Jerry writes,

(paraphrase)…I‘m from the Philippines.  I want to go to Canada or the United States.  I have been a coffee barista for 5 years here in the Philippines.

His resume is quite interesting.  He has been a barista (coffee professional is probably more accurate.  He has some background in roasting as well.) for a few years, and has been in the service industry for his entire career.  He seems to enjoy serving and interacting with people.

Any roaster and/or retailer looking to take on some fresh talent should probably take a look at his resume and contact him.  His phone number is in his resume.

Jerry S. Caunca’s Resume (PDF)

Her cantact info is listed below, as well as her resume in .pdf format.

Hayley Massie
314.882.2682
checkeredgrrl@aol.com
680 E Basse Rd #338
San Antonio, TX 78209

Hayley Massie Resume (pdf)

This has been added to the List of People in the Jobs section.

via email:  Ruchi writes,
I am opening a a new upscale coffee shop in Frisco Tx. Next to stonebrair Mall with a drive thru. Need a manager with experence to run this store and grow with the company. Latte art experience is good but we will train to achiieve it. Reply on e-mail Ruchi_usa@yahoo.com or call for interview – at 214-207-4855. Thanks

This job has been posted to our Jobs page.  Thanks, Ruchi!

9:00am

Mosaic Cafe
2435 Kinwest
Irving, TX, 75063
Map and Directions

Hosted By:

and

Click Here for more info.

• Cupping for quality and roasting analysis
• Connecting with the consumer market (customers)
• Creating a Culture of Excellence
• Espresso techniques and free time
• Latte Art Throw Down
• Networking

Sponsors
___________________________________________________________

www.coffeetool.com

Sponsorships Available! (Contact Us)

This project is a work in progress

So, I’m a bit (a lot?) late on announcing this. The truth is, I didn’t remember to announce it here at all, so please forgive!

The giant success of the USBC live feed lead to this fantastic service to specialty coffee industry fans.

I do hope you’ll take full advantage of it. This has never once been available in any earlier WBC, and I hope you’ll encourage its continuation as more competitions come and go.

http://www.worldbaristachampionship.com/

Click there, or click the image at the top. Enjoy!

June 19-22

There used to be only one option. Flat base. Most of them were one-piece aluminum or stainless steel, and were not entirely ergonomic, but weren’t all that uncomfortable either. Rarely did they ever fit the basket like a glove.

Now days, we have several options to choose from. There are a wide variety of manufacturers of quality tampers, each with their own ideas.

There is massive range of styles of tamper handles. From skulls to giant sticks. From ergonomic form, to rubber handles. But really, the only part that has any impact on the espresso is the business end. The piston, or base.

(click for larger version)
There are plenty of opinions and ideas about why each is better or worse than the others.

The original style was the flat base. Then came the convex base, now known as “euro curve”.

Then along came the milder “american curve” to serve as a bridge between “flat” and “convex” bases.

Well, Reg Barber decided that this just wasn’t good enough, and designed what he calls the C-Flat base. The ultimate hybrid design. Curved edges, and a flat center.

I have personally done a lot of experimentation with the different tamper styles, and the results are about what one would expect if they felt they had a good intuitive understanding of espresso preparation.

There are also ideas floating around about how the tamper base should be paired with the shape of the shower screen on your espresso machine. For example, if the shower screen is flat, you should get a flat tamper. If the shower screen is curved, you should try to match that curvature with your tamper. A more aggressively curved shower screen needs a euro-curve tamper, a flat shower screen needs a flat tamper, and so on.

There are other ideas going around about how the tamper should be based on whether or not your filterbasket is tapered or straight-walled. The degree of curvature should, in theory, be determined by the degree of inward tapering found in the filterbasket. There is a theory that states that the supposed benefits of a convex tamper base are only applicable if the filterbasket has an inward taper. Unfortunately, the theory doesn’t go into many details, but I think it’s pretty self-explanatory.

I tend to prefer an American Curve base, for all filter basket applications, personally, althought I used a flat base in competition, and I tend to vary between them from time to time, just for taste or observational purposes.

But this blogger is curious. What is your preference? Whare the reasons you think your preferred base is beneficial?

Leave comments below, and let’s get this discussion rolling.

