Tim Ferguson, who owns Heroes, recently gave me a bag of Tanzania coffee to sample.  When I get beans from a local roaster to try, I usually swing by a local coffee shop and test them out with the owner of the shop for two reasons: 1) the shops have the best equipment on hand to brew up a couple cups to sample, and 2) I think it’s always good to keep the efforts of local roasters in front of our local coffee shop owners to help further the local coffee community. It’s always fun to evaluate a local roast with a coffee shop that works to brew excellent coffee every minute of every day.

Some of the local coffee shops use local roasts, such as the Mudhouse, which roasts its own coffee at the Mudhouse roasting facility downtown, Heroes Coffee Cafe, Big Momma’s Coffee, which uses coffee from a local roaster named Origins, and from what I’ve heard, Hot Shots over on East Sunshine in Springfield.  There may be other local shops that also use local roasters, but several of the local shops use national roasters, namely PT’s Coffee and Intelligentsia, both of which create a great coffee product on a national level with expeditious shipping to guarantee freshness.

On this particular day, I knew the The Hub Bikes and Beans, which carries Intelligentsia coffee beans, had just received a shipment of Tanzania beans.  So I felt it would be fun to do a side-by-side comparison of the Intelligentsia Tanzania with the Heroes Tanzania.  Jason Strother, who owns The Hub, can brew two cups side-by-side using a pourover drip brewer, using the same measurement of beans, the same grind and the same water.  By equalizing those variable as much as possible, we can see what comes out of these two roasts.

On physical inspection of the beans, we noted that the Heroes Tanzania beans appeared to be of the peaberry variety while the Intelligentsia beans appeared larger and may not have been a peaberry.  A peaberry is a special type of coffee bean.  Typically, two flat-sided coffee beans, called flat berries, develop inside each cherry of coffee fruit, but in the case of a peaberry, only one side of the coffee fruit gets fertilized and as such only one small oval, pea-shaped coffee bean develops inside.  According to Wikipedia, about 5% of the worldwide coffee crop comes in the peaberry form.  Tanzania has become known for sorting out the peaberries and selling them together as a coffee variety.  For more on peaberries and the specific peaberries of Tanzania, there’s an interesting, very detailed read over at the Virtual Coffee site on the matter.

Back to the side-by-side comparison, though, it was interesting to us that the Heroes appeared to be a peaberry variety while the Intelligentsia appeared to be more of a flat berry roast.  I was expecting both roasts to be of the peaberry variety simply because it was from Tanzania, but looking at the Intelligentsia site’s description page for this bean, I don’t see any reference to peaberry.  What was also noticeable in visual inspection was how similar the two roasts were.  The Heroes roast was barely darker than the Intelligentsia roast, but they were so close that you couldn’t really tell the difference until you put the beans side by side.

In grinding the beans, they smelled similar, and then in brewing, the only thing we noticed different between the two brew cycles was that the Intelligentsia roast had a more prominent “bloom” than the Heroes roast.

Fresh roasted and freshly ground coffee will typically “bloom” as it comes into contact with water, meaning the grounds will expand and almost foam together. From my experience, the bloom of a coffee brew is a good sign of freshness of the roast, but you can actually get too much bloom if you brew too soon after  a roast without letting the beans rest for a few days.  I once had a roast that wouldn’t stop blooming — the whole time the grinds were in the French press with the water, they were constantly effervescing and moving the grinds in almost a rolling boil style, and after a little research, I discovered that too much bloom means you’re brewing the coffee too early, and the beans haven’t had a chance to release enough gases post-roast, so all those gases are expelling out during the brew process.  Typically, a freshly roast coffee that has had ample time to rest will bloom for about a minute after coming into contact with water and then settle down.  Anecdotally, I’ve heard that you won’t get much bloom in a brew around 30 days post-roast, but I personally believe it’s shorter than that.  In this situation, though, the low bloom in the Heroes roast was somewhat odd, because I know it was freshly roast.  I’ve notified Tim about this odd behavior and he’s checking into it because the Heroes coffee should have bloomed more.

