Blogging is a weird thing. You don't know who your audience is and often you don't know exactly who is listening(or why). Sometimes you just wish they could change the channel and go away, other times you wish they would speak up and leave a comment. Some site owners have an agenda to their blogs, a goal so to speak while others use it as a journal of sorts. I thought blogs were rather snarky until I really began to look at the blog community beyond coffee and realized how large it really was. Studying up on it, I realized I need a mission statement.
One of the first things you should do with a blog is set a site goal.
I want to define what our goal is going forward at Barismo.
Putting the focus on taste and quality in coffee(and tea).
How do I define that? I can't really. How about this instead.
I want to cup and source coffees with ethics and quality like George Howell. Sort them like Simon Hsieh. Blend(when I do blend them) them like Robert Thoreson. Approach Espresso like Andrew Barnett(and the palate...) AND mentor the way he does. Speak with passion and conviction about the flavor of my coffees like Miguel Meza. Approach new ideas ambitiously and with open arms like Aaron Blanco. Have a strong sense of community and commitment to family(and quality) like Edwin Martinez. All that and add a little stubborn resistence to 'falling in line'.
That about sums it up. I hope you can get a glimpse of what that means by who we look up to and admire. That's the direction we want to go with this site. Hope that cleared the dirty water!
