21st Street Coffee and Tea

When I was a teenager, I caddied at Latrobe Country Club.  In hindsight, this was probably the perfect first job for me as nearly 20 years later I’m managing a retail coffee business.  The job was very physical- imagine being 14 and carrying around two 30-40lb golf bags for up to 5 hours.  The job was 100% tips- meaning you weren’t guaranteed a dime for your work.  Some days I’d make $15 for five hours lugging 80lbs a distance of about 4-5 miles over 5 hours in the 100% humidity, low 90 degree Western Pennsylvania August heat.  Yuck, but enough of my “old man” stories about walking uphill both ways in the snow to school and doing my homework on the back of a shovel.  That’s not what this post is about.  The caddying thing wasn’t all bad, because as I became very good at it, I attracted better customers.  Some days, I didn’t have to carry a single bag.  The round we be over in about 2.5 hours, and I’d come home with $200 because I went out with a group of golfers that respected my yardage & green reading capabilities.  They were also consuming alcohol.

What led me to this train of thought was a couple of coffee related videos I found yesterday via Twitter.  I saw some really awful, careless, wasteful, ultimately gross techniques packaged up as a “professional how-to” on a Culinary Institute of America website.  More on the videos in a moment.   I recalled that when I was a caddy, I learned something about golf just about every day.  I was lucky enough to be in Arnold Palmer’s foursome several times and learned many things from him.  I saw that even at his age with all he had accomplished, he was always tinkering with his game and trying new things- he was never really satisfied with his game.  This is one of the greatest, most knowledgeable golfers and sportsmen of all time.

I learned a great deal more, however, from the “bad” golfers.  I’m talking about the guys with the expensive clubs, expensive bags that just hacked their way around the course.  Sometimes you need to see a bad swing, a bad shot… to really appreciate a good or even great one.  Seeing one missed shot after another allowed me to really break down a golfer’s swing and see where the problems occurred.  Seeing a great golfer play well was relatively boring, but when you see how it all comes together for the great players you have a deeper appreciation for their expertise.

My point is that I’m not here to make golf videos!  The Culinary Institute of America has a website called CIAprochef.com.  Starbucks Foodservice has created some instructional videos for the CIA, on how to properly prepare espresso and espresso based drinks.  If you’ve ever wondered why espresso drinks in restaurants are generally awful, these “best practices” are where I’d start.  I’m going to do a mini-review of each video, but seeing as how there are so many things to comment on… I’m going to review the highlights.  As they say in the Bush’s Beans commercials… “Let’s roll that beautiful bean footage!”

"Beautiful" shots of espresso?

First up- an espresso video!

The barista in this video is Starbucks’ “coffee education specialist”.  Mr. Cohen starts this how-to with how this will be a demonstration of “espresso excellence”.  David Schomer is probably waking up in a cold sweat somewhere.  Click on the photo to the right, watch the video, then come back to this site to read some thoughts:

