I don’t think the following applies to Green Buyers/Roasters looking for coffee from farms and importers, but rather from the perspective of a customer looking to buy from a roaster or specific shop.

Personally, I wish I could say that the first factor in deciding which coffee I am going to drink is where it came from – that is, based on it’s origin.  If the roaster isn’t to my liking however, it inevitably won’t matter much what I’m drinking; I probably won’t like it.  If, on the other hand, you take a lower quality coffee (or one that is less preferable to another) but have a good roaster, I’ll generally like it, or at least have a higher chance of doing so.  Therefore I will generally choose the roaster first and the origin second (if there are options.)  This might seem like an obvious and rather simple conclusion, but let’s dig a little deeper.

Now I know it doesn’t work quite as simple as this, but to give an example of what I’m talking about with specific examples, let’s say you have a theoretical palate that regards all taste and smell as equal.  (In other words, it rates chocolate equal to caramel and berries equal to lemons etc. etc.)  Now, take a 90+ point “Cup of Excellence” coffee from Guatemala and pit it against a coffee that scores in the low 80s also from Guatemala.  Now have it roasted by the same roaster.  Now have them both brewed properly.

In my mind, the “Cup of Excellence” coffee should be a better cup. By that I mean it should be the preferred of the two, if cost and all other factors that might per sway you one way or another are equal.

Now let’s take that same 90+ cup of excellence coffee from Roaster “A”, but have it roasted by a roaster whom I do not like.  This may be because they roast too dark/too light/under develop/over develop/you-name-it, and then the low 80 point coffee from Roaster “B”, a roaster who I do like – and guess which coffee I’m going to choose?  The coffee from roaster “B”.  Again, I know this is a theoretical example but it’s necessary to get the point across.

Basically what this means to me is that as someone who is ordering a coffee to drink and enjoy, I don’t care as much about which coffee I’m drinking if it’s not roasted to my liking.  What good is the world’s greatest coffee if it isn’t roasted in a way to showcase it so?

And that leaves the roaster as the single most important factor in determining if I am going to enjoy the coffee, does it not?

If the roaster is the brand, and the coffee is the product, then what happens in this case is that the brand becomes more important than the product.  And that seems wrong to me, and IS wrong in other areas of my life (clothes, cars, etc).

Perhaps, though, there is a 3rd possibility:  In coffee, perhaps in actuality the “brand” (the roaster) and the “product” (the coffee) are one and the same?  Especially as roasters continue to offer direct support to farmers and specific lots of farms I’m sure  the two will become much more interdependent then they are at the moment, but are we at that point yet?

A final observation:

Whether they know it or not,  I would argue that customers by default are forced to choose a brand or roaster just in the act of going to a particular coffee shop.  For example if you decide to go to Stumptown, then your first decision is to drink Stumptown Coffee, and then a particular origin.  The same goes for choosing any particular shop over another:  Intelligentsia, Coava, Grumpys, Squaremile, insert-coffee-shop-slash-roaster-here.  (You could say you choose a particular cafe because of atmosphere/service but then you aren’t even part of this discussion).

A small exception to this rule would be a cafe that of course supplies multiple roasters.  Having worked in several of these shops though, it’s almost guaranteed that a customer gets excited over a roaster as oppose to a particular coffee.  A prime example of this was shown a couple of months ago when 1 of our guys was in London and brought back enough Square Mile to put on the menu for a week:  The coffee was the Colombia Narino Bella Vista.  But they were not excited for the Narino Bella Vista from Colombia; they were excited for Square Mile.  (As were we, I might add – it was rather nice.)

And so I ask again:

Do you buy based on what’s on the outside of the bag, or what’s in it?

We’re back in YVR after an amazing week with the Coffee Common Crew at TED 2012. Thank you to all of the Coffee Common organizers for allowing Chris and I to be a part of this beautiful event, and to all the great baristas, it was a privilege to work along-side you guys this week. For best results, view this in HD on vimeo.

