Tag Archives: coffee

5 Things that make good coffee shops great

The sound of milk frothing, shots being pulled, and friends laughing. The smell of fresh roasted beans. The site of people reading, writing, and discussing. The tangible, palpable feeling in the air that only a community of people can bring.

There’s something unique about coffee shops. Something special; while it’s hard to put my finger on precisely what it is, there is this undeniable feeling that coffee shops aren’t like other stores.

I’m participating in a blog series. I, along with several other coffee bloggers, are answering the question “What do you look for when you review a coffee shop?”
(see below for links to the other posts).

This is a harder question to answer than one might first suppose, mostly because 90% of what I “look” for isn’t sought after at all – it falls into that intangible category that I can’t quite explain. After all, isn’t a coffee shop more than just coffee, tables, chairs, and a room? I’ve always been a firm believer that the people are what make a coffee shop or cafe so special. Given the choice between spending a day engaging in a discussion with a friend over a cup of Starbucks, or sitting alone by myself at my favorite local shop, I will chose the former every single time (although I will, of course, suggest we carry our discussion over to someplace with great coffee – best of both worlds, right?).

I’ve narrowed my list down to five things that I look for when I review a coffee shop. To put it another way: if these five criteria are met, I will have a great experience at that coffee shop and will have no choice but to give it a great review.

This isn’t a hard-and-fast list by any stretch of the imagination, but if a coffee shop lacks these five things, there’s probably something missing in their formula. In other words, I better really like the friend that I’m meeting there.

  • Fresh roasted, fresh ground, high quality coffee. I’m always willing to try new varieties and new drinks – what’s really important to me is that the coffee shop either roasts the beans themselves regularly, or gets them from a roaster nearby who can.
  • Friendly baristas that excel at their craft. I love getting drink suggestions from the barista and chatting it up with while he/she makes my drink. You can always tell when someone loves their job, and the attitude of the barista(s) can make or break my experience at that coffee shop. (Also, nobody likes a coffee snob).
  • An environment that encourages creation and consumption. Sometimes I go to a coffee shop to get work done, school done, or to process through a new idea. Other times I go simply to read, listen to music, and absorb. A great coffee shop should encourage the development of both of these. Overly loud music, dirty floors/tables, and even a bad paint job can serve as distractions to creation and consumption.
  • Integration with the community. This is one of the most important aspects of a coffee shop that I look at. The best coffee shops I’ve been to have local art on display, play music from local artists, and serve bread from a local bakery. If the coffee shop suddenly vanished, would the people in the community care? If the answer is yes, then we have a winner.
  • A way to follow up. This may seem as menial to some, but I’ve found being able to communicate with a coffee shop after my visit is almost as important as going there in the first place. If a coffee shop has a Facebook page, Twitter profile, or a classy website, it gives me an instant way to share my experience with friends. Also, it allows me to find out more information about a coffee shop which can be vital to writing a quality review.

I’ve found coffee shops that contain these five elements in all parts of the world.

Are there other elements that you find essential? Let me know in the comments, or drop me a line on the BoiseCoffee Facebook page!

The Coffee Guy

Posts from fellow coffee bloggers answering “What do you look for when your review a coffee shop?”

BoiseCoffee’s Aeropress Brew Method

My friend Drew over at a table in the corner of the cafe recently did a great post on “Recipes and Methods from Aeropress Experts.” He writes,

Here’s a brief collection of various methods and techniques that I’ve pulled together… This is a very unique collection of former Aeropress champions, championship hopefuls, and everyday Aeropress users that you won’t find anywhere else!

Check out his full post here. There are a total of 10 great methods, one of which, I am proud to say, is mine. I decided it would be fun to put a little video together showing me perform my brewing method. So, here it is!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG7pp_DXaVE]
The Coffee Guy

Here’s the step by step:

*16-18 grams of ground coffee
*Ground slightly courser than you would for espresso
*Heat water to 200 degrees F
*Preheat cup with hot water
*Fill Aeropress halfway, give it a stir
*Fill Aeropress to the top. Stir for 10-15 seconds
*Wet the filter inside the Aeropress’ cap with hot water
*Screw top onto Aeropress
*Let brew for 1-2 minutes depending on preference
*Flip Aeropress, press
*Enjoy!

Kill the Keurig

“I love coffee! In fact, I use my Keurig every day.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard variations of this statement used by my friends and peers over the past several years.

Introduced in 1998, Keurig’s innovative single cup brewing system lets people brew the perfect cup of gourmet coffee in less than a minute, without having to grind beans, measure coffee, handle filters or clean up. It’s as simple as it gets.

From Keurig.com

Keurig has become synonymous with easy-to-brew idiot-proof coffee that supposedly tastes better than you might get from a normal drip coffee machine. There are several problems with Keurig: first, it is single-handedly ruining people’s perception of what great coffee tastes like. Second, it is operating under the false veil of being “cheaper” than the tools and fresh coffee used in other single-cup brew methods. Third, plastic Keurig K-cups are not recyclable and present an ever-increasing problem as they become more and more popular.

Dear Coffee, I Love You. did a post a on this back in March when the term “Love Keurig?” was a sponsored trending topic on Twitter. DCILY does a great job of communicating what so many of us feel that love coffee, myself included, when it comes to Keurig. More than that, DCILY has facts about Keurig that may surprise or even shock you. They have graciously allowed me to re-post a part of that post: below is the introduction. Click here for the full post.

————————————-

LOVE KEURIG? NOPE.

Love Keurig? Not one bit. But yesterday Twitter was all a-buzz about the machine that brews single-serve coffee pods (K-cups) while they were “promoted” to the top of the trending list. So I tweeted my 140 character dissertation on the topic, simply stating that “Keurig is bad for coffee and bad for the Earth. #killthekcup.” While a few people—145 of them—agreed with me and re-shared the message, not everyone felt the same.

I was quickly contacted by Keurig with a link to their reusable K-cup as if that rectified the issue and put an end to the discussion. Then a few loyal K-cup fans were upset that I criticized their right to never have to wipe coffee off their counter tops, followed by another guy who thought that the billions of non-recyclable plastic cups are not an issue and I should invest my activist angst elsewhere.

The reality, it is a big issue—not just in the coffee industry, but in the bigger ecological picture. When the most important ”R” of conservation is to “reduce,” ignoring the rapid growth of an unnecessary and disposable product like K-cups is far from inconsequential. So, I’ve broken down my issues with this growing coffee trend into four categories: economics, quality, environment and the company behind it all.

Here’s the rest of the post.

Image from DearCoffeeILoveYou.com – Used with permission.