And Sometimes I Fail

I'm big on customer service and working to provide the guest with a great experience every time they visit one of our locations.

And sometimes I fail.

Yesterday, I failed in a major - looking like a complete asshole kind of way.

I've been running my own little company for twelve years now and I've made just about every customer service mistake one person could make. I've yelled at customers, argued with customers and kicked customers out - sometimes in a very fiery and spectacular fashion.

Maybe some of those times I was in the "right" on the matter and the customer/guest/visitor transgression was met with a commensurate response that could be completely justified - meaning that I was "right."

However, there has never been an incident where, after cooling down, thinking about it and analyzing the situation, I have ever felt that it truly was the right way to handle the matter and that I couldn't have responded better, and won out with aces.

The situation was this: I'm standing in a walkway chatting with a long-time guest whom I haven't seen in months when an elderly gentleman walks between us (there's about three feet between the guest and I). Instead of the usual convention of saying "excuse me", the elderly man gruffly tells me to get out of the way and makes a disparaging remark on my tummy. At first, I didn't catch his meaning but the snideness of his manner just tweaked me enough to press it a little farther.

Now, it's later in the day (about 4pm) and I had just come to the location to drop off some supplies after spending the morning at the roasteria repairing the roaster and the afternoon in the garden planting tomatoes. So, by this point, I'm looking pretty disheveled: my hair is messy, I'm wearing work boots and probably look slightly grimy from planting the garden. In other words, I look like a laborer.

I press the guy a little on his meaning and he still comes at me with the disparaging remarks. Usually, I don't let these kinds of people bother me but today, I'm in that mix of being tired and dirty from working and slightly irritated about a variety of things, meaning that when this guy comes at me, I lose perspective and become confrontational.

You know, why the guy didn't just do the polite thing and say "excuse me" or "excuse me, but you're in the way", I don't know. Maybe he was having a bad day or maybe he just thought that I was some (to his mind) piece of shit Hispanic laborer that didn't deserve the general respect and courtesy that he would give to other white people (I note this because the guest I had been talking to is white and the guy didn't address him and singled me out).

Whatever the case may be, it started out poorly and went all downhill from there.

Come to think of it, the guest and I were talking about the piss poor ways that the SCAA and WBC treats their volunteers and judges - a subject that always irritates me - and probably was the catalyst (on my end) for the degradation in handling the matter.

I don't remember the specifics but it wasn't pretty. I did not handle myself in the manner that I desired. I was the offended party who thought he deserved justice. Regardless of who was "right", I still ended up looking like an asshole. Not only to the elderly man without manners but, more importantly, to the other guests that were in the house at the time.

I'd like to think that I was justified. That I was "right." I stood up and didn't take prejudiced crap from some jerkoff. But in the end, like every time before, I don't feel that it was the "right" thing to do. I handled it poorly and engaged that elderly man in the manner that he engaged me. I didn't elevate the interaction. I didn't improve upon it. I helped degrade it. And that, to me, is a Failure.

I often talk about hospitality and leadership. That an environment of hospitality and quality can only be maintained if it is strongly demonstrated by the leadership. I'm embarrassed and ashamed that I failed so poorly and brilliantly as a leader during this incident. In front of staff, guests and passers-by. That kind of interaction can only give people a poor impression of who we are and what we are about.

Hospitality is easy when things are running smoothly and everyone is happy. The real test is when you're met with someone as grumpy and rude as that old man. Granted, I wasn't working the bar but anytime that I step into the scene, I should always be "on" and not running in cruise mode. What I should have done was dropped off the delivery and gotten the heck outta there. I had just come from working in the garden so I looked terrible (and probably smelled funky). I wasn't prepared for the "show" that we like to give to our guests.

I just hope that the next time I'm faced with a challenging guest, I'll have more clarity to handle the situation better.

Coffee Obsessive

I'm currently stuck in Mexico City after a mechanical problem with the airplane forced a two-hour delay, missing my window to connect on a flight back home to Baltimore. Granted, if I'm going to be "stuck" anywhere, Mexico City is about as ideal as it gets.

To my own surprise, this blog was mentioned in the article about me and my little company, Spro Coffee, in Baltimore. For those of you visiting us from the Washington Post: welcome.

I first was introduced to Martha Thomas about nine months ago in June 2010 where I received a phone call during my trip to London for the World Barista Championship. That's where the article you read in the Post all started. Over the next nine months, Martha and I would chat on a regular basis regarding the article and she came in several times to see just how we do what we do in our little shop in Hampden.

Martha joined us for a cupping with Joan & Ralph Gaston of Rusty's Hawaiian Ka'u Coffee where we sampled a range of coffees, including samples grown by Lorie Obra (Joan's Mom) - who is an amazing scientist turned coffee farmer on the Big Island. Martha later joined us in a demonstration on how we select a brewing method that "pairs" with a particular coffee. It seems that in the translation of the article, a little bit of both events were mixed together.

As with any article written over a long period of time, some details may have been a little jumbled with the passage of time. I wanted to take a moment to clarify some of the details:

- A visit to Anthony Rue's Volta Coffee & Tea in July 2009 was instrumental to the direction we decided to take Spro Hampden. Had it not been for Anthony, our approach of multiple brew methods throughout the day might not have happened. If anything, we might have ended up "cheating" like many shops in the country by batch brewing coffee during the morning "rush" instead of taking the time to prepare each cup by hand.

- Much of what we do is inspired by others. Almost nothing is truly original. From Ichiro Sekuguchi of Tokyo's Cafe de L'ambre to John Sanders of Origins Organic Coffee, Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen, Aki & Alex from Ideas In Food, and fellow baristas like John Lewis - all and more have had an impact on me and the way we approach and present our coffees.

