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Monday, September 04, 2006
How do you say Soy Milk in Italian?
I poured this soy latte this morning and had to stop and pic it just before handing it over.... It sparked a thought about soy and I needed a reminder. I thought about it and I was slightly perplexed for a few moments...
I have nothing against soy milk but I feel like it is a weird thing that so few shops really try to get a hold of good soy milk. The kind you get downtown china town here in Boston. You can get relatively fresh soy milk and much better quality than the normal commercial brands. Then I snapped back to a harsh reality...
Order for a large decaf skim cappuccino?
In some ways, I feel odd about putting a design on every drink. The decaf skim gets a rosetta on it same as a regular at Simon's... I know I should be saying what the customer wants, the customer gets, but a little evil side of me says 'why reward them for making bad drink choices?' Why pour a beatiful rosetta on a bad drink? Why encourage them to keep ordering that drink...?
Everyone asks me why I pop the lids on to go cups instead of letting the customer cover them. I do the rosetta but I don't worry if you want a to go drink about the presentation. If it's in a ceramic, I'll toss it if the design isn't all that. Paper cup is a big whatever.
Then I thought about it some. If I truly don't want to serve decaf or skim milk, why do it? Isn't that in some ways the difference between fast food and four stars? Options vs Quality. Convenience vs Quality. Speed vs Quality. Quantity vs Quality. In other words, standards. Are high standards in direct opposition to the traditional coffee shop with all it's sizes, options, syrups, and the poorly executed decaf?
I don't have an answer, only opinions that will make me sound arrogant and unyielding. I just feel like sometimes you can't have everyone as a customer. Large skim cappuccino... hit the road and take cinnamon mocha with you...!!!
You, dear reader may think I have finally gone off the deep end, but I have put it in perspective and came away more emboldened. I tried to think about it like great restaurants and taverns. If you want options, go somewhere else, if you want excellent food come in but be willing to pay. Are some elite coffee shops getting ready to go that direction? I thought, why shouldn't we all move in that direction a little. How else can we serve the wonderful CoEs at $20+ a pound. Some elite shops must exist to showcase these coffees or they will be shuffled away to internet forums and lonely home user machines. To play these coffees out on the cafe stage with great barista behind tricked out machines is a dream in the making. Service of the coffees living up to the true expression of the coffees, that's a concept with no distractions!
The cafe floor. Standards. Quality. That's what I am thinking about right now.
-Jaime van Schyndel ¶ Jaime van Schyndel 9:51 PM
I poured this soy latte this morning and had to stop and pic it just before handing it over.... It sparked a thought about soy and I needed a reminder. I thought about it and I was slightly perplexed for a few moments...I have nothing against soy milk but I feel like it is a weird thing that so few shops really try to get a hold of good soy milk. The kind you get downtown china town here in Boston. You can get relatively fresh soy milk and much better quality than the normal commercial brands. Then I snapped back to a harsh reality...
Order for a large decaf skim cappuccino?
In some ways, I feel odd about putting a design on every drink. The decaf skim gets a rosetta on it same as a regular at Simon's... I know I should be saying what the customer wants, the customer gets, but a little evil side of me says 'why reward them for making bad drink choices?' Why pour a beatiful rosetta on a bad drink? Why encourage them to keep ordering that drink...?
Everyone asks me why I pop the lids on to go cups instead of letting the customer cover them. I do the rosetta but I don't worry if you want a to go drink about the presentation. If it's in a ceramic, I'll toss it if the design isn't all that. Paper cup is a big whatever.
Then I thought about it some. If I truly don't want to serve decaf or skim milk, why do it? Isn't that in some ways the difference between fast food and four stars? Options vs Quality. Convenience vs Quality. Speed vs Quality. Quantity vs Quality. In other words, standards. Are high standards in direct opposition to the traditional coffee shop with all it's sizes, options, syrups, and the poorly executed decaf?
I don't have an answer, only opinions that will make me sound arrogant and unyielding. I just feel like sometimes you can't have everyone as a customer. Large skim cappuccino... hit the road and take cinnamon mocha with you...!!!
You, dear reader may think I have finally gone off the deep end, but I have put it in perspective and came away more emboldened. I tried to think about it like great restaurants and taverns. If you want options, go somewhere else, if you want excellent food come in but be willing to pay. Are some elite coffee shops getting ready to go that direction? I thought, why shouldn't we all move in that direction a little. How else can we serve the wonderful CoEs at $20+ a pound. Some elite shops must exist to showcase these coffees or they will be shuffled away to internet forums and lonely home user machines. To play these coffees out on the cafe stage with great barista behind tricked out machines is a dream in the making. Service of the coffees living up to the true expression of the coffees, that's a concept with no distractions!
