# Coffee/Barista Videos



## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

If I could just interrupt your day for a moment...

Imagine, if you will, that you know little or nothing about speciality coffee. You're a 'normal' person. A Muggle (nice one Nick!). You've seen the people in Costa doing their thing, and you've tasted Nescafe. You're not a tit, infact you're a damn nice person. But you've just never seen coffee any other way.

Now... someone sits you down and shows you a short video... just a few minutes or so. It contains familiar images... definitely something about coffee... but there's something different about this. It ... it looks ... exciting! And what is that girl doing with that thing there? And where can I find out more?

3-2-1, you're back in the room. That video. It exists. Have you seen it? If so, can you please post it here? (The one that does it for you.)

Thanks. Please continue with your day now.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

Exciting? You mean in a "Milk Tray man", (gosh what am I thinking it's 1990 ...er, nineteen ninety twenty two?), I mean a Vin Diesel "XXX" way? Can the girl be a lady? Don't SCG have a monopoly on the "bait & switch" - e.g. "we're going to talk about making a cup of coffee in a chummy, accessible, yet inclusive & informative manner"...but it's going to lead you on to the hard stuff...Mwahhahaha!


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

That's your ultimate "Wow! Coffee looks amazing!!" video??









I guess this is one I'm always drawn back to:


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## jimbow (Oct 13, 2011)

Are you after something like the continuous loop they often play in bars in ski resorts? Perhaps showing 'Extreme' coffee?

This is not bad although it is essentially a Hario Brew Guide:


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## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

This is what I keep going back to:


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

Hi Mike,

I love the videos that you and Jimbow posted, but to a muggle (....OK I hate that phrase, I'll call them laymen), a buono kettle is a posh watering can, and a pourover is a simple filter that you might find in any kitchen in Spanish holiday apartment/villa, you put in some preground, fill it up from the kettle & wait for some distinctly 'so-so' coffee...then "ooh & aaah" to your partner about how great fresh coffee is. A layman sees the Intelligentsia video and sees people grinding beans in a grinder ("Hey darling look, Debenhams have grinders for £40!"), they don't stop dead in their tracks at the name Ditting. Then they see water poured over the grinds (c'mon how hard can that be?) and a hot, brown, tasty beverage come out....which was always the intention when ordering a coffee in the first place...

The notion of a coffee making world championship is fairly bizarre to most in the UK (a Swedish friend tells me that being a barista is one of Sweden's most desired jobs for kids), "Blimey love, the bloke down the road won the world coffee making championship...I'd love to try his 'milk & 2 sugars'...." ;-)

We here, see things differently...we have great respect for people like John Gordon, we know how going a little too fine on a V60 might kill it, given our expectation of the resulting brew....I guess I'm saying that those videos preach to the converted?

My analagy, using a scenario I am familiar with, is music...I sometimes hear musicians complain that complicated to play music doesn't always get the rapturous applause that simply played music does. I think they forget that most of the audience want to be entertained & aren't aware of the intricacies, they might consider themselves informed and ardent fans, but at the end of the day they expect to hear music without the player screwing it up. A jazz afficianado will see things differently. When I was younger & arrogant (more arrogant?) I remember a guy saying he'd like to play the harmonica, I told him it's fairly easy to get a recogniseable tune and blew "happy birthday" all straight notes, suck & blow. Then I said, "When you have been playing a few years you can do this..." and played the same tune with some octaves, chord effects & bends...was he knocked sideways by my crazy, wild, flair? No, he heard me play Happy Birthday twice, I just sucked & blowed...twice.

In much the same way, watching a great barista carry out a pourover brew is "watching someone make a cup of coffee" to a layman. To get a "muggles" perspective I think you have to try and forget a lot of what you know?


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## Chris_on_caffeine (Jul 21, 2012)

I think James Hoffmans presentation at last years Nordic cup is my favorite video, no brewing or pulling, just opinions and discussion:


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## Earlepap (Jan 8, 2012)

MWJB said:


> I sometimes hear musicians complain that complicated to play music doesn't always get the rapturous applause that simply played music does.


That's because music is about so much more than technical ability. Thankfully.


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## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

What a brilliant question!

If I'm totally honest it was Starbucks Mocha that started the chain reaction that led me to my first espresso machine, I then decided that I preferred my coffee at home without chocolate sauce in it! Then when doing a little research I came across 'Latte Art' which I had never seen before, the first video I watched and one that that changed my coffee life was this











I was now on my quest to learn to pour latte art, there was a new catalyst to the reaction and a new set of goals, these goals gave way to more goals and before I knew it I had found myself totally consumed by specialty coffee. It would be over a year before my local BTP barista pointed me in the direction of this forum. You guys have been with me for the rest of the tale.

EDIT

Saying that, my Specialty Coffee roots go deeper than that. My sister ran a coffee shop in Denver for many years before I started drinking Starbucks Mocha! It was called 'Peaberry Coffee' just incase anyone has been to Denver(pre 2010) and visited, it was a small chain that went bust in 2010, my sisters was the only shop making any money while the others dragged it under. Now the guy that owned the chain tries to sell coffee online under the same brand.


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## jimbow (Oct 13, 2011)

Here are a few more:


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## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

I must admit that Kat & Gail have been at the forefront throughout my coffee journey too, even if now it is more for general coffee based entertainment than educational purposes.


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## Earlepap (Jan 8, 2012)

I like Kat and Gail too. The Sweet Marias dude as well. Not a whiff of pretension.


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

MWJB said:


> In much the same way, watching a great barista carry out a pourover brew is "watching someone make a cup of coffee" to a layman. To get a "muggles" perspective I think you have to try and forget a lot of what you know?


I agree with what you're saying. So what I'm looking for is the video that takes a layman/normal person and somehow makes them change the way they think. Makes them see it as more than just making a coffee. Makes them FEEL different, not just think differently.


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

smokeybarn said:


> I think James Hoffmans presentation at last years Nordic cup is my favorite video, no brewing or pulling, just opinions and discussion:


Good stuff. But just to clarify, the question isnt what is your fave video










Think of someone you know. Someone who isnt into coffee. You can talk about coffee to them forever and they wont get it. Then you show them the video and they go "aah! Now I understand. And now I'm interested. "


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## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

It's a bit like trying to get a diehard philistine interested in classical music by having them listen to your favourite piece with their fingers in their ears


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## lookseehear (Jul 16, 2010)

I have to say the intelligentsia videos (espresso, capp, syphon) stirred a lot of inspiration to find out more. It also gave my parents quite an insight into what "it's all about".

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2


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## gman147 (Jul 7, 2012)

Outlaw333 said:


> What a brilliant question!
> 
> If I'm totally honest it was Starbucks Mocha that started the chain reaction that led me to my first espresso machine, I then decided that I preferred my coffee at home without chocolate sauce in it! Then when doing a little research I came across 'Latte Art' which I had never seen before, the first video I watched and one that that changed my coffee life was this


He steamed his milk in like 15 seconds?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?


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## funinacup (Aug 30, 2010)

poona said:


> He steamed his milk in like 15 seconds?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?


Commercial machine steam power combined with correct quantity of milk = shorter steam times!

Michael

Fun in a Cup Coffee Training


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