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Genuine Italian Quality?

Posted by Bel Townsend on February 16, 2008 at 7:24am

(NB: This is a follow up for uni - I started a discussion on here a while ago asking why coffee is perceived to be Italian at least in the UK. These are just some thoughts and experiences on that topic)Walking round Darlington town centre gives you a relatively large selection of places to get cups of coffee. There are numerous 'traditional tea rooms' where coffee is an afterthought, and greasy-spoon cafes who will do instant Nescafe in a polystyrene cup. And then there is two Costas, a Caffe Nero and the brand new Starbucks. So far, so uninteresting. Darlington does boast a few independent cafes, however: The Voodoo Cafe which I am still too biased to express an opinion about, Coffee Bamber – an expensive and somehow unappealing place which, commendably, only sells FairTrade coffee, and “Coffee @ Elliotts.” This company actually has two branches now on either side of town, and I decided to try it out.Coffee @ Elliotts is done out quite attractively, all art deco with huge chandeliers, ornate mirrors, heavy wooden furniture and the odd bust dotted around on shelves. There are also lots of sepia pictures of old style continental pavement cafes with titles in... French?This is surprising. I had honestly expected the elusive Elliott to pretend to be Italian. Costa claims to serve Italian-style coffee, Caffe Nero are so Italian they've even added the extra 'f', Starbucks was apparently inspired by Italian espresso bars... Admittedly, Coffee Bamber doesn't seem to know what it is selling, and I tried to make the Voodoo Cafe as Latino as possible, but otherwise it is a safe presumption that most coffee shops have some Italian connection. Elliotts does serve espresso, cappuccinos, lattes, and all the rest, but also apparently sell 'coffee' as well, without giving it an Italian identity. All drinks come in 'regular' or 'large' as opposed to 'grande' or even 'venti'. Although the emphasis is on coffees, they also serve panninis and biscottis, but also plain sandwiches, cakes and jacket potatoes. None of which sound particularly continental.The coffee at Elliott's wasn't bad at all, and was actually cheaper than the bigger chains. And then I found out why – they were using a Bean-to-Cup machine, which is about the same size as a Gaggia espresso maker and works on the same principle, but doesn't require the same human input. This machine will make espresso-based coffee, but only requires that you fill it up with beans, water and fresh milk in different compartments, and press the right button depending on what you want. It presses the coffee and steams the milk all by itself, and the 'barista' just has to put a cup underneath.This makes the coffee cheaper – not because it is cheaper to run, or cheaper on staff costs; the baristas are still there to bring your coffees to you and cash up etc. It is cheaper, I think, because it requires less skill to produce. And also, less showmanship. Making coffee like this, looks easier to anyone watching. Therefore, value cannot be added to it by making it look more skilled. The process does not look sufficiently complex to warrant charging more to compensate for the skilled labour involved. This sort of coffee is less of a luxury.This does not mean, however, that anyone could do it. It is still highly unlikely for many people to have a bean-to-cup machine at home, and so the luxury of having someone make it for you is still there. Even with a machine like that, there still has to be some product knowledge involved. An example is that the coffee from Interval bar at Sheffield university also comes from a bean-to-cup machine, just like at Elliotts. Elliotts coffee is infinitely better tasting however. Baristas still need to know how to maintain the machine, set it to the right temperatures and pressure, and what coffee to put in it. Elliotts coffee tasted as good, if not better, than Caffe Nero's equivalent, whereas the coffee at Interval is somewhere between burnt and stale and possibly flavoured with ground up car tyres. This, to me, implies that there is more to making coffee than just which machine you choose.As shown by the Barista Championships, there is a lot of skill, art and showmanship that goes in to making espresso based coffees, and the fact that these competitions, and this style of coffee-making are still so popular implies that it is still what consumers want – there must be a specific selling point to make the coffee shops invest in Gaggia machines and in training their staff. If the bean-to-cup machines were as good – and they are quicker, more efficient and dare I say it, convenient, then Starbucks and Nero would use them and the art of the barista wouldn't be so called for. Something has to make the 'real' espresso coffees of higher quality.I would argue that it is the Italianess that is that selling point. Italianess is part of the 'experience' which the big brands are so keen to promote. Caffe Nero, for instance, want to offer the experience of a old fashioned Italian espresso bar and continental cafe. It gives the coffee, and this 'experience' an identity, which is very important to the brand, Being 'Italian' not only makes the place sound sophisticated and if not exotic, then certainly different to the quaint English tea rooms, it also adds an element of performance. Espresso was invented and perfected in Italy, the first espresso machines were designed and patented by Italians. This style also happens to require more skilled human input, more visual techniques and as such, more labour. Increasing the labour involved increases the value of the end-product, the customer perceives it to be of better quality entirely because of the added labour-value, and so espresso coffees become more expensive. This could be the main reason why coffee shops, like Coffee @ Elliotts become Italian, when they are on Darlington high street, run by Americans and get their coffee beans from Brazil.

