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When I got my first job in a coffee shop I thought, “I like coffee, that machine looks fun – how hard can it be?”. I was more worried aboutburning the food in the café or how I was going to amuse the scary looking emoteenagers in the corner than what sort of coffee was going to go into thatstrange noisy hopper on the worktop. I'd used the coffee machine when I workedin the pub; it involved sticking a cup underneath and pressing a button. Icould cope with that. All would be well.

That was 2006, and in the last eighteen months my views on these things have changed a great deal, especially after my experiences overthe last few days.

Caffe Nero, according to their website, pride themselves on their coffee, referring to 'the art of the barista'. All employees – baristas– 'undergo days of intensive trainingbefore being allowed to serve an espresso.' When I started working there, Ican't say I much noticed the intensity of the training; I had already done somebarista training at Pumphreys Coffee House for my previous job, and as such,assumed I knew what I was doing. All I had to learn now was how to make coffees'The Nero Way.' It is fair to say that everything in Caffe Nero is brandedsomehow, even down to the exact proportions of foam, milk and espresso that goin to the cappuccino. You can't just serve 'any' cappuccino, it has to be aNero Cappuccino, and as petty as it sounds, there are some glaring differences.

These differences become very apparent when it came to Barista Championship competitions. TheSpeciality Coffee Association of Europe hold regional and national competitionsfor baristas to show their skills and compete for a place in the World BaristaChampionship. Last year's World Champion barista was James Hoffman from the UK,who luckily for me, happened to turn up at Pumphreys Coffee House when Itrained there. I met a coffee celebrity! He was also one of the main judges forthe UK regional finals this year. The competitors in these Baristachampionships took the event very very seriously, and not just because of thecash prize and prestige on offer for the World Champion. This competition is aculmination of a lot of practice, a lot of skill and a lot of hard workperfecting what is essentially an art form.

Meanwhile, Caffe Nero also holdtheir own Barista of the Year competition. The northern heat was held inNewcastle on 22^nd January, and I tagged along to support somefriends and former colleagues. Althoughthe area manager described the event as 'a bit of fun' and the sheer quantityof free beer, the cheerleading efforts and the 'Prize for Best Team Song' seemed to demonstrate this, the speciallymade t-shirts saying “Barista of the Year 2008 Finalist” on them, and theprizes – a trip to New York and a chance to meet Nero CEO Gerry Ford –suggested that the competition did have a serious side.

In the northern region, there werethirteen competitors, representing the Nero stores in Durham, Darlington,Ripon, Gosforth, Newcastle, South Shields, Berwick and Hexham. Each storemanager had put forward one or two baristas judged to be the best in the team.Their efforts were judged by regional managers and Nero 'Coffee Maestros' fromother parts of the country. The Newcastle Caffe was not exactly a huge venue,and so only two baristas could compete at once, using different sides of thesame Gaggia machine. Each side had two double handles, a grinder and a milkwand, and so technically speaking each barista could have potentially made fourdrinks at once. But as the area manager, Kirsten, announced beer bottle inhand: “Please don't use the second handle on the left for espresso, its a bitdodgy...” Since espressos are the basis for all the drinks made in thecompetition, this should have been a bit of a hindrance, but it didn't seem tomake any difference at all!

The first two rounds were timed;the first challenge was to make a cappuccino, a latte and a single espressoshot in three minutes. The second was three medium cappuccinos in four minutes.After judging each, competitors with the least points, or those who ran out oftime, were eliminated. Eventually, it was down to four baristas, Michael fromRipon, Frost from Gosforth, Becky from Hexham, and Steve from Durham. Thesefour then had to make another series of drinks, this time without being timed.They just had to make the best drinks they could. From these, the judges pickedthe final two, Michael and Frost. The final round was to make a hot chocolate,a mocha, a latte and an espresso. After four attempts at his espresso, Frosteventually won the competition, and crowned the Northern region's Barista ofthe Year. Celebrations were very noisy, but only Steve from Durham seemedremotely gutted about losing the chance to meet his hero, the enigmatic Gerry.

More significant from the point of view of a trainee barista, was why Frost won. The judges were looking for various aspects of Nerocoffee making, but not all of them immediately obvious. The emphasis of thecompetition was very much on Nero-ness – a bit of fun to get all the teamssocialising together, but also more subtly, to reiterate the brand. One of the qualities of a good barista atCaffe Nero is the possession of good customer service skills, and a happybarista who is having fun is generally better at serving customers. More specifically, a happy barista who canmake good coffees consistently, repetitively and very quickly is even betterfor the company. The point of testing competitors' ability to make threecappuccinos in four minutes was to see if they could actually keep it up –anyone can make one decent cappuccino once, but it takes some skill to do itover and over again during an eight or nine hour shift, while maintaining asense of humour.