After the brew, Jason poured the coffees into cups, and we tasted them.  After a few slurps, Jason and I both agreed that the tastes of the coffees were almost identical.  The flavors were the same, the acidity and the same, but the only real distinction was the body.  The Intelligentsia brew was a little more syrupy in its mouth feel than the Heroes version.  We couldn’t really tag one as better than the other.  Instead, it came down to a preferential determination as to whether you wanted a more syrupy body to the coffee or a less syrupy body.

All in all, we considered this a success for Heroes Coffee.  Intelligentsia Coffee is a national roaster that produces some of the better coffee roasts in the coffee industry, so for Heroes Coffee to produce a roast of similar, almost identical qualities is a big deal.  Heroes is working hard to develop their roasts to the level of consistent quality that the national roasters, like Intelligentsia and PT’s Coffee, are putting out, and it’s exciting to see a local roaster producing a good Tanzania roast like the one we sampled.

What’s a disloyalty card, you ask?  We’ve all used loyalty cards before — a punch card or swipe card that encourages you to visit the same coffee shop over and over for some kind of benefit or perk once you buy the right amount of products.  Ever since I started 417coffee, I’ve wanted to create some sort of card that did the opposite by rewarding you for drinking at a variety of shops around the 417 Missouri Ozarks instead of just staying with your own preferred coffee shops.  This disloyalty card is the answer!

Last December, James Hoffman, founder of Square Mile Coffee Roasters in London, England, and 2007 World Barista Champion, posted on his blog a new “disloyalty card” concept produced by Gwilym Davies, the 2009 World Barista Champion.  Gwilym runs a London shop called Prufrock Coffee, and he created a card that directs coffee enthusiasts to 8 other London coffee shops.  When drinkers have visited each shop and tried their drinks, they can then visit Prufrock Coffee and Gwilym will make them a free coffee drink at his shop.  These 8 cafes are producing quality-focused coffee, and as Hoffman says in his post, “There is no catch, it isn’t some cunning ruse to sell more coffee… Gwilym just wants people to go and try coffee in different places.”  Since Gwilyn’s card launch in London, disloyalty cards have also sprung up in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and then in Seattle, Washington.  Now, we’re excited to offer a coffee disloyalty card to highlight the excellent coffee shops we have here in southwest Missouri, particularly Springfield and Branson.

Enough with the history of the concept — what’s this whole 417coffee Disloyalty Card thing and what can it do for you?

Here’s the deal:  We have put together a collection of 8 of the best shops in the 417 Missouri Ozarks — 7 in Springfield and one on the edge of Branson in Hollister.  Each of these shops is willing to be put to the test by allowing you to compare them side-by-side with the other 7 shops on the card.  The participating shops are:

• Vintage Paris Coffee and Wine, 260 Birdcage Walk, Hollister, Missouri (in downtown Hollister just over the bridge from Branson Landing)
• The Hub Bikes and Beans, 811 N Boonville Ave, Springfield, Missouri (just north of Chestnut Expressway in Springfield across from the old City Hall building)
• Big Momma’s Coffee and Espresso Bar, 217 East Commercial St., Springfield, Missouri (on historic Commercial Street in downtown Springfield)
• The Coffee Ethic, 124 Park Central Square, Springfield, Missouri (on downtown Springfield’s Park Central Square, attached to the Park Central Square branch of the Springfield-Greene County library)
• Kaldi’s Coffee, 850 S. John Q. Hammons Pkwy, Springfield, Missouri (located on the lower level of Plaster Student Union at Missouri State University’s campus)
• Heroes Coffee Cafe, 601 North National, Springfield, Missouri (at the southwest corner of National and Chestnut Expressway in Springfield, across from Ozarks Technical College)
• Hebrews Coffee, 1604 East Republic Road, Springfield, Missouri (on Springfield’s bustling south side near the YMCA)
• Dancing Mule Coffee Company, 1945 South Glenstone, Springfield, Missouri (just north of Aunt Martha’s Pancake House and the Brown Derby International Wine Center)

The disloyalty card is actually a very simple concept –

1. Get a card at any of the 8 shops participating in the disloyalty card program. Cards are limited, so get one quick!
2. Buy a qualifying drink at each of the 8 shops and get your card marked at each shop.
3. Get a free drink at the shop of your choice once you have had a drink at every shop on the card and they’ve marked off your completion at their shops.
4. Turn in your card with your name and email address on it, and you will be entered in a giveaway of prizes from 417Coffee.