ooooo a blog

Posted by Holly on February 15, 2008 at 10:00pm

I just figured I would give this whole blog thing a shot. It's been a really long time since I have done this...not to mention my one and only blog was on xanga.... any who, it's late in Kansas and I am watching Harry Potter (#1) and just finished season 3 of 24. I did practically nothing today, with the exception of writing up descriptions of our competition espresso blend. It should be up on the site by Monday I would assume. Well, even though this is the 72nd time I have seen it, I must watch Harry's hijinks ensue....Holls

brew bar signs.

Posted by Amanda Lanyon-LeSage on February 15, 2008 at 4:50pm

our store uses a brew bar system (with Melitta cones and #4 filters) to make brewed coffee. my location (Mormon Trek) has six brew bar slots (four for straight coffee and two for flavor). to make it easier for customers to figure out where their coffee is, we make signs and direct customers to the sign under which their coffee is dripping away. i made some kickass signs today... breakfast cereal characters (with vintage cereal boxes for the pictures). included were Count Chocula, Trix Rabbit, Dig 'Em Frog, King Vitaman, Tony the Tiger, and Cap'n Crunch.while i was making the signs, i realized that a lot of breakfast cereal mascots have titles like Captain, Count, King, Sir, etc. that's weird. i don't think children are sitting at the table saying, "you know, i will only eat this sugary crunchy stuff if a dude with a fancy name endorses it."at least Cap'n Crunch isn't pretentious with his name... he's snappy!

The CIA is Finally Taking this Counter Culture Thing Seriously

Posted by 3d7lj1n4xxk7t on February 15, 2008 at 10:30am

News arrived yesterday that the CIA has formed a partnership with Counter Culture. Reaction around the world has been a swift and resounding "What?!" And yet it is true. The implications of this unusual partnership bring up many troubling questions, paramount among them is how...Okay, I just can't go on with this farce any longer. Not that it can't be done, mind you, but there are simply too many possible jokes embedded within this news item for any sane person to willingly go on.So the real news is that the CIA--not the infamously humorless and freakishly disturbed US intelligence agency but The Culinary Institute of America--is developing a coffee curriculum in partnership with roaster and public educator Counter Culture Coffee. They plan to offer the coffee curriculum as a part of the culinary college’s baking and pastry arts program, including a new espresso and single-origin French press program for the CIA’s Apple Pie Bakery Café. Must. Resist. Mom and Apple Pie joke. Argh!Link (via Coffee Talk)Post originally published by Milwaukee Specialty Food and Coffee.

Happy Valentines Everyone!

Posted by Matt Milletto on February 13, 2008 at 7:30pm

Happy Valentines Day everybody! Hope you all like the new color scheme of the home page of the site. ;)

What will be your special drink on Valentine's Day?

Posted by Stickman on February 13, 2008 at 2:50pm

I received a call from the spouse of a regular customer...Somebody wants to treat their Valentine to a treat in the shop and I don't know what to nake...Cinnamon Latte maybe?I normally discourage flavoured drinks in favour of tasty espresso but the masses speak.Any suggestions?

