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FINISHING SCHOOL: Jay Caragay Explores Barista Etiquette

Sprudge Editors — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:25:15 +0000

The Perfect Barista (click to engorge)

This article is part of our special Back To School Week series:

Spidey-sense, Steve Martin-esque, Prince Sass, Hummingbird grace… yes, yes, yes and YES! From Baltimore based Spro Coffee owner Jay Caragay:

“The notes on the white board were a fascinating journey into how one barista has internalized, digested and then communicated “our way of doing things” to the next generation of barista. In reading the notes, part of me is touched, part of me is amused, part of me is honored and even a part of me is a little bit horrified.”

Read Jay’s insightful take on “The Ideal Barista” at Jay’s Strange Blog.

HOME EC: Hazelnut Latte Oatmeal and The American Dream

Sprudge Editors — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:58:09 +0000

Hazelnut Latte Mush

This article is part of our special Back To School Week series:

The Quaker Oats Company, an American carbohydrate concern with more than a hundred years of brand-recognition, have recently introduced the “True Delights: Hazelnut Latte” flavor to their line of instant oatmeals.

The Quakers may refuse conscription into armed military service, but they’re perfectly willing to fight hydrogenated hazelnut latte-powder trench warfare in and around your large intestine.

This is, in fact, the American Dream in action. All beloved American foodstuffs will one day be available in oatmeal form; this includes margaritas, pulled pork sliders, and single origin microlots. Bristol Palin’s second baby will be President, ”climate change” will be remembered with the same ironic disdain as the Y2K bug, and Glenn Beck will have replaced Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the ten-cent piece.

Learn more about the American Dream, in hazelnut latte oatmeal form, at Chow.com

It is also now the American Dream to blog “reviews” on this sort of thing.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Hot Coffee In The Face, From Sea To Shining Sea

Sprudge Editors — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:07:55 +0000

This article is part of our special Back To School Week series:

America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. Sometimes we Americans express this freedom and bravery by throwing scalding hot coffee in each other’s faces.

It happened in California earlier this month.

It happened again in Maine last Thursday morning.

I’m proud to be an American.

Miletto Infinity, and Beyond: Barista Exchange Reaches 10,000 Members!

Sprudge Editors — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:30:55 +0000

Congratulations to Matt Miletto and BaristaExchange.com, who recently announced the addition of their 10,000th member!

We’re truly impressed and inspired by Barista Exchange’s ingenuity, growth, and steady climb in presence and popularity. We know Matt couldn’t do it without lots of support, and we’ll help him shout out the moderator mensch work of Jason Dominy, Terry Ziniewicz, Brady Butler and Jason Haegar.

You can cruise over to this hoppin’ thread on Barista Exchange, to share your BX stories, trials, trib’ulations, and wondrous achievements. Congrats, bX!

If you haven’t joined Barista Exchange yet, what are you waiting for?

Not to be confused with "BaristaSexchange.com"

Ecco Chamber: Andrew Barnett Blogs For SFGate.com

Sprudge Editors — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 23:11:07 +0000

The Noble Mr. Barnett

Andrew Barnett, founder of Ecco Cafe and noted gentleman, has teamed with the San Francisco Gate to blog his take on the relationship between coffee, restaurants, and culture in the Bay Area. His opening salvo features some rather pointed statements on the disconnect between fine coffee and fine dining:

“The odds of encountering stellar coffee throughout most of North America are akin to finding a needle in a haystack. Sadly, the same holds true in our Bay Area restaurant scene. Renowned establishments entice with seasonal menus, spectacular ingredients, gracious service and artful presentation, while serving up ineptly prepared, stale, out of season, commodity grade, bitter and over-roasted coffee. Since coffee is frequently the final impression of a dining experience, it’s quite amazing that it is treated as nothing more than an afterthought.”

Amen, brother.

You can read Andrew’s provocatively titled piece over at SFGate Online.

Andrew Barnett: On Coffee, People Who Don’t Like Coffee, And The Lack of Good Restaurant Coffee

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness: Aldo Coffee Goes French?

Sprudge Editors — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:39:49 +0000

Yup, it's still the 80s...

The coffee world’s favorite curmudgeon is considering bringing back the dark roast. Our friend Rich at Aldo Coffee explains:

Given what we’re planning to do here (and we still aren’t divulging the details), it’s quite possible that we may reintroduce a dark roast in the near future. That’s sort of going backwards in time instead of forward and it’s certainly not very “third wavish” of us to do so, but we too get tired of beating our heads against the wall trying to get everyone to change habits. It’s just not going to happen at this time and not in this place.

The place, of course, is Pittsburgh, ”the city where the 1990s never happened”. And while we favor medium roasted coffees, we like the idea of building bridges and creating blends of medium/dark roast coffee to entice dark roast fans (Sprudge.com’s parents, for example) into trying something a bit brighter and more complex. Pretend it’s 2002, call it “Freedom Roast”, and it’ll sell like hot cakes.

