Coffee Messiah

1944 Ad
(click to enlarge pic)

Coffee when well prepared

is beyond question

one of the ambrosial luxuries of life.

William M Leszynsky, MD
Coffee As A Beverage (1901)

How an espresso should look after a good extraction.

During the Civil War,
the Union Army used an early
form of instant coffee:
a thick, gooey paste, made of
ground coffee, sugar, and milk.
All a soldier had to do was
open a can and add hot water.

Here's a link to a story about
Starbucks and what they are doing today.

Hint to SB:

Instead of giving new hires books to read,
and time at a drive-thru window,
maybe hire people interested in coffee
and perfecting the shots/drinks.

No one taught me anything I
didn't already know.

And if I had no previous experience, my
drink making would have been
quite nasty really.

This is quite surprising,
since most SB use automatic
espresso machines. That and most people
that work in their stores, do not drink
or are knowledgeable about coffee.

After working 2 yrs at a store out here,
99.9% of workers are not interested
in the products (frapps don't count).

To get a good espresso out of a machine
on a consistent basis, you need to keep an eye
on your grind, how much pressure you use
to pack the coffee in your group head,
and on your extraction that's a whole nother book!
You need to keep an eye on your grinder and adjust
it a few times a day, otherwise the shots
turn to piss water. No flavor, bitter, no crema.
Where I worked, I seemed
to be the only one on a shift that would
check and do this daily.

Maybe this one day event will change
the attitude of the baristas, but, aside
from a PR standpoint, it appears
that more will need to be done
for SB to rise above Independents.

Independents rule and care!