Cupping Like Mad Men

Going Barefoot in the Spro Lab.

Since my name resides on the menu, part of my job entails tasting coffee samples from our roasters in an effort to determine which coffees make it to our menu. With opening the Spro Hampden and then my journey to Los Angeles, I was a bit behind. Now comes the madness. It seems that everyday has some sort of cupping component to it. Coffees from Origins, Barefoot, Counter Culture, Intelligentsia and whomever else has decided to send us coffee recently.

Our process is relatively simple: we receive samples, we cup them, determine which ones we like and then bring them in for service. By working with a variety of great roasters we're lucky to have a selection of wonderful coffees to choose from. The predicament becomes out of such a great field of offerings, which ones do we actually offer to customers?

In addition, we're also doing tastings with potential vendors, testing new brew methods and experimenting with components for a new menu. Which makes for an interesting first week back from my trip.

Today's been mostly a Barefoot day and while I do enjoy all the coffees they sent over, I'm currently leaning towards their Redcab Brazil.