The cafe floor. Standards. Quality. That's what I am thinking about right now.
-Jaime van Schyndel ¶ Jaime van Schyndel 9:51 PM
Comments:
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This post and secret knowledge has me all tingling and giddy inside.
I know your ideas haven't been so well accepted in another circle, but in that setting, the ideas were presented in the form of criticism more than in the way of new ideas for a possible direction for the industry.
I think it's high time for at least one shop like this to exist.. just for the sake of being able to point to it as an example of what's possible.
I know your ideas haven't been so well accepted in another circle, but in that setting, the ideas were presented in the form of criticism more than in the way of new ideas for a possible direction for the industry.
I think it's high time for at least one shop like this to exist.. just for the sake of being able to point to it as an example of what's possible.
Hey Jaime!
I just got the internet at my house here in Amherst for the first time since the semester started and finally have more than a minute to read your blog/comment. Although I never got a job at a coffee shop around here, I still think about your philosophy of quality and wish that I could pull some more shots/try to illustrate love through a cup. Now, I know that coffee isn't my passion and I don't pretend that it is. In fact, you could say that 'love through a cup' is figurative for having a creative outlet for a passion that I have yet discovered. I'm geting away from my point here though, what I want to say is that I appreciate the ideas you come up with in terms of bringing the rest of the world up to par, or educating the customer about coffee. At first I thought it was arrogance that drove you to be 'close-minded' about 'options' (or crap products to distract from the main course). But I see that you sincerely wish that people would understand..I mean, why else would this blog exist if you weren't trying to teach something?
I also think that your ideas of simplifying the product line up and putting the limelight on specialized items, like espresso, are pretty un-american of you. I mean, the clusterfuck of products that are supposed to be profitable for business regardless of its quality...putting a pretty name on a crappy product...it's the American way. (I'm thinking of Honey Dew's 'White Chocolate Snowflake' coffee when referring to the latter statement.)
Anyway, I miss Simon's and Boston and learning about coffee/grinders/taste extractions/business/customer service/quality. And let me be honest with myself, I definetly miss the camaraderie of the shop, joking around with everyone, and laughing at myself. (Although I definetly do plenty of the laughing from day to day.)
I hope you're doing well...hope the espresso plans are falling into place nicely, hope you're not working too hard, and thanks again for inadvertently teaching me the importance of quality through your espresso. It motivates me to re-read the papers that I hand in to make sure the importance of my words well exceed the bullshit..rather than handing in a bunch of bullshit just to fulfill the '10' page requirement. So yeah, the lesson can and is used outside of the shop.
Hope to see you in the future..if not in person than on the panel of your 'espresso chemistry' book.
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I just got the internet at my house here in Amherst for the first time since the semester started and finally have more than a minute to read your blog/comment. Although I never got a job at a coffee shop around here, I still think about your philosophy of quality and wish that I could pull some more shots/try to illustrate love through a cup. Now, I know that coffee isn't my passion and I don't pretend that it is. In fact, you could say that 'love through a cup' is figurative for having a creative outlet for a passion that I have yet discovered. I'm geting away from my point here though, what I want to say is that I appreciate the ideas you come up with in terms of bringing the rest of the world up to par, or educating the customer about coffee. At first I thought it was arrogance that drove you to be 'close-minded' about 'options' (or crap products to distract from the main course). But I see that you sincerely wish that people would understand..I mean, why else would this blog exist if you weren't trying to teach something?
I also think that your ideas of simplifying the product line up and putting the limelight on specialized items, like espresso, are pretty un-american of you. I mean, the clusterfuck of products that are supposed to be profitable for business regardless of its quality...putting a pretty name on a crappy product...it's the American way. (I'm thinking of Honey Dew's 'White Chocolate Snowflake' coffee when referring to the latter statement.)
Anyway, I miss Simon's and Boston and learning about coffee/grinders/taste extractions/business/customer service/quality. And let me be honest with myself, I definetly miss the camaraderie of the shop, joking around with everyone, and laughing at myself. (Although I definetly do plenty of the laughing from day to day.)
I hope you're doing well...hope the espresso plans are falling into place nicely, hope you're not working too hard, and thanks again for inadvertently teaching me the importance of quality through your espresso. It motivates me to re-read the papers that I hand in to make sure the importance of my words well exceed the bullshit..rather than handing in a bunch of bullshit just to fulfill the '10' page requirement. So yeah, the lesson can and is used outside of the shop.
Hope to see you in the future..if not in person than on the panel of your 'espresso chemistry' book.
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