Irish News Article

A few wee misqoutes and stuff taken out of context, also not responsible for the pictures, but all in a step in right direction for coffee in the wider world.Coffee DPS left 120311[1]

Brewed coffee, can it work commercially?

Ive been thinking about this for a while, and it has been the cause for some major debate over the past few weeks. Can brewed coffee ever make a succesfull transition to a coffee shop? It has been done, namely with Intellies recent move to  a pour over based shop called montadon (I think). you can find the video here http://vimeo.com/11181154 but can it work in Ireland?

Coffee angels method certainly works in a top end restaurant where pomp and theatre are part of the experience but in your standard coffee shop? To me the biggest hurdle is educating the customer that this method is worth paying a bit extra for and waiting that little bit longer. But how do you do this? In an average 10hr day we put out about 300 or so coffees, never mind all the food and buns and milkshakes that are part and parcel of the job. I dont know if we would have time to sit with the customer and talk them through the process so they get value for money and know they are getting something special. To make any kind of go of it you also need to be staffed by raging coffee geeks who have a passion for what they are producing, training is one thing but to sell it you need to believe in it.

Obviously the home brewing community would jump on board for this and who know the time and effort it takes to achieve the desired results with brewed coffee, but chances are they are in a shop because they want an espresso based coffee, not something they can do themselves at home, and do it to there own specifications.

To make it a success a big push would be needed in the shop. An idea I have been kicking around is to do a filter day, where all the toys are on show in the shop, chemex, hario, uberboiler etc, the same idea as the brew ha ha but on a slightly larger scale but this is a big layout for something so specialised in a country where people are intimidated by coffee shop menus. Furthermore all the staff would have to be well trained in all these processes and what makes each of them different. Alot of organisation just in getting that right.

I would love to see a move to brewed coffee as I know how good it can be, and am passionate about getting people educated that brewed coffee can be a premium product, not the poor cousin of espresso based coffee.

If anyone knows somewhere wher this has been done in Ireland please let me know or any thoughts or ideas you have on the whole topic

IBC 2010 thoughts

Hello all, dont know how regular this is going to be but felt like there is a few things i want to say that twitter just doesnt have the space for. First of all thanks to everyone there, actually made competing fun, not like sitting an exam. A special thanks also to colin and steve for getting gwilm and john over for the event, was really pleased to be able to meet some awesome baristas who i would never have got the chance to say hello to otherwise, nevermind having them make me a coffee!! the whole event was cofee geek heaven for us especially getting to see the uber boiler in action and the chance to taste some really great coffees!!

I really genuinely hope it can become an all ireland event permanently in the future, the atmosphere and genuine love of coffee over the whole three days was a great experience, something i dont think can be replicated for a heat in NI.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank John Elliot, our owner for the time and backing given to us in the preparation for the event, and to Russell Bailie and David Wilson from Bailies coffee who have been with us every step of the way, helping and tweaking our performances and coffees

From a competitor point of you, for all three of us the organisation behind the scenes was brilliant and our minders downstairs really helped settle us down before our performances, also the judges were very good at making us feel at ease, I know they cant react to much while we perform but a smile back means alot when our up there, and making the effort to talk to us over the three days was brilliant. Also giving there time to give us feedback afterwards was great and much appreciated.

on the subject of judges, I have 2 minor gripes, which in no way have taken away from my experience.

1. should a judge really deem a tray too big? I understand that maybe that shows poor preparation, but operating on a budget, the money was spent where we felt best, like the beans and devoting practice time away from our shops. In my opinon its a little inconsequential but maybe im just still a bit sore!!

2. After a performance, when the tech guys come to clean down the machine, should a judge or similar check the workstation before handing it over to the competitor? I had hairs in my portafiler, which i should have noticed in my prep time I admit, and i dont know if they came from me or not but it got me thinking that that might happen to someone else at some stage.

Please please dont think i am in anyway unhappy with the judging or any other aspect of the whole event, I loved it and will compete again next year without a doubt, providing I get through the internal qualifiers.

so thats the end of my first blog ever, if you think I am out of line or talking utter nonsense please tell me, any criticsm i get will only make me better.