As mentioned before, a NeroCappuccino is a very specific thing as well. In a 15oz cup, there is supposedto be double shot of espresso (1/3 of the mug) one third hot milk, and onethird dry milk foam. And chocolate on the top. In this case, Caffe Nero HQtends to be fiddling while the cappuccinos burn. What shocked me, even though Iknow the company pretty well now, was that the judges did not even bother totaste the coffees made. The cappuccinos were poked to test the depth of froth,lattes were stirred to check consistency, and the espressos were timed to seeif they poured for the correct 15 seconds (which would be woefullyunderextracted in any other circumstances). But no one actually tried them,there was no test of flavour. They just had to look right. However, it is verypossible to make coffees that look great but taste foul, so I asked why theyweren't tasted and was told there was no need; the judges could see how well itwas made anyway. “It's not the Barista's fault if the coffee isn't good.” Thisworried me a great deal. If the coffee itself 'isn't good' then this doesn'tsay much about Nero as a company: area managers do not even believe their ownmarketing. More to the point, the very people in charge of judging thestandards of drinks for the whole company are seemingly unaware that even ifthe coffee itself is high quality, it can still be ruined by being preparedbadly by the barista. Coffee is NOT “just coffee”, cappuccinos should not bemade just to look pretty, and it is very disappointing to think that the brandthat got voted the UK consumer's favourite for the past seven years stillthinks like this.

To make sure, I went round sneaking mouthfuls of everyone's attempts whenever I could. Some were very much better than others. However, none had anything like complexitythat I was to experience the next day. The very next morning I eventually gotmyself to Edinburgh to see the Scottish heat of the official UK Baristachampionship. This was a much more serious affair. Fourteen competitorsthroughout the day, four 'coffee' judges including last year's World Champion,and two technical judges, testing the way the baristas used the machines.Anyone could put themselves forward for the competition as long as they had twoyears experience in the industry, and you competed as an individual not as arepresentative of a particular company. Apart from the fact the whole event wassponsored by La Spaziale who make the espresso machines, it was relativelydevoid of commercial propaganda. More interestingly, not one of the entrants inthis heat came from a big chain coffee shop – no Nero, Costa or Starbucksbaristas here.

Every competitor had the same task– to make four espresso shots, four cappuccinos and four of their ownspeciality drinks inside 15 minutes. They could use whatever blend of coffeethey liked, and most took the time to explain to the judges what they wereusing and why, showing that they really actually knew the blend. Interestingly,one entrant, Andrew Mundy, used a single estate coffee from Cachoeira Fazenda,or Waterfall Farm in northern Brazil. Cachoeira Fazenda has won a great manyawards, and is apparently one of the ingredients in Caffe Nero's house blend,implying that Caffe Nero coffee really shouldn't be dismissed so easily.

The four judges probably sufferedsevere sensory overload by the end of the day, having to taste three drinksfrom all fourteen competitors. They gave marks out of six for the taste andbalance of the espresso, and the 'tactile balance' of it, how full bodied itwas for instance. The cappuccinos were again graded on balance and consistency,but also temperature so as they were not too hot to drink like at Nero.Finally, the signature drinks were graded on flavour and also quality of theespresso base. Baristas also got points for technique and use of the machine.They were penalised for wastage – grinding too much coffee, or frothing toomuch milk, or even pouring away spoilt drinks, not that anyone needed to. Theyalso lost points if they went over the fifteen minutes performance time.

Personally, I loved the signaturedrinks. By far the best part of the day from the audience's point of view wasthe fact that after the judges finished their analysis, the drinks were passedround for the rest of us to try. The signature drinks could be anything thatinvolved espresso, that could be made inside the allotted time, and did not involve alcohol. My personalfavourites were the truly bizarre ones: 'Sun, sea and sand', by Paulo Tanzilloinvolved risotto rice in the bottom of a glass, with espresso poured on thetop, and finished off by topping it with a bright yellow cream made of whippedegg whites and lemon juice. It tasted a bit like bitter lemon meringue pie!Others included Leo Ventisei's 'Agua Dulce' which was espresso with a slice ofcrushed lemon in the bottom and the glass crusted with sugar, it tastedstupendously good in my humble opinion. Kirsten Olsen made a drink inspired bythe coffee's origins – Brazilian, and mixed her espresso with avocado and lime.David Fraser served his drinks in tiny biscuit barrels, and used blended upginger biscuits in his coffee.