Global Barista Exchange- Noe Castro Cacao at Barefoot

Posted by Andy Newbom on February 13, 2008 at 1:38pm

February is the month of coffee and love with Valentines day and Specialty Coffee month sharing the stage. And that coffee love is blooming at Silicon valley's Barefoot Coffee Roasters. Barefoot is hosting Guatemalan National Barista Champion Noe Castro for the month of February. Noe Castro was the Guatemala national Barista champion and went on the compete in the 2006 World Barista Championships in Tokyo nabbing 28th place. Noe recently took third place at the 2007 Guatemala Barista Championship and won the title of “Best Espresso” at the championships.For the months of February and March Noe will be participating in a Barista Exchange at Barefoot Coffee Roasters. Noe will be exchanging information, techniques, coffee passion and stories with the Barefoot Coffee team. This is a unique arrangement that builds great rapport between all of the participants. The high end of the specialty coffee industry is a supportive community that thrives on open communication and co-opetition. Noe will be learning to roast coffee, cup and blend coffees from many different countries and learn new espresso extraction techniques. In exchange Noe will be helping to train Barefoot's Barista competition team, Monica Hill and Marie Holston, as they prepare for the Western Regional Barista Competition March 29-31st 2008 in Berkeley, CA. Noe will also be working the espresso bar pulling espressos for customers throughout the month at Barefoot's coffee bar.“My passion is coffee. ” Said Noe Castro Cacao. “Working with Barefoot Coffee is a remarkable opportunity for me to advance my coffee knowledge, skill and passion. The level of coffee preparation knowledge in the United States will allow me to achieve my goal of representing Guatemala in the World Barista Championships in 2009.”And to continue the spirit of the exchange he will also be spending a week or two at Ritual Roasters in San Francisco doing many of the same educational opportunities. This type of open community and exchange is a hallmark of the artisan coffee industry where relationships and results are more important than brand.Artisan roasters take great pride in hand crafting coffees of the highest magnitude. The multi-layered flavor complexities exceed that of even the finest wines. And many of these roasters take the coffee so seriously that they develop direct relationships with coffee farmers in producing countries to ensure the highest quality and most unique flavors. These relationships also serve to pass more of the profits to the coffee farmers themselves through education and awareness.“ Noe is an amazing Barista and representative of Guatemala Coffee. “ Mused Andy Newbom, Chief Espresso Officer of Barefoot Coffee Roasters, Inc. “We are honored to be able to host a true champion of great coffee. We met Noe Castro on a trip to visit farms in Guatemala in February 2007, while we were training a group of Guatemalan Baristas and we offered to help Noe refine his presentation for the World competition. His passion, dedication, charm and humility are backed up by his exemplary skill in making great coffee. Damn! This is gonna be a fun month!”“ In Guatemala most Baristas have little or no contact with coffee roasters.” explained Edwin Martinez, owner of Guatemalan coffee estate Finca Vista Hermosa in Huehuetenango. “For Noe to work directly with an artisan coffee roaster of the level of Barefoot Coffee and to learn roasting, blending and cupping is a huge opportunity for him.”

Starbucks is Closing for Training? Aw, They Really Do Care

Posted by 3d7lj1n4xxk7t on February 13, 2008 at 5:30am

A day of reckoning approaches, friends, for on February 26, 2008, between the hours of 5:30PM and 8:30PM local time, the billion dollar global retail coffee monolith known as Starbucks will close all 7,100 US company-operated stores to train--or, as they call it, retrain--their employees in the elusive art of pulling espresso shots. Well, my word, this is news!Questions most definitely arise in the wake of this announcement. Is this decision to close for a whole three hours an admission of overwhelming guilt? Perhaps an acknowledgment that, through the many years of endless additions of unrelated coffee product, they sadly lost focus on why they're in the business by not training their baristas well in the first place? Maybe, maybe not.Either way, let's hope that Mike can get some decent espresso drink justice when he bravely returns to the North Oakland Ave. Starbucks after February 26. But truly, friends, only time--and training--will tell.Link (via Coffee Talk)Post originally published by Milwaukee Specialty Food and Coffee.