- In the article I'm quoted as saying: "We have no loyalty to any one roaster." Honestly, I don't think I ever said that - especially since loyalty is something central to what we do and own approach to doing things. As a company, we're very loyal to our vendors. We maintain long-term relationships with all our vendors. A great example of this is Origins Organic Coffee. We've been buying their coffee since 2004.

What I did say is that we do not maintain roaster exclusivity with any one roaster. In the coffee business, the typical model is for a retail shop (like Spro) to purchase all their coffees from one coffee roaster. It's a limited way of doing business that is slowly eroding in these modern times (although one of our original six roasters, Counter Culture Coffee of Durham, NC recently told us that they would no longer sell to Spro for three reasons, one of which was that they were returning to the roaster exclusivity model).

Roaster exclusivity is simply ludicrous. It's akin to walking into your local pub and only finding one brand of beer or alcohol. We are unable to do business with companies that insist on roaster exclusivity and we're very appreciative of the companies who started with us and believed in supporting our approach - and those companies are:

Origins Organic Coffee - Vancouver, BC
Barefoot Coffee - San Jose, CA
Ecco Caffe - Santa Rosa, CA
Stumptown Coffee - Portland, OR & New York City
Intelligentsia Coffee - Chicago, IL

- In the article, Ryan Jensen (owner of Peregrine Espresso in Washington DC) cautions about claims of singularity. While our model of multiple roasters, multiple coffees paired to multiple brewing methods, made by hand, day-in and day-out, is still the only one in the industry, I certainly hope that this anomaly is short-lived.

Seriously, Spro Hampden can only make so many coffees per day and we can only impact a small segment of the coffee drinking public. For our notion of quality coffee prepared without compromise to be tasted by the larger public, more shops have to take our approach. We cannot and do not want to be the only kid on the block serving our kind of coffee.

However, to do what we do takes a certain level of commitment and skill. Ryan Jensen has both of those and with his opening of a second Peregrine in the coming months, I'm hoping we'll see a more in-depth approach to their coffee program - because I think he's the best coffee operator in The District.

- The article mentions my judging experience. While I have judged barista competitions across North America, Central & South America, as well as Africa, I have not judged a competition in England. My visit to London last summer ended up with me as a spokesperson for Reg Barber Enterprises during the World Barista Championship.

From 2004-2007, I served as a volunteer director on the Executive Council of the Barista Guild of America. I have also served as a volunteer for the United States Barista Championship regional competitions and as a volunteer trainer for the Specialty Coffee Association of America. And in three weeks, I will serve again as a volunteer panelist speaking on multiple brewing methods in a cafe environment at the SCAA's annual trade show in Houston. I will be one on a panel with Anthony Rue (Volta), John Piquet (Caffe D'Bolla), Kyle Glanville (Intelligentsia) and Tracy Allen (moderator).

So, despite my criticism of the SCAA, I'm still willing to support and help out when I feel that I can lend something of value.

Well, that's about all I have. It's humbling to be written about in the Washington Post and I'm truly honored, but much of the credit goes to the people around me. My staff of baristas are some of the best baristas I've ever known and worked with, they ply our craft with humility and honesty in an unassuming manner absent of pretense and condescension. My non-coffee friends and family keep me grounded. My mentor, John Sanders, who has been instrumental in my learning of coffee and sense of duty to get involved in our industry. And many thanks to my friends in and around the business, without whom I never would have done what we do.

And of course, thanks to Martha Thomas for noticing and taking interest in what we do to take it to the Post. She's been fun and easy to work with and I wish her the best in her writing career. Same goes to the editors, staff and Marvin the photographer from the Post. Always professional and always easy to work with.

Thanks to all of them and thanks also to you for reading the Washington Post article and then this lengthy blog post (btw, I write about more than just coffee here). I hope you'll find your way to visit our little shop in Baltimore (or at least your local specialty coffee purveyor) where we look forward to making you a cup of coffee in a manner we hope you will enjoy.

Best regards,

Jay
Mexico City
6 Abril 2011

Pissing Off The "Gods" Of Coffee

I received a rather interesting phone call today.

It was an industry friend calling to tell me that the coffee company he works for no longer will sell my company coffee.

Turns out that the company he works for is unhappy with the way we have been representing their coffee at The Spro. The company? Counter Culture Coffee.

Evidently, there are three reasons why they no longer will sell to us:

1 - They are unhappy that we started serving the Aida's Grand Reserve in February.

2 - They say Aida Batlle (the producer) is unhappy that we are serving her coffee.

3 - I have made disparaging remarks about Peter Giuliano (SCAA President and CCC owner).

There were a couple of other minor issues that were also included in the discussion (I'll go into those later).

For sure, Numbers One and Three are all true. We started serving the AGR on Valentine's Day after freeze storing it since we received the coffee in late September/early October. And I have been very critical of Peter Giuliano (as the SCAA President) of late - especially with the recent discussion on Barista Exchange (sorry, I just put the link to the thread, you'll have to scroll through to see the action - it's quite entertaining, maybe).

As for Number Two, I can only guess. We released the AGR the day that I left for El Salvador to volunteer my time judging their national barista championship, and I even sent a message to Aida that I was going to be in San Salvador and if she might have time to meet up for a visit. She said she was busy at the farm and that it wouldn't be possible. I figured that if she had a problem she would have said so - or maybe not.

To be honest, I'm actually surprised it took this long for Peter Giuliano to pull this one. I expected this to come much earlier since I have been quite critical of his handling of SCAA affairs over the past year or so.