We’ve posted a summary of the program and all the official rules and explanations at a special 417Coffee Disloyalty Card page here at 417Coffee with maps, hours, phone numbers, websites and more to help you as you make your way to each shop.

As we get started, this 417Coffee Disloyalty Card is a limited edition project.  There are only 250 cards available.  We may produce more, but for now, there’s only a handful to be given out.  Each participating shop has a set of cards, so go to any of the eight shops to get your card now before they run out.

We have to openly acknowledge that this disloyalty card is not designed for you to go buy a oversugared, whipped cream-topped, syrup-flavored frappe.  This whole concept is focused on quality coffee, traditionally prepared.  So we’re limiting the qualifying drinks so that as you visit each shop, you can actually taste the coffee and its quality.  The drinks you can purchase to get a mark on your 417Coffee Disloyalty Card are as follows:

• brewed coffee (preferably single origin instead of a blend),
• iced coffee (not frozen coffee),
• a traditional espresso drink, which would include:
  • espresso,
  • Americano,
  • macchiato,
  • cappuccino,
  • traditional mocha, or
  • traditional latte;
• any other drink that each specific coffee shop deems appropriate as an expression of their shop’s dedication to good coffee.

On top of getting great coffee, getting to compare these shops, ultimately getting a free drink and a chance to win in a giveaway, some of the shops will also make it worth you while by providing some perk or benefit when you tell them you’re there to use your 417Coffee Disloyalty Card.  We’re leaving all that to each individual shop, but be sure to ask if they’re giving out a discount or some other promotion to 417Coffee Disloyalty Card users.

Here at 417coffee, we heartily agree with that coffee culture concept expressed by Hoffman about Gwilym’s intentions.  We believe that the best coffee culture is one where coffee drinkers, baristas, and shop owners can engage in a community learning and education experience by not just sticking to one shop that they like but instead moving around, building relationships, and trying the coffee at other shops, roasted by other roasters, and prepared by other baristas.

Each coffee shop has its own style, its own philosophy, its own mindset and culture and crowd, but if we can promote the concept of quality-focused coffee through multiple coffee shops, and then those shops begin building relationships, sharing information and maturing in their processes of making coffee and their understanding of the bean, everybody wins!  Yes, it requires openness, transparency, and willingness to be critiqued and to even fail on occasion, but if we’re pursuing coffee together with pure intentions for the betterment of the local coffee culture, critique and failure can be a good thing if it leads to more education and a better coffee experience for everyone.  We appreciate the 8 shops taking part in this program, their owners and their baristas as they have provided input, momentum and excitement in the development of this program — we’re excited to help them share their coffee to a broader audience, and we are very thankful for their willingness to participate.

Get out there and enjoy some coffee!  And be sure to write your name and email address on your completed card when you turn it in for your free drink so you can be entered into giveaways here at 417Coffee.com.  There’s been some discussion of putting together some coffee crawls to hit all of the shops in succession to complete the cards. Feel free to update us via Twitter or the comments of this post or on the disloyalty card page.  Also, feel free to put together photos and videos of your endeavors to complete the card and post them on Twitter and on the 417Coffee Facebook page and in the 417Coffee Flickr user photos group.

[UPDATE: 6/17/2010 - today we created a 417 Disloyalty Card GoWalla trip that you can follow and check in with as you pursue completion of your 417Coffee Disloyalty Card.]