Back to our roots.

This December we celebrated our 5th year in business and we felt it the right time to give Crema the new hair cut it was begging for. We are really happy with the results so far and I wanted to share a few of the highlights to perhaps entice you to make the journey over the bridge.

These tops and our 9 foot communal table are made entirely of salvaged material from the Opsal steel building and the Pantages theatre in Vancouver built in 1900.

The globes are handmade fixtures and handblown glass shades from Portland, Oregon’s Schoolhouse Electric. If you’re in Portland you’re definitely going to want to pay them a visit, they’ve just relocated into a new share space with Ristretto Roasters and some other boutique businesses.

This old barn wood, from 1840 originates from a building just outside of Lancaster, Ontario right on the Quebec Border. It gets its unique silver like colour as a result of being exposed to the sun year after year.

This is a 1920’s Authentic Wedding Cake Style Chandelier from Chicago. You’ve got to see it in person to see the way the steel in the fixture has beautifully aged.

We sourced many of the items (chandelier, table tops, barn wood) through Scott Landon Antiques on South Granville. If you’ve never been to his store before definitely go check it out when you’re in the area, it’s full of beautiful things with great stories.

There is more to see, but I’ll leave that for when you visit. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Crema, it’s where it all began for us 5 years ago. We do coffee (Phil & Sebastian and jjBean at the moment), fresh baking & pastries on site and we’re located right next to the water. For best results, pick a sunny day and visit us by bike.

Crema (@cremawestvan)
1495 Bellevue Avenue
West Vancouver, BC
V7T 1C3  |  Map

I’d love to start this post off in some clever way, leaving all of you thinking, that Chris is a clever bastard – but instead I’m just going to cut to the chase.

Serve your drinks with pride

Too many times I’ve walked into a cafe, ordered an espresso, and had the barista behind the bar completely re-calibrate.  I don’t want to watch you waste shot after shot and stress out let alone wait five to ten minutes for my espresso.  Then after all is said and done the espresso is served with one of the following disclaimers:

“It’s pulling a little tight.”

“It’s a little over extracted.”

“The weather is messing with my machine”

“Might be a little under, let me know I’ll remake it..”

“The espresso sucks today.”

“I can’t find my lucky unicorn tamper”

When you say things like that,  this is what goes through my head: “Why are you serving something you KNOW isn’t good!?”

I don’t care.  I’m sorry,  but I don’t.  I just want you to make my coffee with no disclaimers that way I have a fair chance of enjoying it.  Sure, we’ll chew the fat for a bit, but don’t tell me that the espresso you gave me is not as good as it could be.

Before we go on, let me be the first to admit I have done this myself.  Chances are you have too.   Now let’s all take a moment of silence to acknowledge our shame, and bid it good riddance.

Disclaimers are bad.

They tell the person receiving your beverage that something is wrong with it before they get it.  Even if there isn’t, they will perceive it as wrong because you planted that in there head.  You are the barista.  Take ownership and don’t blame it on something else.

Why so much hostility?

This is a bigger issue than appears to be.  It stems from lack of proper training, misunderstanding of extraction, and lack of confidence – more importantly though, it’s disrespectful to your customers; What you’re implying is that all day before I walked in and ordered an espresso, it wasn’t good enough. If it was, you’d have served it to me without fuss.

Let me paint this out for you.

Say your experience starts at 10/10.

You walk in the door, say hello, and order your coffee. Still 10.  You then see the barista start re dialling in the espresso. 9/10.  You then watch as he throws out shot after shot in an effort to redial the espresso (which should have been done in the morning). 8/10.  You wait. And wait. And wait for your espresso (which is meant to be fast, hence the name). 7/10.  Finally, he/she hands it to you, but that’s not it.  As you grab it, the barista adds a disclaimer, taking the onus off of them.. 6/10.  Sorry, but in the words of Murky, “that’s really, really, not okay.”

