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Permalink Reply by Jay Caragay on March 28, 2009 at 4:29pm

The Spro has always had three espresso grinders in service (one Compak K-10 as the primary and two Mazzer Major Autos) for two and a half years now. We keep our favorite Hines Espresso and Decaf in the K10 and Major, respectively, and leave the other Major for "guest" espressos and general tomfoolery. And it seems that, over the years, we've had just about everyones' espresso in our grinder!

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Permalink Reply by Samantha Bako on March 30, 2009 at 9:43am

Jay Caragay said:

And it seems that, over the years, we've had just about everyones' espresso in our grinder!

Is that a "that's what she said" moment?

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Permalink Reply by drcoffee on March 30, 2009 at 9:39pm

It makes total sense to use more than one grinder. It seems every serious coffee establishment should have a minimum of three non-decaf grinders:
1 bolder Espresso for the 12-oz+ latte crowd
1 sweeter Espresso for the Espresso /Americano crowd
1 experimental grinder for outstanding single origins etc.

One amazing piece of progress has been Synesso's new Hydra espresso maker which has one pump for each of the groups -- with our older Cyncra we've experienced some undesirable pressure fluctuation when we are trying to use more than one group head at one time.

That said, we're still doing The Works (3 x Espresso served on a silver platter) -- just for giggles come on by and check it out next time you're in Seattle... :-)

Sarah Dooley said:

Morning Heath,
You know David at Vivace does it with his espresso blend and cap blend. At my previous employer we did it with five different blends. The obvious challenge was also the best feature, choice. I tried to teach every customer how to customize the beverage to the specific depth of flavor they wanted to pull through along with how the blends were designed. It was engaging and had a quick way of adding more value to the experience. Seattle Coffee Works, Sebastian use to tap 5-6 different roasters and a few of his own projects. He served a platter called "the works" and would make 3 espresso of your choice on his perfectly calibrated Synesso, he could make those critical adjustments for temp quickly. For me the biggest issue is only one other of his employees had the same passion as him and she was fantastic at recreating the experience. The other girl couldn't get it together and often complained about the order while preparing it.

Execution is key and I could only imagine temperature stability with easy changing ability, options to change the psi if necessary, dosing grinders are evolving so quickly as well. Obviously knowing the roasters specific dose and extraction requirements and then of course trusting that the minds and hands of your staff in that they will be just as critical as yourself.
sounds fun and challenging...two of my favorite reasons to experiment.

Sarah

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Permalink Reply by John Cunningham on April 6, 2009 at 5:45am

Rolf Foerster said:

There are a lot of cafes offering different types of espresso. The one I prefer most - for obvious reasons - is: http://www.pasioncoffee.com/pictures.html

that's a lot of offerings!

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Permalink Reply by John Berkness on April 21, 2009 at 4:09pm

at black sheep we have two grinders on equipt with our house blend, the other with a blend of vienna and french roast coffee as per request of a few customers. oddly enough we do not have a grinder for decaf. we really dont sell much of the stuff. and we even only offer two origins of decaf, colombia city roast and sumatra vienna roast.

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Permalink Reply by Mason Crews on May 4, 2009 at 7:08pm

Decaff grinds are probably separate, and maybe for different origins.
Mason Crews

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Permalink Reply by Dex on May 12, 2009 at 6:03am

I could not agree more, I think we really need to keep in mind what the coffee is used for. As great baristas we know depending on preperation each coffee has its strong points. If I have my own cafe' I would seperate milk drinks from straight up espresso. (Unless the customer really wanted the other) However we would encourage the way the coffee is highlighted best. Milk can make or break certian coffees!
Kayakman said:

From the sounds of it, where you are at 80% of the orders must be coming from elite straight espresso drinkers and much thought is going into accommodating them. All of your extra blend options are design to reach that market.

Does anybody offer blends designed to work best with cappuccinos and lattes? Some of the stuff I have been roasting is sensory overload as espresso, but ROCKS as a cappuccino or latte.

I guess our market is different, because 80% of all drinks ordered at the coffeehouse are cappuccino or latte based. Because of this, i am starting to feel that we should offer a verity of blends to accommodate the market. Coffee+Milk drinks are where the money is at, not the elite straight espresso drinkers.

I start a new discussion that is kind of related to this one... Blends that are ideal for Cappuccinos and Lattes?

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