• Pre-ground coffee-  Coffee stales very quickly, losing much of it’s flavor once you’ve ground it.  True professional espresso should never be pre-ground.
• Dosing coffee – allowing ground coffee to pile up in the dosing chamber is a very inconsistent way of measuring how much coffee you’ll use for your shot.  A true professional barista should be able to use this type of grinder to accurately and repeatedly achieve doses within a few tenths of a gram, without pre-grinding the coffee.  As ground coffee falls into the dosing chamber it compacts, so the more weight you put on the grounds the higher the “dose” will be when you pull the lever.  Those few tenths of a gram can have a massive impact on the flavor of the coffee.
• Grind size – saying “this coffee has been ground for espresso” is like saying a television has cable channels.  Are we watching the Food Network or Animal Planet?  Grind is something that must be adjusted to taste.  Microscopic adjustments to grind are only meaningful for that grinder, for that coffee, for that day, for that ambient temperature and humidity, for that dose, for that tamping pressure, etc.
• That tamper- real professional tampers are not expensive, so what’s up with the plastic?  One would not use a whiffle ball bat to play baseball.  A real tamp has some heft to it, fits snugly to the portafilter basket, and has a polished surface- all to ensure a level, even compression of the coffee.
• By the way the portafilter should not be left out of the machine for very long- only long enough to prepare the shot.  I realize this is a demonstration, but the portafilter can cool to the point that it draws down the brew water temperature enough to produce sour flavors in the coffee.
• The barista here also keeps referring to “steam”.  You do not pass “steam” through the coffee.  You steam milk.  Steam is the vapor phase of water.  Water boils at 212F at sea level, producing steam.  Coffee scalds at temps approaching 205F.  Espresso brewing traditionally combines water temperatures in the 200F range with a pressure of 9bar (about 130psi).  The machine at this point has been idle for so long, however, that the brew water is probably so hot that it might be steam after all, so perhaps he’s correct here.
• Typically a pro barista would flush the group head of this type of machine by running water through it, to either cool it down in the case that it has been idle or to warm up the surfaces in the case of a temperature stable machine.  The barista here just tosses that now cold portafilter in there.  Steam it up!
• “I pushed the button”/”I’ve calibrated it” – What he’s saying here is that the machine will automatically turn off when a certain volume of water has passed through it.  This has nothing to do with the proper extraction of the coffee.  Each coffee requires a different volume of water and extraction time to bring out the best flavor.    Pushing the button, in this context, is like starting a microwave.  The machine doesn’t care what your coffee tastes like.  If I saw any due diligence in earlier steps, I’d take the calibration comment more seriously.  Based on the gentleman’s grind/dose/tamp/machine “calibration” I timed these shots at around 17 seconds for what appears to be at least 2oz of espresso.  I have yet in my experience to enjoy an espresso shot that brewed that fast, for that volume.  For reference, most enjoyable shots of espresso are extracted in the 22-30 second range, sometimes longer, depending on a variety of factors.
• “The pour” – Espresso should pour smoothly like syrup, or warm honey.  It should have a dark brown color that slowly changes to brownish-gold as the extraction completes.  When you see pale, blond, runny shots like these… run away.  These are not “beautiful shots” of espresso as Mr. Cohen explains.  To even call these shots “espresso” is a stretch.  These are astringent, bitter, tire-rubber flavored little coffees.  This is something you carelessly toss into someone’s drink when the coffee is “just another ingredient”.  Toss those puppies in the blender and frap it.  There is nothing enjoyable to be had in those shots.
• There is so much more to talk about just on the espresso topic, but this is already becoming the most lengthy post in our website’s history.

Moo Magic!  How to steam milk to create that perfect latte!

This is where it gets really ugly.

Is that milk or whipped cream?