I don’t order a steak at a restaurant and have the chef come out and say, “Sorry, we over cooked that steak.. Let us know if you don’t like it and we’ll make it again.”

In an effort to make it perfect you’ve compromised the entire operation, making me awkward, wishing I’d just got drip.

My whole experience before I even tasted my shot is at best a 6/10.  Not only did I wait longer than was necessary, you also told me it might not be good.

Come on.

I would have been happier had you just pulled a shot and served it to me with a smile.  I’d say thanks. You’d be happy. I’d be happy.  We’d all win.

Maybe I’m making too big a deal of this, but it doesn’t just happen every once in awhile – it happens all the time.  And it frustrates the hell out of me.

Why do we do this?

Because espresso is seldom treated as what it is – another brew method.

There are variables that need to be (and can be) controlled, just as you would with any method.

Here are 4:

1. Dry dose weight - Amount of coffee in the portafilter. Without the proper tools, this will vary slightly every shot – it varies drastically barista to barista.

2. End weight of beverage – Unless you’re weighing every shot this is very difficult to eyeball and will be inconsistant shot to shot.

3. Time during extraction – How many seconds.  Just, use a timer.

4. Grind.

When you make a french press, you weigh the coffee.  You weigh the water.  You time it.  It’s the same, every time.  If you dialed it in properly – it should taste good, every time.

Do you see what I’m getting at here?

Here are 3 things that will help control those variables and give you more consistant results – resulting in more confidence behind the bar.

1. Volumetric: It’s consistent (and that’s what this is about). This allows you to program the amount of water you want to go through every shot, every time.

2. Dosing tools: Also consistent. (that’s what this is about, remember?).  More importantly, it provides consistency between barista to barista. I use Scotty Callaghans tools, they are expensive but they get the job done.

3. Brew Ratios: It makes no difference to me what ratio you use. Just make sure that whatever it is, you can replicate it.

Should you need some guidance, this is where I start.

1/1.75 coffee to water

18g dry

31g end weight

24-28 seconds

I know it’s been said many times before: Get your coffee the way you want it to taste.  Log those parameters.  Dial it in. Repeat.  I know most cafes don’t have a volumetric machine, but you can use time as your handle.  Time every shot. It’s so much better than not using anything.

If you apply these 3 things, your espresso will be consistent.  Any one  on shift will be able to walk on and pull a shot of the same quality.

Dialling in without Volumetric.

Set your dose weight with a dosing tool.  If you don’t have one, use something like a butter knife or the top of your grinder cap, etc. Just keep trying items till you get the weight you want.

Place scale on drip tray, start the shot (and timer) and stop it at desired weight.

You now know what time to stop it at.  Of course in a busy cafe, you can’t weigh every shot – but every once in awhile weigh it to see where you are at.

Over all, this will boost your confidence behind the bar, knowing that everything is controlled as much as it can be.  It will in turn let you be more confident serving a great espresso to everyone who walks in the door – without a disclaimer

Authors Note:  I do not mean to sound aggressive.  Take it with a grain of salt if you will.  We are all on the same mission of serving great coffee and espresso to every customer that walks through our doors.  Thank you for reading, I look forward to your comments.

- Chris.

It’s a way of life.

Annie, Spencer, and Aaron have opened up their darling cafe – and soon to be roaster – Matchstick Coffee.  It hasn’t even been a week since the paper was ripped off the windows and the doors opened, and their shop has already solidified itself in Vancouver’s coffee scene.  At the moment they are offering coffee from Calgary’s Phil & Sebastian, but as you can guess from the name and the pictures, the plan is to roast their coffee in house, something only done in a handful of shops ’round these parts.  The cafe defines the word “spacious” and has plenty of natural light, places to sit, vinyl to listen to, and a communal table you won’t forget.  Coffee is brewed to order via the Kone/Chemex duo, and espresso runs through a forest green Linea before it gets in your cup.  Latte art is included free with every milk drink.

