Guest Espresso

[Dan Streetman]

who is doing it?

What do you like about it? What are the challenges?

[Joseph Robertson]

Hey, first call me slow but what is it?

[Dan Streetman]

Joseph,

it is a new thing some cafes have started doing where they temporarily bring in an additional espresso to their standard offering. It could be a single origin, or maybe a blend from another roaster.

[Joseph Robertson]

Sounds cool. Since I am a roaster this should be easy. I love the SO idea like miKe M. on this list does at his shop....

[Jason Shipley]

I think it's a great idea, if you've got space for another grinder I don't see any possible downside. I think it's great for Baristas to have a couple of different espressos to play with and it should be a great tool to help develop pallet.

[Alun Evans]

We do it, but where we are old habbits die hard- meaning most of the customers are ultra conservative- we love the standard 'presso dont want to try anything new! Being a roaster like Joseph I am really keen for my customers to try something new, so we are working on making the Guest Espresso a sustainable regular.

[Logan Demmy]

A shop that I frequent in Columbus has an interesting spin on this; in addition to their standard house spro they order spro from regional roaster. Typically it is not a SO bean but instead the roasters standard blend. There are a couple of cool things happening with this;
Customers can try something that they are not used to and can see what is going on in the rest of the region.

I see a couple of problems going on here though:
Their baristas are not all professionals with completely developed pallets to determine best grind and dosage for the different spro. So it is not always possible to get a worth while shot to compare. Also the guest espresso is some time only there for a week not allowing each barista to really play around and zero into how their shots should be pouring.
Finally I would love to see something really wild and crazy going on from a guest spro. I think it should really contrast what is going on with the house blend. The option of having a special SO is a really cool idea if a shop is willing to work to perfect each one.

[Johnbruce Haslett (JB)]

I agree with some of the pros and cons as mentioned already... comes down to two things from a business stand point --1-Do you have the "culture of excellence" in your customer base already? or are you wanting to do this to try and create it? and 2- based on # 1 can you sustain quality, freshness, wastage, consistency without confusing your cusromer base so as to be a plus to your business and your baristas morale? If sorock it out.

Specifically check out the shop Barista in Portland(12th and flandersish in the pearl). Operated by the recent NW USBC champ. All they do is rotate different coffees/espresso. 3 Mazzer majors in the center of the bar and dueling machines (both La Marzocco's I believe). Check it out at www.baristapdx.com This shop is currently my "mecca" This is the only place I've ever seen base their whole business model on alternating "Guest" espressos. Hope this helps -- you gotta go to to Barista

Logan Demmy said:

A shop that I frequent in Columbus has an interesting spin on this; in addition to their standard house spro they order spro from regional roaster. Typically it is not a SO bean but instead the roasters standard blend. There are a couple of cool things happening with this;
Customers can try something that they are not used to and can see what is going on in the rest of the region.

I see a couple of problems going on here though:
Their baristas are not all professionals with completely developed pallets to determine best grind and dosage for the different spro. So it is not always possible to get a worth while shot to compare. Also the guest espresso is some time only there for a week not allowing each barista to really play around and zero into how their shots should be pouring.
Finally I would love to see something really wild and crazy going on from a guest spro. I think it should really contrast what is going on with the house blend. The option of having a special SO is a really cool idea if a shop is willing to work to perfect each one.