Quite seriously, I don't really have a problem with this. It's what I expected and seems to be par for the course (you know, agree with us, or else). To my mind, any and every company has a right to sell (or stop selling) to any outfit it desires. They want to sell to us - cool. They don't want to sell to us - that's cool too.

Some of the other tertiary issues that were presented as reasons why Counter Culture no longer will to sell to us are that: a) CCC is moving away from the multiple roaster model and only wants to pursue the roaster exclusivity model (which is something Spro does not do), and b) we don't buy enough coffee.

"A" is a curious reason since a year ago they said that they wanted to pursue the multiple (non exclusive) roaster model. Maybe they've really changed their minds. Afterall, when a client uses multiple roasters, they're not buying all their coffee from one roaster and it's less profitable to that roaster. So note to those of you planning on opening a multiple roaster coffeeshop: Counter Culture is not interested in that model.

Of course, with Spro they don't have all the extra expenses of the exclusivity model. We don't ask or expect barista training, machine service or all the extras that roasters usually have to provide on a somewhat complimentary level. They simply sell us coffee at the price specified and we pay. We don't ask for anything extra or anything else - just quality coffee, at any price. In fact, the only time we take of their customer service rep is when he comes in to hang out, have a coffee and chat. We're very "low maintenance" - partly because we prefer it that way and also because we respect that with exclusivity comes those service "perks".

As to "B", I guess we don't buy "enough" coffee. From the opening of Spro Hampden through this week, we've only purchased about 400 pounds of coffee from Counter Culture, at a total revenue of just under $3,300.00 (at least that's according to our QuickBooks report).

Honestly, I can admit that it's not much. We're not the 300 pound per week account that roasters dream of claiming. We're a small coffee shop with a heavy focus on delivering a variety of quality coffees to a burgeoning coffee clientele. We source coffees from multiple roasters and brew each cup of coffee one-at-a-time.

But since they said that they're basing their decision to not sell to us based on the AGR that we offered starting on Valentine's Day, I thought I would have a statistical look at the numbers.

For the AGR, we purchased one eight ounce tin for a landed price of $26.95 - that's $17.95 for the coffee and $9.00 for shipping. This translates into .008281% of the money we've spent or .000152% of the poundage we've purchased over the past year with Counter Culture. Surely, for even a small company purchasing a small amount (read: not "enough") of coffee these percentages are a microscopic reason to tell us to piss off.

So, less than one percent of our purchases and less than one percent of our purchased weight in coffee and we're not representing their coffee properly? Curious.

Makes one kind of wonder if they hold such a hardline on their accounts that brew the coffee in airpots and let them sit around for who knows how long. Or the accounts with bagged coffee sitting around for a bit of time. I can only guess that those coffees account for more than one percent of those account purchases...

The interesting thing is that even during this period where I have been critical of Peter Giuliano, I had thought about discontinuing our purchasing from Counter Culture based on those criticisms. However to me, agreement is not a prerequisite for a relationship or doing business. Counter Culture offers some fine coffees that my staff was excited about and we continued purchasing their coffee because we felt that we could offer them to our clientele in a thoughtful and engaging manner. I would not allow my personal thoughts regarding their owner to cloud our way of doing business. It wouldn't be professional and would just be childish.

Besides, there's lots of great people working for the company and it would be just wrong to cast doubt on any of them merely based on my criticisms of their boss or his desire to get rid of me based on the reasons above. I like all of them and wish them the best - though I do suspect that I'm persona non grata at Counter Culture events now.

In the end, I'm more amused than anything else. Disagree and criticize the President of the SCAA and get told by his company to piss off?

I'm only surprised that it didn't happen sooner.

The Dark Ages of Third Wave

Once upon a time, forums were the means for open debate.

A buddy and I were discussing the coffee community the other day and how, if this is truly the "Third Wave" of coffee then we're certainly in that wave's Dark Ages.

Perhaps it's been a reflection of our nation's psyche but within this community, what was once open discourse has now turned to self-gratification and a growing sense of close mindedness. From around the time that I entered the community (about 2003) until 2007 there was a strong sense of community and discussion. Forums existed on the internet where coffee people could banter back and forth on different theories and really get into the mix.

All of this started changing around 2007-2008 when those who had once been simply the newbies to the industry started making their bones. A new leadership within the industry emerged under the flag of change and transparency, wrestling control away from the cronyism of the old guard. As time would bear out, this "new guard" would only differ in that they waved the flag of transparency and change. However, very little would actually change and much of that opacity would remain the same.

At the same time, the forums of old started losing their cache when the administrators showed their draconian ways and censoring the open discussion that was central to the community.

It's been all downhill from there.

Today, the "Third Wave" exists in a sense of darkness. Where there was once a community that discussed the issues and challenged each other, we now have a community that's comprised mainly of self-congratulatory posts and emanations through individual blogs or twitter tweets.

As a new generation of coffee professionals enter our ranks, they're left with people held to "God-like" stature - people who've developed an aura that they should never be questioned because they're, essentially, Gods of Coffee. There no longer exists that forum where those gods would be questioned and challenged. Now they simply issue their dictates from upon high, whether on top of their blogs or from the chair of coffee organizations.

Dark Ages, indeed.

Put Them In The Iron Maiden

A recent article on CNN.com has come at a poignant time.

Once upon a time, there was a blogger in the coffee blogosphere who actually had journalism chops and actually took the time to pen a series of post critical of the events that happened within our niche of the coffee industry.

Sadly, that time has passed and that person decided that all the bullshit directed his way for offering a critical view on the industry just wasn't worth it. Afterall, it's not his life and he wasn't being paid to do it.

Meanwhile, the coffee industry is inundated with non-reporting, fanboys, masquerading advertising, non-starters or mindless love-fests.