Espresso, Intelligentsia from Department of the 4th Dimension on Vimeo.

This map is an attempt to lay out all of the shops that focus on coffee in the 417 area code in these Missouri Ozarks.  It’s easy for us to get zoned in on the Springfield area since there are so many shops here, but please know that we keep our eyes open for shops all over the 417, including Branson, Hollister, Monett, Lebanon, Willard, Bolivar and more.  The 417Coffee Google Map is an attempt to do some tracking and offer some useful information.

You can view the Springfield, Branson & 417 Missouri Ozarks Coffee Shops in a larger map by clicking through this link.

I’ve used three different icons.  One icon is our old 417Coffee logo (which looks better on the map than our new logo), and this icon is designed to designate locally-owned coffee shops.   Second, there’s a generic cup logo that designates chain coffee shops that aren’t locally owned.  And third is the Starbucks logo that designates all the local Starbucks coffee locations.  (I’ll openly acknowledge that some would debate that Kaldi’s and Fog City may or may not be “locally owned”, but that’s a question for another day, but I generally consider Kaldi’s local due to its Missouri ownership while Fog City appears to represent itself as a piece of the San Francisco Oven scene.)

I will add more to the map as time goes on, and I do my best to keep it updated, although it lags sometimes due to shops coming and going.  I’m open to collaboration and tagging of photos and videos on the map if we can figure out how to make that work.  Enjoy!

I attended my first coffee cupping this morning at The Coffee Ethic in downtown in Springfield, MO today. I didn’t exactly know what to expect, but I had seen a cupping on a YouTube video, so it wasn’t completely foreign.

I was pleasantly surprised once I arrived to find that I was not the only participant who had not been through this experience before.  In fact, of the 11 or 12 people present, only one had previously attended a cupping.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with what goes down at a cupping, you smell the beans, smell them once ground, then the hot water enters the mix and you wait. Then you smell the “brewing” coffee…then once the excess grounds are scraped off the top, you taste. You insert your spoon, get a bit of coffee and slurp it as quickly (and loudly) as you can….

Here are a few notes–
Cup 1: I found it to be very mild, fruity and it’s aroma made me think of toast. The taste was tart, crisp (like a green apple) and most everyone found it had tart, crisp fruity notes.
*Cup 1 ended up being a Burundi Mwurire from Africa, and is described as being similar to a Kenyan. I really liked it. The group all liked it and this was the one most people wanted to get their hands on and have available to purchase.

Cup 2: I found it to smell fruity as well, but more spicy, and even a bit floral. It was more subtle. Its taste I found to be like black tea; you know the dry mouth feel black (hot) tea can leave you with? I got that from this coffee. Many also found it to have a ripe red cherry flavor.
*Cup 2 ended up being a St. Augustine from Columbia, and I liked it as well.

Cup 3: This was the big surprise. Once it was ground and I bent to give it a whiff, I jumped back in horror. This coffee (to me) smelled exactly like black walnuts. This would be fine if one likes black walnuts, I can’t stand them. (to me black walnuts have a strange sweet smell and flavor that doesn’t jive w/ my tastebuds). I was hoping once it was brewed it wouldn’t taste like black walnuts. It did. All I could taste were black walnuts. Many others in the group found it to ahve blueberrry or other fruity flavors, which I get, but the black walnuts overpowered any other flavors and I obviously didn’t like it at all.
*Cup 3 ended up being a Sidamo from Ethiopia. I understand this is a very popular coffee; if you hate black walnuts however, proceed with caution.

All in all, it was a very fun experience; to be able to taste things side by side, then discuss, was a fun way to learn about coffee and also about what you like, don’t like, and about how to recognize different flavors in the coffee itself. Good times!

Tom Billionis of The Coffee Ethic explaining the procedure...we were all supposed to keep our comments to ourselves until the end so as not to influence one another. It was also a blind tasting- we didn't know what kind of coffee we were tasting until the end--again, no preconceptions.

