EspressoTech Senior Member Joined: 8 Nov 2003 Posts: 9 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Expertise: Professional
Espresso: La Marzocco 3 group Grinder: Astoria Drip: French Press
Posted Sat Nov 8, 2003, 4:31pm Subject: The quality conscious Barista in a fast food world.
Friends, this is my first time on the site, and I am VERY glad to have found it. Actually, my wife found it. She finds all the good stuff. Maybe that's because I'm out fixing espresso machines, brewers, and grinders all day & night. My username, EspressoTech, is not my real name. You already knew? Wrench Marzocco is not my real name either, though I do wrench on La Marzoccos.
Why so secretive? Because I do not want to jeopardize my job by interacting candidly with you all.
There was no coffee in my childhood. My grandfather drank, smoked, swore, and drank coffee. My parents did none of the above. Somehow, in my younger years, I lumped all of those activities together.
I grew up on the West Coast. I first tried Starbucks Coffee in high school. Damn, I loved it. At first I just bought the drip coffee in the store. I was afraid to try the more expensive espresso drinks for the same reason I avoided heroin... I might really, really, like it. Eventually I started making Starbucks Coffee at home in a drip maker, then I started grinding my own beans, and finally, I bought a French Press, and I never made drip coffee again. That was 15 years ago.
Whatever you might say about Starbucks, I'll always appreciate them for introducing me to the love of good coffee.
Years later, I became a parttime Starbucks Barista for health benefits. I loved learning how to use the La Marzocco. I loved learning how to make really dense, creamy foam, and I loved watching perfect shots cascade and roil in the shot glass like a pint of Guinness. During my time as a Barista for Starbucks I came to know more than 300 customers by name. There were many customers who would ask me my work schedule so they could come in when I was on the bar. If I was on my break, customers would come in, see me sitting down, and quietly wait until I returned to the bar before they would order. This pleased me a little, and disturbed me a lot. Why didn't they feel like they could get a great drink from my co-workers? Why was their getting a really satisfying drink at Starbucks so hit & miss?
I began to pay closer attention. I realised that many of the other baristas oversteamed their milk, served short or long shots, and thought that foam on lattes and cappuccinos was optional, when it worked out. I tried drinks at many Starbucks other than mine, and found that many of the most experienced baristas made the worse drinks! And they were always the ones asked to train the new folk!
And what was my secret to making really great drinks? I simply followed the Starbucks standards outlined in the beverage manual. My only trick was paying attention, following their guidance, and caring that my drinks were perfect every time.
All of this has been the preface to my chief points: It is hard for the quality conscious barista to have a positive influence on the drink quality of other barista's drinks, and it is hard for Starbucks to pay people enough for them to treat making great drinks like a craft to be cherished. If you try to encourage them to serve good shots, or make really good foam and put a good bit of it on the drink, they act like you think you're better than they are. Simply put, you're branded an assh@le. They don't want to hear it. You're not their boss.
Of course, we have secret shoppers. Once I had a conversation with my district manager on complaints I was getting from customers about bad drinks they received from other nearby Starbucks under his care. His response was to tell me that according to the secret shoppers, we had the highest drink quality in our region. To which I replied, "Yeah. And if our customers simply weighed their drinks, took their temperatures, and then threw them away, I'm sure they'd love them too." His response to my concern spoke volumes.
The Starbucks dilemma is simple. The people at the top are making enough money that they don't really worry about ensuring great drink quality throughout the company, and they don't pay enough to keep good baristas for the long term. They open new stores so fast that they're lucky to get people to show up, let alone train them carefully to make great drinks. Their shift to the Verismo 801 from their time-tested La Marzocco is largely motivated by the Swiss machine's automated features. Even then, it has been hard to get the baristas to care about adjusting the grind to get good shot times, even though it is a simple and straightforward step.
My wife mentioned that if the customer demanded perfection, Starbucks would figure out a way to provide the perfect drink every time, at all costs. But most American Starbucks customers aren't as picky as CG's. She points out that the Ford Escort was the best selling car in America for years. That wasn't because it was a well made car.
