Gimmicks and designs

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?

Attitude at the counter

iPod, originally uploaded by synecdoche.

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.

Weekly Dig Photo

dig photo, originally uploaded by coffeedirtdog.

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

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 ;-)

Iced coffee

iced coffee, originally uploaded by coffeedirtdog.

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.