I get asked this question a lot. Where can you get good coffee ?
It’s such a hugely subjective topic. When answering, I feel some
people are considering the cafe or restaurant environment, as opposed to
evaluating the coffee as a single entity. They consider service, the
price, the comfort of the seats etc etc. and these are all worthy
contributors.
So should the question be ‘what makes a good coffee
experience ?’
Now we’re into a whole new ballpark.
I have always felt that if a property did everything reasonably good,
as in, really good; friendly greeting, timely service, tasty food, some
pleasant chit chat (or to know when to leave me alone), drinks served
in the proper manner, ask how was everything and then wish me a good
day, then the combination of these will make the experience excellent.
It’s the sum of the parts.
When it comes to coffee though, things can get very complicated. I
visited the Irish barista championships last week, as I do every year. I
was shocked to see that Badger and Dodo were the only Irish roasters
represented in the finals. And this is a statement of where the majority of Irish suppliers of coffee beans are
at.
Bewleys, in my opinion are a brand in decline, and Java are the new
Bewleys, mopping up the hotel accounts and push button bean to cup
market. And then we have a host of let’s say ‘coffee importers’ bringing
in stock piled coffee and sending the bulk of the money for this
outside our country.
The reality is the general public are far more discerning when it
comes to coffee these days. Yes it used to be about the ‘overall
experience’ as mentioned above, but now we are looking for latte art,
bean origin, single origins, freshly roasted, freshly ground, blends,
and this is just the start of it.
For me, and my day to day work with
coffee culture its great to see the evolution of coffee.
Our
training courses in coffee making (barista skills to be more
specific) are more and more popular. And this is great to see. People
are bypassing the easy option nespresso and investing in proper home
espresso machines and even making the move towards v60, aeropress and
chemex.
So where can you get a good coffee?
My advice is to get your fix where you can see they care about what they offer.
There are some questions you can ask and some “must do’s”
– is it
roasted in Ireland (a must do these days)
– where and when we’re the
beans roasted (no longer than 4 weeks ago)
– are they grinding to order
(absolutely imperative)
– do they at least try to get the latte art on
cappuccino’s and or latte’s (one of the most difficult parts)
– do they
employ a barista (a complete giveaway – any barista worth their salt
won’t touch a cafe where their coffee offering falls outside these
parameters)
This is just the start of it.
When you find a place that makes coffee in these ways tell me, and post your findings here
Enjoy.
Alan
www.coffeeculture.ie