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 22nd 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.