A Night to Celebrate the Life of Dr. Illy - February 22nd

Posted by Matt Milletto on February 12, 2008 at 9:30am

At Bellissimo’s January 2008 staff retreat, we discussed if it was possible to re-release the complete Dr. Illy Milan Interview, which we originally released on video a few years ago. We all agreed that the time was right for the latest generation of coffee people to see this 75-minute interview and be exposed to the insight and amazing perspective offered by Dr. Illy. Last week as we got the sad news of Dr. Illy's passing, and at the end of the week the DVDs arrived in our office. Re-releasing this interview is not about making money — the thousands of people in the coffee industry who should watch it, will probably never find it on our site. This release is only about making it available, and those who purchase it will not be sorry. I just watched the interview again, after not having seen it for a number of years, and I was blown away at the information that it contains. 25% of the proceeds will be donated to Coffee Kids. We will be having a Celebration of the Life of Dr. Illy at the American Barista & Coffee School on February 22nd, 2008. The night will include wine, Illy espresso, a time for people to tell stories about meeting Dr. Illy and how he had a profound influence on so many of us in the coffee industry. We will be watching the Dr. Illy Milan Interviews in their entirety as well. We really hope that many of you can make it to the event, and join us in paying respect to such a passionate and unique person, who dedicated his life to the advancement of espresso and specialty coffee. If you cannot make it but would still like to watch the DVD we do have them available on the Bellissimo website. 6:00 p.m - 9:00 p.m. Friday, February 22 at the American Barista & Coffee School, 1028 SE Water Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97214. This event will be a celebration of the life of the good doctor. We hope you can attend. For directions or to RSVP please email or call us at 800-655-3955

Love for Coffee.

Posted by Jason Haeger on February 12, 2008 at 9:28am

The Industry, the Community, the People, the Customers; Everything.It keeps me motivated, and I feel fortunate to be in a business that I am in love with.Anyone else?Who else feels the love! :o)

people

Posted by David on February 12, 2008 at 7:40am

i think its really hard having to deal with people all the time. you get some nice and then some not so nice but when the not so nice come you usually want to confront them and ask why they think they need to act the way they do.......when i started out working with people in the food service industry i was pretty much up front and treated everyone like crap then i thought of how i am a christian andi need to reflect how jesus is and that changed the way i acted twards others. its makes me sad to think back in the day i used to be so mean and then there are non christians who are way nicer than me. lame!so it seems as though lately i have been back to where i was before i havent been as nice to the not so nice people and it makes me sad. I'm getting yet again back to that place cause i need to be back there but it still makes me sad that i might have reflected the wrong image of christ or but a bad name for young people or my sisters bistro.....i guess its all ok though cause I'm forgiven and I'm coming back! YAY!proverbs 12:16A fool is quick-tempered,but a wise person stays calm when insulted

More Coffee in Art--Literally

Posted by 3d7lj1n4xxk7t on February 12, 2008 at 7:30am

So yesterday I blogged about Oliver Jeffers' use of coffee rings in his illustrative art, which can be viewed on his web site. Ingenious! After being so inspired, I decided to take a look around the ole Internets to find some more and viola! I happily ran across the site of Andrew Saur and Angel Sarkela-Saur. These two have some amazing talent, and I'm not joshin' ya, people.Andrew and Angel create paintings entirely in the medium of coffee. Utilizing a full range of possible tones, the works are striking and inventive. They also have a short video they put together in the style of a silent film--it's a bit schmaltzy, but if you're into cute, you should give it a screening.Take a look-see for yourself.Enjoy!Post originally published by Milwaukee Specialty Food and Coffee.

