Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Brady on September 24, 2009 at 6:55pm

Are we there yet? No.

The funny thing about revolution is that you never see it coming. It is lots of fun to predict what we'll be thinking about in 5-10 years, but most of that fun is had in looking back and seeing how far off we were :). I think that there is room for major progress on all fronts... sorry, no light at the end of my tunnel. Thank goodness - that's what I call job security.

To Ron's point, if we want to continue to make progress, we have to work on 2 other fronts as well - continuing to develop an ever-larger group of baristas capable of delivering the promise and continuing to develop ever-larger group of customers that care. I'm optimistic.

Great discussion, Bryan. Thanks for posting. I do hope we can continue on the original topic for a while longer to hear what some others think.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jared Rutledge on September 25, 2009 at 6:35am

completely agree about developing baristas, brady - it's taken me 9 years to get my skills to a level i could have attained in a year or so with proper training. the percentage of coffeeshops that take technique, equipment, and taste seriously is far too low. i think the customers will come if the baristi are where they need to be.

another issues is how many café owners have no clue when it comes to coffee. the barista training is almost secondary to owners knowing coffee and having a desire to never stop learning. if the owner does that, i think the baristi will come, and then the customers.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Fraser Jamieson on September 26, 2009 at 9:30am

You've got that right!
We put a "Now Hiring Baristas" sign in the window. It makes me sick. The people applying don't even drink coffee.

"Training? We don't need no stinking training!"

I could cry.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bryan Wray on September 26, 2009 at 10:39am

Does anyone know when stepless first happened? That was a ridiculously important advancement.
Also, still would like to know when conicals first appeared. I'm thinking it's waaaay back, with hand grinders, but I can't find sources for this information (to be honest, I have done little searching).

-bry

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kasey Klimes on September 27, 2009 at 9:48am

If I understand the question right (I'm not going to weigh in on any of the resulting debate in here)....

No, there is still much work to be done.

Direct Trade
The first and most important step of growth in the coffee industry right now is elevating the farmers to livable wages. Once they and their families (all 25 million or so of them) are well fed, they can better focus on the coffee, and have the financial means to improve their coffee. I can't imagine what kind of amazing things we'd get out of farms all over the world if they had the means to properly select, wash and process everything. Ethiopian coffees are notorious for their sweet acidity - I've always been a huge fan, but they're also notorious for shoddy processing and a vast lack of uniformity in their beans (I held in my hand the other day some of PT's roasted Ethiopia Sidamo Wondo Bonko - and couldn't believe it was all "the same bean"). The idea of better processing for them gets me excited.
Fair trade was a necessary step in the journey towards this goal, but if we continue to hold on to it, it will screw over not only the farmers, but ourselves. Fair trade helped raise awareness, but made very, very little tangible change. Introducing a middle man in order to get more money to the farmer makes very little sense. Many "fair trade" farmer's families still didn't make enough in a day to purchase a cup of their own coffee. It is much more work, I agree, but the benefits make up for the leg work in quality of coffee as well. Coffeeshops still holding on to "fair trade" as a sourcing model, or (God forbid) those that aren't even there yet, need to step up to the plate and begin composing a direct trade program - now.

At the moment, Intelligentsia owns the rights to the term "Direct Trade", and that's good for us, since they have raised a high bar to achieve it and thorough accountability can be had. For more info....
http://www.directtradecoffee.com/

Espresso
I don't mean to piss anyone off when I say that SO espresso is probably just a trend. It'll stick around, I'm sure, but along side other boundary pushing like Hoffman's "crema skimming" its benefits are largely held within offering a more holistic understanding of coffee. What works? What doesnt? Why? I think it's great that people are exploring and pushing boundaries, but SO espresso is just a small piece within that larger picture - and it's that larger picture that is important. That we are exploring is the right path. Slayer espresso comes to mind here - to me, the ultimate espresso machine, and one that demands a highly trained barista. The technology allows us to push boundaries, and we have been - I just saw a tweet the other day by Eric Perkunder (of Slayer) that mentioned pulling a shot of SO Indonesian coffee at 8.8grams, at 5 bars, for 45 seconds, yielding 5 oz, that he said tasted amazing. Wow! That's out of the box, and that's where we need to be going. To borrow a friend's words, "Don't ask why, ask why not?"
http://www.slayerespresso.com

Culture
Possibly most frustrating thing for me in the coffee industry is the seemingly large number of baristas that seem to think they're serving baristas. If and when they realize that a customer doesn't really know (or sometimes even like!) coffee, they become our archetypal "pretentious barista", that scoffs at the idea of syrup or iced espresso.
Yea, I'd love to serve people with an appreciation and understanding of coffee as well, but that's my point - we need to do more to educate the public. The "where we're going" here, I believe, ought to be elevating coffee to the level that wine has achieved. That can't be done without an intense and thorough education of the public, and that happens at ground zero, with the 5 minute (if that) interaction with our customers. My day is made when I've convinced a customer to try a cup of a fine, light roasted micro-lot when they'd otherwise go for flavor or "Italian roast", and then they want more. No, our customers will generally still not be baristas, but with our help they can have an understanding of coffee and an appreciation which we can share.


I could probably think of more, but I have to get to the cafe.... Take care, and good discussions!

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page