We’re in today’s Sunday Post Gazette giving our thoughts on Starbucks’ buyout of the Coffee Equipment Company- makers of the Clover 1s coffee brewer. Quite a few people came in today for the first time, mentioned the article, and teased me about my dark roast comments.
A lot of folks have come into the shop lately and asked us about our feelings on the issue, and I think this article sums it up nicely. What we want to make clear is that to make great brewed coffee you have to have great (and fresh) beans. It really depends on what you put into your brewer, and then everything that happens next depends on your gear and your preparation. Just as you can ruin great coffee by brewing it incorrectly or by using a machine that doesn’t get the water hot enough, you can’t get a great cup on the best equipment with the best trained baristas if you’re starting with stale, defect ridden, over-roasted coffee.
At our shop, we try to bring all of these elements together- the best and freshest beans, a high level of training, and top end equipment that gives us a greater degree of control and accuracy in the brewing process.
To give an example, we have a great espresso machine that gives us control over the brew water temperature to within half a degree Fahrenheit. Yesterday we finished off one espresso blend (Kid-O) and put the new batch (Black Cat) in the hopper. To get the new coffee (also a more recent roast date) ready to go we needed to adjust our grind as well as drop the temperature down about 5 degrees (as the coffee was almost “too fresh”). We then made finer grind adjustments until the coffee tasted the way we wanted it to- good fruit, but balanced acidity, chocolaty finish, syrupy body. The reason I go into all of this is because even with great coffee and great equipment, you still need a trained palate to taste these coffees throughout the day and have baristas that care enough to make the adjustments necessary to bring out the best in those beans.
We care, and we try to improve our game incrementally each day. I’ve been playing around with my Chemex a lot lately because it’s just a great way to make coffee- if you prepare it carefully. The Clover makes a lot of sense for us because it allows us to deliver great quality repeatably and quickly. We believe in the saying “put your money where your mouth is”. We have never been about doing things purely for show (the wow factor as I alluded in the article)- and that’s why we’re happy with our Clover and will continue to tweak it and learn more about what we’re brewing.
Lots of media coverage lately. The Pittsburgh coffee scene, as one of my younger employees would say, is “blowin’ up”.