David's Blog

Culture of Excellence- the interview

Hello Owners,

I’m taking a forensic dive into an existing culture of excellence at Vivace over several posts. During this series of posts we can look at all the components of our successful model. Although it works-Vivace staff are thrilled to make our customers happy with our coffee, it is infinitely complex. I’m intuitively able to do this but it’s still magic at it’s core.

As always, my aim is to advance caffe espresso as a culinary art. Critical to this for the professionals is to develop a staff that is professional, informed on techniques, and motivated to create this complex culinary art. After 32 years I find that the enthusiasm and love coming from the younger people preparing espresso at Vivace to be essential but also it’s own reward. Teaching them and watching their excitement over their first latte art keeps the whole thing fresh for me. As Brian Fairbrother advised me and Geneva in the early ’90’s “We will get older and the staff will remain young.” (Geneva and I march on but we lost Brian in a bicycle accident years ago).

On to the interview process at Vivace…

We schedule a 20 minute window for each applicant. Owners and managers are present for each interview to emphasize the importance of considering a new person to work within our organization. Personally i always lead off by asking “why do you want to work at Vivace”? If they say because the people I meet when I order coffee seems so happy and skilled I quickly springboard into a broader discussion of Vivace culture.I explain that their is steel behind their smiles. It is a benevolent meritocracy.

Other standard Q’s include whether they are a natural morning person or like to work late into the evening. We want to work with peoples natural inclinations whenever possible. Then it’s free form discussion, always live if possible. (Covid era zoom interviews have clearly demonstrated that you get a much better feel for the applicant when you can sit down in the same room!)

If they make it past the interview with all of us present, then they spend an hour training on the espresso machine with myself as the second half of the interview. I watch for “know it all” types, and physical aptitude with techniques. I also make them a macchiato or if they are familiar, a straight shot. (Caffe espresso is an aquired taste.) (more…)

Culture of Excellence-the resume

Hello Shop Owners,

When I was on the circuit lecturing at every Coffee Fest in the mid ’90’s one of my most popular seminar topics was how we hired, trained, and inspired baristi to make artisan espresso. Broadly, creating a Culture of Excellence is an infinitely complex affair, but it starts with a resume.

In evaluating a resume it is useful to consider what the job actually is. It is meeting people, listening to them, and creating artistic coffee drinks exactly like they want it, with dazzling efficiency. A barista needs to understand what’s going on with his or her customer with just a glance. Are they in a hurry today? Maybe stressed out or having a tough day? It’s not about you, the barista. It is all about them-the customer. A good barista possesses a high degree of empathy.

The resume needs to reflect this empathy. The applicant that displays some understanding of the pressures of being a busy business owner will prioritize the essential information up front. Employment history is number one and should be the first thing listed in a succinct and easily read chronological order. (We like a background in bartending the best, but any food service will do.) After that education, contact information, and finally hobbies or interests. (For our concept, some artistic interest bodes well for success.)

If a resume is overly photo shopped and cutesy we round-file it. Similarly, listing all the fascinating things they do up front ….jazz musician, endurance athlete, champion dog breeder, merits an instant round file. They have their head up their ass.

A clean resume, organized with an understanding of the demands on a business owners time, is what makes it into the interview at Vivace.

American Ristretto

Hello Espresso Geeks,

By far the most common misconception I see with folks making espresso outside of Italy is passing too much water, too quickly, through the packed coffee. It seems to be a cultural phenomenon where the people are used to drip coffee or French press, they want to reproduce that with an espresso machine. When shots are made this way the result in the cup is a sour/astringent flavor profile and no body or mouth feel. Coffee made this way is not nearly as flavorful as a well-made cup of drip or press coffee.

The beauty of caffe espresso is the ability to preserve the fragrance of the roast, and caramelized sugars, through the brewing process into a thick chiffon with a silky mouth-feel. But these rewards are only offered with very specific extraction standards, equipment, and technique.

With my thirty-two years of experience improving espresso at Vivace in Seattle, I would like to propose extraction standards I call American Ristretto.

Fresh ground coffee: 20 grams
Shot volume: 20 to 25ml
Extraction time: 27 to 35 seconds

Here is what it looks like:

https://youtu.be/WYWW6_4Vq5k

Enjoy,

David S.

