Saturday, May 23, 2009

Siphon Brewing and Commitment to Excellence

Recently, we were noted in Salt Lake City Magazine as one of Utah's Must Try Culinary Creations.

"47. A cup of siphon coffee

Chances are good that you’ve never tasted a cup of coffee like this. That means, in a sense, you’ve never really tasted coffee. It takes a coffee fanatic to think the resulting cup is worth the science project of making it. Fortunately, Utah is a great breeding ground for fanatics of all types. CaffĂ© d’Bolla, 249 E. 400 South, SLC, 801-355-1398, caffedbolla.com
saltlakemagazine.com

Achieving excellence in any endeavor is more about the commitment to the process of excellence, rather than just to excellence itself. For us, sourcing great coffees is just the beginning. Several trips to Japan, talking to and filming siphon barista there as well as tweaking roasting profiles and having an insane dedication to have absolutely no cream or sugar in our siphon coffee has helped us to get people to see coffee in a whole new light. People plan their driving routes on vacation to stop and have coffee, they've been late for airplanes, delayed meetings, changed office locations to move here, and in some cases flown across country, just to have a cup. Would I say it's the best cup possible? No, but I won't admit to being second either.

Coffee is at a crossroads, you can truly do something great to showcase the coffee, or you can spend a lot of money on glitz and hype. While McDonalds is out there demeaning coffee and the barista profession, rather than just laughing it off we all need to continue to raise the bar.

In order to truly raise the bar, it's not just the passion, or coffee knowledge... because there are countless roasters, barista, and others that have loads more technical coffee knowledge. The problem is, they don't have the commitment to back it up. Why source spectacular coffees, some even farm direct and serve them as "drip". It makes no sense to me at all. Press, Melitta, Eva Solo, Siphon, etc. Great coffees should be made by the cup, and to do otherwise really means you're not committed to the coffee. Don't just say you're committed to giving the best coffee has to offer, do it, and don't compromise. That is what we have been doing since we opened. I'm hoping many more will follow.