Anthony’s New Blog

While it seems unfitting to conclude my blogging for this site with a post that has little to do with coffee, I’d like to take the time to thank you all for reading and being supportive of my efforts on this blog and at Myriade. I enjoy the opportunity to write to and learn from an appreciative audience and I will continue writing at the perpetually soon-to-arrive cafemyriade.com.

I hope this holiday season finds you and yours well, thank you again to all who made 2008 what it was for me and here’s to an even more exciting and rewarding ‘09.

As this blog is woefully under-updated these days, it’s time I point you in the direction of another: Friend and conspirator Laura Perry is writing on behalf of the always-wonderful Bridgehead, and on the merits of her barista skills in tandem with witty charm her words deserve an audience.

With regard to my last post, I’m not ready to write much more about it and won’t be until I find the right words and probably a decent analogy. The simple bottom line is, however, that specialty coffee has grown, and accordingly so have the egos of superbaristas. Customer service has declined, which is a shame as it’s the first and easiest facet of a shop to evaluate. The word “education” is thrown around a lot, but to get to that point we have to earn the trust and listening ears of our clientele (see how it all ties in now?) Let’s crawl before we walk (smile and say hello), then make a drink to their order, not our own.

James Hoffman has posted to his blog what appears to be the beginning of a series of postings about trust between shop and clientele. For those of you who are familiar with me this is something I spend a great deal of time considering, especially in Montreal where my communicative shortcomings are a source of embarassment to me. I urge all of you to read James’s thoughts on this as they’re published. I find that a shop’s clientele will react in kind to their servers and baristas. If a staff gripes about customers’ orders and condescends to preach a purist’s mentality, they can expect their customers to complain about their drinks and be reticent in conversation. What, if anything, has the typical specialty coffee shop done to earn the trust of the consumer?

I have much more to say, but will refrain until some more discussion has taken place.

Latte Art Competitions and Official Barista competitions don’t have too much in common, except they both award points for visual correctness of the respective drinks. I’ll be up front and admit I had never given this serious thought until Scott brought up today with regard to my pouring, but milk drinks that boast nice contrast of the deep browns of the espresso against shocking white of the milk usually, well, suck to drink. I suspise that he brought this up because my latte art has been destroying his of late, but no matter his motive he’s absolutely right.

So what exactly am I talking about? To achieve great looking latte art, part of the process is often pouring the milk in such a fashion that the crema isn’t broken until the design is commenced, and is instead lifted slowly to the top of the cup to frame the rosetta/heart/sea shell. Compared to a drink that is built with milk breaking the crema early (resulting in a less-contrasted design) or better yet, with some thin milk deliberately mixed in with the shot of espresso, the latte art might be more appealing but the beverage is severely unbalanced. Whether or not somebody likes that strong hit of espresso as the first sip of the latte is irrelevent, because by the time they get two-thirds through it the espresso is almost non-existent. Ideally we can craft a beverage that remains the same from the first sip through the last, and I suppose I have some thinking about how to handle that at Myriade.

For whatever it’s worth, the evidence I’m going on here is mostly subjective based on taste testing today and somewhat on common sense. Briefly back to the first sentence of this posting, barista competitions score for visual correctness, but if Scott’s right (and I think he is), what’s the point of reinforcing an action detrimental to drink building? Am I missing something?

PS: Another tea tasting event has been scheduled for this coming Sunday at Cafe Myriade. Montrealers, RSVP to maze_bright(@)hotmail(.)com after removing the parantheses from my email address or by phone at 514 939 1717. The sensory exploration begins at 11AM and requires a $5 fee (which when paid in advance acts as a deposit to guarantee your seat). The last two Sunday events have been bunches of fun, join us please.

So I have an off-topic favour to ask any and all of you who are willing to spare some time for me. There’s a blog which I’ve been reading for a few years now that’s provided the foundation for the tone and approach I take to writing about coffee. The blog, USS Mariner follows and critiques the Seattle Mariners baseball club in such a way that inspires critical thinking and objective evaluation.

So why do I bring this up? One of the authors is being considered for a $10 000 scholarship, and the decision rests solely on internet voting. Please take fifteen seconds to do this, it would make me very happy to see this man rewarded for his years of dedication to writing on a subject he loves. Follow this link and vote for David Cameron, in less time it takes to extract an espresso you’ll be doing him, and indirectly me, a huge favour.

As always, thank you. A recap is coming on this morning’s successful coffee tasting.

Is espressi the actual plural of espresso?  Although I spend a great deal of my time thinking about words, grammar, and spelling (really, I do) I rarely apply those thoughts to anything coffee related.  So when the cashier calls out “three espressi” it made me balk and wonder how “i’s” ever received consideration for pluralizing English adapted words.  But as I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical reason, I’d rather not argue about it here as I hate being wrong in a public forum.

So all that out of the way, it’s been ten whole days since I’ve written anything anywhere aside from to-do lists and to-make notes on the fridge.  But I guess that happens when a shop is new, free time comes at the expense of something more important.  As promised in the previous entry, I’m going to answer the three questions I received more than once:

1)  When is your website going to be ready?

