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Permalink Reply by Jesse -D-> on January 31, 2009 at 11:39am

why not for everyone? Not to be a jerk, but with the exception of purging your grounds (because it can be wasteful), shouldn't this be your all the time routine. Every drink matters. Even 16 oz vanilla sugar free blah blah blah, I tyr to make them all to be th best. Just my 2 cents.

I do engage in different conversation with people who order espresso. I think by oredering espresso they are espressing (sorry I couldn't resist) interest. So I am more llikly to talk coffee with them.

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Permalink Reply by Trevor on January 31, 2009 at 11:44am

With every espresso, macchiato and con panna we serve a small 4oz glass of sparkling water.

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Permalink Reply by Chase on January 31, 2009 at 12:42pm

Because of where I work, which will remain nameless, I do give extra care for espresso because I know that the customers who order espresso usually have a higher standard (because of where I work) and therefore I want to do my best to give them a shot that... well, is the best I can do with having a automatic push button machine.

I'll ask if they want a lid (because they always do at my work) and I'll ask if they want it in a ceramic cup (almost never) to try and give them the closest to a real shot as I can do.

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Permalink Reply by Cedric on January 31, 2009 at 12:46pm

I always try to pull the best spro everytime and create the best hand crafted drink I can everytime. I just find myself really giving it more attention to espresso drinkers.

Jesse -D-> said:

why not for everyone? Not to be a jerk, but with the exception of purging your grounds (because it can be wasteful), shouldn't this be your all the time routine. Every drink matters. Even 16 oz vanilla sugar free blah blah blah, I tyr to make them all to be th best. Just my 2 cents.

I do engage in different conversation with people who order espresso. I think by oredering espresso they are espressing (sorry I couldn't resist) interest. So I am more llikly to talk coffee with them.

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Permalink Reply by nik orosi on January 31, 2009 at 1:37pm

coffee police is coming soon to your place!
all drinks are espresso based, so take care about every espresso, and every costumer...
or find another job in a place where will respect your work!
sounds hard, but this is barista site, we do not sell insurance! we live coffee!

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Permalink Reply by Chris Randall on January 31, 2009 at 1:45pm

The nameless place you work sounds like it may be VERY similar to a nameless place where I used to work. With a fully automatic machine, the most important thing you CAN do to ensure quality espresso is properly maintain the machine. If your shop has something called the "Cleanliness and Equipment Maintenance" binder, then we worked in the same place. Make an effort to encourage all of your fellow baristas to follow the daily maintenance directions; I covered many shifts in locations other than my own and was too often horrified by what I saw.

Equipment maintenance is always important, it is just easier to forget when you push a button and do other things while waiting for the machine to internally portion, grind, tamp, pull and drop the puck.

Chase said:

Because of where I work, which will remain nameless, I do give extra care for espresso because I know that the customers who order espresso usually have a higher standard (because of where I work) and therefore I want to do my best to give them a shot that... well, is the best I can do with having a automatic push button machine.

I'll ask if they want a lid (because they always do at my work) and I'll ask if they want it in a ceramic cup (almost never) to try and give them the closest to a real shot as I can do.

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Permalink Reply by Cedric on January 31, 2009 at 2:31pm

We're only as good as the last spro that we've pulled

nik orosi said:

coffee police is coming soon to your place!
all drinks are espresso based, so take care about every espresso, and every costumer...
or find another job in a place where will respect your work!
sounds hard, but this is barista site, we do not sell insurance! we live coffee!

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Permalink Reply by Brady on January 31, 2009 at 5:44pm

Yes.

I make sure the shots for straight espresso, traditional capp, macc, and americano are perfect before serving - because on these drinks the flavor of the drink is due almost entirely to the flavor of the espresso. The only difference in the routine here is that I'll purge the little bits of ground espresso from the doser. I do not believe that the 1 gram of ground espresso left in the doser from the previous drink 2 minutes ago will adversely affect the vanilla latte. So I'll use "good enough" for other drinks, because they ARE actually good enough for those drinks. But the aforementioned drinks are worth the absolute best that I can muster.

To address the "why not for every drink" statement (and please feel free to disagree with me on this) but to me the difference between a good and a great shot are subtleties and nuances that simply vanish when diluted with too much milk. A bad shot is a bad shot, and should never be used, but that's not what we're talking about here, is it?

My 2 cents. Worth both pennies :)

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Permalink Reply by Nick Van Slett on January 31, 2009 at 7:34pm

Totally agreed. Taking care in what you do ALL the time is essential. More often than not, I have more picky latte drinkers than I do people drinking shots of espresso. Every step is quintessential to making a good drink. Everything affects the end result so being prudent throughout the process is necessary.


Jesse -D-> said:

why not for everyone? Not to be a jerk, but with the exception of purging your grounds (because it can be wasteful), shouldn't this be your all the time routine. Every drink matters. Even 16 oz vanilla sugar free blah blah blah, I tyr to make them all to be th best. Just my 2 cents.

I do engage in different conversation with people who order espresso. I think by oredering espresso they are espressing (sorry I couldn't resist) interest. So I am more llikly to talk coffee with them.

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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on February 1, 2009 at 10:11am

I agonized over this and in the end decided straight shots only get the full treatmeat. Served on small round wood tray with little amaretto cookie by the Nero black ACF demitasse on the saucer with demi-spoon and 5oz rock class with filtered sparkling water from soda syphon.

Agree all the shots are important, but still it's my nature to pay particularly close finicky attention to traditional espresso beverage shots (espresso, mach', con panna, cap') versus lattes and especially flavored lattes. But it's the straight shot orders that really gets the blood racing. The ultimate expression of the bean.

Trevor said:

With every espresso, macchiato and con panna we serve a small 4oz glass of sparkling water.

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Permalink Reply by Cedric on February 1, 2009 at 11:49am

I like that idea. Ever had a long black? A cup with sparkling water and pour the spro on top. Great summer drink.
Trevor said:

With every espresso, macchiato and con panna we serve a small 4oz glass of sparkling water.

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Permalink Reply by Alex on February 2, 2009 at 11:06pm

A 'long black' where I come from would probably be about the same as your 'americano' - cup full of hot water with a double rist pulled on top, served asap so the customer has an eye-full of that silky brown crema before it dissipates.

Where I work care is taken with every drink. Have-ins all have art on them and if the shot isn't perfect then it's chucked out. Saying that, however, particular care is taken with anything black simply because that's all there is.

On top of that, our espresso isn't restricted to the '30ml in 30seconds' rule. We find that one should be working with the coffee to create the perfect shot, not forcing the coffee to adhere to a largely random set of rules.

Cedric said:

I like that idea. Ever had a long black? A cup with sparkling water and pour the spro on top. Great summer drink. Trevor said:

With every espresso, macchiato and con panna we serve a small 4oz glass of sparkling water.

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