For quite some time, I've lobbied Sarah Allen, editor-in-chief of the international industry publication Barista Magazine to take a harder look at our industry, only to be reminded that in-depth scrutiny of our industry is outside of their scope and more suited to other publications.

Suddenly, and without introduction or explanation, the writers at sprudge.com - the industry's leading news satire website, has just published what looks to be the most critical piece of journalism to hit our industry.

Cheers to the Sprudge.com editors and writers. And here's to hoping that we see more critical journalism on the webpages of Sprudge in the near future - because there's no shortage of material out there...

BGA Party

J from Norway and Shawna from Oklahoma. How nice.

Easily one of the premiere events of the USBC/SCAA is the BGA Barista Party. As always, it's drunken revelry edging on hedonistic pleasures. For me, it's a good way to catch up with all the people whom I didn't have the chance to speak with over the weekend.

Unlike most SCAA shows, I haven't been spending much time around the official events and parties. Other events get in the way, plus the distance one has to travel just to go anywhere means that you may or may not make it to that event or party you thought about attending earlier.


Andrea Piccolo


Anya Sereda


Sammy Piccolo looking a little worse for wear.

SCAA Expo - Day Three

Ana Cappuccino at the Mexico booth.


Chris Baca measures his milk before the USBC Finals.


Hawaii favorite Pete Licata prepares samples of his candied bacon and milk chocolate.


Pair this with a vanilla affogato and you've got a winner.


Ran into Begona again with her cigar maker husband, Bent, who kindly gave me one of his "owner" cigars.

SCAA Expo - Day Two

Hario V60 drippers and conical filters.


On Demand Brew Tower Prototype.


The boys of Sprudge.com


Anya Sereda gives Jack Kuo a run for his money.


Brian Ludviksen loves Brent Spiner.


Rohan Marley


French Press To Go


Bill Crossland talks about his pressure and temperature profiling espresso machine.


Rodrigo Giammatei and Roukiat Delrue

SCAA Expo - Day One

Andy Newbom of Barefoot Coffee sports a Reg Barber earring.


Sarah Allen of Barista Magazine, Andy Newbom and Lem Butler of Counter Culture.


Miguel Meza of Hula Daddy grinds Spam Musubi.


Prototype Synesso hotness.


Glass Hario V60 drippers.


You know you've done something right when Kent, John and Guido of La Marzocco take a picture with you.


Begona waved my down at the La Marzocco booth to give me an Avo Uvezian cigar. She was so touched by Coffee and a Cigarette in 2006 that she's been waiting to give me a cigar in thanks ever since. Humbling.


With my coffee industry crush, Sarah Dooley.


Vince Piccolo working the 49th Parallel booth pulling shots. Not bad for an old man!


Barry Jarrett, Greg Scace and the highlight of swag: The Marty Mug.

Previews from the SCAA Show Floor

Prototype La Marzocco stainless portafilter with quick release spout and table leveler.


Prototype La Marzocco Strada electronic espresso machine - bad ass.


Prototype La Marzocco Strada mechanical grouphead and gauges. Hot.


La Marzocco Vulcano espresso grinder with Mazzer Kony internals - disappointingly slow, just like the Kony. Pass.


Brian Ludviksen and the Euro 3,900 Marco Uber Boiler.


The new Bunn by the cup brewer. Why?


Cool La Raza Style for Barefoot's Tony Serrano and his refurb La Marzocco GS2.

SCAA 2009: A Few Of My Favorite Things...

When Sarah Allen, editor of Barista Magazine, asked me to write an article for the June/July 2009 issue, I thought "no problem." To me, fifteen hundred words was plenty of room to write about everything cool on the show floor. As the article progressed, even two thousand words wasn't enough - which is how this post evolved.

Held during the third week of April at the Georgia Congress Center, the annual Specialty Coffee Association of America's Exposition is the coffee industry event of the year. For the past four years, I've been quite involved during the show whether doing things as a member of the Barista Guild of America's (BGA) Executive Council, managing the BGA trade show booth, teaching espresso classes, competing in the United States Barista Championship or doing machine calibration for the World Barista Championship - in other words, it's been a busy four years.

This year, I've been pulling away from all the volunteer work and decided to attend the SCAA as just another attendee - an attendee with no commitments, class schedules or volunteerism. I wanted to see the show as many other people see the show.

Lots of people spend countless hours volunteering their blood, sweat and tears for the SCAA and the payoff has always seemed paltry to me. Give up X amount of hours volunteering and get your attendee fee paid. In the past, that X amount of time turned out to be so much that there wasn't enough time to do much of anything else. All that work and money spent on travel, accommodation and food with not much in return. Hard to justify for small companies.

By no means is the SCAA a very large trade show. While it's the biggest in the coffee business, it's still dwarfed by a number of other shows I attend during the year. Over three show days, they allot fifteen hours of show time to the vendors and the attendees, and while it sounds like a lot of time, I found out that it just wasn't enough to tour the floor, chat with vendors, taste coffee and really get into the products you found interesting. The SCAA needs to expand the floor hours from 12 noon to 5pm to 9am to 5pm.

While I did find myself crunching to get everything crammed into the limited show hours, I did find some cool stuff that I wanted to include in the article but couldn't because of space limitations. Here are some of those products:



Roaster On The Run.