when idiots work alone

Posted by Joe Stormer on February 12, 2008 at 5:35am

I really love working alone. And while I have my solitude and independence, there are always customers to keep from feeling deprived of human contact. Except on days like yesterday.Yesterday, I crawled out of bed and slapped two fried eggs between the slices of a day-old-day-old-day-old bagel. I felt like I was dead. I could not believe how tired I was. But I stumbled out of the house, hopped on my bike and took to the streets.The streets were empty and so was the bike trail. The sun was nowhere near rising and when I got to work it was like being the jailer in an old west ghost town. Things picked up eventually, but not before numbing my brain out of my skull.Then in the evening I looked at my alarm clock and thought, "It's 7:45 already?" Then I looked back at my computer: "6:45pm". I looked at the clock and the computer again . . . "7:45pm" . . . "6:45pm" . . .Quickly I shuffled through my email account until I found my first email of the day: 6:42am. I wrote that email after opening the store while I sipped a cappuccino and waited for the first customer, marveling that no one was coming in.We open at seven.

day old muffins!

Posted by Amanda Lanyon-LeSage on February 12, 2008 at 5:00am

Here's what I like about closing the store: we get to take home all the day-old pastries that didn't sell that day. We had a LOT last night, so I took most of them home because I hate seeing them thrown away. Apparently my kitten REALLY likes bagels and he chewed one up through the bag. I'll add a picture later, it's pretty awesome.And with that, I'm going to go eat a lemon poppy seed muffin. (I almost wrote Lemon POOPY seed. Hah.)

at the shop all alone, and I have a real problem...

Posted by sent0eb372vt on February 11, 2008 at 1:00pm

I have to go to the bathroom so bad!!! But there are people in here!!! It's killing me slowly...no, really. I'm dying!

Today’s Corporate Embrace: Starbucks Jumps into the Waiting Wi-Fi Arms of AT&T

Posted by 3d7lj1n4xxk7t on February 11, 2008 at 11:30am

Dallas Business Journal is reporting that Starbucks has made a deal with AT&T to offer free Wi-Fi at their stores to all AT&T broadband, U-verse and remote access service business Internet customers. In addition, Starbucks card holders can get two hours of free Wi-Fi per day at participating locations beginning this spring.Meanwhile, the poor saps who decline a Starbucks card and exercise their consumer choice by using a provider other than AT&T will have to pay $3.99 per two-hour blocks or a monthly membership fee of $19.99 for wireless Internet.Well, I’m just glad these two shy, unassuming kids could finally get together, aren’t you?Link (via Coffee Talk)

Post originally published by Milwaukee Specialty Food and Coffee.

Coffee in Art--Literally

Posted by 3d7lj1n4xxk7t on February 11, 2008 at 6:30am

Oliver Jeffers has some incredible illustrations using coffee rings up on his web site. Both my husband and I have doodled in and around coffee stains, so this really brightened up my day.Go to Jeffers’ site and find them under his Illustration section. (via Drawn!)Post originally published by Milwaukee Specialty Food and Coffee.

the MWRBC winners are...

Posted by Aaron Meza on February 10, 2008 at 5:38pm

1st place - Pete Licata

2nd place - Alex McCracken

3rd place - Robin Seitz

Vancouver B.C. Road Trip - Part 2

Posted by Matt Milletto on February 10, 2008 at 8:32am

ok .. so if I don't finish my blog about our trip it will never happen! :) I think I left off having just had a great espresso at Elysian Room after chatting with Alistair.

Right as we are leaving Mark Price calls and invites us over. It's now about noon and we both need a break from touring cafes. We found our way over to Mark's and hang out with him and Beata for a while, catching up and Mark and I talk about industry news and stuff, and what our favorite games for the Wii are ... while the girls chat about where to go shopping.

Mark had forgotten he had a meeting with the Canadian Coffee & Tea Expo/Canadian Barista Competition folks in an hour or so, and invited me along. We met at Bump and Grind on Commercial, where I met the owner Josh and ordered ANOTHER macchiato ... it was great, and a very cool shop. We all chatted for a while and then the girls showed up with shopping bags.