Not exactly the coffee-obsessed question I was expecting, but enquiring minds want to know.  So I can proclaim that it should be online soon, maybe minus a few of the louder bells and brighter whistles.  The blog will then be transferred there in this format, it won’t be entirely Myriade-centric by any means as I’d run out of things to say in fifteen minutes or so.  There will be information on the teas and coffees we’re bringing into the shop at any given time, including a to-the-minute twitter of what coffee we’re serving on the pour-over.  Assuming I can pull it off, that is.  Other goodies that will immediately or eventually be available is a truncated message board of sorts to leave notes for your coffee drinking peers, and a webcam broadcasting espresso extractions or whatever we feel is worth showing the world on any given day.  Maybe I’ll find a way to attach it to my head for barista-cam.  All that and more coming soon, sans cheesy flash intros or auto-playing music.

2)  Are you going to have barista trainings?

This is a bit tricky, we hosted a tea tasting this past Sunday and are doing a coffee tasting this coming Sunday morning where we’re brewing the same coffee five different ways.  Trainings and workshops are more hands-on and more costly supplies-wise, but I hope to find a way to make them feasible, attractive, and practical without getting expensive.  For those interested in coming to the tasting this Sunday, we’re starting at 11AM and are asking $10 per person.  To reserve a space, swing by the shop anytime between now and then the fee will double as a deposit.

I must cut this a bit short to relieve Chris so he can have a morning break.  Maybe more today, more likely not for a couple days?  One never knows.  Thanks for reading.

Well the first week is over, and I even got away from the cafe early enough one night to catch a movie (Burn After Reading).  So this week, what did we learn?  We love the Yergacheffe Konga Co-op just about every way we can brew it, and the El Salvador Miralvalle comes out best through the siphon.  We managed to pull allonges using a single-origin Guatemala (and at times a rogue Yerg leftover by a certain suave barista competitor) , and if nothing else we have Scott Rao working bar again for the first time since Christ was a cowboy.  And while he’s no Mike White (best barista in the world), he’s definitely holding his own.  Anyway, what I’m trying to say in a convoluted manner is that it’s great to be open and to share our coffees, teas, and chocolate with the workers, residents, and students of the west end.

This will be my second to last entry here before I switch over to writing for the website for the cafe, soon to be appearing at www.cafemyriade.com, and for the last entry I’ll take and answer any questions about the cafe, the competition, or really anything.  Or maybe I’ll just write about the joys of using single baskets.  One never knows.  Thanks for all the support from all of you who’ve come by the shop, it’s great to meet and serve you.

Yeah so I blew the conclusion of the triology of posts wrapping up the nationals, but I can claim good reason.  I opened a cafe, and apparently it’s a lot of work?  I pledge to finish my recap as soon as I can, as well as my first impressions of Cafe Myriade from my side of the bar.  I absolutely love my clientele, I couldn’t have imagined a more appreciative or enthusiastic audience to serve coffee to.  More soon I promise, in the meantime I must sleep for I open tomorrow.

Come down, say hi, joke around, drink coffee .

So where was I?  Rolling out my cart after relieving my shirt of albino cat hair.  I don’t remember much about actually performing.  I recall being upset that I hadn’t spent more time practicing my prep time as it went very badly, and also being annoyed that I couldn’t easily get the drip tray out.  The small steaming pitchers I pulled shots into for my sig drink got stuck under the spouts of the portafilter, and I forgot to offer to refill the judges’ water glasses.  I guess the missteps are the ones that stick out and are dwelled on, which is all the better for avoiding them in future competitions.

I didn’t get to watch anybody else on the first day save for Alex Tran, who will forever be my hero for telling MC Jay afterward that he was happy that he managed not to swear during his competition time.  Personally I’ve never felt the need to use expletives (out loud) in front of the judges, but then everyone’s different.

There was some memorable byplay between World Barista Champion / my favourite target Stephen Morrissey and Scott Rao during a Q&A while the judges were tallying scores in which the former refused to talk about single baskets.  It was humourous, and later Scott and I agreed that it was great to have someone like Stephen engaging with the gallery and it should have been something more organized.  What better time or place to effect the education we all actively pursue in our customers than at a barista competition with the reigning world champ?  Next year let’s make it happen again.

When the judges finally finished poring over their abacuses (abaci?) and returned with our scores, I think every barista had a legitimate reason to believe they were advancing.  That’s a testament to how much the overall skill level has improved since last year’s championship.  If I had come in with the routine that earned me third place last year, I’m certain I would have missed advancing (let alone winning) by a considerable margin this year.  I’m not sure this will translate well to a blog, but I feel proud to have placed where I did this year, whereas last year I felt mostly lucky.  Does that make sense?  Next year I expect more of the same overall increase in competitiveness, and I’ll also say right now that at least three of the top five finishers will come out of the East.  With all due respect to the well deserved western domination of this year, enjoy it while it lasts guys because next year Toronto/Montreal/Halifax is coming back strong.

I don’t think there’s much left to say, the finals played out incredibly tightly and I finished where I thought I would after my routine.   The judges were disappointed in the decline of my coffee from day 1 to day 2 and I was as well, but I learned from my mistakes and next year I’ll know better.  I did come away with the much ballyhooed Miss(ter) Congenialty award as voted on by the other baristas, and that by far was one of the best moments I’ve experienced in coffee.  I love doing what I do and I love competing almost entirely for type of people that I meet.  I don’t think there was a barista there who didn’t qualify for consideration, not one single person expressed anything but respect and compassion for one another.  That’s pretty great, to be part of a community like that.

I still have more to say, but I’m spent for the day.  Part 3 tomorrow, and followed by details about Myriade.  Anyone in Montreal is welcome to come by this weekend as we train our staff and get to know our own cafe.  We might even have the allonge grinder going.