Coffee-Tech FZ-RR 700
One of the more interesting things I saw on the show floor was this copper-barrelled sample roaster. Designed to take anywhere, all you need is some sort of heat source, whether open flame, radiant or whatever. Simply plug the unit in, add heat and roast - wherever you are in the world. Operation seemed simple and easy enough though, because of its' size, there isn't a way to see the coffee or use a tryer of some sort. But if you're stuck in the wilderness of Papua New Guinea and want to roast a sample, this could be the ticket.

www.coffee-tech.com






Metropolitan Tea Timer
Timers are a handy barista tool and Metropolitan was showing this small, sandglass tea timer with multiple time settings. It always seems difficult to find a decent hourglass timer and this one has three settings for a variety of uses.

www.metrotea.com






Green Guru Blow Out Series
These were some of the more interesting "accessories" on display at the show. Green Guru is a Boulder, Colorado based company specializing in using reclaimed materials for its' products. They were showing their Blow Out line of wallets and pouches that utilize 98% reclaimed rubber from bicycle inner tubes.

www.greengurugear.com




Taking the first test for the BGA Barista Certification.

Barista Certification
As a barista myself who happens to own the company, the barista certifications I see floating around seem dubious at best to me. If my standards are focused, what good does some general certification do for me and my company? It's a question I've been asking for years. This year, the BGA's certification program is coming to fruition and I think it has the best chance of becoming the most meaningful certification program out there.

As I wrote in the article, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Heather Perry and Scott Lucey. They're passionate and committed to the program and have come up with a curriculum that I think has the best potential of producing certified baristas with a skillset that is applicable for any quality operator. It may be a couple more years before a solid baseline of baristas has formed but as I sat in on the lectures and reviewed the test material, I was impressed with the depth and precision expected from a candidate if they expect to pass certification. This is one program to watch in the coming years.

www.baristaguildofamerica.net



Espresso Machines
In the world of espresso machines, it seems as though not too much happens for a couple of years and then Wham! Everyone is rushing for progress. 2009 was one of those years. Suddenly, it seems that everyone is thinking about pressure profiling.


Scace 3P Installed.

Scace 3P
Techno wizard Greg Scace is at it again with a new pressure profiling device that will retrofit onto any espresso machine. Simply disconnect your pump, wire up this unit and voila! Pressure profiling! Digital controls will ramp up (or down) the pressure as you see fit. The caveat: since you're retrofitting your existing machine, the profile will only work on one brew at a time, but the controller will compensate if you run additional groups. Expect the unit to cost about the same as an expensive home espresso machine and from Espresso Parts.


Synesso Hydra
I really didn't get much of a chance to check out the Hyrda being demonstrated at the Intelligentsia booth because it was always busy being used to make espresso for attendees and the booth was just plain busy. But I hear good things about it from the Synesso devotees.

www.synesso.com



Emily works the Slayer.

Slayer
Easily the most hotly anticipated espresso machine in the industry today and I want to like the machine - especially with it's steampunked good looks, but I'm confounded by the fact that the Slayer people actually want to argue that the Slayer looks nothing like the Synesso. That's about as absurd as if Synesso stated that their machine didn't resemble the old La Marzocco GS.

Don't get me wrong, the machine looks good. It's low-slung with a black body riding on cast metal legs and hand-carved wooden actuating handles - sexy. But the protruding groupheads, as well as the top-mounted steam wands and rotating-handled steam actuators - there's no mistaking that the Slayer took design cues from the Synesso Cyncra and it irks me that anyone would actually argue that point - as though people are that stupid. It's offensive.

Beyond that, the Slayer offers variable brew pressure in the form of multi-stage settings on the actuator handles. Results from the baristas I talked to were mixed but I suspect that's more due to being jammed onto a show floor with dozens of other eager baristas breathing down your neck for a turn at the machine. In a controlled setting, with coffee you are familiar with, I'm betting the Slayer could be a serious challenger to the Synesso cognoscenti.

www.slayerespresso.com




Working the LM Prototype.

La Marzocco
Leave it to the old and venerable La Marzocco to lay low, like a lion in the weeds, waiting to spring upon it's prey and decimate them without mercy. Since being removed as the machine sponsor of the World Barista Championship, La Marzocco has seemingly been playing it quiet. And then they unveiled their new machine prototype.

Forget what you've read above. Those machines are great but the La Marzocco trumps them all. Variable pressure per grouphead and not pre-programmed like those above. On this machine you can vary the pressure up or down manually with the paddlegroup controller. Push it to the right up to 12 Bar, or back it down to the left. No pressure is left behind. Beautiful. Find the ideal profile? You can then save that profile and play it back during successive brews. Amazing. We were blown away. Everyone else is stuck on offering profile brewing with programmed pressure points, La Marzocco has jumped into the deep end by offering infinite variability.

But like any blockbuster movie, this machine is just a teaser. Housed in an FB80 body, the new machine will be completely redesigned for release sometime in 2010. Arrgh!

lamarzocco.com




Compak K10 Doserless Timer

Compak K-10 Timer
While much of the barista world chases after the Robur E, I just don't "get it." I've been a fan of the Compak K10 since 2006. Perhaps there's something in the barista world that just believes that Mazzer is the only option (or that ridiculous Anfim stepped grinder) but we've been pounding and grinding on the K10 for over three years now and it's an absolute workhorse that's easy to use, fast and cool. Luckily, Compak has been busy updating the grinder and keeping it up with the times and they took some time to show me the latest update to the K10: a doserless timer.

With the ability to set grind time to 1/100 of a second, the new K10 should be a killer. The side mounting of the readout and controls dampens my enthusiasm slightly (but is nowhere as infuriating as the knob on the Anfim) but I'm expecting great results to continue from this grinder and will be using the new K10 timer in our new shop opening before fall 2009.

www.compak.es




Malykke Grinder and French Press Boiler

Malykke
I wrote in the article a little bit about this grinder and I want to stress the fact that I severely want one. I'd love to have a couple of them mounted on the wall of my new coffee joint but we've come so far in weighing coffee for consistent results that dose grinding via timer seems like two steps backwards - especially when the unit uses weight to determine the size of french press you've hung from the grinder.