Coffee cupping table set up at The Coffee Ethic

Getting closer to the actual tasting...Tom Billionis pours hot water over the grounds here and then we wait several minutes before breaking the crust and giving a good sniff to each cup.

Waiting to break the crust on the cupping coffee brews

Local coffee drinker Taylor Baldwin works on getting the full aroma...

Scraping the bulk of the grounds out of the way so that we will be able to taste without too much grit...

Tasting....

Aftermath after everyone has tasted...

Coffee shops are beginning to offer pourover drips as a brew method for those who want that single manually-prepared cup, usually offering a single-origin coffee bean to make the perfect coffee experience.   Locally, the The Hub actively uses pourover brewing as their default single-cup brew method.  In addition, both The Coffee Ethic and Hebrews Coffee will make you a pourover cup of coffee on request, and Hebrews has moved to offering pourover drip coffee as their default brew method in the evenings. The photo below is a pourover station I found at Vintage Paris in Hollister, Missouri:

In a situation where you want to brew several cups at once or in succession, brewing via pourover can be a time-consuming process.  Those who anticipate this kind of demand will often buy or build a pour-over station like the one shown above that is designed to hold several pourover cone drippers at once so you can prepare and brew several cups of pourover coffee.  The guys at Theworkshop 308 in Springfield, Missouri, have been designing and building some high-end pourover coffee stations that have been a hit at The Coffee Ethic and The Hub in downtown Springfield.

But what if you don’t want to spend the money to buy a pourover station? How about building your own? Over at the blog of coffee importer Cafe Imports, they posted a recent article about how they balked at the $300 sticker price on a pourover station, so they built their own for $20 using supplies from their local hardware store. They used steel piping and elbows from the plumbing department to piece together a pourover station that can hold 5 pourover cones. Not bad! I’ve posted the photos below for your inspiration.

Years ago, after buying pre-ground coffee for a while, like most people who delve into the world of grinding whole bean coffee, I started grinding my own coffee with a whirly blade grinder.  I’ve recently been asked why grinding your own coffee is preferred over buying pre-ground coffee.  The reason behind this extra step is that it keeps your coffee fresher longer because it keeps the bean whole and its insides away from oxygen until the moment you need it right before you brew. The more the surface area of a coffee bean (both internal and external surface area) is in contact with air, the quicker the coffee loses its flavor.  As such, the moment coffee is ground, all of its internal and external surface area becomes exposed to the air, and it begins to degrade in flavor quickly.  Even if you vacuum pack coffee after you grind it, it will still go bad quicker.  Roasted whole bean coffee only has a shelf life of a few weeks, so when you buy your coffee already ground (especially when you don’t know how long it’s been sitting on the store shelf), you should expect your coffee’s flavor to flatten shortly after the purchase.  Your best option is to buy whole bean, then grind precisely what you need right before you brew it, and your coffee will end up tasting better in the cup in addition to lasting longer on your pantry shelf.

Most people start grinding their own coffee with a whirly blade grinder that costs about $15, but it’s best to move on quickly.  These grinders use a metal blade to chop up the beans. The blade cuts up the beans, and you control the fineness by how long you let the grinder run.  What’s wrong with whirly blade grinders?  They tend to obliterate the bean instead of evenly grinding it, which can cause inconsistent brew quality.    Also, if you are grinding finely, there can be significant heat created by the blade. This can give your final coffee a burned taste.

Those who pursue the best flavor out of their coffee beans prefer to go with burr grinders because they grind more evenly.  The more evenly ground your coffee is, the better the final brew will be.
Burr grinders crush the beans between a moving grinding wheel and a non-moving surface. The positioning of the burr is what regulates the ground size, which allows for a more consistent grind.

Burr grinders can come in two forms:  wheel or conical.  Wheel burr grinders are the less expensive of the two burr grinders, operating with a wheel that spins very fast, making these grinders very noise. The higher speed rotation make these grinders more messy as well, plus the high speed can create friction and heat that can degrade the coffee’s flavor. I’ve personally found that I’m not satisfied with the grind I get out of the inexpensive wheel power burr grinders you get at most big box stores.  Most of these cheaper power grinders run in the $30-$50 range and sound like a jet engine.  I’m not a big fan of the loud noise they make or the fine dust mess.  And if you want to grind for espresso brewing, most of the inexpensive burr grinders won’t grind fine enough.

