Craft-Brewed Coffee: the truth is in the cup

If you decide to make craft-brewed coffee in your coffee shop, there are three important things to keep in mind and one simple way to illustrate all of these principles.

Respect the Process – Understanding that every step matters.

Respect the Ingredients – “Handling with care” those individual elements that make your final product.

Respect your Customer – Knowing you were chosen for your (professed or realized) expertise, and honoring that mutual understanding by combining process and ingredients to create an exceptional experience.

Learning your craft takes time.

You learn the fundamentals by watching your superiors. Over time, you understand the proper use and meaning of those fundamentals until you master them. Finally, you make the fundamentals your own and you begin your journey as a craftsman, and after years of executing at a high-level with the proper mindset, you will become a master of your craft.

As your skill in your craft increases, you will attract a more discerning customer. You should always treat the customer with the intelligence they deserve for seeking you out. The customer wants your coffee. The customer expects you to have confidence and knowledge and to display both in the execution of your craft. The customer is coming for a remarkable experience that will change their perceptions of coffee. Prove it in the cup.

And the cup – well it's highly important. It is one of the ways to clearly communicate to your customer those core principles of craft. As I mentioned to a friend of mine when talking about craft-brewed coffees by hand – coffee goes in the cup it deserves. When you are brewing any coffee using a “craft brewed” method, if you serve it in a paper cup (to go) then what does that communicate to your customer about your coffee? If you serve it in ceramic what does that communicate to your customer about your coffee? And if you serve it in a cup specifically chosen for that coffee based on flavor, aromatics, and beauty, then what does that communicate to your customer about your coffee?

The cup(s) you serve your craft-brewed coffee in says everything about what you believe as a business. Your actions will show what your core principles are. When you try to build your credibility by talking about the coffee's origins, explaining your roasting profiles, giving precise scientific explanations of your methods, or talking with passion and conviction -  whatever it is – every word of it is a complete lie if you serve your craft-brewed coffee “to go.” And you know it.

If you take five minutes to create a meticulously hand-brewed coffee for your customer and then you hand them a paper cup, what are you saying to your customer? 

You are saying, “Hey, here's your cup of coffee. Bye bye.”

If you offer coffee by the cup using a hand-brewed method, then you are making a statement about craft and quality. Think of it as a conversation. The first part of the conversation the customer “hears” is a hand-brewed coffee, and then the second part of the conversation is the coffee in a paper cup. This is not clear communication. The paper cup is the last thing you communicated to your customer, it is the statement you are making about your coffee. It communicates something completely different than what your brewing method implies. You are now saying “Here. This is the cup our coffee deserves to be in.”

Now if you do your craft-brewed coffee method and you serve your coffee in ceramic or china – what does that communicate to your customer? It says, “You are important and we want you to hang out with us. After all, Queen's china! You are special. This coffee is special – that's why it is in the fancy cup.”

The entire process matters. So quality of coffee, the skill of the roaster, your skill with that particular brewing method, and the last step is how you present your coffee to the customer. The cup is an important and often overlooked part of the conversation you are having with your customer. By serving your craft-brewed coffee in a proper cup you are showing respect for the process, respect for the ingredients, and respect for your customer. The truth is in the cup.

Understand the Process

Process is important. “Understand the process,” I say. But what does that entail? Is “process” simply a set of steps you follow to accomplish a task correctly – In this case brewing coffee?

Yes.

So, we're done then?

No, we're not. Because as straightforward as it should be, to everyone's dismay (not really) there are few professionals who get it right. What are they not doing right and WHY are they not doing it right?

Let's start with: What is the process?

In a nutshell: Start with properly roasted, quality, fresh, (whole) coffee beans. Understand correct dosing (coffee:water ratio) and particle size. Use correct dosing for chosen brewing method. Grind fresh with a good, adjustable burr grinder. Use water within (generally) specific TDS parameters. And brew! Then taste and adjust until it's just right. All of these steps are taken in order to produce a specific result – excellent coffee.

Now let's work through these “simple” things and see where the problems are.