I'm still a Starbucks partner, but now I work on their equipment. I can troubleshoot, repair, and calibrate all La Marzocco's, Verismo 801's, Astoria, Ditting, Mahlkonig, and Grindmaster grinders, and American Metalware brewers (which are surprisingly complicated for just being coffee brewers) in my sleep. My walk-in closet smells like coffee from the clothes in my hamper. I'm in the stores everyday, and the Starbucks partners see me the same way they see the plumber or handyman. They don't know that I know about their world. When I do make a gentle suggestion, sometimes they're surprised and grateful, but more often, they wish I'd hurry up and leave.
I would love to participate in your ongoing conversations and discussions about the pursuit of the perfect coffee. The kind where the first sip floods your mouth like summer vacation, and makes you smile, glad that an experience like that is even possible in this world.
I have a lot more to learn about coffee, and I hear a lot about Starbucks Coffee being overroasted. But usually when I try grinding someone else's fresh beans and pressing some, I prefer Starbucks.
I am concerned that some of the Starbucks cups have copy describing the careful training that a new employee must go through before they become a Starbucks Barista. I don't think that's true anymore. Starbucks used to have a bar training class for new hires, but now they just have someone at the store train the new guy on the job. And as soon as they can push a button, they're serving drinks. Gee... I hope they got a good trainer. The percentage of bad drinks you get from Starbucks is the same percentage as lousy baristas training new ones.
Someday, at some national leadership conference, Howard (or Orin, or whoever) will announce that they are launching the next Big Thing, that they have paid a consulting firm $2.7M to figure out the way to continue growing their business. And the new Push is... "We must get back to the basics!" And my regional director will turn to the district manager next to him and say, "Funny. A lowly Barista mentioned that to me about four years ago."
markm3 Senior Member Joined: 23 Dec 2001 Posts: 80 Location: Kpt,TN Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Reneka Single (Bizz) Solis... Grinder: La Pavoni & Grindmaster Vac Pot: Bodum Drip: Fetco Extractor,Chemex,... Roaster: None
Posted Sun Nov 9, 2003, 12:17am Subject: Re: The quality conscious Barista in a fast food world.
You make alot of good points about what goes wrong with any shop, and not just Starbucks. I think many people do not realize that Starbucks is as "picky" as any other "good" coffee shop would/should be. If you go by the beverage manual that is.
Ok. except for that BS of not really knowing how fresh the coffee is. But I think if you buy from a store that has a quick turnover of beans, that its not all that bad.
But like you point out, if the ones in control dont give a damn, then the people/partners that try and help out, are looked upon as "that pain in the ass". If the 'boss" doesn't care, then why should the lowly "partner".
The person that I knew worked at a newly opened store. They opened up with a 4 group LaMarzocco. Within a few weeks, they were to get the Verisimo. From what they said, higher volume stores get the SuperAutos first. They were not happy about loosing the LaMarzocco. "What excitment is there in doing nothing to make a customers drink"? they asked.
Something tells me, that your going to be asked where the "La Marzocco Graveyard" is.
EspressoTech Senior Member Joined: 8 Nov 2003 Posts: 9 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Expertise: Professional
Espresso: La Marzocco 3 group Grinder: Astoria Drip: French Press
Posted Sun Nov 9, 2003, 1:20pm Subject: Re: The quality conscious Barista in a fast food world.
Hi Malachi,
I see that you're in the business. What do you do?
And yes, I've been to the La Marzocco "graveyard". I have photos that I took of many, many, LM's that have nowhere to go. I am told that Starbucks is not yet sure what they're going to do with the old ones.
As many of you probably know, the La Marzoccos in the Starbucks retail locations have a 4 year service cycle. After 4 years a new LM was delivered to the store, and the "old" one (I put old in quotes because you can always rebuild these babies as good as new) was shipped back to a workshop in Seattle we called "Restoration" where a really cool team of very skilled techs rebuilt the machines. New boilers, wires, valves, components... the whole shooting match. Then they were sent out to another store for another 4 years of service.
The Restoration shop is closed now. I'm not sure where all of the guys have gone. I'd like to get an old La Marzocco too, but there is no word yet about how that can happen. I'll tell you though, if I ever hear anything that I'm allowed to mention to the general public, I'll post it here first.
markm3 Senior Member Joined: 23 Dec 2001 Posts: 80 Location: Kpt,TN Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Reneka Single (Bizz) Solis... Grinder: La Pavoni & Grindmaster Vac Pot: Bodum Drip: Fetco Extractor,Chemex,... Roaster: None
Posted Sun Nov 9, 2003, 2:47pm Subject: Re: The quality conscious Barista in a fast food world.
