account. Three cafés giving you the same reason is a product decision, not a sales problem.

Subject lines

The subject line does most of the work, and the common failure is writing a category instead of the thing itself.

What not to send

• "Just following up." It carries no new information, so it gives nobody a reason to reply. Follow up with something: a coffee landing, a date, a question.
• A newsletter to an account that is drifting. A mass email to a café that is quietly leaving confirms that nobody has noticed it specifically. Send the one in template 10 instead.
• The founder's story, unasked. It belongs on your website. A café deciding between two roasters is not short of narrative.
• Prices in the first cold email. A number with no conversation around it is only ever compared downwards.
• A price rise that arrives as an invoice. The most reliable way to turn a routine increase into a lost account.
• Anything with "circle back", "touch base" or "synergies" in it. Cafés are run by people who make coffee for a living.

Sending these in six languages

If you sell across a border, or to a city where half the cafés are run by people who moved there, write each of these once per language and keep them somewhere your whole team can reach. The ones where language matters most are not the sales emails. They are the price change, the delivery problem and the payment reminder — the three that cost you money when they are misread.

Two practical notes. Keep the numbers, dates and invoice references identical across languages, so a mistranslation cannot become a pricing dispute. And decide once whether you address cafés formally or informally in each language and hold to it; switching between vous and tu, or u and je, across messages reads as carelessness rather than warmth. The wholesale coffee glossary has the equivalent trade terms in five languages if you are building your own set.

Questions roasters ask

What should a roaster write in a first email to a café?

Four sentences. Where you roast and how far it is from them, one specific thing you noticed about their café, what you are offering — two samples, not a meeting — and the day you will call. No attachment, no price list, no story about the founder. The email exists to make the phone call less cold, not to win the account.

How long should a wholesale sales email be?

Under 120 words, with one ask. A café owner reads it on a phone between orders. If it takes two scrolls it gets marked unread and never reopened. Length is the single easiest thing to fix in most roasters' outreach.

How many times should I follow up with a café by email?

Twice by email, and put the calls in between. A useful rhythm after a sample drop is a call on day two, a short email on day four if the call did not connect, a visit or cupping invitation at day seven, a call at day fourteen and one last email at day thirty that gives them an easy way to say no. After that, once a quarter with news rather than a question.

Should I email or call a café about a price increase?

Both, in that order of importance: call your largest accounts first, then send every account the same written notice the same week. Nobody should hear about a price change from an invoice. Give at least thirty days' notice, show the change per kilo and per cup, and say when you last changed prices.

What do you write to a café that has stopped ordering?

Something short that assumes nothing and asks a question they can answer in one line. Name the gap in their own ordering pattern — five weeks when they usually order every two — offer one specific reason it might be your fault, and give them a date. Do not send a newsletter to an account that is drifting.

What language should I email my wholesale customers in?

Theirs. A café reads a price change, a delivery note and a chasing email in its own language or it reads them carelessly, and a misread price change becomes a phone call and sometimes a lost account. If you sell across a border, keep a copy of every standard message in each language you sell in rather than translating each one in the moment.

Where Order Book fits

Roughly half of these messages stop needing to be written once the ordering desk sends them itself. Roast-day reminders go only to the cafés that are due and have not ordered, in each café's own language. Order confirmations, delivery notes and price-change notices go out per café at that café's own prices. The account that has gone quiet appears on your Monday call list before five weeks have passed, so template 10 is a call rather than an autopsy.

The ones that stay yours to write are the ones that should be: the first contact, the trial, the apology and the win-back. Order Book keeps the facts you need for them on the client's page — what they last ordered, what they pay, what they owe — so the email takes two minutes instead of twenty spent in a spreadsheet.

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