<< Home
|| About
Barismo || Projects || Events ||
Subscribe ||
Interesting bit if you can sit through it.
I wonder about the small shops who market themselves as the alternative to Starbucks and all it's corporate fury. Is their lone redeeming quality simply falling into a gimmick too? Being an indie shop is good, I guess, but if your product is no better than Starbucks... does it really matter? What if the McCafe on the corner has better lattes than both but with none of the emotional satisfaction purchased from either the branding at big green or the emotional comfort of rejecting the big bad corporation? ¶ Jaime van Schyndel 5:53 PM 5 Comments
One Ben is in Taiwan, one Ben in Minneapolis, MN. That leaves me here just roasting and roasting... and cupping. Some great little breakthroughs as I begin walking the roasts lighter and working for more explosive origin character. It's not as simple as just go lighter, it takes some processes to get a balanced lighter roast. For me, I had to spend months getting past errors to a clean profile before I even got to this point of optimization.
The espresso has been a particular challenge as you have to wait for results. You can't make snap judgments on day one.
On another note of local bits n pieces, I just saw a TV Diner show with local roaster Rao's featured. I really don't like the TV Diner show but it was interesting to see a coffee person on there actually talking about freshness(of roasted coffee). For those of you not familiar with Rao's in western MA, they are a discount dealer that does a good local business. They are on the darker end of the roast spectrum and you can find them in almost as many cafes locally as Terroir and it's black label offerings.
¶ Jaime van Schyndel 7:33 PM 0 Comments
I hate running into the holier than thou attitude with people behind the counter. Snarky signs demanding or shamelessly begging for tips along with generally indifferent service don't have a place in a profit seeking business.
When I was working behind the bar, I found out one simple fact. The environment you create will determine the customer base.
Over time, I ran across less demanding customers, less impatient people, and less nonsense than when I first started working because of a simple fact. We tried to act like professionals. Not everyone, but there was a sense behind the counter of conviction and pride among what felt like a majority. It felt like people were more patient and you had fewer people trying to take advantage of you. People knew how the system worked, they knew you knew, and it was a comfortable place to work.
Sure, this is just an empirical observation that was reinforced over a painful but short stint in a cafe not too long ago where I realized, it really is a delicate mix of personalities. It may not hold truths for everyone but I believe quality service and professionalism attracts better customers.
The problem is that it takes that majority to establish a sense of what the shop is. One out of a dozen has no effect. Especially if the other eleven are the type that think they can do a better job than the owner just because they show up when scheduled.
I feel like there are fewer and fewer shops here in town where you can just go in and have a coffee and you don't get attitude. Attitude when you tear them away from their scintillating conversation. Attitude when you watch them make the drink or show any interest in it being made correctly. Attitude for simply being there at all.
On top of that, the sighs, the impatience or flat out pretending you don't exist, there is the lack of care. That's what tops it off for me. hearing stories of friends going into shops where they have good equipment and access to real training but they simply don't care.
There's no excuse for that but I don't know who to blame.
I don't go into many shops these days because it wouldn't make any sense but every conversation I have had lately seems to center around this issue. It's like coffee shops don't try to hire people who actually like coffee anymore! There is nothing worse than hearing someone complain about a shop you have no control over. Even if I did say something, it's not clear I would get enough respect to be taken seriously.
At this point, you are probably wondering why I am writing this so here's where I pass the responsibility to you, the reader.
If anything, I have learned that it is you, as the consumer, who should speak up. Things don't change if nobody speaks up. Pull a manager aside and mention a missed detail, a careless mistake, or downright belligerence. What have you got to lose?
Otherwise, you could just keep putting money in that tip jar and hope that some day the service gets better.
I dropped in to visit friends and someone pulls out the weekly dig and asks me, when did they take this photo?
Jeez, seriously?!? Since I haven't worked in a cafe in months, this must have been at the Hsieh espresso event. The photo I get doesn't include my name, the shop we are in, or anything about coffee. Just another day in Boston where the press talk all day about oversized couches and cupcakes making the coffee shops but nothing serious about or reviews of the coffee.
There is a lot of dirt in coffee to be dug, pardon the pun, but it takes a serious approach and probably more time invested than most generic student focused assignments. Believe me, I understand that there isn't much to write about in the local coffee scene, very little to romanticize really, so it's not like I can point to some great grievance of overlooked quality.
I'd love to be out there and doing some tastings, really rocking the game with brewing events, and creating a scene but my newest project right now is bogged down in an insane catch 22. If anyone knows higher ups or has some sway with Arlington local government or is a local and just wants to help, drop me an email. Aside from that, everything these days is in limbo for the moment.
Latte art is a pet peeve for me really. I can pour with the best of them, and really, anyone can with enough time and repetition. Latte art isn't that hard and contrary to Jon's comment in the video, you don't need particularly good or well executed espresso. In fact, you can have some pretty average milk and still pull off a decent rosetta.