This is a great new probject from a gentleman named Mads-Ole Bak who lives in Denmark. The concept is to have all information about all national competitions all over the country consolidated into just one easy to find and navigate location. Brilliant!

He had this to say:

The purpose of the site is to make a thorough coverage of all the competitions that will be going on during the SCAE Wonderful Coffee exhibition in Copenhagen this summer.

We will have access to the competitions and SCAE have agreed to cooperate with us during the event, so we (hopefully) can make a very interesting site for everyone who would like to follow the competitions but are not able to be in Copenhagen.

In addition to the World championships, we would also like to collect a lot of information about all the national competitions. It has proven pretty difficult to find out who won the national championship. So we hope that some of you would like to help us if you know anything about national competitions that we should bring on WBConEspressoBar.

Please feel free to visit the site, register in our forum and post any information you might have in the “National Chapters” forum

We hope that you will find our site interesting and that we will be able to bring you a lot of good stuff during the competitions in June.

For some reason, national coffee associations have a hard time making competition information as easy to find as it could be.

It’s high time something like this came along.

Check it out, and sign up to join by visiting: WBConEspressoBar

Robert writes,

Hello Texas,

I want to be a friend of TCP. I have a coffee related product. I created a plug, learned how to manufacture it and now make them in California. True I am not a Texan but I do have friends and family that are Texan.

Kind Regards

Robert Keller
AttPlay Solutions

He calls them Coffee Kisses, but they look an awful lot like other products I’ve seen in the past.

The only real difference I can see is that these look to be a lot lower profile than other varieties I’ve seen.

Straight from the website:

A Simple Plug Designed to Fit Snug in
the Sip Hole of Your Travel Plug Lids.Less Mess $$$ Saves Time $$$
Protects your customers and baristas $$$
Gives a GREAT Coffee Experience !!!
Increases Customer Loayalty !!!
Makes You Money $$$

Designed To Fit Travel Cup Lids By:
Solo…
Sweatheart…
Insulair…
IMx…
Graphicup…
Dopaco…
Karat…
Chinet…
and Others.

You can also buy online from packs of 2, all the way up to packs of 1,000. In packs of 600 or more the plugs are only $.01 each. Such a simple investment for that extra bit of customer satisfaction.

http://mycoffeekisses.com

Re-Training the Siren:
An Insider’s View of What to Expect

$.99 lattes were available yesterday from 5:30pm to 9pm at Dunkin Donuts stores because Starbucks baristas were given the evening off. All 7,100 Starbucks locations shut down to have individual store meetings and a heart to heart with Howard Schultz. “Priorities are out of whack,” said Shultz via a pre-recorded video. Our focus has been so set on profit generating, that we have lost sight of the perfect espresso and absolute customer service. Each meeting started off with a coffee tasting, as is Starbucks tradition, and then focused on shifting the new focus to three always important things:

First, customer service is our main concern, as it has always been. However, we will do whatever the customer asks us to do, no questions asked, and everything in our power to deliver the best customer service.

Secondly, milk steaming standardization was implemented. We discussed correctly aerating milk, and the importance of perfect foam. Re-steaming milk is unacceptable and attaining the proper temperature is essential. While this seems elementary, the beverage recipes over the years have been personalized by store managers and even baristas to the point that every barista had a different idea of the ideal temperature range for steaming milk.

Lastly, Starbucks is reconfiguring the flavor profile of the espresso. Because Starbucks stores use super automatic machines, the barista has little or no control over the quality of the espresso. Our machines have been recalibrated to pull a longer shot that now must last between 15-19 seconds from first visual. In fact, we no longer use the single shot option, and pull only double shots. When pulling the shots, we are to pull them only into shot glasses, so that we can inspect the quality of the espresso. Every hour we are to time the shots and to taste them as often as possible.

At the end of the night, each barista made a written promise to their store manager, their store partners (coworkers), and customers. We promised to deliver the absolute best customer service; to never deliver anything less than the best. We promised to let every customer know that we value their feedback and input. We value the opportunity to remake any beverage so that every customer has the most rewarding experience and feels appreciated. We promised to hold each other accountable for upholding every single standard and work with each other to meet every expectation set for us by our customers, our partners, our managers, and Mr. Schultz.