If that seems confusing, the Malykke grinder can be operated by hanging a french press from the spout. As it hangs, it presses against a weight sensor that has been preprogrammed to know that your 32z press pot weighs X amount of grams and once it senses that weight, it knows to grind for Y seconds. All Malykke needs to do is work on that programming so that once the grinder has been weighed, it automatically tares and then grinds Z grams of coffee into the press pot. If they can overcome that hurdle, then this could very well be the best grinder ever built.

www.malykke.dk





Hot Water
Things come in waves and one of the new waves in coffee seems to be the controllable water heaters.

Wilbur Curtis
It's been on the market for a little while now but the Wilbur Curtis Company has their new Fresh Aeration water tower that will inject fresh air into the heated water to keep it lively. Along with a digital temperature readout, this simple water heater looks like it will topple the ground held by Bunn and Fetco in the water tower segment.

www.wilburcurtis.com





Marco Uber Boiler
Brought to the attention of the barista world by 2007 World Barista Champion James Hoffman, the Marco Uber Boiler is an ongoing project that brought some prototypes to the 2009 WBC Bar where I had the chance to check it out. Without a doubt, it is the coolest-looking water boiler on the market and is very promising but the surface-mounted readout and controls are just begging for a pot of water to be spilled on them and fry the electronics - but the scale slash water drain is tre cool.

marco.ie




French Press Boiler at work.

French Press Boiler
Sharing the same booth with Malykke was the company (who's name escapes me and I can't seem to find on the Internet) who shook the roof a few years ago with their counter-mounted single-group espresso machine. Essentially, this French Press Boiler is the same chassis as the espresso machine but made to brew and dispense hot water for press service. Housed in clear plexiglass to show off its' innards, the boiler pulses and times the water. It's intensely good-looking but the MSRP is $5,000 - which is four times more than the comparable Bunn water tower that most shops use for press service.

The Good Earth

I've been back from Atlanta for well over a week now and while we had quite a number of adventures in the South, I guess I'll get to writing about it sometime in the non-committal future. Meanwhile, it's back to work at The Spro, reviewing leases, developing new standards, training new baristas and writing an article for Barista Magazine.

Instead, I thought I would share with you some of the swag I brought back from Hotlanta:

- Brazil Daterra from our friends at Ogawa Coffee in Tokyo
- La Marzocco demitasse
- a gorgeous Reg Barber Knockbox
- an assortment of coffee pins from World Champion Gwilym Davies, Reg Barber, Oswaldo Acevedo, Barista Exchange and Brewed Behavior
- custom Le Spro tampers for The Spro baristas by Reg Barber
- Dorman's full length apron from John and Claire in Kenya
- Spring Espresso from Square Mile Coffee Roasters
- Reg Barber t-shirts
- Green sample from Franklin Madrid, Honduras
- Colonia San Juan 8 Estrellas from Square Mile Coffee Roasters
- Ed's Roasted Peanuts from the Counter Culture Party
- SCAA Press Pass and Turner Broadcasting Pass
- Glass Coke from World of Coca-Cola
- Sethurama Estates cap

Under The Gun

One would think that with all the travel that I manage in the course of a year that I would have it down by now.

The night before a trip is always the worst. So many things to do, so many details to settle. Inevitably, I still have a laundry list (and actual laundry) of things to complete and sit around wishing I had another week to do it all.

I leave for Atlanta in the morning to attend yet another SCAA Conference, Trade Show and World Barista Championship. Until just a few days ago, this was going to be my first SCAA since 2003 that I would be attending with nothing in particular to do. For the past six years, I've done some sort of volunteer work instructing espresso classes, calibrating espresso machines, recording podcasts, organizing a booth, competing and all sorts of miscellany. This year, I had nothing planned except to be a simple attendee wanting to see the show from a regular persons' point of view. I was excited.

That was until just the other day when Sarah Allen from Barista Magazine called me up to see if I would be a sort of roving reporter with pen in hand and ready to write about the conference from my perspective. Didn't she know that my confidence in the SCAA has been all but destroyed? Now I'm no longer just another attendee - I'm an attendee with a mission.

Back into the darkroom to dig up my old and trusty Domke F2 bag loaded with lots of photo goodies. Toss out the ginormous Canon EOS 1N body and suddenly my bag is feeling pretty lightweight.

If you happen to be in Atlanta, look for me and my camera bag roving the floors of the Georgia World Congress Center, but if you don't see me there, you can look for me at Watershed and some of the other fine eateries in Atlanta.

Thinking In A Vacuum

Getting close to the action.

Now that I've returned from my trip to the Pacific Northwest for the United States Barista Championship, it's back to work. Back to doing the things we do best and part of that is getting ready to push new levels of coffee service.

For the past couple of years, while the trend of American Third Wave Coffee Shops has been to embrace automated technology (a la Clover) or low tech versions of brewing methods we've been moving away from (pour over), I've been seriously pondering the implementation of the vacuum pot brewers or "syphon" as many call them.

Wildly popular in Japan, vacuum brewing is relatively unknown in America - even though the technology itself is about 100 years old. Truth be told, it's a cumbersome, messy and somewhat lengthy method of brewing coffee. Compared to Clover's push-button simplicity and the pour over ease of use, vac pots are downright lunacy in a commercial setting - I've never said I was smart.

