What is in a name?

What is in a name?


I logged on last week to try to order some more Caffe Pronto coffee and was surprised to see it was gone.  After a little searching, however, I found that they were still on Roaste, they just had changed names to Ceremony coffee roasters.


I was pleased that they are still here because they are an interesting roaster and I really liked the Ethiopian I had ordered from them.  


I find the renaming interesting.  I do not know if they have new owners or if they just thought rebranding might make them connect better.  I do not see the old name or the new name as especially better, but I thought some of the changes in blend names are quite funny.  Here are some blends that have converted names…


Vincente became destroyer espresso – I mark this as a fun change for the better.


Sweet Cheeks became Mass Appeal – to be honest I do not like either name.  If you want to appeal to the kinds of people who pay over a dollar an ounce mass appeal is not exactly what they are looking for.


Pronto became thesis, which I think goes from one reasonably good name to another.  I like the idea of a coffee havning its own thesis.


Vienna became Antithesis this one is a push for me became Antithesis.  I think this is a major step up.  The new name is fun. It has an undercurrent that strikes me as the opposite of mass appeal.  Also in spite of having lived in Vienna last year and loving their coffee culture the city is not associated with good coffee.  Yes there is good coffee there, but the average cup in the average coffee shop is just plain bad.  (On the other hand there are 2-3 coffee shops there that are world class you just have to hunt for them.)

What do others think about the new names?  Are they better, the same or worse? 

The most important thing is that they keep making great coffee and I expect this will be the case, but I have some beans that just showed up so I hopefully will be able to confirm that soon.