The smell of coffee is one of the great joys in this life. As professionals we take this important sensory aspect of coffee and build tools and protocols around it so we can fully and accurately assess a coffee’s quality and ultimately serve something consistently wonderful to our customers. In order to do this we need to bring balance, calibration, …
326 : A Conversation w/ Alan Jarrar of 50%Arabica and Jokes Aside Coffee!
Everyone’s favorite coffee culture commentator and meme lord, Alan Jarrar is in the house! If you are like me and follow the account “50%Arabica” on Instagram, you know full well that there is more to the funny content than what you see on the surface. There is a world of professional coffee experience and philosophy that fuels not just …
324 : Encore Episode! Organizing the Community w/ Espresso State of Mind Founders, Javier Alvarez and Joseph Gonzalez
Community exists all around us. When we start a coffee shop we see the blossoming of community in our customer base, baristas bonding with one another, and then across the industry people of similar interests who are desirous to learn, grow, and connect make an effort to establish friendships. One of the ways these communities thrive is when people step …
322 : A Conversation w/ LaNisa Williams of Barista Life L.A.
Creating a path forward and up in the coffee industry sometimes requires we take matters into our own hands and build the opportunities for ourself and others that we don’t see. This is exactly what today’s guest, LaNisa Williams did with Barista L.A. LaNisa Williams has been in coffee over 14 years as a barista, manager, trainer/educator, and all around …
319 : A Conversation w/ World Barista Champion, Diego Campos of Colombia!
This year the World Barista Championship was held in Milan, Italy. The winner of that competition accomplished not only a historic win as the first world champion to hail from Colombia, but accomplished a life long dream born from a long history of developing as a person and a professional all to better serve others. Today we get to talk …
313 : Coffee Education and Training w/ Michael Phillips of Blue Bottle Coffee
Training and education is an ongoing process. Not just for those we are training but also for ourselves as trainers and educators. If we adopt the same type of “always learning” mentality we want to see in other, then the way we understand and conduct training will change over time. Today we will be exploring training and education through the …
309 : A Conversation w/ Sarah Allen and Ken Olson of Barista Magazine
Few things are as essential to the global barista community as Barista Magazine. For 16 years they have been “Serving people Serving Coffee” and advancing the knowledge, craft, and profession of the barista with every issue. Barista Magazine gives a platform and voice to the vibrant and amazing people who make amazing coffee and today we get to talk with …
308 : A Conversation w/ Italian Brewers Cup Champion, Alessandro Galtieri
Italian coffee has shaped how the world understands coffee and cafe culture. These days there is a movement to take the traditional Italian way of of getting a coffee and elevate the quality and the experience making it a truly specialty coffee experience. At the heart of that movement is Aroma Caffe todays guest, Alessandro Galtieri. Alessandro has owned and …
306 : A Conversation w/ 2004 U.S. Barista Champion, Bronwen Serna!
Today we get to chat with 2004 U.S. Barista Champion and legend, Bronwen Serna! Bronwen has been a practicing Coffee Professional since 2000, a Professional Barista, Roaster, and Barista Trainer, a Certified Instructor and Assessor with the Specialty Coffee Association. Her love of coffee precedes her experience, where she manages to frequent many coffeehouses all over the world and became a Barista after …
298 : A Trophy, or Atrophy?
Winning coffee awards and competitions is pretty cool. There are many benefits to pursuing accolades for your coffee shop through such as marketing opportunities, sharpening skills, energizing staff, and networking. The question we have to ask ourselves though is, just how critical are competitors and awards tot he success of our shops and what metric should we be using to …