As such, if you want to go quality, I’ve found that the power grinders worth buying start around $150 and go up from there because they use conical burrs.  With conical burrs. the burr spins slower than the wheel model, which makes them quieter and less messy.  Again, though, you pay a premium to get a power conical burr grinder.  These days you can also find conical burr grinders made of metal or, even better, made of ceramic.  You pay more for ceramic burrs, but they don’t generate as much heat as metallic burrs.

So, what if you’re on a budget?  This is where hand mill coffee grinding comes in.  I’ve found that hand mill burr grinders are much cheaper than the quality power burr grinders on the market, and with most of them, you can grind as fine as you need.  They are usually adjustable using a flywheel or some other mechanism that adjusts the burrs. Using a hand burr mill grinder, you can grind the right amount of beans to the proper grind regardless of whether you’re making a French press coffee or an espresso.

I personally use a Zassenhaus hand coffee mill grinder at home and at the office, but these days the Hario hand coffee mill grinders are also looking really good.  In his NYT online article, Strand gives his input and some background on the Hario Skerton grinder, which I’ve found locally at The Coffee Ethic and Dancing Mule Coffee, or you can find it online at Sweet Maria’s or Amazon.com.  It generally runs around $50.  The older slim Hario hand grinder runs about $30 these days, and I’ve seen one recently at either The Coffee Ethic or Dancing Mule. I love my Zassenhaus coffee mill grinders, too, so if you’re in the market for a hand grinder, don’t forget to check them out — you can find them at Amazon.com, Sweet Maria’s, and on eBay.

Besides the fact that hand grinders are smaller, simple and downright pleasant, Strand puts it nicely:

It’s this meditative pacing that I enjoy most. Turning the hand crank isn’t exactly languorous — you’re working for a solid minute, maybe more — but it’s relaxing. Sure, there are some practical reasons to go with a hand grinder: it’s good on a trip (I travel with mine), it’s better than a blade grinder (as are all burr grinders), the coffee grounds have a brighter smell (perhaps because of the low R.P.M.’s). Though these are flimsy justifications for picking up another coffee gadget. If you get one, it’s because you want to linger on the ritual of making coffee.

My kids love my hand grinder and love to help me grind coffee.  On top of that, I tend to make my coffee via manual brew methods, such as French press and Chemex, and they enjoy the sights and sounds of the entire manual experience.  As Strand mentions, a hand grinder is also good for traveling and camping, too.  I’ll often pack up my grinder and seal up some whole beans in a Ziploc for a camping trip so I can make fresh ground coffee at the campground.

Granted, when I have a large group of people and several batches of coffee to make, hand grinding can get overwhelming. and someday I’ll be in the market for a higher-end power grinder for just that purpose.  But I stand beside hand grinding as my favorite method of making coffee, and I encourage you to check it out, whether you’re on a budget or not.

James Hoffmann (@JimSeven on Twitter), who was the World Barista Champion in 2007 and the UK Barista Champion in 2006 and 2007, has posted at his blog JimSeven about a new site called Brew Methods that is very promising.  It’s a site collecting all of the videos and tutorials around the Web for each method of brewing coffee.   The JimSeven post describes it as follows:

… a single place online you can send anyone who wants to know more about brewing coffee, and there they will find links to various different tutorials, write-ups and videos.

Brewing methods listed on the site include Aeropress, Chemex, Clever, Eva Solo, Pour Over, Press, Siphon/Vac Pot, and Stove Top.  Under each heading are a collection of links to videos and tutorials for that brewing method.  It’s a very simple site, but it’s great to have all these tutorials collected under one roof.  The creators call it an online cookbook for those who have bought the coffee brewing equipment but don’t know how to use it.  The site also includes a submission form where you can suggest another coffee brewing method.