I admit, I was a little disappointed with some of the winners, not because I thought they shouldn't win, but because they were notthe most interesting! Third place went to Agnes from Kilimanjaro Coffee inGlasgow, who made a signature drink infused with orange blossom and vanilla.First place went to Gillian Campbell with her iced drink with orange andchocolate. These were very, very good, if not the most original! However, itwas the espressos and cappuccinos that won it – complete with latte artrosettas. Signature drinks are wonderful, but in most coffee shops, standardcoffees are the most important thing, and this is recognised even at nationalcompetition level.

In a totally non-biased fashion, Iwas very pleased when Stuart Archer from Pumphreys Coffee House in Newcastlecame second. Whereas I just got mouthfuls of the other competitors' drinks totest, I've been lucky enough to sample Stuart's coffee properly outside ofcompetition circumstances, and it is very good indeed. Although he claims hespoilt his cappuccinos, the judges obviously didn't think so. His signaturedrink sounded not only bizarre, but pretty disgusting too – espresso infusedwith garlic, and laced with chocolate. Debating whether to hold my nose first,I tried it, and contrary to expectations, it really worked. The garlic didn'tactually kill the coffee, and somehow brought out its natural sweet smokytaste. Not something I think many coffee shops will be offering on the menusvery soon, but certainly an interesting treat.

Stuart and the other two winners will go through to the national final, held in London next month, and the winner of that event willrepresent the UK at the World Barista Championship in Copenhagen in May, and ofcourse, whichever coffee shop this person works for will be able to advertisethe fact to their own advantage. The Nero Barista of the Year will get aspecial t-shirt and the store he represents will be able to use the fact theyhave the best Barista in the company in their own marketing. But what otherpurpose is there to the competitions? Barista championships are like

any other industry awards:recognising talent and skill in the particular field, and to reward hard work,or act as an incentive to excel. But essentially, coffee is a beverage,designed for human consumption. The displays of coffee making prowess at theSCAE competitions are artistically and creatively excellent, but these are notthe sort of drinks you will get served at an average coffee shop. In short,they are not actually designed for regular consumption – at most, they are aluxury afforded only to those who bother to seek out the independent coffeeshops that serve speciality coffees and employ world class baristas (which arefew and far between in this country). At worst, they are art for art'ssake, and remain relatively unconnectedwith the regular coffee shop industry as a whole. As former UK Baristachampion, pointed out: “The British are at the 'Blue Nun' stage of coffeedrinking.” Put more simply, we are not yet coffee gourmets, and in this countrythere is little place in the market for such luxury, and elitist, drinks.

Caffe Nero, in comparison, may not take the idea of barista awards so seriously, and may not be judged by the same standards, but thecoffees made in the competition are exactly what the customer will receive whenthey visit a Caffe Nero store. This cannot be said of the SCAE competition. TheNero awards are designed to uphold their own standards throughout the company,and to reward talented employees, which it can be argued, is a much morepractical reason for holding the competition. There is no doubt that thecoffees at the SCAE competition were of much higher quality, but there is alsono denying that it is Caffe Nero and similar chain stores that are the mostsuccessful and profitable, and not the independent cafés. In the currentclimate, it is the chain stores that are actually supplying what the averageconsumer really wants.

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Hi Breez,

I am sorry to have no responds to you because I did not understand your words. I really did not know what it mean.

A short history of my English study: I learnt Russian in my high school, because there were no enough teachers for English at that time. In my college, I learnt to read mathematics and physics text books in English, without any experience of speaking and listening English. In Italy, I learnt to speak English for my study there, almost never have met people who have English as their mother tongue. Then, 20 years of business in China, with European companies and had a few chance to communicate with them in English.

Back to your topics.


The photo below is Mr. Charles-Marie-Gustave Le Bon (1841 - 1931), a French social psychologist around the end of 19 centuries. His famous theory is the "Law of the Mental Unity of Crowds", from the book of "The Crowds: A Study of the Popular Mind", 1895.

I like his theory for two reasons,

1. I did have got a similar idea, not a theory, like his, independently about 20 years ago. Last year, I learnt about his book and immediately recognized that it was what I was going to say.
   
   
2. The present situation for the world coffee industry and most coffee professionals is quite similar to the one described by Mr. Le Bon, in his famous theory. For this reason, I did say some strong words and try to wake or to knock people up, but unfortunately I lost all the times.
   
   
   

For Chinese people, Chinese Festival is similar to Christmas for westerners, and everybody go home to have their eve dinner and join together in their family.