• The giant steaming pitcher – The barista here is using a pretty large bell-shaped steaming pitcher, and he recommends only filling it one inch with milk.  This will ensure you get lots of stiff, bubbly, overheated burned tasting “FROTH” versus the sweet tasting, silky textured microfoam of a well prepared pitcher of milk.  The issue here is that the milk is too shallow in the pitcher- so you could start by using a smaller pitcher.  When the milk is this shallow, the steam/air cannot be gently incorporated into the milk.  Instead it’s behaving more like an outboard motor, blowing and ripping big bubbles through the milk as it sloshes around and rapidly climbs to an undrinkable hot temperature.
• The thermometer is kind of useless, because based on how shallow the pitcher is filled it doesn’t have enough contact area to give an accurate reading.  Not that there is anything wrong with a thermometer, but most pro baristas prefer the human hand as a very accurate way to determine the proper temperature for a drink.  It is going into someone’s mouth, so maybe it’s a good idea to feel if it’s “too hot” or “too cold”.  Most thermometers are going to react to the rising temperature too slowly to be of use to you anyway.
• “I want to create a lot of foam” – No, no you don’t.  It’s not a contest.  We need to clear something up.  ”Foam” is not a distinct entity from “Milk”.  What you are shooting for is a homogeneous, uniformly dense microfoam that is the same texture throughout the pitcher.  Properly steamed milk for a latte should not have a big head of foam- it should be sweet and have the appearance of white chrome.  It’s texture should mimic that of a properly prepared shot of espresso, so that the drink, when combined, has a uniformity of both texture and flavor.
• “The noise” – He makes a good point here- you want neither a gurgle (too much air going into the milk) nor complete silence (no air at all, just heating the milk).  If you listen closely, however, I hear lots of intermittent gurgling and bubbling.  Again it would be much easier with a smaller pitcher.  The barista here seems to be blaming the “powerful machine”.  Eek!
• Temperature – How accurate is that thermometer?  Well since he didn’t have his hand on the pitcher he must feel very confident.  160F and above is the danger zone for milk, where in a split second you can overheat and scald it, giving it a burned taste.  May I please have that with extra skin on top?
• Cleaning – a good mention of cleaning the steam wand, but I noticed that he then places this towel back by the grinder.  To avoid cross-contamination, it’s better to have a dedicated steam wand towel (and one that is damp and not dry as shown here).
• Now what’s going on? Oh we’re going to let the milk sit so all that “foam” we created can rise to the top.  Milk is going to separate into foam and hot milk after it’s been steamed.  This happens quicker with fat free milk than it does with a 2% or whole milk.  Ideally you want to pour that milk very soon after it has been steamed, before this happens.  Most pro baristas will pull the shot simultaneously while steaming the milk to avoid having the milk sit for too long.  But then the coup de grace…
• The SPOON! – notice how he pours out all that flat, hot, flavorless milk (you could have achieved the same product by heating the milk in a saucepan), using the spoon to hold back the foam that has formed a thick head on top of the milk.  Then he spoons out the stiff foam over the beverage and calls it a latte.  In this context the foam is like whipped cream, and it sits on top of a coffee with cream.  This is not a latte.

Someone please show him how to make a good drink!

Now it’s time for the Latte Challenge!

I’m not going to criticize the chef here, because he’s only mimicking what he’s been shown.  What this does demonstrate, however, is that within a couple of minutes anyone can create a drink of this, um, “quality”.

What is disturbing to me is the comments from the “experienced” barista- “nice”, “lovely crema”, “excellent”.  These shots ran at 12 seconds!  Next is “get as much of that beautiful foam as you can”.  Back that foam up- just like you’re scraping mashed potatoes out of a pot.  Delicious.  ”Let it rip”, “that’s beautiful”… sigh.

The final insult to true professional specialty coffee are the drink descriptions.  We sell drinks with similar names but they are completely different in just about every way imaginable.

Poor Chef Scott.  He probably is a great cook.  Too bad he’s going to teach his employees how to serve these awful, disgraceful drinks.

For the final thought:

Starbucks has, over the past few months, introduced two new stores (15th Avenue and Roy Street) that are much closer to our style of coffee business than to their existing legacy stores.  These stores feature well trained baristas, small batch roasted single origin coffees, cutting edge equipment (Synesso, Clover), and hand-crafted brewing methods such as pour-over and french press.  I think it’s great that they’re doing this and putting the emphasis back on coffee. I wonder what those folks would say if they were shown this video.

It isn’t snobbery to expect something to be prepared well, with care, by well trained professionals using the finest ingredients.  There is room in the world for all levels of coffee business- from the drive through to the sit down, from the fast food to the culinary.  The problem is when we package fast food in culinary clothing.  That’s just insulting to the intelligence and taste of consumers.

This post wasn’t meant as a rant against Starbucks, they just happened to sponsor these videos.  I’ve seen much worse than this happening in cafes all across the country.  This post is about knowing better and then applying that knowledge.  If you know better, why would you publish something like this?  On top of that, to publish something like this on an official “culinary” website is laughable.

Starbucks, you should know better.  Consumers- you should expect better.  Everyone- beware the restaurant cappuccino, and stick with the wine!