 

We hope that you notice a difference each time you come in. We want it to be more welcoming, more fun, more flavorful, and more of what you want. Demand the best, request ‘fore here’ mugs, ask us questions because we are ready.

Although offering bottomless cups of coffee can be quite popular with patrons, it may not be the best solution to getting paying customers inside your doors.

Consider this:
Your coffee costs you probably anywhere between $4.50 and $9 per pound wholesale. This is not commodity grade stuff. Why bother to source Specialty Coffee suppliers in the first place if there is no emphasis on the quality of the coffee in the retail environment?
Let’s discuss this in terms of perception. A customer comes in. They pay their $1-$2. They get their cup, and head to the air-pot… again… and again… and again. At this rate, what is it they’re paying for? Are they paying for the coffee, or are they getting free coffee when they rent some table space for hours on end? Even if they do perceive that they are paying for the coffee, what kind of a message does this send out about the caliber of the coffee being sold?

The point being made is that coffee sold this way is perceived to have little to no value at all. Obviously, if you are a Specialty Coffee retailer, your coffee is far from worthless.

Now, then. I am assuming that part of the reason we all got into this business is to share our love for great coffee with other people, and to help boost the overall appreciation of what it is we do. Does selling coffee for practically nothing contribute to this cause? In a way, yes. But what’s the result?

Tossing out bottomless coffee as a menu item has its benefits. For one thing, less waste. You don’t need to brew an entire air-pot because a bottomless coffee customer needs a “warm-up”of a coffee that just ran out… half an hour to closing time. (If this happens, and you DO sell bottomless coffee, it is better to serve the customer than to attempt to conserve another pot of coffee).

Better still, is brewing by the cup. There are many solutions to accomplishing this goal, such as a Pour-over Stand, French Presses, Chemex (another pour-over), Siphon Brewers (aka vacuum pots), or the gigantic investment of equipment known as Clover.

There is more than one benefit to the cup-at-a-time concept. For one thing, the perceived value of a cup of coffee increased, and thus, so does the potential pricing. Second, how does “no wasted coffee” sound? Everyone in this business knows that a cup of coffee costs change to the business, but what does this add up to if you compound the average volume of coffee thrown away in just one day? Don’t look at it in actual cost, look at it in terms of potential income costs. For most retailers, this is quite a number! Last in this rather short list of benefits is the quality of the coffee. In a hands-on approach to brewing coffee, the barista can actually manipulate various factors to brew a better cup of coffee. With an automated drip brewer, you’re pretty much limited with the barista’s interaction in the process.

This hand-crafted cup of coffee that tastes divine is certainly something worth paying for. This is not your average off-the-shelf cup of Joe, and your customers will be able to see and taste that with their own senses. Higher profit margins per cup, less waste, and a higher perceived quality of the products being sold by your company. Sound like a winning combination? You bet it does.

Now let’s have a look at the other side of this coin. I know there are many retailers who offer bottomless coffee because it encourages their customers to stay for longer. The longer they stay, the more likely they are to buy other items like pastries, bottled water, and food items like panini (or other sandwiches), soup, or salad (if these items are offered). The money is not made on the coffee in these situations, but on the mark-up of the various consumables that a “camper” is likely to purchase during their stay.

When this is the case, then the time has come to ditch the title of “coffee retailer” in favor of something along the lines of “Cafe”. At this point, you are no longer selling coffee. You are practically giving it away in an effort to attract more customers to your company’s focus: food. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It’s best to know where you stand, and to be honest with yourself, and your customers. If you are not primarily a Specialty Coffee retailer, make this reflected in the name of your business, and your company’s presentation to the public.

How about another perspective. Starbucks does not sell bottomless coffee, nor do they offer refills at a discount (or even at all). You have to wonder if there’s a reason for this. If nothing else, please realize that if Starbucks can do it, so can a quality focused independent retailer. The difference is that the independent retailer has more flexibility to really milk the single cup pricing for all its worth.

What’s best for your bottom line may not line up with real possibilities. What’s best for promoting coffee and its producers is probably not best for drawing customers in to purchase food items, and visa versa. Your coffee is special, and deserves to be marked according to its value. I encourage you to find the courage to promote the coffee for the sake of great coffee. There is profit to be made in doing so, and the industry as a whole can only benefit from an increased consumer awareness of quality coffee.