Talking Espresso and Great Coffee

A post on Twitter got me thinking about how much waste there is around a great cup of coffee. I feared that I would find I was being a bad person by encouraging some industry to burn up resources helping me get my morning drinks. Today I would like to speak a touch about helping the planet, not on a soap box here, but a quick couple lines that will hopefully help you with some info.

What I found was good and bad news. Unless you get into a situation of someone having a very dirty machine that burns up huge amounts of electricity to heat the small amount of water there is no major impact. The process of gathering and processing the beans, storage and shipping and the selling are all in line with most food products. Whew!

The area that is about to get nailed for waste is the little Single Serving machines we see everywhere. I’m guilty of having one, as is most of my friends. It is a convenience that after reading up a bit, I might have to consider doing without. It is a situation where the sheer numbers off all of those little plastic containers going into the trash all over the world is getting out of hand.

Jennifer Berry over at Earth911 wrote an article just last week on what she found about some producers of these coffee pucks are doing to help. It appears some are getting the message and changing the materials and processes. Let encourage them to continue when we can – thanks!

Earlier I posted a sort video on how to foam milk and pour to make simple art on top of your espresso drinks. Even something that simple adds a bang to coffee your serve to friends and family.

Step two… way more advanced, is about creating art in the milk foam by moving it around after it is in the espresso. This takes a bit more talent to perfect, but it has been fun. And, generally, anything you do is adds a touch of fun for the eyes to go with the taste.

This video shows how you can create fun images by moving the foam around, adding dots in the foam and even really impressive creations by adding lines of chocolate. Wow! I need more friends to come by in the morning for coffee so I can practice. You have the coffee made, why not play with your food for a second.

The thing that makes espresso unique amongst all coffee brewing methods is its use of CO2 in the extraction process. Under the conditions of temperature and pressure encountered in pulling a shot, the CO2 from the coffee dissolves in the water forming carbonic acid which lowers the pH (acidity) of the water. This in turn affects the relative solubility of the hundreds of components that reside in the coffee grounds and it changes the profile of the compounds that are extracted. As the extract starts to pour from the basket and it returns to ambient pressure, the dissolved CO2 boils off and creates that honey-like crema which lets us know that we are in the sweet spot. Not too different from popping the cork on a fine bottle of champagne!

Bob Barraza wrote much more on the subject… very enlightening on the subject of getting the biggest bang out of your beans… and pocketbook.

I’m not actually big on adding all kinds of flavoring to Espresso drinks. Maybe a dash of chocolate from time to time, but that is about it.

It doesn’t mean my guests think the same way though. So, I started by adding flavors found at specialty stores. Here is a couple mixes I came across online to try out first… before I play too much on my ‘own’ creations:

Pumpkin Spice White Chocolate Mocha

1/4 oz White Chocolate Sauce
1 oz Monin Pumpkin Spice Syrup
2 oz espresso
8 oz steamed milks
Sprinkle of nutmeg or cinnamon (optional, for garnish)

1. Mix the white chocolate sauce and pumpkin spice syrup together in the bottom of your mug.
2. Pull your shots, add them to the sauces and swirl around a bit.
3. Pour in your steamed milk.
4. Garnish with a sprinkle of ground nutmeg or cinnamon.

White Chocolate Macadamia Latte
Serves 1

1 ounce Ghirardelli Classic White Flavored Sauce
1/4 ounce macadamia syrup
2 ounces brewed espresso
8 ounces steamed milk
Chopped macadamia nuts, for garnish

1. Combine sauce, syrup and espresso in 12-oz. mug. Stir until well combined.
2. Pour steamed milk into mug; stir to combine.
3. Top with froth from steamed milk.
4. Drizzle with Ghirardelli Classic White Flavored Sauce.
5. Garnish with chopped macadamia nuts, if desired

Chocolate Raspberry Cappuccino
Serves 1

1/2 ounce Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate & Cocoa Flavored Sauce
1/2 ounce Ghirardelli Classic White Flavored Sauce
1/2 ounce raspberry syrup
2 ounces brewed espresso coffee
8 ounces steamed milk

1. Combine sauces, syrup and espresso in 12-oz. mug. Stir until well combined.
2. Pour steamed milk into mug; stir to combine.
3. Top with froth from steamed milk.
4. Garnish with Ghirardelli Cocoa or drizzle with Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate & Cocoa Flavored Sauce.

These are all from SeattleCoffeeGear.com . They have many more Recipes to try and things to buy.

Have you ever dreamed of a ‘going places’ career in the coffee industry as a Barista?

I have to admit, when I saw the headlines to this article the above is what flashed into my head. Then reading it through, I discovered many great points. From dress, attitude, customer management and producing a great product. I did learn some great bits I will take and use in my current day job. Read the full article here… it’s worth a look.

“If you are going to be working as a professional barista (or as a professional anything), here are some words of advice that you should heed above all else: “What is crucial to your success is your ability to get along with your customers, your co-workers, and your managers. Having outstanding technical skills will not bring outstanding success. Having outstanding interpersonal skills is even more important.”

