Latest Poll
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Latte Art Throwdown - Sept. 27th, Catalina Coffee: Houston, TX
Latte Art Throwdown
- @ Catalina Coffee
$20 to enter - winner takes all.
Baristas will have 7 minutes to make up to three lattes, choose one to present to three judges.
Judging will be based on symmetry, contrast, and technical difficulty and complexity of the art.
Free-pour only, no etching.
New Book…Looks Like Fun
Killing trees with coffee, I think, is an acceptable trade-off. Especially if you use recycled trees or fake plastic trees, and if you recycle your used coffee grounds into your compost bin.
Now comes this from, fittingly, a Berkeley publisher: What appears to be a fun new book in the super-macro-food-pics mold that is all the rage today, complete with a delectable line-up of deliciously done drinks.
The book is entitled, Coffee Drinks, by one Michael Turback, and, at 112 colorful caffeinated pages, is a bargain at under $15.
On Professionalism and the Necessity of Tasting
Last week, I walked into a coffee retailer for the sole purpose of socializing over a cup of coffee. I walked up to the counter, and asked which coffee was freshest (obviously, it is not a cup-at-a-time establishment, as most aren’t). Then I asked what it tasted like. The barista couldn’t tell me.
I see this as a big problem. Dan mentioned a situation that can touch on this a bit in the forums (though not about tasting).
When you go to a restaurant, and you see a particular dish that strikes your fancy, you may ask your waiter to describe it for you. You may also ask his opinion and if he would recommend it. Nine times out of ten, the waiter will do a sufficient job of describing the dish, as well as his personal evaluation.
So when I see a barista who is not only serving the product, but actually MAKING the product as well, who cannot even describe to me what sort of a flavor experience to expect, I consider there to be something very wrong. There exist some baristas who will say, “Oh, I don’t drink coffee.” And others who will say, “I don’t know, I don’t like coffee.” And there are those who do the minimum and just repeat the flavor descriptor off of the packaging from the roaster, their boss, or something other than drawing from their own experiences.
Are we to just accept that the person serving our beloved cup of coffee actually cares less about this product being served than the consumer who, by comparison, is supposed to know very little by comparison?
For the life of me, I cannot understand why someone who does not drink coffee would ever want to work in a position serving coffee to others. And what’s more, I have an even more difficult time understanding why a business owner or manager would ever consider hiring someone who will not be able to describe what they are serving, much less ever care for its quality.
So, maybe this is a little bit of a rant. Either way, we are professionals. A professional does not do only the minimum. A professional does not stop at “good enough”. A professional knows their craft inside and out, and has an enormous respect for the materials they work with, and the work that went into them. It is for this reason that I believe that a coffee professional must taste everything they serve. They must do cuppings on a regular basis. They should take notes (mental or tangible), and experiment with variables until perfection is attained(an impossible feat, which ought to tell you something about the nature of a professional).
When a customer comes up to you and says, “Tell me about this coffee,” you should be able to draw upon a wealth of stored information. Flavor descriptors, brewing parameters, where it came from, how it was processed, its varietal/cultivar, the roast level, who the roaster is (if applicable), and any and every other detail you can retain that the customer may be interested in hearing.
I recently lead a cupping with a shop here in Lubbock. They had never done one before, but I am told it was a very enlightening experience, and these baristas gained a new respect for their craft. This lasted for less than an hour, and it had a huge impact, and I’m sure that this enthusiasm will be perceived by their customers. People like buying from businesses who know their products better, can communicate better, and who have a love and passion for what they do.
I would consider it a good idea to hold a weekly staff tasting lead by an experienced barista, manager, owner, or whoever can help further the education and spark a little excitement into those present.
Quality is not a goal. It is a methodology of striving towards an unreachable end.
Now Hiring: Coffee Slingers in Oklahoma City, OK
I know this is a Texas industry site, but our neighbors to the north don’t seem to get enough love. We don’t mind sharing occasionally.
