# Know your beans



## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

As an indepenedent cafe owner you have probably been fortunate enough to develop / choose your blend, which is a luxury some cafe managers have not had.

I recently visited a Costa Coffee in Manchester and was greeted by an enthusiastic barista who really took pride in his job. He made a decent coffee (the best I have had from Costa to date) so I asked him about the coffee itself. The conversation stopped almost immediately. He apologised and told me he had not been told what was in the blend and felt kind of awkward by not being able to answer the question.

He did show me the 3 or 5 kilo bag that the beans came in and it was the Moka Italian Blend with no indication of origins of the blend.

I am guessing this is indicative of chain stores but would like to find out from cafe owners how seriously training and information sharing is taken and what priority this takes in their overall operations


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## R-James (Nov 18, 2008)

Personally I know the origins of the revelation blend at work well, I have read and re-read the producer notes, and I know the beans and origins. I also make a point to know where our SO decaf is from, and now, as we are starting a new single source hot chocolate, I know where that is from, and who farms it etc.

Our filter coffee also, is a Guatemalan single estate bean, and we offer it as an alternative to an americano both cheaper and tastier in my opinion.

Customers love a bit of provenance, and me personally, I like to see baristi who know the craft right down to the farm the beans are from if possible.

Then again, I am a sad bugger like that.


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Not sad at all - thatas what being a Barista should mean. Passion, Knowledge and Craftsmanship.

Would a barista in a competition score highly if he could not talk about coffee?


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## R-James (Nov 18, 2008)

That is a fair point. I am being faar to over confident here but I want to be in competition in 2010, so I am trying from the outset to get into good habits.

I think everyone who spends the time to seek out awesome coffee [the woeful lack of which there is around here] deserves a bit of provenance geekery!


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## SeamusMcFlurry (Jul 9, 2008)

It's nice to see you've gotten so far with the provenence side of things Rich!

In my opinion, you can't claim to love coffee, and yet not be arsed about what you serve. I love telling people about our espresso blend, and about the two brothers who own the farm we get our filter from. It gives me a real sense of pride, and people who are interested really appreciate my knowledge.

If you've gone to the effort to create your own blend then it is a waste to not train your baristi what's in the blend.


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## James Hoffmann (Jul 24, 2008)

Out of curiousity - what is in Revelation at the moment? Always get a great shot of it when I am down at Taylor Street Baristas nr Liverpool st.


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## LeeWardle (Nov 16, 2008)

Central (Guatemalan) & South American, East african and Indonesian.


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## SeamusMcFlurry (Jul 9, 2008)

A Guatemala estate, a Costa Rican estate, a Kenyan AA and a Sumatra Extra Fancy.


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## James Hoffmann (Jul 24, 2008)

SeamusMcFlurry said:


> A Guatemala estate, a Costa Rican estate,


I am guessing that it is Santa Ana La Huerta and Zamorana for the two estates?


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## SeamusMcFlurry (Jul 9, 2008)

Yep.

The SALH is gorgeous on it's own as well. We use it as our filter.


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## chrisweaver_barista (Jun 14, 2008)

Re: the chains, its something I had a chat about with a Starbucks manager about this. more often than not, they don't give the provenance of the coffee because they can't. Due to the massive amount of coffee they need, they tend to have blends that can be re-created from any mix of coffees to enable them to change when supply of a coffee is dwindling.

As such they only tend to give continents, and also roast the coffee muchos dark to hide coffee differences with roast flavour

Chris, Common Grind


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