Most interpersonal skills are merely common sense, but many of us haven’t spent much time thinking about them at a concious level. You should focus on your interpersonal personal skills and work daily to improve them, just as you focus on your barista techniques and think about how to improve those. And there are a few interpersonal skills that are not automatic, and do not come naturally, but they can be cultivated.“

A talent I desire is to make fun art in the milk foam when I make espresso for my visitors. It always looks so easy, but mine never turn out quite so perfect. To get better, I went in search of professional help. The pros at the local espresso spot just chuckle and explain nothing. Option two (should have been my first…) is to look on the internet. Books wont really do this skill justice. You really need a video. Hello Google and their YouTube.

Today, let’s start with the basics. How to get the milk just the right constancy so when you pour into the espresso it will hold it’s shape. Here is a quick vid that is a great entry into the fun. I will be posting links to vids rather than have it stream through the site. I hate sites that load slowly as the video cue up even if you aren’t going to watch them. Enjoy!

From my youngest days, I remember going to a roasting spot with my folks. We would have to make a special trip to a little building just on the other side of town. It was on a main road, yet you could easily miss the whole building. It was small brown wood sided building. Up the few steps and through the front door, you were greeted with an aroma that was smooth yet bold. The first thing you saw inside was a counter that went from the front of the store to the back. Under the counter was many small square glass faced cube containers of beans. Every bean was brown, but not all the same shade of brown.

What made this the place for the insiders to visit was that you weren’t buying coffee of a particular type, grower, or from a place in the world. They mixed beans from multiple locations to come up with unique flavors. Every time my parents went in, the Roaster would come out with a new brew he had come up with.

These experiences gave me a different view on what made a great espresso. The actual cost of buying small quantities of beans and mixing is relatively small so it’s a bit of fun anyone can enjoy. Till I get time to post up my logs, visit this article on Coffee Blending to get started – we’ll catch up later on your successes mixes.

I found a nice article over at Home Barista on an Introduction to Barista Techniques.

The post is actually one part of a larger end-to-end on Espressos. About the beans, fine details on grinding, machines, cleaning, etc…

This one part is an important topic of the day, the actual act and timing of making a great Espresso. From the post: Barista technique breaks down into three time scales and skill levels:

• The first is the minute or so spent grinding and making the shot.
• The second is the time spent carefully tasting an espresso or series of espressos, identifying the flavor balance and defects, and making adjustments to ones pull or machines to correct them.
• The third is acquiring experience and informed preferences with a wide range of coffees, blends, espresso equipment, and alternative techniques.

If your are looking for maximizing the flavor in every Espresso you make, take a look at their in-depth walk through of what makes a difference. http://www.home-barista.com

Opening your own coffee shop is one of those dream jobs so many of us have had. I was torn between a coffee shop with mostly outside seating, a drive though little spot, or a larger location with laundry and lots of Internet access for hanging out.

The outside spot was limited in that I was in Oregon at the time. The Drive through was being done on every street corner… almost all with B-A-D coffee. The larger spot seemed perfect. So, I set out to find the little corner I could call mine… and my wife’s… and a close friend so we could have a few hours off a week.

My belief was that it just can’t be that hard. I owned several different businesses in the customer service arena so this should be a matter of tuning my current business model. After meeting with the coffee suppliers (not an approachable group since there are so many fly-by-night spots around), landlords and equipment manufactures, red flags were flying. There seemed to be more to this than being really nice, making a great cup of coffee (hopefully, over and over again) and supplying s soft seat to sit in. There was variables that played in such as water and electricity whose usage changed dramatically depending on what you were serving as well the price of product seemed to move around monthly.

In the end, I helped several friends get their locations going… one of the three made it through the first year. Not because they had a great cup of coffee, because they were conveniently located for quick access on the ‘going to work’ side of the road.

At the time there wasn’t any ‘good’ books on the subject of hitting it big in service coffee. Recently I was asked to pen a book on the hoops we had to jump to get the locations we did open, open. And the ongoing fun. Fun can be the happy customers and great word of mouth followings. Also, ‘fun’ can be sarcastic like issues of quality if your equipment isn’t kept in tune to the barometric changes of the day.

After working through several early drafts, I came across Debbie and Skip’s eBook on the same subject. They say it best with “In our book, Espresso Business Mistakes, we hand over to you, in writing, 49 significant mistakes we made in our coffee shop & espresso café business.” They provide examples of lessons learned so you wont get into the traps they did. Included is a bunch of additional items on putting a menu together, handling employees, cleaning schedules, secrets of coffee beans, marketing, and what the profitable products are.

Till I get done with writing my expieriances, theirs will do very well to keep future Coffee Shop Owners in the right frame of mind. Learn and practice what you read, it might just keep you afloat through the first year on the road to a long term fun place to be at.

How To Start A Coffee Shop From People Who Own One

My name is Gary, and I’m a coffee lover. Actually, I really enjoy Espresso drinks the most.

Pretty much everyone I know is wise to my passion for great coffee. So, when they come over to visit, they expect something more than regular or french roast. For a while I played with ingreadients, timing, grind… all with mixed results. Sadly, only the fellow coffee fan knew the difference.

Then I found the book “I Love Coffee!”. I feared it would be a story book but was pleasantly surprised to find it was a book of 100 coffee drinks that I could easily make with items I already had. The not-so-serious coffee drinking guests were very pleased. Take a look if your looking for a new twist to your coffee drink… for you or for your guests.
I Love Coffee!: Over 100 Easy and Delicious Coffee Drinks

I Love Coffee!: Over 100 Easy and Delicious Coffee Drinks