Quality coffee – Now there are cupping scores and tasting notes in respect to the green coffee. So, as a coffee roaster it's simple to get your hands on quality beans. And I would suppose that most coffee shops who are making a claim of craft, artisanal, or “Third Wave” coffee are, in fact, sourcing quality green.

Properly roasted – Here is where we need to take a closer look. Because as I have often said, the higher the quality of your green, the more complexity within that specific lot, the more skill it takes to roast it.

So, what does “highly skilled” as a roaster mean? Is it about experience and dedication? Is it about talent?

I think if I had to list these factors it would be: talent, dedication, and experience. And when I talk about dedication, I think you can use the word “dedication” as a more serious sounding replacement for the word “passion”. You can't be dedicated to a thing without loving or enjoying that thing. And the dedication isn't simply to the craft. It's a dedication to the result of the craft, which is excellent coffee. With dedication and experience, you can always be above average to really, really good. But in my experience, without some inherent skill, aptitude or talent for the craft, you will never be exceptional.

So the first weakening of the process is with the roasting? What is the talent level of your roaster? How many hours of work have they put in? How many varietals from how many regions have they roasted? And how many years have they been doing it? Whether YOU are the roaster or your shop does the roasting, or you bring in your beans from somewhere – in which case you have to ask all these questions about their roaster – the likelihood is perhaps your coffee program isn't on as solid a ground as you were led to believe or that you are leading others to believe.

Now, I could really stop there, because the roasting of the coffee is probably the most important step in the coffee making process.

But let's assume the roasting is spot on.

Correct dosing is a known thing, so there's really no excuse for getting that wrong Look up “Gold Cup” standards or SCA brewing standards. Coffee science doesn't change.

Grind size is a generally known thing that you specifically tune to your coffee and your taste.

The same can be said for water chemistry.

Brewing technique? That takes a bit of skill. It takes some practice. And of course the goal again... excellent coffee.

So the reasons for not executing excellent coffee?

Either you don't know how. Or you don't care to know how. Often it's both.

If you care about the prestige of sourcing excellent coffees, but don't take the time to make sure you have a highly experienced roaster who can create sweetness and dynamic complexity and balance and mouthfeel in your coffee – then what?

Well, what happens is if the fundamentals of your coffee program are not rock solid, the smaller details, like brewing parameters or water chemistry are going to be an afterthought as well.

Or do you try to unknowingly take short cuts? You have a refractometer of some sort, you measure TDS to perfection... you dial in temperatures precisely, and what you do is end up chasing numbers instead of following flavor.

Great coffee, excellent coffee, exceptional coffee is not the result of following a set of numbers.

Exceptional coffee is the result of understanding the process with the end goal of a delicious cup of coffee. This means fundamentals of brewing and this means following the flavor.

It's really simple. Everyone should be able to do it.

You should be able to do it. So why aren't you?

John talks coffee #10 - espresso, coffee, and roasting.

Take one part of your craft and use it as a base of knowledge to make other aspects shine.

John talks coffee #9 - The value add (Arthur's question)

I address they mysteries of pricing your product. How do you add value to what you are doing?

John talks coffee #7 Yes to Flavor, No to Cold Brew

Why we don't do cold brew. Fact.

John talks coffee #6 - espresso texture starts with roasting !

Espresso is about mouthfeel, texture, and flavor. And it should be delicious!

John talks coffee #5 - espresso building insights

Know your craft!

John talks coffee #4 - Tasting - Understand Why

The reason you taste and adjust, is not simply to make it better. It's to understand why the new version tastes different than the old version. Don't just ask why, know why!

John talks coffee #3 - Knowledge of Craft

Understand the coffees that you are using, understand how they work at various roast levels and different profiles. The more you understand how the depth and breadth of your coffee, the more you will understand - and create a great espresso.

John talks coffee #2 - Light Roasting and Lemons

Light roasting is about developing sweetness and structure. to support the flavors.

John talks coffee #1 - care about what you do!

Care about what you do! It makes a difference.