Coffee & Junk

Thoughts on Speed of Service vs. Accuracy

I’ve been to a number of shops that are told not to serve a drink if they’re not 100% happy with it. Which is good! Empowering your employees is a good thing! Your shot ran to 15 seconds? No worries! Dump it out and try again. The problem becomes when, “I’m sorry. I didn’t like how your shot ran. Is it okay if I make it again?” becomes something you say to 1 in 3 customers. Because you’re not…

I really enjoy playing video games. Like, a lot.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about min-maxing outside of the pen-and-paper/RPG world, and applying it to the everyday.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept, min-maxing is essentially focusing on inherent strengths of a character, ignoring the traits that are either not useful or too great a weakness to devote time to it. In other…

Okay. So. I really don’t like talking about specific cafes in Toronto, because I usually have a few friends working at any given cafe, and I don’t want to be overly biased one way or another. But recently, Sprudge gave M Square a write up. That’s rad for several reasons:

There hasn’t been a Toronto cafe reviewed on Sprudge prior to this.

There has been a lot of money put into this spot,…

I get to look at a lot of green coffee.

This started before it became part of my job. I’ve wanted to get my Q-certification since I found out it was a thing, and part of the exam is green grading. So, I got myself the green defect book, read up on it, and started getting samples from our roaster. Suddenly, I get to look at all of our samples before they get sample roasted for approval.

“Zero…

Disclaimer: So, topics like this are the main reason I’ve started updating this blog again. This is a topic that is based on theory, anecdotal evidence, and imperfect roasting methods. Please, don’t take anything I say here as “fact”, but as something I’m grappling with.

As previously discussed, Scott’s consulting and most recent book can be summarized as: develop your coffee properly. The two…

Role of the Barista (in an Imperfect World)

The SCAA offers some pretty great courses for people wanting to learn about coffee. Conveniently, some of them are online, including “From Bean to Cup.”

As the name suggests, “From Bean to Cup” gives a 3-hour overview of all the necessary steps from growing a coffee shrub all the way to preparation. It’s a very good overview course, and really puts things in perspective.

The main take-away from…

How Scott Rao Ruined Coffee for Me

The Professional Barista Handbook is something I pass off to every new hire I get to train from scratch. They usually get it on their first or second day, and I don’t do any serious espresso work with them until they’ve read the first few chapters. You might be thinking, “Simon, that’s some lazy training.” But it gives us a common vocabulary, especially if this is their first coffee job.

Scott’s…

So, about a year ago I made a post about how stoked I was about the CCBC. This year, I was fortunate enough to compete, both in CCBC and at the National Brewer’s Cup (which isn’t nearly as impressive as it sounds… There weren’t regionals, so if you live in Toronto, you could pretty much just compete at a national level). My goals were to get as much feedback and insight into how judging takes…

Where’s the Beef?!

So, you may have noticed that I haven’t updated in a while. There are several reasons for that.

First of all, I got myself balls-deep into specialty coffee. Like, however far I thought it went? Way farther in than that. And it’s awesome. I’m managing a pretty cool shop, and got myself a pretty rad gig with a roaster I really respect. I’m getting to meet a lot of my heroes in coffee and been given…

The video that EVERYONE has been dying to see! It looks so professional that I could be talking out of my butt and you would STILL believe every word I was saying!

Also, Pokemon shirt.

Fulfilling my campaign promises, like a hoopy frood you can be proud to sass.

Today, a customer approached me with a box of Krispy Kream doughnuts. My mouth dropped; I didn’t know that we still had them in Canada! I thought they were like Cuban cigars in the States: highly sought-after contraband that you had to travel to another…

Lately, I’ve been trying to up my game. I’m a strong advocate for leading by example, and I feel like I’ve been pretty stagnant at “pretty good” customer service. So, I’ve been reading up on the subject. I’ve been getting books out of the library that…

One of my favourite customers of all time was a middle-aged woman. She ordered an espresso and proceeded to spend the next 15 minutes talking to me about coffee. She had apparently just found out that you can “get into coffee just like you can get into…

I keep a journal of all of the coffee shops I’ve been to. I take extensive notes on taste, service, and ambiance, make notes of the machine/grinder/roaster they use, and have a rating system (that is still in the works). It’s a book specifically designed…

The Philosophy of a Cappuccino

If you go to Italy, you’re going to drink espresso. I’m sorry, but that’s just how they roll. If…

If you’ve worked in the food industry for any period of time, you’ve probably heard “consistency” thrown around by people who have a vested interest in the company. If you were to sit in on a training department meeting, you could get white-girl wasted by…