As someone who is very passionate about the cup taste, it is a frustration that latte art often becomes the focus of many the barista and customer. I know that within a single training session, most people can pour latte art but it will take close to a thousand pulls to really build a feel for good espresso. Sure, triple rosettas, pac man breathing fire, it's all novel at first but after a while, it isn't as rewarding as a straight shot drinker showing appreciation over the cup flavor.
I taught myself how to pour latte art with a mostly trial and error approach. I had never seen it except in some Schomer print article. I had not found the forums or the online community obsessed with latte art and the (new at the time) bottomless portafilter until later. The comments from customers were warm and reassuring, sometimes humorous. 'Did you see this?' being curious and 'I thought he only poured those for me but he pours them for everyone' being my favorite.
After a bit of time, customers became accommodated to the art and you could pour five in a cup and nobody would bat an eye. In fact, I would get taken aback when someone actually mentioned the latte art.
It is in this that I believe latte art has it's limits. It's the bare minimum, in my opinion because it is a visual aspect not essential to cup flavor. I rue the shops that post latte art on the walls because it is almost a statement of evolution and that the customer base has not moved beyond that point. When everyone in shop is pouring art everyday, you don't need photos to make the point. Maybe I am thinking too deeply.
Of the few shops here in Cambridge that have a barista or two pouring latte art, maybe two actually have sharp (or even ever changed the) blades on the grinders and use a proper dosing technique with a real tamper that actually fits the basket. So as I simultaneously condemn latte art I also realize it is rarer than it should be.
By the way, if anyone wants a latte art class, let me know ;-)
Labels: latte art
¶ Jaime van Schyndel 4:48 PM 1 Comments
A friend challenged me to do an iced coffee that could be approachable but still be interesting. Maybe the warm weather had him convinced summer had already arrived. The foul weather today would easily discourage that belief.
We experimented a lot with overnight brews and variations of the full immersion cold brew. It's fantastic but way over caffeinated. Currently, I am just brewing a pour over of each sample I work with and then chill over night because that is more relevant to what most people are working with. I drink the sample the next few days and see where it's at. So far one excellent profile has stood out.
In my experiences, a coffee where the roast profile mellows the acidity and builds mid tone works best. I found that going just into second crack seems to be just enough roast note for balance in the coffees I like. From experience, the worst versions of iced coffees seem to be the black and tan or melanges which have simultaneously too much bitter roast and strong acidity. I hope to avoid that and just have a very balanced and very drinkable every day style iced coffee. Refined, simple, clean, and balanced.
I know iced coffee is a real New England thing. Everyone here goes crazy over iced coffee during the rare summer-like days. I'll admit that until recently, I had not given much thought to it. Much of the iced coffee offerings seemed unappealing and I felt very little interest. When someone throws down the gauntlet though, I will take it seriously.
The truth I have come to behind my lack of drip(and iced coffee) coffee love is the amount of grassy and often bitter roasts I was exposed to were really tearing up my poor stomach. The grassy astringency of some people 'roasting raw' can turn my acid sensitive stomach into knots in minutes. Getting deep into roasting helped me notice this. Grassy is generally something that becomes even more present in an iced coffee but equally as hard on the stomach as a hot brewed cup. Clean up the grassy notes and it's fine, I can drink it, no problem.
The current cup, already gone at this point of writing, is an Antigua roasted for an ice coffee brew and I'm feeling it enough to write this post. I just hope summer weather arrives soon so we can start having a real excuse to drink it.
Labels: iced coffee
¶ Jaime van Schyndel 8:02 PM 4 Comments
Current issue (April/May 2008)of B-Mag has a brief piece (pg 18) I wrote on Mr. Clean Green's visit to the US.
Some people still wonder about the towel method. As Simon would say when you ask him any substantiative what if, 'try it.' Like everything we do, it isn't for show, it serves a purpose. I remember one full time internet coffee pundit questioned the method as just for show. I thought, this guy never tried the method nor does he bother to measure temp or time when brewing vac pot, am I supposed to take him seriously?
All that said, having a spiffy new GB5 will really limit brew time on the vac pot so... remember this:
Test everything, try everything, but sometimes it just comes down to being in the same room with the same coffee in a specific roast style. If you are lucky enough to have a TCA 2 from Hario, Simon does do overseas orders.
Labels: barista magazine, Simon Hsieh
¶ Jaime van Schyndel 10:21 PM 4 Comments
I just received an email entitled 'Update on your Guatemalan vac sealed coffees' and it made me smile. An update on that sometime later.