Espresso Perfection Online Seminar

Hello Espresso Lovers

During the covid era we have had lots of requests for espresso training, both from pros and home baristi. Due to our desire not to be a super spreader we have discontinued this service. I have recorded a solution on Vimeo.

My online seminar is entitled “Espresso Perfection Online Seminar”. It is considerably more useful than a hands-on training because it covers theory as well as specific technique. And you can watch it again and again for 30 days while you practice. I really believe in this new form of espresso training…

David

Corona Training Videos

Hello Espresso Geeks,

During Covid restrictions we have suspended hands-on espresso training at Vivace. To keep my staff sharp I have made several DIY videos on technique. I would like to share a few of these with you.

First up dosing and distribution, updated

Second up let’s look at a Vivace extraction using the Niche Zero grinder

Finally milk texturing and latte art

Unfortunately we have also had to say no to people all over the states wanting to travel and train with us. But the silver lining here is that the Zoom medium has proven to be exceptional in teaching caffe espresso as a culinary art. With embedded Power Point, I think it is much better than a live seminar, (which I used to travel all over the country to present.)

So I have recorded Espresso and Latter Art Theory and will offer on Vimeo as soon as I figure out the tech..

Keep the flow my friends,

David

Dosing and Distribution, updated

Hello Espresso Geeks,

During ‘corona daze” we have been refining our espresso techniques. Earlier this year, in the Before Time we added the settling technique to our classical dosing and distribution techniques. It is as simple as tapping the side of the PF (porta filter) to arrange the powder before distribution and dosing using our finger technique. (When I toured Italian espresso shops in ’89 and ’91, I noticed the baristi always shaking the PF to accomplish this. However, we dose too high and this would spill ground coffee all over the place.)

Here are some still photos to demonstrate

After the settling our technique to distribute and measure the coffee dosage within the PF is the same. (When I teach this I emphasize that we must massage out lumps and channels that occur naturally in the adhesive coffee powder.) You may recognize these familiar old images but they remain the key to Vivace barista technique.

After shaving off the excess, and packing with 30 to 40 pounds of force, the ground coffee is ready to present a perfectly even resistance to pressurized water.

Niche Zero grinder

The staff has immediately dubbed this little grinder “The Droid”. However, it is a lot more than super cute…

Crowd funded, built in England, and marketed in the US at SlowPoursupply.com, this little grinder is a dream come true. And it sells at a very affordable price.

First, the cut…turning a 40mm conical burr at 330 rpm the grind is optimal and the wee grinder makes super thick, full flavor espresso coffee. It takes about 12 seconds to grind 20g, which is 1.66grams/second. Along with minimum powder retention, this is the key feature to produce espresso with full flavor and viscosity. As I have repeatedly said, grinding faster than 2 grams/second, even with conical burrs, produces thin, weak espresso. The shots the Niche Zero makes are as flavorful and thick as any I have ever seen and tasted. And the powder is super fluffy and light, leading me to believe that the percentage of fines is greater than the DRM hybrid-burr machines.

The retention…about 0.5g of powder and bean bits remain in the grinding head. So no big purge required to move the desiccated ground coffee out of the machine. Just flip the switch and let it grind. And with almost no trapped powder the flow rate of the espresso is super consistent.

The grinder is also whisper quiet. We are using it for our single origin Sidamo Dcaf which is a super star at Vivace. Of course this is a home grinder so no heat controls are in place. So far it handles ten shots/hour quite well with no heat issues however.

A Call to Action on Espresso Grinders

Since opening one of Seattle’s earliest artisan espresso shops in 1988, one of the defining characteristics of the craft behind our counter has been the grinding of coffee for each shot, literally on demand. This is now the standard practice for virtually all specialty coffee establishments, making the grinder’s role industry-wide a demanding one.

To read the full article, click on the link below:

A Call To Action on Espresso Grinders, Daily Coffee News, August 30th, 2019

CHAMBERED GROUND COFFEE

Hello Faithful Reader,

If your reading my blog your probably pretty well dialed in on making artisan espresso. You have fresh coffee, sharp grinder burrs, clean PID machine with proper settings on temperature, pre-infusion, and brewing pressure. You have clean, filtered water and perfect barista technique. So you are able to make pillowy ristretto shots that quote the fragrance in their aroma and flavor. But you can only conjure the goddess when flow-rate is perfect.