Did I miss anything? If yes, let me know.

(For stock only)

Kaffa Café,
Standards of Coffee Drinks

Hi, everyone.

(1) First, let me explain why I came back to coffeegeek.com.

We are still in the coffee industry and won‘t leave it in any case, for evident reason. If we have something to say, here is always the best place for it. We have no other choice. So, here I am.

(2) From the very new podcast (#60), I hear the calling of standards for espresso coffee drinks. As we see, do the standards of both SCAE and Australia make sense in real world and to help us to improve the quality of the coffee drinks? As we know in terms of the “golden rules”, it doesn't make much difference as before.

The so-called national coffee organization of Italy can only follow the steps of, like SCAE and so on. Due to the lack of understanding espresso by the whole coffee industry, no one can be sure to make any standards for espresso, its tastes and quality, IMHO.

We, as Kaffa Café, have got a suggested standards of espresso coffee drinks, but not standards of espresso. As one can understand, the brewing conditions and form of espresso can neither be the standards of espresso. What is only the judge conditions of a good shot is the tastes, which is never described correctly and precisely by words.

As the first step, we suggest to start from the standards of espresso coffee drinks, which allow us to talk in the same “language”.

Such a set of standards may cover only the form and recipes of espresso coffee drinks, never try to define the tastes neither the quality of espresso and its coffee drinks.

Let me introduce the Kaffa Standards of Coffee Drinks.

It's extremely expected to comment and to doubt about this standards, and probably we may reach finally to an agreed and helpful STANDARDs, based on which, we can go further and further. One day, we may find the proper definition for espresso, for its tastes and its quality.

Kaffa Standards of Coffee Drinks

1) Espresso,
A single bowl of coffee grounds, to make 40~45 ml of coffee in a 60~100 ml cup.

Note: If you prefer to make your espresso shorter, in 25~30 ml, please refer to “ristretto”. It means that you can make it, in the name of ristretto, but not espresso.

2) Espresso Doppio,
A double bowl of coffee grounds, to make 80~90 ml of coffee in a 100~150 ml cup (standard espresso cup).

Note: If you prefer to make your Espresso Doppio shorter, in 50~60 ml, please refer to “Ristretto Doppio”. It means that you can make it, in the name of Ristretto Doppio, but not Espresso Doppio.

3) (Espresso) Ristretto,
A single bowl of coffee grounds, to make 25~30 ml of coffee in a 60~70 ml cup.

4) Ristretto Doppio,
A double bowl of coffee grounds, to make 50~60 ml of coffee in a 100~120 ml cup.

5) Caffè Macchiatto,
A shot of espresso, with a dollop of milk froth, in a standard espresso cup.

6) Caffè con Panna,
A shot of espresso, with a dollop of frothing cream, in a standard espresso cup.

7) Caffè Latte,
A shot of espresso, pouring in a glass (300~350 ml) of hot milk, without milk froth.

8) Cappuccino,
A shot of espresso, plus half of hot milk and half of milk froth, in a 160~200 ml cup.

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Jasonian Said:

Well that was quite a lot of - historyrepeatingitselfagaininyetanotherpe terinbeijingthreadaboutespressostandards - in one take.

Posted January 28, 2008 link

I had a careful reading of your post, based on my poor English, and summarized that you mainly talked about the following respects.

• Full arabica blends
  
  

It is not something new, but for many of Italian coffee roasters, they make it but not sell it the best. For the roasters, they use more arabica in their blend and charge more to their customers. It is never a loose for them, isn't it?

For the cafes, it was said that the price for espresso was limited and controled by the Italian government, so they may prefer to reduce the cost for making espresso.

In China, the coffee cost more, and also the coffee drinks cost much more, even than in Europe. For many of local cafes, a cup of espresso cost about US$3.00 or more. But, a kg of coffee beans can make about 130-140 cups of espresso, and the difference between high cost beans and low cost beans is normally less than 1%. for 1 kilo, it is about US$10, but for a cup, it is only less than 1% of the total price for a cup.

It may explain that pure arabica blends are not popular in Italy not for its higher price, but something different, I think.

We did had some samples of pure arabica blends, including the one from Illy and Caffe Molinari. There are some Chinese friends like it, but most people, mainly from our trainees, prefer ORO blend, and even those with more rubusta beans.

• WBC
  
  

As people knows, it has some problems, but in China, it can be much worse. As I said, their judges, organization, and basically, how to judge if they are not very clear about the tastes of espresso? If one talk about it only by bitterness, that is far from enough, IMHO.