What I like about vac pot is the drama. The theatrics. The visual stimulation of brewing coffee. It's interactive. It's entertaing. It's educational. Instead of being a button pusher or just some knob pouring water into a paper filter, the barista is working alchemy and creating magic for the customer. There's a bit of mysticism in the whole glass contraption and boiling water thing. Best of all, the flavor in the cup can be quite stellar indeed.

But there's a downside.

Achieving that miraculous cup is elusive at best. Evidently minor variations in dose, grind and stirring technique can bring a brilliant cup of coffee crashing down around you - leaving you with a customer wondering what kind of hocus-pocus you're trying to pull on them with this dreck you call coffee.

When the time came to build a new coffee experience, I knew that we had to take our concept at The Spro and push it even further. Replicating The Spro would just be boring and wouldn't push us to grow. We needed to build something new and different and while some of my friends pushed the pour over pretty hard, I knew vac pot was the way to go.

Don't get me wrong, pour overs can make some very nice coffee. But, quite frankly, it's just boring. How much of a tool does it take for some schelp to stand in front of a cone filter and pour hot water over coffee? Yes, it's to order. But is it theatrical? Is there any drama? Does it really take that much skill? Is it even exciting? Well, it was for me back in 2005 when I saw them doing it at Royal Coffee in Berkeley. But today, in 2009, as a "new" brew method? Not so much.

Listening to the pour over pundits and you'd think pour over is the Second Coming of Christ Almighty (well, now that Clover has become their Judas). For my money, I might as well go out and buy a Fetco Extractor brewer because it delivers the same thing and faster.


A variety of tests at The Spro.

Over the past few months (and especially the last couple of days), I've been testing different vac pot brew methods and I've heard the gamut of approaches. From the seriously technical who insist that the coffee must be stirred X amount of times, to the Japanese who don't really care about the number of times stirred - just that a stirring and mixing occurs. I've tasted very light, tea-like coffees and extremely heavy, over-extracted coffees. I've read lots of online resources about technique and listened to quite a few baristas waxing poetic about their methods.

Quite frankly, it's bewildering.

Instead, I've taken the old-fashioned approach. Coming up with a baseline of standards and then running test variations from there. A little more coffee, a little less coffee. A little finer grind, a little coarser grind. Stir here, stir there. Crisscross here, make an "X" there. Some were good, some were bad - some were really bad. In the end, I decided to call up a friend.

For a long time, I knew that vac pots were the way to go. I wanted the new place to offer only vac pots. Gone would be The Spro's method of French Press coffee service. I envisioned a multi-unit vac pot station with many pots brewing simultaneously to service the morning rush. It would be immense. People would line up hungry for a cup of beautifully handcrafted coffee. Angels would trumpet our arrival and women would throw themselves at my feet and tear at my shirt.

But that location and a few others fell through and we've been in a holding pattern ever since (and I have a case of new shirts waiting to be torn).


John Piquet prepares to attack.

Fast forward to the waning hours of 2008 at the end of December when I flew out to Salt Lake City to check out what John and Yiching Piquet were doing at Cafe D'Bolla. It was there that I formed a new vision for what vac pot service could be. For Cafe D'Bolla, vac pot coffee meant you sat at the syphon bar and your coffee was made to order just for you. You sat there and conversed with John about the coffee. A dialogue ensued with one of the most hardcore operators in America.

At the D'Bolla bar, your coffee was exquisitely prepared and served in estate Noritake china cups of a very specific shape, size and porcelain density. It was specific because John had spent untold years researching and testing the proper vessel to carry your coffee and deliver maximum flavor. This was thinking about coffee beyond how I thought about coffee. This guy was operating on a wholly different level.

And when I say that John is the most hardcore operator in America, I mean it. Lots of people in this "Third Wave" of coffee position themselves as being "hardcore" - only to find out that their cafes look like hell, offer commercial syrups and 20z cup sizes just like every other Tom, Dick and Harry in the coffee business.

Piquet isn't like that. He's so focused on quality in the cup that he runs the place by himself: to control quality. Sure, you can have one of the finest brewed cups in America at Cafe D'Bolla but if you're expecting to add milk and sugar, think again. This guy has gone toe-to-toe with customers over that kind of breach. Never mind that the guy with the latte can pull some sugar and cream from the condiment bar, the vac pot customer is expected to be there for the full sensory experience of the coffee.

There are times when I know my business partners (or proposed business partners) must think I'm absolutely insane. Vac pot service has got to be one of them. Why make it more difficult? Why not just go out and get a drip brewer? Or stay with what you know and have proven (french press)?

Well, why not? Are we not striving to be the best at our craft? Are we not striving to offer the highest quality? Then why would I spend $11K on a push-button automatic machine and not a similar amount on a push-button Franke super-automatic espresso machine?

We make it harder because we strive for excellence.

I'll admit though, there is something alluring about the simplicity of pour over. Just bang, bang, bang and you've got four filters filled with a slurry of coffee and water, and a few minutes later, you've got four cups of coffee walking out the door. It's nice. It's fresh. But God, is it mind-numbingly boring to do and to watch. At least when you watch a Fetco Extractor brewer there are blinking lights to entertain you.


Jay Egami rocks the bar at SCAA Minneapolis.

Rewind a bit to early December 2008 when I took a trip out to San Francisco solely for the purpose of meeting with UCC's Jay Egami and to see the vac pot bar heating system he is currently importing into the United States. It's a very sexy-looking multi-gang halogen light heating bar that can brew three or five vac pots simultaneously. Honestly, there is no vac pot heater that looks better or dazzles people more. It is true Coffee Porn. It's Coffee Sex on Cocaine. I would love to have one, but at $20,000 for the five group, one must consider ones' money market account.

