Maxwell

Barista – Part 3 Environments for Barista nourishment. It is interesting to wonder how our environments shape us, how we react to them, and how what’s available to us feeds into where we can go. The shape of the barista role is moulded by requirements of the environment. I have mentioned in the last post that there are different forms of a barista, and that environments themselves largely define the different roles. Now let’s say that we are interested in the role of the barista when defined as a knowledgeable coffee professional. Someone who is taste focused and applies processes...

 Barista - part 2 In the last post I looked at defining the brewing role in terms of creative direction and input from the maker; how the brewer affects the brew. However, I see the barista role as more than this; I see it as sharing with and involving the drinker, I see it as providing context for the drink you are brewing, it’s about multi-tasking, it’s about cleaning milk jugs and wiping surfaces, it’s about working with others in a team, it’s about service and hospitality. Interestingly for us, we have not found it particularly useful to advertise for...

Barista - Part 1 I would like to write a small series of articles that focus more exclusively the role of the barista. Starting with :-  The Prism of the Barista Recently I have felt inclined to explain the role of the barista, as I see it.  Mine is a definition of the barista, a description of a coffee professional in speciality coffee who is preparing coffee with a culinary purpose, with flavour and provenance the point of interest.  The term itself means many other things to many people.   Over the next couple of posts I want to explore...

A retail business revolves around an interaction between people (customers) who find value and worth in the offering of the business.  It can be a damn marvellous and rewarding affair. Assessing feedback and the decision making involved with running a business is, to me, rather fascinating.  The feedback equation isn't always obvious and is less simplistic than many common viewpoints (the customer is always right…) allow for. Sometimes, it can feel like deciphering a riddle.  What is the right answer?  What is the right action?  What is valuable and what is worth seeing differently? For example, Once the goals of the business...

My intention was to write about feedback next but I have chanced across an article that I feel impelled to touch on first. Now, all of my posts have recognised that the approach to coffee we take and the approach that defines speciality coffee is almost a hidden gem; that it is unknown to many, a surprise if you like.  I have often mentioned my epiphany moment in Melbourne, a moment that was ignited by a coffee from Kenya that displayed notes of strawberry and spice.  Part of my thought process that day was not only, “I desperately want to...