His final paragraph rings so true to me:

Sometimes people seem skeptical that great coffee will ever be anything other than a micro-niche, especially people outside the industry. It’s not surprising that super-specialty coffee got its start in über-hip places like the corner of Denny and Broadway on Capitol Hill, or downtown Portland. And the urban hipster vibe is still crushingly strong in the overall industry. But Zoka Kirkland is proof that great coffee is about quality of ingredients, professionalism, care, execution, and love. Not your zip code. I’d put their quality up against just about any other shop in the country.

I sometimes question whether I’m part of a micro-niche that may never really grow into something larger and broader. But I see glimpses of hope in the discussion, like this week when a coworker called specifically to get my advice on which coffeemaker to buy, making the qualifier that it couldn’t be over $200. The “over $200″ qualifier gave me hope because it told me this guy is willing to spend some real money on a coffeemaker and is beginning to understand his coffee better, and it actually led the conversation into more manual methods of brewing coffee versus whether he actually needs to buy a coffeemaker at all. At times, I feel crazy for being so passionate about coffee and wanting to learn more, but then there are other moments where I realize that being a resource is valuable. But I also get frustrated realizing how many coffee shops really don’t wholeheartedly pursue a craft but only make the next cup.

I write to affirm the joy that Daniel’s Zoka review brought me in his call to excellence, and I’m writing to do the same. If you run a coffee shop, and you’re doing it half ass, get out of the business so someone who’s really going to pursue “quality of ingredients, professionalism, care, execution, and love” can fill the gap you leave behind. If you’re thinking about opening a coffee shop, realize that there are lots of coffee drinkers who don’t really care too much about those things, but there are people like me — and plenty of them, even more than I sometimes realize — who will reward you with their dollars and their loyalty and their friendship if you pursue a coffee shop that’s not just about ZIP code but is about “quality of ingredients, professionalism, care, execution, and love”.

If you’re a barista, don’t just dump grounds and pull shots.  Make good coffee.  Measure things out, check for freshness, seek to make the best cup of coffee or shot of espresso every time.  I appreciate it when a barista dumps a shot they’re making for my drink when they realize it’s not a good shot.  It’s a big deal to me when the person behind the counter actually knows what they’re serving or what’s in a blend they’re selling.  I regularly ask baristas what’s on tap and what’s in it, and I’m amazed at how many give you a blank stare.  Yesterday, a barista at a local coffee shop (who isn’t a newbie — I’ve seen her around) didn’t know the different between a City and a Full City coffee roast.  Seriously?!?!?  And the other day, at another local shop, a barista pulled my espresso shot directly into a styrofoam cup without even looking.  Is that excellence?  Is that attention to detail?  Is this what I’m paying for?  If every barista pursued “quality of ingredients, professionalism, care, execution, and love”, the coffee scene wouldn’t be so hit and miss.  C’mon, people — step up!

And if you’re a coffee drinker, don’t settle for just a cup of coffee.  Pursue the best and expect it from those who make your coffee.  Don’t just drink what’s nearby; drink what deserves drinking.  Get to know coffee, how it’s grown and prepared and roasted.  Learn to make it at home and make it right.  Learn the ins and outs of what makes coffee good and how to tweak it and make it better.  Don’t go to shops that don’t pursue excellence in their product simply because you can get wifi.  Seek out the different, less traditional methods of making coffee, like pourovers, Chemex, vacuum brewers, French presses and more.  Actually figure out how you like your coffee brewed, and in the process, you’ll begin to appreciate those who do it right and know their stuff.  Let’s give credit where credit is due, and show our appreciation by being loyal to those who really pursue “quality of ingredients, professionalism, care, execution, and love” when it comes to coffee.

Thanks, Daniel for the inspiration, and thanks to Zoka for doing it excellently right where you are. I’ll come visit next time I’m in the Northwest solely on the storyline that Daniel has put forward.