It can be improved, and have to be improved, as people know more and more about espresso and its coffee drinks. But, I did not see their attension, neither effort for that. For exmpla, about our Kaffa Cafe, even if we made so much effort, they never care about it. If they do not believe us, they came and check it out and laugh, with no more any cost, even if I was lying.

• Our blend, used for our espresso
  
  

We are using the ORO blend of Caffe Molinari, from Modena, and their website is

www.caffemolinari.com

They have distributor in Australia but not in US yet. So, at this moment, it can be not convenient to get it in US. But, there are many people going between Australia and US. Probably one can get it from their distributor in Australia.

As our opinion, that is a great blend, but not must be the greatest one in Italy. For such a craft products, one can never say the best. Even an old Italian family may have a great one, but they may not make it and sell it in the market. Like wine, almost every Italian family make it and no one can tell which is the best. I enjoy almost any of them.

• Volume of espresso
  
  

As I explained yet, we got this volume basically from Italy, not our creation. But, we have got a good reason for it, that is the body of an espresso.

About the intense of our espresso, due to our different blends used for our espresso, I guess that many of you will feel it is too strong, as that guest I mentioned, if we make it as 25-30 ml. While if we make it to 40-45 ml, you may feel comfortable. Of course, not all of you.

Even our trainees, some of them prefer those blends with more rubusta beans, like CLASSIC and ESPRESSO blends of Caffe Molinari, more than our ORO blend.

Jasonian Said:

I would LOVE, and I mean LOVE to spend some time with you (Peter) and do some experimenting, chatting, theorizing, and what-have-you about espresso extraction and dogma. I hope we have the chance at some point.

Posted January 28, 2008 link

I do expect to have a chance to chat with you and other friends about coffee.

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I know that in this forums, there are many different people. But, someonen said that they are already making their espresso not starting from that "golden rules", but here there are many people who are never leave from "golden rules" any more. Does it mean any difference between US and Australian and does it mean that Australia is really more than developed than US?

I do not mean anything else but the facts which I remember is just like this. Does it mean that Australian people are more or developed than US people, and how is in Europe?

In fact, I started to know about espresso 20 years ago bu drinking only, and enter this industry in 2000 years. I know many people here were in this industry much before me, but ......

There are many things are confused. Some of them are originally from Italy and others are not, but seems like. People know how to confuse them, and make others confused. But, I do expect not.

We had nothing created, but only to follow the traditional Italian coffee traditions. But now, even Italian enterpricess do not expect it.

As people said, we can name our espresso as kespresso, cappuccino as kappuccino, and caffe latter as kaffe latte, and so on. But, we dare not call them that way.

Should we do that? I do not know.

Anyway, we always have to talk to different people in different way and thinking seperately.

As people said, I am "arrogant", yes, I do feel that now. I know that some trivial things are not know by others, and they are still fighting for their targets. Such a situation make me feel so proud of it, and we have the key for the business, but others do not. Why aren't we proud of it?

I came here not for this result, but here makes me feel that way. Then, I recognized it.

Thank you, everyone. And, we shall do our best and let you see what our research results can do for the business. That is what we would do at the very beginning.

See you anywhere around the world.

A Short History

The human have been drinking coffee for more than 500 years, but espresso has got only about 60 years. In most time of this 60 years, it is only made and served in Italy and some other countries in south Europe.

For the most part of the world and most coffee professionals of the world, the history about espresso may be started only around 1990. It means that we are all starting to learn and to know espresso at similar place.

The Past Experience

In about the last twenty years, more and more people knew and learnt to make espresso drinks.

There are some understandings about espresso and its brewing skills had been practised for many years. But till now, as you well know that the world coffee retail market, that is the cafes, can hardly make good espresso. It remind us to think that the past experience can be mistake, or totally wrong.

The most famous one could be the so-called "Golden Rules", that is,

(to be continued)

Wow, what an amazing storm we had Sunday night! We, here in Kennewick, got 9 inches of snow and that's on top of an inch of ice. There is one disadvantage of being a mobile espresso business and that's when the roads are bad, you're not making any money.

So here I sit two days later, unable to get my truck out. I have so much ice around my truck, from the freezing rain and melting snow, that I don't think I'm going to get out anytime soon.

Last week I had to battle single digit temperatures. I had pipes and equipment freezing. Luckily I keep my espresso machine on, so it stays safe. Once everything thawed out, it all seems to be in proper working order, so I dodged that bullet. I may have a small crack in a drain pipe, but it doesn't seem to be much of a problem. I might be able to wait until it warms up to fix it.

So needless to say - I CAN'T WAIT FOR SPRING!