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Friday, February 23, 2007
Good barista like to watch, great barista like to taste...
Since the novelty of the bottomless portafilter has since come and gone (for most), the tagline that good Barista like to watch has been offered more than once. That's a silly statement because everyone likes to watch. Even if you don't like coffee, the novelty of a beautiful bottomless extraction is a great draw. There is a huge thread on the coffeegeek forums of simply people taking photos of glorious espresso shots.
Great. Good. Amazing. Let's frame it!
Thing is, I really want to see a barista sneak a shot in between orders and taste it. Not my shot! Maybe a throw away shot or a split shot where instead of throwing away half, keeping it and taking a sip to evalutate it. Yeah, that's the sign of a good barista, much like a good chef, always tasting everything.
Visuals can lie. Volumes can be off because of freshness or roast variations, but taste is the only way to go. Evaluating the shot by diagnosing it's taste. There are so many times I have found bad batches simply because I stopped and tasted a shot every now and then. Accountability is doing that step in quality control where you taste it.
You want to learn how to make the perfect shot? Well, first off, there is no perfect shot, only a series of great shots you will find once you become serious about espresso. The truth is though that you will never really progress as a barista, home barista, or general aficianado unless you learn to understand what you are tasting.
It's sour. What kind of sour and what is causing it?
The causes range from bean sours, defects, fermentation issues, clean fruit acidity, improper brew temps, improper dose, and possibly the roast profile. To put it simply, it's complicated. Then take into effect that you must diagnose this for not only your array of sours but for the many different bitters as well. Finding that balance where the cupping notes come through is hard.
The Barista controls the dose, grind, temperature, and an array of other minutia to tweak the most from each offering.
Taste. It takes experience and training and a lot of time drinking a lot of bad coffee to understand what is good.
For a Barista to identify the smoke and know that they need to up the dose and shorten the shot, that's a skill. That's why all the great Barista spend so much time learning to cup.
A good Barista knows taste.
Since the novelty of the bottomless portafilter has since come and gone (for most), the tagline that good Barista like to watch has been offered more than once. That's a silly statement because everyone likes to watch. Even if you don't like coffee, the novelty of a beautiful bottomless extraction is a great draw. There is a huge thread on the coffeegeek forums of simply people taking photos of glorious espresso shots.
Great. Good. Amazing. Let's frame it!
Thing is, I really want to see a barista sneak a shot in between orders and taste it. Not my shot! Maybe a throw away shot or a split shot where instead of throwing away half, keeping it and taking a sip to evalutate it. Yeah, that's the sign of a good barista, much like a good chef, always tasting everything.
Visuals can lie. Volumes can be off because of freshness or roast variations, but taste is the only way to go. Evaluating the shot by diagnosing it's taste. There are so many times I have found bad batches simply because I stopped and tasted a shot every now and then. Accountability is doing that step in quality control where you taste it.
You want to learn how to make the perfect shot? Well, first off, there is no perfect shot, only a series of great shots you will find once you become serious about espresso. The truth is though that you will never really progress as a barista, home barista, or general aficianado unless you learn to understand what you are tasting.
It's sour. What kind of sour and what is causing it?
The causes range from bean sours, defects, fermentation issues, clean fruit acidity, improper brew temps, improper dose, and possibly the roast profile. To put it simply, it's complicated. Then take into effect that you must diagnose this for not only your array of sours but for the many different bitters as well. Finding that balance where the cupping notes come through is hard.
The Barista controls the dose, grind, temperature, and an array of other minutia to tweak the most from each offering.
Taste. It takes experience and training and a lot of time drinking a lot of bad coffee to understand what is good.
For a Barista to identify the smoke and know that they need to up the dose and shorten the shot, that's a skill. That's why all the great Barista spend so much time learning to cup.
A good Barista knows taste.
Labels: article
¶ Jaime van Schyndel 7:15 PM
Comments:
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Speaking as a very new home barista this post is both inspiring and discouraging at the same time. There are so many variables in coffee that it easily gets overwhelming. But if taste were easy would it be worth attaining?
Gabe,
Worry less, taste more!
Jamie,
Great article; I agree 100000%. I know so many baristi who just don't drink coffee at home because they've tasted too much at work.
Personally, my pet peeve is how people will obsess with temperature. Don't get me wrong, I work at two cafes on an FB80 and a Synesso and I change the temperature all the time, but I only change the temperature after I taste it!
Cheers,
Luca
Worry less, taste more!
Jamie,
Great article; I agree 100000%. I know so many baristi who just don't drink coffee at home because they've tasted too much at work.
Personally, my pet peeve is how people will obsess with temperature. Don't get me wrong, I work at two cafes on an FB80 and a Synesso and I change the temperature all the time, but I only change the temperature after I taste it!
Cheers,
Luca
gabe: somethin' tells me you won't have any problem obsessing over the tiny issues of espresso via trial and error and finding success. you do excellence. this will be no different for you.
I think Gabe has a step up on a lot of people given he has access to some cool cats out there in Bellingham.
Yo Luca,
Thx for the props and for running a serious blog.
I voice it again and again(and we all know my bias by now), techie is a means to an end, not the end. If we aren't into coffee for it's flavor, we aren't really into coffee. That being said, I'll tweak/mod anything if it makes a difference in the cup but you have to know where you are going and why.
For perspective, I was actualy thinking of COwens and Kaminsky when I began writing this bit.
As far as techie stuffs, If I didn't have BenC around, I definitely wouldn't have the patience to bother with all the tinkering for a better cup tho. I can't wait until the 27th!
Yo Luca,
Thx for the props and for running a serious blog.
I voice it again and again(and we all know my bias by now), techie is a means to an end, not the end. If we aren't into coffee for it's flavor, we aren't really into coffee. That being said, I'll tweak/mod anything if it makes a difference in the cup but you have to know where you are going and why.
For perspective, I was actualy thinking of COwens and Kaminsky when I began writing this bit.
As far as techie stuffs, If I didn't have BenC around, I definitely wouldn't have the patience to bother with all the tinkering for a better cup tho. I can't wait until the 27th!
"For perspective, I was actualy thinking of COwens and Kaminsky when I began writing this bit."
as guys whpo spend a lot of time trying to cup and build a better palate/understanding!
as guys whpo spend a lot of time trying to cup and build a better palate/understanding!
I have always been smelling everything. I had one cafe owner/boss who got irritated when ever she saw me smelling something; the coffee, the panninis, the teas, the spinach. She thought that the only time you smell something is when it has gone bad. I just wanted to know what everything smelled like at every phase of preparation. That was in '96. I'm still smelling, and she has been out of business for 10 years.
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