You'd be surprised how 'not like we think it is' the whole coffee exporting system is. There are fantastic coffees that just never make it to the tiny percentile of specialty roasters looking for it. Part of it is the simple fact they are unaware of us and our market. If they were somehow more aware of our tiny segment's demands, it would open a lot more doors for great coffees to reach our market.
Somewhere in a stack like this is an amazing coffee or two.... or three...
Right now, there is a lot of navel gazing going on in the blogs about what brew methods are best, what to do now that the clamour for Clover turned into the planet buster on the death star....
A lot of people are talking about moving to the manual methods or anything new that's less automated. Siphon, pourover bars, and getting back to basics are becoming the buzz words. I think it's just a movement in trying to find a new niche, the new amazing brewer that will give them the angle. Specializing and definite product differentiation from the big boys. I am proud there are some serious cats out there brewing vac with all the tedium and technical precision of a guitarist mid solo but they are the few among a mob of new found fans of the manual method.
The times are changing and nothing is settled right now. There are no firm standards and we have no clear direction where things will be in the next year. It was not too long ago that I believe we were in the dark ages of coffee on the verge of change. Sure the forums were buzzing and 3wavers were aplenty working for 'the goal', but it was a time with a lot of passion and very little substance. Vac sealing was something only eccentrics did and few would publicly admit how much coffees deteriorate much less think about freezing a coffee.
The focus was on the equipment mods, ritual movements in preparation, and all about these name brand 'black box' blends. The forums were left to the machinations of latte artists proclaiming the value of triple rosettas and pacman blowing flames in your cup AND gratuitous photo series of 'naked' portafilter triple thick one ounce muddy baked 'chocolate' shots. Sure, there was an interesting segment focused on how to hack some cheapy piece of equipment into some better cheapy piece of equipment.... but eventually, you PID your PID and it becomes redundant so you end up buying the best equipment after spending lots of cash on a series of small modded upgrades.
Somewhere along the way, a lot of focus on the actual coffees was lost. Sure, I realize everyone is 'about letting the coffee speak for itself' and other catchy phrases but a little less time on forums talking about the concept and more time living it would help us all.
It's all the more complicated these days by marketing that is geared at direct trade and relationships where the farmer as a brand is glorified on one hand and on the other often then repackaged in mill marks where the farmer disappears again. Transparency is a funny thing we all talk about but don't really ever see or have the access to understand.
Then there are coffees where the placement in contests or prices paid set notoriety and it can simply be a contest to pay the highest price for the right to pay the highest price AND then you have press and buzz based on expensive brewing equipment and 20K utterly superfluous heating elements clouding the picture of what is really good coffee and what is just an expensive lamp making cheap coffee at a high price.
So, if you can clear through the fair trade, organic trade, direct trade, bidding wars, ego trips, pricey brewers, complicated techniques, barista flair, and well, everything but cup taste to well... simply cup taste, that's an amazing moment of clarity.
Things haven't really changed that much but I am thoroughly excited by splintering segments of the industry headed in new directions. The point is, there are great things going on in coffee BUT you have to dig deep and often the people doing the most amazing bits don't spend time cruising coffeed or CG, they are out there doing it. Marketing rarely cuts through to the tiny elements that can help make or break a good coffee.
Labels: article, clover, hand pour, musings, syphon, vac pot
¶ Jaime van Schyndel 10:58 PM 6 Comments
Today, I dropped by my friend Nik's new digs in Newton called Taste. He is taking over a space on Walnut street where it was an existing crepe bar with limited coffee service. Nik is hoping to change the coffee service and is working on upgrades and renovations with an idea of expanding the coffee program to be more progressive. Particularly, an interest in espresso that peaks my curiosity. Of the new additions, Nik scored a nice three group Synesso and is in the beginning stages of building a nice little coffee scene. With a small dedicated staff and continued investment, it looks like it will progress in a good direction.
Having followed Nik for some time (and having an affinity for his grandfather Larry), it's good to see him land in a space where he can start to work out his direction in coffee. I am curious to see how things progress and where he takes his interest. It should be noted, his espresso cup collection is well ahead of expectations.
Something I noticed today while at Taste. We spend so much energy in producing coffee but many of us don't get to see the end product realized. This was part of the realization I had in Guatemala, they had very little perspective of how the product often arrived 'finished' in the cafe. We typically only get to see the customer reaction as a barista and that reaction rarely makes it back through the multitude of people who had a hand in production. I recently have not been behind a counter in a while and I was beginning to lose touch with that relationship and the joy of that exchange. The barista to customer connection made over a product. Sometimes we forget that without that, there is nothing more than a product. Nik has that, a fluid conversationalist, he has an ease in making that connection.
For a good conversation and to see the varying stages of his progression, I recommend a visit or two.
Labels: cafe, newton ma, taste
¶ Jaime van Schyndel 10:00 PM 2 Comments
<< Home
|| About
Barismo || Projects || Events ||
Subscribe ||