Found on their Myspace page,
Also taken straight from the Texas Coffee People forums,
What is a coffee slinger?
A craftsperson, Barista, the unsung hero.
You want to sling coffee? you must love all things coffee. You drink more double espressos each day than most people drink in a month. You believe that the pursuit of coffee perfection is your goal and just may be attainable.
You want to work full or nearly full time. You want to change the world one mind.-blowing cup of coffee at a time. You want learn to make exceptional espresso and silky steamed micro bubble milk and watch customers faces as they light up with extreme excitement at your handcrafted creation. Its an art! You want to tell everyone to try a truly well crafted espresso and then they will know why it is so good.
We want you! Join the crew and train to become a Coffee Slinging Barista. We train hard 4-6 weeks before you are certified as a Barista and we demand perfection in every drink every time, every day. We pay good with a few little extras, treat you like a future coffee rock star, give you good hours, free coffee, respect accountability and ongoing coffee training to empower your soul and your mind.
If you are all of these things and more then we need to make beautiful coffee together. We don’t take any applications.Here is what to do: Write a 300-400 word essay/diatribe/dialogue about why you are the future coffee slinging Barista we are looking for and why coffee is important to you.
With a Resume
E mail to CoffeeSlingers@hotmail.com
And we will call you in for an interview
Coffee Slingers Coming soon
Sounds promising! Best of luck to Coffee Slingers. Check out their Myspace page.
Texas Coffee People + Barista Exchange = <3
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T exas Coffee People now has a group in the Barista Exchange community. Even if you don’t want to have anything to do with Texas Coffee People… you should at least join Barista Exchange. It’s such a great networking and community resource for such a small and budding industry.
Barista Exchange (late on this, but better late than never!)
Matt Miletto of Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup, and the American Barista and Coffee School (ABC’s) has put together a brilliant community site for the exchange of ideas, education, and, get this, baristas!
This gives the individual barista a way to travel the world in order to experience new concepts in great coffee by working as an “exchange barista” (like an exchange student) at another cafe. Travel is not required to be a member, and traveling internationally is certainly up to you.
I’m a member!
View my page on Barista Exchange
And if you are a barista, shop-owner, or a roaster or consultant(like me!), you can join in on the fun. Think of it as a Myspace… just for the coffee industry. Brilliant!
Our very own Aaron Blanco(The Brown Coffee Co. has also joined, and I believe Mike McKim of Cuvee Coffee Roasters has joined as well.
If you work in the coffee business, YOU NEED TO JOIN THIS SITE!
Training, Caring, and Management
I have a question for the readers out there in the Blogosphere.
Which is the more dominant issue? Ignorance, or apathy?
Now, let’s extend this question farther. Is this weight heavier on the barista or on the management/ownership of retailers?
I realize that may sound a bit unclear, so here’s an example.
1:An owner cares about quality, but cannot seem to instill the same care for craftsmanship into their employees, so the quality suffers. 2:An owner doesn’t care at all, but the majority of the barista staff care a great deal, yet lack the training to “make it happen”.
Which seems more likely the case, and is it more likely that either of these two is the case compared to total apathy?
More often than not, I find baristi who care quite a bit about coffee quality. Maybe not to the extent that we’d all like to see, but still.. they care. They applied for the job because they like coffee, so it would make sense that they have a desire to learn more about it, and/or to excel at their craft. In the same situation, I find owners and managers who just don’t have the same desire, or who lack the training themselves, and thus, cannot adequately train their staff.
Assuming the latter is the case, Is the issue a lack of training, or is it something else?
MANY of the recognizable names in the industry (aside from those who started out at a major player like Intelligentsia, Stumptown, CounterCulture, etc..) started out by doing research, self-teaching, and discovery on their own. Is this to be expected of the AVERAGE manager/owner? What about the AVERAGE barista?
Consider this an introspective look at the state of the industry on an average. Not on the cutting edge, not on the progressive front, but as a random sampling mean of the retailing side of the Specialty Coffee business.
What are your thoughts?
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EspressoTrainer.com