Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Brady on September 4, 2008 at 5:23am

Would you not say that the third-wave idea kinda was slow coffee? Fantastic coffees presented in whatever way best represented their unique qualities, prepared with patience by skilled artists. Milk drinks done minimally with the same approach. Flavors done with house-made infusions and whole ingredients or not at all.

If you agree with that, then there are quite a few in this community that sound like they are doing this - Troy, Sticky, Nick, Jay, Z... and too many more to list fully. Though I've yet to visit any of their cafes to experience this personally.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by u30jxwipu1i1 on September 4, 2008 at 8:01am

Slow Coffee.......

Yes, there are those of us in the industry that approach the idea of coffee preparation, from seed to cup. Knowing where, who and how your coffee is grown, roasted and prepared is the movement.

Kill the latte? No, just celebrate the farm that raises the cows, and produces the milk. Smaller volumes are the answer to maintaining both the quality and the relationship of coffee and milk. A day without a machiatto would be a serious bummer ;-)

Lose the sugars, syrups, powders etc. as they cover the subtle flavors and aromas of coffee in this particular arena. Concentrate on the quality and take the time to know your preparation for each of the coffees you are working with.

Terry Z

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Trevor on September 4, 2008 at 8:43am

Intentional (slow) Coffee

We're eliminating drip brewed. Regular coffee will be available french pressed or chemexed or any brew method for that matter that does justice to the complexity of our various coffees.

We're building relationships with our farmers to better understand the coffee we're roasting and better support the farmer. We're actually in the process of bringing one of our farmers up for our shops grand opening for them to witness their coffee on the consumer end and give our customers an opportunity to talk to the producer.

We're purchasing all our dairy from a local family dairy that is as passionate about milk as we are about coffee.

Promoting quality over quantity. No 20oz lattes. But the perfect combination of milk and espresso. Ditto to what Terry said.

Yeah slow. Is there any other way to go?

~T

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by mike cubbage on September 4, 2008 at 12:47pm

I said kill the latte. nothing about eliminating milk drinks. machiato and cappaccino should stay. just anything over 8oz doesn't seem to do justice to the coffee anymore.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on September 4, 2008 at 5:03pm

mike cubbage said:

I said kill the latte. nothing about eliminating milk drinks. machiato and cappaccino should stay. just anything over 8oz doesn't seem to do justice to the coffee anymore.

By all means when you open your own shop kill the latte. In my shop an 8oz is a latte not a cappuccino, nekkid dopio no singles pulled period. So while the espresso to milk ratio at 8oz is arguably actually within cappuccino strength the milk texture is not. Some people prefer the lighter textured milk of a latte versus a cappuccino. Even a 12oz dopio latte is on the upper end of traditional cappucciono strength and while I won't drink 'em they do not totally swamp the 'spro. 16oz dopio latte pretty weak to be sure but, well there's a lot of milk babies still out there and I'm happy to take their $ and keep the doors open. Yet sometimes I can talk them into a quad 16oz instead of our standard dopio...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by mike cubbage on September 4, 2008 at 8:48pm

i'm not knocking on anyone for selling drinks bigger than 8oz. i'm just wondering if anyone has had success not doing it. thanks for the feedback mike.

miKe mcKoffee aka Mike McGinness said:

mike cubbage said:

I said kill the latte. nothing about eliminating milk drinks. machiato and cappaccino should stay. just anything over 8oz doesn't seem to do justice to the coffee anymore.

By all means when you open your own shop kill the latte. In my shop an 8oz is a latte not a cappuccino, nekkid dopio no singles pulled period. So while the espresso to milk ratio at 8oz is arguably actually within cappuccino strength the milk texture is not. Some people prefer the lighter textured milk of a latte versus a cappuccino. Even a 12oz dopio latte is on the upper end of traditional cappucciono strength and while I won't drink 'em they do not totally swamp the 'spro. 16oz dopio latte pretty weak to be sure but, well there's a lot of milk babies still out there and I'm happy to take their $ and keep the doors open. Yet sometimes I can talk them into a quad 16oz instead of our standard dopio...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jake Elia on September 9, 2008 at 11:31am

I would love to see someone do brewed coffee "slow." Sit-down, menu of coffees, different preps available, prepared table side while explaining taste profiles, farms, regions, processing, roasting, etc. I think that would be an awesome way to serve high-end brewed coffee. You could even do that at a bar setting. But the labor costs of doing something like that would be extremely high, so you would have to charge accordingly. I think this could do good in a big city but for a small town, theres no way.

I agree with terry "Kill the latte? No, just celebrate the farm that raises the cows, and produces the milk"

At that point it almost becomes less about the coffee and more about the milk.


I think the third wave is great. But I think there are a lot of people with one foot on the dock and one on the boat. If your going to try and do the overall 100% "slow coffee" movement then commit. Everything needs the same standards coffee, milk, other ingredients (chocolate or flavors) teas, cups, lids, pastries, sugar, water...... EVERYTHING!

A pretty little rosetta on top of a 20oz hazelnut latte is not third wave or slow coffee.

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion