Engaging baristas in the roasting process, barista to consumer education

[Matt Milletto]

Hello bX'ers,

I wanted to start a discussion on the topic of how a barista can best work with their roaster to develop logical and precise ways the barista can convey coffee information to the customer. I have a seminar that I am giving Saturday to the NW roasters group here in Portland, and thought I'd reach out and get some thoughts from bX members.

Thanks guys, all ideas are welcome, I know this a bit vague and I can post my outline tomorrow.

- Matt

[miKe mcKoffee aka Mike McGinness]

Crap and thanks for making the post Matt. That's this weekend and somehow been so busy your post first I've heard about it! Last time I checked NWR website there was no Fall Gathering info'. No mention of it in the NW Roasters Group here on BX. Hope the 40 limit to register hasn't been reached yet... Gotta go and print, fill out and fax the reg'!

[Jay Caragay]

Logical and precise ways to convey coffee information to the customer?

How about tasting the coffee and developing a description?
For our upcoming coffee place, I've hired on a cadre of barista candidates who are in the midst of learning the craft. One of the major components of their job will be to cup the potential coffees for the week, determine which coffees we will carry from that roaster, develop a description of the coffee and then pinpoint the brew method that best delivers that flavor profile.

But a key issue that came up in today's training was the potential disparity between the description provided to us by the roaster (a really great and passionate West Coast roaster) and the flavors they identified in the cup and produced a description from. The goal is for the barista to understand the coffee and be able to convey that data to our customers in a way that's from their own words and experiences rather than a memorized and regurgitated recital of the roasters' description.

[Chris Y. Gaoiran]

Jay makes a good point that I've only recently been confident in expressing.

Every roaster I've met is a competent Barista. I don't know if that's true industry wide, but it's been true for me. So they can brew and roast, and by the time they're roasting regularly I think it's fair to assume that an "average" roaster has developed the necessary senses to accurately judge and describe a coffee.

The skill base and experience of Baristas are much broader, some more focused on the craft and some more focused at simply having a job. Regardless, it's that final hand that has the biggest impression on potential customers. Specialty coffee's success depends largely on the competence, knowledge, and personalty of its front line.

So yes, let's have a seminar. Let's have roasters share what they sense, but let's allow more autonomy to our baristas. Cupping notes do (or should) run on a two way street; once it leaves the roastery, flavors change through time, humidity and temperature. By the time it's brewed a given coffee may barely resemble the description written by a roaster, and that's fine! But it's everybody's--EVERYBODY--responsibilty to stay on top of what's tasting line what and how to describe it.

Give power to your baristas to describe the coffee in their own way. If you treat them less like people and more like mouthpieces then no one wins.

Jay Caragay said:

Logical and precise ways to convey coffee information to the customer? How about tasting the coffee and developing a description?
For our upcoming coffee place, I've hired on a cadre of barista candidates who are in the midst of learning the craft. One of the major components of their job will be to cup the potential coffees for the week, determine which coffees we will carry from that roaster, develop a description of the coffee and then pinpoint the brew method that best delivers that flavor profile.

But a key issue that came up in today's training was the potential disparity between the description provided to us by the roaster (a really great and passionate West Coast roaster) and the flavors they identified in the cup and produced a description from. The goal is for the barista to understand the coffee and be able to convey that data to our customers in a way that's from their own words and experiences rather than a memorized and regurgitated recital of the roasters' description.

[miKe mcKoffee aka Mike McGinness]

FWIW Matt did a great job today presenting and leading a lively ~3hr discussion.

[Joe Marrocco]

This is something I've been giving a lot of thought to lately. I'm one of those weird mix breeds. I roast a few days a week and train baristas when I am not roasting. At Kaldi's we gave a very rigorous training program. In order to become a master certified barista you must have not only demonstrated knowledge of roasting, but actually have done it! We have our baristas come to the roaster as often as possible. We put on classes and jams. We have an open door policy to them. We consider it their home base. We have an open cupping at the roaster every week, one in each of our five shops each month that us hosted by either a roaster or a person on the training team, and each shop has their own cupping kit to use by their own staff for both private and public cupping. We do give taste desciptors that we as a roasting team attribute to the coffee. But, I encourage our staff to own their flavor profiles! I tell them to convey what THEY taste on THAT day in THAT brewing method. This is crucial to their understanding, which is necisary for them to properly describe to the customer what they can expect in their cup. This takes a lot of time and fostering, work and encouragement.

Btw... Our open door policy at the roaster extends to you all as well. Our jams and cuppings are yours to take advantage of. Please come check us out!!

miKe mcKoffee aka Mike McGinness said:

FWIW Matt did a great job today presenting and leading a lively ~3hr discussion.

[Matt Milletto]

FWIW I have been given the green light from Connie at Roast Magazine to translate the presentation I gave into an article that I will be writing with my friend who is a great roaster here in Portland. Look for it in the April/May issue next year.

[Jay Caragay]

Matt-

Could you tell us a little more about what you discussed in this 3hour presentation because I have no idea what you guys are talking about.

[Matt Milletto]

Here are the topics discussed in my presentation.

How a roaster can communicate best with a barista or retailer?
What information can a roaster share about their coffees and espresso blends?
Educational information from Roaster - Print vs. Hands On/Oral

Typical Descriptors For Coffee & Espresso: How to explain to the Barista
How the Barista can best communicate back with the Roaster?
How the Barista can best communicate with the customer?

I also discussed all of the variables of extraction that a barista and roaster need to be in sync with each other to develop parameters.

That is the basic overview of the presentation, we also deconstructed an espresso blend by first french pressing 3 different coffees, roasted for a blend, and then pulling shots of those three coffees as espresso.

- Matt

Jay Caragay said:

Matt-

Could you tell us a little more about what you discussed in this 3hour presentation because I have no idea what you guys are talking about.