As friends and teachers and former co-employees, I wish these 3 much success and a huge congratulations.

Where: 639 East 15th Avenue (Basically Fraser and Kingsway)
When: 8am-4pm every day.  (If you’re reading this a few weeks after publication – I’d check their website to see if they’ve shortened or extended hours)
Who:  @matchstickyvr
Why:  matchstickcoffee.com

I have found a simple, subtle move that results in a safer flip, and also a more consistent and full extraction for your aeropress.

This developed due to the frustration I was having when I would flip the aeropress, and while plunging down would sometimes notice that in the air pocket some of the wet grounds of the coffee had stuck to the rubber part of the plunger.  When this happened that meant the coffee was OUT of the water, and therefore no longer extracting with the rest of the coffee during the plunge down.  Sometimes there would be none, but other times it would be up to a few grams worth.  This would result in a weaker cup than you had intended as the coffee stuck to the top would only be partially extracted.

So, without further ado, here’s what you do.

After you have prepared your aeropress and gotten to the point where you have screwed the cap on, stop.  Don’t flip it just yet.  While it is still in the upright position, literally pull the top chamber of the aeropress down, as if you are going to push coffee through it upwards.  Don’t stop until there is resistance.  This will feel awkward at first (and look awkward forever) and you will probably feel like you might push too hard and have coffee come through, but you won’t.  You’d have to be pushing down extremely hard and be very absent minded for that to happen, and it will be obvious when to stop.  The goal of this move is to get rid of that half inch or so air pocket that occurs at variant levels depending on how high you connected the bottom plunger to the top chamber at the start.

Now when you do the flip it will be extremely tight and secure, and almost impossible for the plunger to fall off (goodbye burns!).  And most importantly of all, it will ensure that all the coffee is in the water (steeping) the entire time during the plunge down, and not stuck to the rubber.

One effect it will have on your brew method is it will be harder (and therefore take longer) to plunge down without any air between the plunger and the coffee, so you may have to adjust your brew times accordingly.  Or experiment with leaving the smallest gap possible while pushing down.  You’ll figure it out.

It’s a small detail but then so is everything in coffee.

This is what we’ve been up to.

Yes:
mirage triplette
3 grinders. 1 for decaf, 2 for rotating espresso menu
made to order coffee via the Kone.
various alternate brew methods
espresso to go
cream&sugar
vinyl
multi-roaster system that we curate
alley-side service
nuts and candy
baking
loose leaf tea (that we actually drink)
standing bar
Craig Stanghetta
15,000+ nails
hand signals
brothers

No:
soups or sandwiches
ceramic
pretension
Sundays
guns

Crema finally has a little brother.
We can’t wait to open.  Expect us to do so extremely soon.

325 Cambie St.
Vancouver, Canada

For updates follow @revolver_coffee or visit revolvercoffee.ca

I’ll have a black coffee please.

Last week we took to the road for a one and a half hour drive from Vancouver through farmland, over the border, and to just outside of downtown Bellingham to arrive at Onyx Coffee Bar.  It was opened just a couple months ago slightly under the radar by Mr. Edwin Martinez, a name you may recognize as being responsible for the widespread availability of the ever-sought after (and often elusive) Hario products, and for providing and guiding many roasters from around the world to truely wonderful coffees from Guatemala.

The story goes as follows:  Before opening, Edwin went around to a bunch of customers of local cafes with the question why they frequented the cafes they did, having options such as “coffee, location, service, price, etc” to choose from.  Contrary to what coffee people would hope, “Coffee” wasn’t even in the top 5 reasons (It actually came 7th).  What came first slips my mind at the moment – convenience maybe? – but none the less, he acknowledged the data and opened up his coffee shop.  Only he did the opposite of the data, and opened a cafe that focused solely on coffee.

That focus on coffee is presented not just by what they have, but perhaps even more so in what they don’t have.