EspressoTech Said:
Hi Malachi,
I see that you're in the business. What do you do?
And yes, I've been to the La Marzocco "graveyard". I have photos that I took of many, many, LM's that have nowhere to go. I am told that Starbucks is not yet sure what they're going to do with the old ones.
As many of you probably know, the La Marzoccos in the Starbucks retail locations have a 4 year service cycle. After 4 years a new LM was delivered to the store, and the "old" one (I put old in quotes because you can always rebuild these babies as good as new) was shipped back to a workshop in Seattle we called "Restoration" where a really cool team of very skilled techs rebuilt the machines. New boilers, wires, valves, components... the whole shooting match. Then they were sent out to another store for another 4 years of service.
The Restoration shop is closed now. I'm not sure where all of the guys have gone. I'd like to get an old La Marzocco too, but there is no word yet about how that can happen. I'll tell you though, if I ever hear anything that I'm allowed to mention to the general public, I'll post it here first.
Posted Sun Nov 9, 2003, 3:47pm Subject: Re: The quality conscious Barista in a fast food world.
welcome to CG.com! it's pretty cool to have so many industry insiders on here. i'm sure i'm not the only one with a hard-fought, technical degree, working in a position many would envy, yet still dream of ditching it all. trading meetings, international videoconferences and the endless string of unsolvable problems to kick it behind the bar, hangin with engaging and enthusiastic customers and pulling beautiful ristrettos all day. i'm sure that not exactly how it goes down in the typical barista's life, either! dreaming is fun though, and i can play at it with a pretty swank setup at home. i would, and i'm sure others local to SD, love to hear more from your standpoint! of course, you don't want to screw yourself at work, so how you participate is totally up to you. it would be sweet to know what shops keep the gear clean, adjusted, and which ones, if any outside of the 1 on my list, give a rat's ass about espresso quality. i'm constantly amazed at the low level of preparation, but people like you give the glimmer of hope. i keep a mental map in my head of the landmark shops. chicago, seattle, vancouver, portland are the big ones, based of others' feedback. i've sampled incredible shots at caffe calabria in SD and staufs in columbus, oh. would love to try malachis's shop in bishop. in fact, our next trip to the sierras will run through bishop not only by geography, but by shotlust (word?) anyway, welcome to the group, and i look forward to hearing your comments on the state of the industry. dan
malachi Senior Member Joined: 5 May 2002 Posts: 1,758 Location: SFCA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Monster Mia (for now)_ Grinder: Monster Cimballi Junior Vac Pot: Not any more Drip: never Roaster: Ecco, Stumptown, Intelli,...
Posted Sun Nov 9, 2003, 4:09pm Subject: Re: The quality conscious Barista in a fast food world.
drop me a line before you head this way and I'll make sure I'm around the shop when you come in. I rarely get to meet CG folks in real life, so it will be a rare pleasure.
micaha84 Senior Member Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Posts: 21 Location: Dallas Expertise: Professional
Posted Sun Nov 9, 2003, 10:43pm Subject: Re: The quality conscious Barista in a fast food world.
I was once behind the green apron. I was even on a training team for the central midwest region. I opened the market in arkansas. Let me tell you, Starbucks barista's that I trained neither learned nor cared about the art of coffee. And Starbucks doesn't seem to care if they do or not. The training changed alot from the first time I put on the apron to the last time. But anyways... bad barista's and superauto's aren't the only cause for bad coffee all of the time, there's the roasting... huge automatic roasters, one after the other, with no roastmaster attending each coffee. And the comment about a store having good turnover might have fresh coffee, I doubt it... with over 5000 stores and only two roasterias in the U.S. they have to have lots of backstock to account for fluctuations in sales. And I'm not talking a couple hundred pounds of coffee, more like thousands. Orders were always placed a week before delivery, I let you think on that one. And the reason for the charred taste in most of their coffee is because it makes the coffee a little fresher for a little longer, plus they roast so fast the flavor oils are not allowed to develope and caramelize. I could go on. I wish Mr. Schultz would have kept the vision about coffee and not about money, but I do thank them for starting me on this journey in the art of coffee, even if I had to learn things all over again.
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