Watching a true syphon barista work one of these bars (like the Japanese Syphon Champion at last years SCAA Trade Show) is simply amazing artistry. The stirring, the motions, the pouring. It's like Coffee Kabuki. It's the kind of interaction I want to bring to the next coffee experience.

At The Spro, I'm starting to get a bit fizzy with all the coffees I'm tasting. Seven tests and counting. Soon the count will escalate to eleven and beyond, but for now, I'm feeling a bit stuck. Minor variations in grind setting and dosage are yielding wildly differing results. One notch here on the Mahlkonig Kenya and that delicate balance we might have been approaching in the last test has been lost. I'm feeling wonky and decide that I need a little help.

When one thinks of Florida one doesn't think "coffee." Gainesville has more to do with Gators than Gethwumbini but not too far off the freeway is the lair of Anthony Rue and Volta Coffee. It's about 10:30 in the morning, I give Anthony a ring and he answers on the fourth ring. Hmmm, he answers his own phone, nice touch.

Of all the people I know in the coffee business, Anthony is the only one who seems to actually "get it" when it comes to bringing together coffee and cuisine. His depth and understanding of cuisine and ingredients never fails to surprise me - and he's the only one to get that As The Veneer Of Democracy Starts To Fade is from Mark Stewart.

While in Portland for the USBC, we had some great discussions about cuisine (and sometimes about coffee). One of the most interesting discussions was the grasp of baristas over how coffee goes with cuisine and, perhaps more importantly, whether or not the judges themselves understand coffee and cuisine (and how it goes together) to accurately assess a signature drink.

One of the popular routes this year with competition baristas was to discard that familiar chocolate and cardamom with coffee routine and go for something "culinary" - which typically meant identifying certain flavor components in the espresso, like blueberries, and then adding actual blueberries to some sort of infusion to boost that aspect of the flavor. Interesting? Well, it's cute. Compelling? Hardly. Challenging? Not at all.

After a few minutes of discussion (in the middle of Volta's service), I'm off and ready to blaze new trails in vac pot refinement. Armed with Volta's brewing standards in hand, I give it a try. Not bad. Actually, it's pretty darn good and the best results I've had all morning. A finer grind and restraint in stirring is yielding some tasty results. Not exactly the body and flavor I'd like to present but we're getting closer.


Brewing coffee at Blue Bottle in San Francisco.

Later, I'm on the email horn with John Piquet asking for his syphon wisdom. Again, the approach is a bit different but I'm starting to narrow down even further what and how we're going to do things: 3 cup vacuum pot, hot water from the water tower, boil, connect both halves, allow the water to rise, add coffee, stir to saturate, brew for 35 seconds, stir at the end of brew to create a vortex and pull from heat.

The testing continues over a couple of weeks and untold servings of coffee. During this period, I've reached a level of comfort where it's time to start getting customer feedback and start serving the actual brew to customers using whatever our pressed coffee of the day happens to be.

I've spent a lot of time in other peoples' coffeeshops over the years just hanging out or checking out what they do and no brew method captures the attention and minds of the average consumer like the halogen heated vacuum pot. "It's alchemy," they say. Or they might ask: "Is that a bong?" That, or an over-glorified crack pipe. But since there's no inlet hole, sucking any sort of burning substance out of it is an exercise in futility.

Whatever they might think it is, the important point is that it grabs their attention and they ask. The Spro is located in a public library where hundreds of non-coffee drinkers pass on a daily basis, but one look at the vac pot in action and they want to stop and ask questions It starts the conversation about coffee and what coffee can be.

Once they see the lights and the boiling water, they're fascinated. They get closer. They're ready to chat. From "is it a bong" we can go as deep as necessary to engage the public about coffee and what we do. For most people, coffee is something commercial and anonymous. It's something housed in a black and silver airpot. The brewing of coffee is typically hidden from view but with vac pot, it's front and center - and ready to mingle.

They ask. They prod. It looks cool. It stimulates an interest in the regular person that only the hardcore coffee geek would find in a Clover. And compare it to pour over where the customer has the great pleasure of watching a wet slurry of coffee and water slowly drip its' way into the cup below? Watching the blinking lights on a Fetco is more fun than that.

The attention garnered by the vac pot encourages engagement and generates questions. Suddenly, we've stumbled upon a way to talk enthusiastically about coffee with a segment of the population that had little interest in our product and our craft and now they can see it in a very visceral way. They can see for themselves that this method requires mastery of craft without us having to verbalize it (and thus cheapen its' meaning).

Even the simple and perhaps condemning "why?" is a question that can be used to bring the customer around. Why go to all this trouble? Why use this device? Now, we can discuss how different brewing methods diminish or heighten certain aspects of a coffee's flavor and how some coffees taste "better" with certain brewing methods. Now, we've just entered into a level of geekdom that most people would never have allowed us to engage - and all because its' the theatrics of the method that introduced us to them.

Sometimes as I sit around pondering the future of The Spro, our approach to craft and where we want the company to go into the future, I wonder if vac pot is just batty. It just looks difficult. It's difficult to master. It's quite expensive and I expect the on-going cost to be quite high as well. Worse: it could be absolute hell during the morning rush. And it's going to require a whole new way of thinking to approach vac pot brewing in a production environment.

A number of operators still use other brewing methods as their primary brew, and use the vac pot to augment their production and/or highlight "special" coffees. I like that approach and, if we took that path, would allow us to maintain our french press cup service while offering vac pot. But to my mind, that seems the easy way out for us. The goal is to find the way towards making vac pot service our primary method of cup brewing. That means it has to be efficient and as quick as we can do it without sacrificing quality while still allowing us to engage the customer in a manner that is meaningful to them.

It's still a long road towards that end but we're moving towards it everyday.