What they have: an unparalleled selection of coffee.  When we were there we could have chosen from over 20 coffees, from 8 different roasters.  Each coffee is available via pour over or syphon, by the cup, or in a tasting flight of 3 coffees of your choice.
What they don’t have: Milk, or sugar, or a condiment stand of any kind.  And as for milk, that goes for both hot and cold.  There is an espresso machine, but it’s just for espresso.

Now with the above being said, the philosophy of the store is that every customer who walks in, walks out happy; whether they do so with a coffee, or empty handed with directions to another place.

And so now that you know the pre-story, you can view the images with it in mind.

The machine they use isn’t one that many people would be familiar with – but it’s really cool looking.  It’s Nuova Simonelli by make – a Nuova Simonelli Yacht Club.  (Type it into google if you think I fib.)  Obviously from the way it is situated on the bar you can’t see the back but it is paneled in wood (real or fake I don’t know) and is clearly designed with a “nautical” inspiration.  We stuck to drip coffee however, so I can’t tell you much more about the machine itself, or what was brewing.

The shop is small, with a few seats at the bar, and plays out more like a tasting room than your traditional cafe setting, which serves it’s purpose quite well.

“Pulpa” or cascara, from Edwin’s farm, that we tried cold and carbonated.  It was a work in progress he said, but very good none the less.  If you have access to any, you should give it a shot and see what you come up with.

Tim Wendelboe and Scott Rao neighbored one another on the bookshelf.

After the coffee gala, Edwin took out a suitcase and asked Evan to retrieve a key he had put behind the counter, and after stating, “no eyes had seen this yet”, he proceeded to tell us the story of how he came into possession of it’s internal contents and that they were older in years than he was.

Behold!

Beautifully rare and accurate relieved maps of the Huehuetenango regions.  Edwin gave us a guided tour through his finger, tracing along the map over the rough roads and mountains through various farming regions while narrating.  (Did you know you could be stuck in some areas for several days?  Or that going to the bank is a 1+ hour endeavour?)

And when the the stories were done and the suitcase closed, it was back to the paved roads of Bellingham for us, over the border and into Vancouver.  But we’ll be back for certain.

If you’re looking for Edwin’s Hario (and more) page:  http://roustaboutproducts.com/

Onyx Coffee Bar:  1015 Railroad Avenue, Unit #105 (Bellingham, Washington State)
Hours of Operation:  Wednesday – Saturday, 10-6 (closed from 2-3 for lunch)
Website:  http://www.onyxcoffee.com/index.php
Tweeter: @onyxcoffeebar

Yawei and her brother Jarome opened a cafe back in November while I was temporarily living in Montreal and even though I’ve been a whole heap o’ times, I never seemed to have my camera in hand.  But enough is enough – It’s time to share with the world my love affair with Innocent Coffee.  There is a certain calmness that radiates through the entire 2 story building (cafe down low, art gallery up-top), causing anyone who enters to leave their worries on the doorstep.  The cafe is minimalist and rather adorable, which brought me back to the cafes I visited in Japan.  They serve up Origins Coffee, who roast the coffee only a 10 minute walk away, down on Granville Island.  They have an espresso machine and drip of course, with each cup made to order, via either press or pour over (kone or paper) and all their baking and food is done on site, right behind the counter – which means that every time you walk in you either smell fresh coffee or fresh baking.  I like those odds.

As a side note – due to health codez they can only do paper cup service.  If you think that could be an issue for you, bring your favorite cup from home.  #BYOC
Located at 1340 W 4th Ave.  Open from 7am-5pm, Monday through Saturday. Closed Sundays.  twitter//innocentcoffee

February 28th to March 4th I participated in the inaugural banding of a group of people in the specialty coffee industry under the guise, “Coffee Common” down in Long Beach, California at the wonderful TED talks.

For those of you who don’t know what TED is it’s an acronym that stands for “Technology Entertainment Design” and their motto is “Ideas worth spreading”.  TED talks are free to watch online and they will easily inspire you with some of the greatest 18 minute presentations you’ll ever watch. Or at least that’s the goal.  You can watch the talks and learn more about it by clicking here.