We drove down commercial and ended up at the JJ bean location where they first introduced roasting to order on a sample roaster ... it was pretty cool, but no one was roasting at the moment. I managed to get out of drinking more espresso but did catch a glimpse of some nice latte art, and chatted with one of the baristas for a bit, until I realized I was holding up the line of customers that was almost out the door. :)

We headed back to Mark and Beata's and Mark made us some tasty hand made cocktails ... which I was ready for. I spent some time in Mark equipment room admiring limited edition tampers and checking out his one group Marzocco. After a while, we decided to head back to the hotel and get ready for dinner so we said our good byes but made plans to meet up later that evening.

We had been eating very well in Vancouver and were excited to have some excellent seafood. Roberto from Nuova Simonelli had invited us to do dinner and ended up taking us to a place called Rodney's in Yaletown. Kylene has this new obsession with Oysters on the half shell ever since we had them in the East Village on a NYC trip in December. She used to hate the thought of Oysters, so it is kind of funny to watch her eat one after the next. We had 2 dozen to start and ordered some excellent chowder, seared ahi and crab cakes. It was a great meal and Roberto ordered a fantastic white wine that complimented everything perfectly.

It had been a long day but we were ready for more, so I had received a text from Alistair and Mark that a bunch of people were meeting at a place called Chow. We showed up around 9 or 10. Very cool place, with extremely cool cocktails. Quite a few people made it out for drinks, Alistair, Mark and Beata, Chris Owens and M'llissa were also in town and showed up with Drew from Origins Coffee Roasters. Also, in town was Josh? from Novo out of Colorado. We stayed well into the late night, and finally headed back to the hotel around 1 or 2.

The next day we lounged around in the morning, packed and then went to get a late breakfast at a cool Italian themed place called Sciue right near our hotel. It was great, so many great panini, pizza, etc. Also, a cool stage like area for the barista and a walk up/pick up bar similar to those found in Italy. We ate and then headed out of town, making one final stop at the ECM showroom. We wanted to check out a cool bar system/modular cafe build out that Roberto had told us about the night before. The bar systems are called Frigomeccanica and are pretty amazing ... I may write more about them soon.

At the showroom they have a whole wall of whole bean coffee for purchase from many top roasters. It was cool to see Intelligentsia, JJ Bean, 49th parallel, and maybe 10 others there to pick up a bag to take home. I also found a Vespa Demitasse set that I bought for my dad and I's collection. Vancouver was great, but it was time to start our looong journey home.

We made pretty good time getting to the Border, and made it across just fine. As we crossed into Washington it started to snow really hard, and it was a bit sketchy. Luckily I ended up directly behind the snow plow that was on I-5 and we drove at 25 mph for a while, passing people that had spun off onto the side and were stuck, etc. After 10 miles or so the snow was gone and we kept on our way. We made a quick stop in Frendale at the Simonelli factory and picked up some new steam wand tips to try out on our Aurelia, and our Oscar.

I had been talking with Edwin Martinez about meeting for a coffee in Bellingham, and we tried to connect but somehow missed each other when we were in town. We did still end up stopping in Bellingham, and I had not really called ahead so sorry to those who live there that we didn't say hi. We ate a big lunch at a mexican restaurant and then headed to The Black Drop

It was very cool inside and reminded me of the coffee shop I managed in college back in 96. The coffee was great, and the spro I think it was roasted by Origins Coffee Roasters ... they also have coffee from a local Bellingham roaster I believe. Fueled up we got back on I-5 and drove pretty much non-stop until we got back to Portland. We were lucky not to hit snow on the way back and made good time.

We had a great weekend and again, thanks to those who met with us, shared coffee, drinks, food and stories. We hope to make it back soon to B.C. and next time will plan a cafe tour for Victoria Island for sure.

- Matt

Dining For Darfur

Posted by Ginger Gerhart on February 10, 2008 at 7:19am

Has anyone heard about Dining For Darfur? It will be hosted this year by Seattle and Portand area restaurants, coffee houses, and brew pubs and benefits Mercy Corps efforts in Darfur.Check it out http://www.chowfoods.com/darfur/ Please show your support by participating in this event either as a consumer or a coffee house!

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Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.