I have stated several times that ground coffee, trapped inside the grinder, makes it impossible to control the flow rate of the espresso. This is a key concept so let’s break it down.

After roasting the coffee bean still retains some moisture inside of it, like a memory from when it was fresh and green and wild….The more moisture remaining after roasting the more coarse the grind setting will be to achieve the perfect 28 second, oozing pour to achieve about 20ml of crema. For example the grind setting for my Brazilian Porta Rosa is quite coarse to hit the pour, meaning it has higher internal moisture. And if I prepared Monsooned Malabar, with the same grind it would be a 15 second extraction and be very sour/astringent. (It seems counter-intuitive that soaking the green beans in water for ten days would result in a bean that is drier inside. But as always I just follow the coffee and report the trip).
Another property of ground coffee is it is very hygroscopic, exchanging moisture very quickly with the ambient atmosphere. That is why as a barista in a shop you need to change the grind as the store experiences changes in the humidity to maintain your flow-rate.
Inside most of the grinders available today the ground coffee exits the burrs into a circular steel chamber, a little moat around the burr set. Inside the steel moat are paddles spinning around to push the grounds into a chute of some kind to travel to the porta filter. As soon as you shut off the grinder the paddles stop and the moat contains at least 10g of ground coffee, and the chamber another 10g.
This trapped coffee immediately begins to lose moisture. This desiccation process is heavily affected by the ambient atmosphere, the heat within the grinder, and the residence time in the grinder. In short, it is impossible for the barista to control the flow rate. The pour will be faster but never in a consistent, predictable way.
The flavor profile that survives extraction into the cup is fantastically volatile, wildly different with very subtle changes in the speed of the flow. We like a leisurely pour that oozes into the cup between 27 and 31 seconds to become 20ml of silky crema. Within those time limits are dozens of distinct flavor experiences, as different beans in our blend come forward. Maybe a 28 second extraction is heavy on the chocolate/umami and blueberry from the Ethiopian. A 30 second extraction may feature more salted caramel from the Malabar. None of these pours are defective, just unique.
The barista is a magician conjuring the seductive aroma into an ephemeral foam that is itself ever changing within the cup. I’m not bored yet….the more I learn the less I know.

HOME GRINDER REVIEW-The Monolith

Hello Readers,

Although I am struggling to find a commercial grinder that doses well, and makes great coffee, I am very happy to report that at home I do not have that problem. The Monolith by Kafatek is a perfect home grinder.

Denis Basaric is the engineer that has designed and built this machine. Although dimunitive in size the grinder is heavy, and exudes quality every step of the way. It feels like I will be passing this on to my kids when it’s finally time to pack-up and leave this planet…

The Cut: The grinder turns a 71mm conical burr at 120rpm. The shots are very thick with full flavor, no compromise at all. Grinding time for 20 g is about 10 seconds.

Dosing: He has a little detacahable chute magnetically attached to the grinder. Total chambered ground coffee is about 4g but this does not present a problem at home, just purge it out by running the motor a few seconds in the morning. There is no clumping or particle drift.

Denis has designed it to load one dose of beans at a time. This is to eliminate any waste with beans left in the machine over night. All my experience with the DRM machines showed that if your bean column got too low the beans pop-corned around and the pour was not controllable. It made the espresso flow rate speed up. The DRM head turns at about 450 rpm. His grinder turns at 120 rpm, and there is no problem controlling flow-rate of the shot when all beans are ground thru. (However, I immediately made a paper hopper to hold 80g on mine, coffee for me and Chiaki every morning).

Grind Adjust: Easy and intuitive with infinite gradations of grind available. And the adjusting ring stays in place. Btw Denis commented that for the integrity of the grind the machining on the grinding head must be very precise and durable. He has followed thru with very high quality threads on the mechanism.

Overall this grinder is the essence of rugged simplicity, something I really appreciate when I am not yet awake in the morning. The grinder is whisper quiet.