Aldo Coffee – An Argument For Taste Being Subjective

Don’t Don’t Do What Donny Don’t Does: 8 Barista No-No’s From Sprudge.com

Sprudge Editors — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:55:08 +0000

Clove Smokin' 90s Barista

8. A barista should never utter these words: “We don’t do…”

You can’t control all the weird things you’re asked by the public, but you can control how you respond. If someone says “can I get a triple caramel frappe mochachini frozen blend?”, well, everything inside of you might want to snark, but good baristas resist the urge. A simple “I’m sorry, we don’t have blenders” is so much more professional than saying “we don’t do that here.”

7. A barista should never visit their café on their day off, kick off the barista on bar, and pull themselves a shot of espresso.

This actually happens. We have confirmation. What’s more annoying, the fact that you don’t trust your fellow employees, or the fact that you’re so totally arrogant about your own abilities? Relax, man.

6. A barista should never tell their customers the following: “We’re done washing dishes for the night.”

We’ll wash the demitasse ourselves if we have to, seriously. Just don’t do it. If you were that closed, you’d have flushed the machine already.

5. A barista should never shit talk other coffee companies.

Of course, every barista shit-talks other coffee companies. It’s kind of an art form. But you should never ever do this while on bar; save it for your second margarita, AFTER you get off work. Your customers come to you because they already know you’re awesome; you don’t need to talk smack about the cafe down the block to prove your worth.

4. A barista should never say anything that even remotely sounds like the following: “I can’t make your cappuccino extra hot, because technically a cappuccino is supposed to be cooler than a latte. Technically.”

Technically, you’re a jerk.

3. A barista should never draw a penis in a customer’s latte.

It might seem like a good idea at the time…until the customer goes home and blogs about it.

2. A barista should never, ever play the following movie soundtracks in their cafe: Amelie, Rushmore, Garden State.

Also included on this list: that stupid Shins record we’ve all heard ten thousand times.

1. A barista should never wear pajamas to work.

Unacceptable. This is not Sophomore year, and you are not late to your Botany lecture. You need to put on a real pair of pants. No one expects you to be the belle of the ball at 5:45 in the morning, but you have time to wear jeans.

Inspired by Proper Barista Etiquette.

No Rest: All-In-One Roaster / Grinder / Coffee Maker Swings, Misses

Sprudge Editors — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:17:50 +0000

All Looks

Fresh roasted coffee needs more than a few minutes to rest before brewing. It doesn’t take a Director of Advancing Ingenuity and Developing Brilliance to tell you that. Entertaining video, beautiful device, terrible coffee. Best served for roasting Kopi Luwak, on your 80 foot yacht, before sleeping on your bed of money, after doing a double gainer off the diving board in your Scrooge McDuck money vault.

James Hoffmann & Katie Carguilo Bust Out The Summer Brew Method Slip n’ Slide

Sprudge Editors — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:24:44 +0000

Summertime Coffee Porch Drinkin'

Full immersion + filter + ice = Summer of Hoffmann!

The idea with this is to brew double strength coffee straight onto ice. As the ice melts it chills and dilutes the coffee back to more normal strengths.

Often this is done with pourover or filter brewers. The problem I had with this is that as you double the amount of coffee to your amount of water then it is going to be harder to properly extract it as you have less brewing liquid. You can certainly grind finer but I found the window of tasty a bit too narrow.

So recently I’ve been starting with a french press brew.

Read all about James Hoffmann’s method here.

And check out this iced Chemex method from Sprudge pal and CCC chanteuse Katie Carguilo! Caps lock FABULOUS!

(editors note: Slip n’ Slides are fine, but we were always personally more of a Crocodile Mile kind of kid)

Horror At Manhattan Starbucks: Man Leaps To His Death, Lands In Outdoor Seating Area

Sprudge Editors — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:36:07 +0000

Horror!

If you open up 16,000+ locations, this sort of thing is bound to happen:

A 38-year-old man plunged to his death near a coffee shop in Manhattan yesterday, police said, after leaping from an upper East Side building just after 6 p.m. and crashing onto the outdoor seating of a Starbucks at First Ave. and E. 85th St.

“How horrible!”, said Nancy Miller, 58. ”You’re sitting, having coffee,” she added. “You don’t expect that.”

That’s an understatement, Nancy. Not to promote this sort of thing, but a quick Google search reveals Starbucks locations beneath the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, at the base of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and multiple shops within a block of the Empire State Building. This story is horrible, but it could have been much, much worse.

So many Manhattan locations to choose from!

(image courtesy of Gothamist.com)

Read the original story at NYDailyNews.com