A number of baristas were invited down to participate in the “Coffee Common” from all different areas of the industry and world.  You can find out more about the “Common” brand here, but the general idea is to group and gather people and businesses that would normally be considered competitors together for a common goal, that is beneficial for all parties involved.  It can be applied to anything, not just coffee.

The mission for those of us in the coffee common was to expose the attendees of TED to what coffee is, and what it can be.

The menu was very simple and small (in all senses of the word):  Drip Coffee (via V60, 6oz cups). Espresso.  Macchiato.  Cappuccino (6oz).  Whole milk or soy.  Coffees were provided by 8 different roasters and were rotated through multiple times a day based on a schedule that coincided with the beginnings and endings of the presentation sessions.

Because it was a conference, the work flow would range from very non-chalant and personable moments, where you might find yourself with double digit minutes of no drinks to make, over to extremely intense onslaughts of people flooding the bars, before and after the sessions.  In most cases you were paired with a partner and stationed at one of the 6 bars where one of you would be on shots, the other on milk.  Each bar but one had at least one espresso machine, with V60 pour over stations on the 2 main bars, as well as one bar dedicated solely to “alternative brew methods” such as Syphon, Aeropress, Kone, French Press and so on.

Throughout the course of the week I worked with 5 different people, and of those 5 I had never worked with 4 of them before the week began.  It was very interesting for me was seeing how different, some more obvious than others, each barista I worked with did certain things.  From dialing in and profiling the shots they were serving, to how clean they kept their bar, their capacity for talking and working at the same time, how good they could get the message across, and so on.  An interesting thing to do was to make your way around a the different bars and see all the different interpretations of the coffee being served – it was inevitably a different experience at each bar depending on who made it.

The week was tough work.  Talking to each person that you could and trying to share little details on the coffee you were serving was exhausting — there is no denying that.  And especially the first couple days when people didn’t really know what we were doing and were more excited just to be at TED than they were to be drinking coffee (and understandably so) it almost seemed a little hopeless.  But gradually things changed.  Some people began to “get” what we were doing there, that we weren’t just a normal catering service.  Many started asking which coffee was being served, and being able to recall favorites.  Many compliments and “thank yous” were given.

So was it a success?

Yes.  I think so.  I hope so!

I like to think that the next time these people are drinking coffee they will have their TED experience in the back of their minds, and maybe some of them will seek it again.

And while I of course can’t speak for anyone at TED personally as I’m not them I do feel that just the idea of a “Coffee Common” and the execution of it was an inspiration to everyone involved, and that maybe some of that inspiration trickled through to many of those following alongside us through blogs or through coffeecommon-hashtagged-tweets and retweets.  What that hopefully has begun to lead to (and will continue to do so) is more awareness among ourselves not only on what we are drinking, but what we are capable of doing for coffee, not just at events and conferences like this, but over our own counters for our own customers in our everyday jobs and lives.  And when we realize that and embrace it,  things can really start happening.

It’s certainly had this affect on me.

Stephen Morrissey, Kyle Glanville, Tim Styles, Brent Fortune, Sean Bonner and Peter Giuliano all deserve huge credit for putting together what they did.  Just the front end things that I saw them doing tirelessly for 12+ hours each day would have been hard enough, and I’m positive that there was much more going on in the background that they had to deal with that none of us saw.  Thank you thank you thank you.  Intelligentsia were also amazingly gracious hosts, both upon my arrival in L.A. at the Venice location and then the  wrap up dinner party at their Pasadena location.  The food was delicious and all the staff so very hospitable.  Sean Bonner I’m sure other people were involved in this, like sponsors and the roasters and designers and other coffee drinkers, so to all you invisible people and unsung heroes that also helped make it all happen, thanks thanks thanks!

You can see all the pictures and some videos and find out everything you could possibly want to know about the Coffee Common by clicking here.