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Tuesday, 27 June 2006 |
by Jason Haeger
Jason Haeger is a coffee professional working to bring quality coffee
to Lubbock, Texas. A transplant from AZ, he is in a unique position to
draw a comparison between the similarities of the growing coffee scene
between TX and AZ.
By now, most of us have had ample exposure to what is known as
Specialty Coffee to understand that it is quite different than the
standard generic store-bought variety one would find on the shelves of
your local supermarket. Maybe it’s the atmosphere. Maybe it’s the cost.
Maybe it’s the culture. Whatever the reason, America has been bitten by
the Specialty Coffee bug, and we’re consuming it, literally, by the
ton.
If you’re a shop owner, you have probably established a fairly
consistent stream of loyal customers who come in on a daily or maybe
weekly basis to buy their favorite beverage that is prepared best by
you and your staff, and things are pretty good. You’re happy, your
customers are happy, and your future in coffee looks promising.
If you’re a customer, you’ve probably picked out your favorite shop,
and at that shop, probably even your favorite employee who makes your
favorite drink good enough to be consumed in exchange for your
hard-earned money. You’re happy and they’re happy. The planets are in
alignment, and everything is as it should be.
In the words of my grandmother quoting a common phrase in the south, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
….wait… What’s wrong with this picture?
What would like be like if Henry Ford had followed this wisdom when he
started building cars? What would modern music sound like if Les Paul
had decided that his sub-par (by modern standards) too-quiet acoustic
guitar that was made by “who knows who?” was good enough?
Specialty Coffee is, well, special… Right? There is a reason for going
out for coffee rather than making coffee at home and it goes beyond
having the equipment, or the fact that they can foam milk. There’s a
distinct difference in quality. At least, there should be.
Specialty Coffee isn’t a random term that was spread about by
word-of-mouth. Specialty Coffee is actually a rating on a scale that
exists in the green coffee market. I won’t go into what is required for
specialty coffee to be considered specialty coffee, but it should be
noted that it actually IS of higher quality than brands such as
Folger’s or Maxwell House. This puts Specialty Coffee retailers among
the ranks of gourmet culinary retailers. Does a chef serve prime cuts
of meat ground up, fired up on a range, and on hamburger buns for a
prime profit margin? Of course not. He respects his craft far too much
to allow such a wonderful item of food to not be recognized as what it
is: something special.
Why, then, do so many Specialty Coffee retailers ignore the attention
that should be given to present their product as something special? It
takes more than the raw product to create a gourmet meal. It also takes
more than high grade green coffee to create an exceptional café
experience. It seems that all too often, I’ll walk into a cafe, order
an espresso, and watch in horror as the (supposed) barista picks up the
portafilter from the countertop, doses pre-ground coffee from the
grinder’s doser, skips ensuring proper distribution of the grounds,
barely (if at all) tamps the coffee, and then proceeds to lock the
portafilter in the group head and pull a double in about 10-15 seconds.
The resulting brew is sour, weak, and under-extracted. All-in-all, it
does not taste like what the roaster intended his blend to taste like.
The intended taste is generally very complex, sweet, and smooth with an
aftertaste that lingers long after the cup is empty. If the source of
the blend is a good roaster, he has spent hours, days, even weeks or
months developing this blend of only the finest coffees at very precise
roast levels to achieve a very specific combination of flavors that can
only be experienced when the whole bean coffee is expertly handled.
THIS is what brings Specialty Coffee retailers above the ranks of the
average home consumer. A truly great cup of coffee should be
inspirational. It should bring a sense of “wow!” to the taste buds. It
should make someone who has never had Specialty Coffee before say,
“Amazing! I never knew coffee could taste like THIS!”
Fellow coffee lovers, it is not fitting to allow the top 2% (That’s
right, two percent!) of the world’s production of coffee to be
selected, roasted, and (possibly) blended with such great care and then
treated almost as a commodity to be taken for granted, and then drowned
in milk, coated with sugar, and topped with whipped cream to mask the
bitter flavor. This is not to say that the Mocha has no place in the
industry. This is to say that the milk and chocolate should ENHANCE the
beautifully complex flavor of the espresso rather than cover it up.
After all, we are serving the world’s finest coffees to those for whom we wish only the best: our customers.
If you are a consumer in the industry, seek out great espresso and
coffee. Support your local shops who are striving to increase the
quality of their product in any way they can, even if they don’t have
it right just yet. The bar has been raised, and it will continue to
rise farther. Once you’ve had a great cup of coffee, it is very
difficult to go back to what you had before.
To those working in the industry, customers can tell when great care
was put into the production of their drink. Even when they have had
better, they can tell when the barista is giving their all and pouring
their soul into the coffee, forever trying to improve. They pay a
premium price for what we have to offer. We owe them a premium product
in return.
Jason Haeger is a coffee professional working to bring quality coffee
to Lubbock, Texas. A transplant from AZ, he is in a unique position to
draw a comparison between the similarities of the growing coffee scene
between TX and AZ.
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