Oh ok you asked for it ;D, but you'll all have to jump in to the rescue if someone gets upset..... By the way lets not forget that its all part of the progression to better coffee so for them to keep the can of instant would be retrogade anyway....you have to let them go through the process to a better cuppa, and part of that is to go through the "Dont talk to me about coffee I know coffee" stage unfortunately. Look back in another 5 years and it will be corresponsingly much much better..... Onwards and outwards 😉 ******************* Seen it all before, nothing really out of the ordinary, the coffee can only ever be as good as the level of knowledge and expertise and open mindedness and willingness to listen and god forbid, learn something new......of the owner or manager of the business. I've had a similar experience to AM, wanted my coffee made in a particular way (nothing more or less than a well made standard espresso for heaven's sake) and because many places in the country can be a little behind their metropolitan cafe "cousins" in their level of expertise, I asked a few polite questions. It quickly became obvious the business owner knew more about coffee than I do which is an attitude I have seen exemplified often enough in people that have taken a package from some other profession and industry and bought a cafe to retire with...they almost always seem to know more than people that have spent a lifetime in the coffee industry as professional coffee merchants. They didnt know I work in the coffee industry (and it wouldnt have made any difference), it shouldnt make any difference anyway who the client is, I was just a client. The conversation was going down hill rapidly with the owner becoming aggressively defensive.....and the easiest way to diffuse, is to clam up. Why should anyone waste time trying to educating people that dont want to know. All of this has something to do with "coffee", but it also has just as much if not more to do with the level of anyone's business skills and understanding the meaning of the term "goodwill". You dont bark at your clients if you want to keep them or see them again. I often find that some people seem to think that professional coffee merchants know absolutely nothing about their profession which is really quite sad, because when you add that to the fact they also cant be expected to know anything about anyone elses profession, then it seems coffee merchants seem to know absolutely nothing about anything......while a lot of johnnycomelatelies seem to know all about the profession they left to go into coffee, and also everything about coffee, so they must know everything about everything This is not a very fair division of available expertise You know you are in trouble when as a client you are trying to commmunicate how you would like something done for you, but the business owner closed their mind about 15 years ago when they decided they knew all there is to know about it OR when they are not willing to be open to listen and possibly learn something new by doing something for a client the way they want it.. Will that be in a mug sir or are you going to be one of those trouble making time wasters that wants me to go out the back and find you a.....cup? That was a sentiment from my side of the fence, and we live in very strange times...........! Seriously now... its a lot better than it used to be and the standard of quality in coffee is and has been going ahead quickly here for some years. But the trouble is the number of people that are currently trying to reinvent the wheel and want to do it their way instead of educating themselves to the accepted, official coffee standard. You have to know the rules before you can break em. This in part is due to the explosion in interest in coffee, which turns out to be a double edged sword with people wanting to give their own "interpretation" of a coffee. That is why coffee education is so important. ********************** As an aside and in defense of anyone I may have upset above, dont be fooled in thinking that all is rosy on the other side of the cafe fence. It is tiresome to find coffee-isti in new wave cafe's that are doing virtually the same thing...reinventing the wheel...but in another way. I'll bet when you order an espresso in one of these places, you get a muddy, totally indistinct (of character), overly strong 15ml. "espresso", often made from a double portion, often out of a naked group handle. It's currently the in thing. Just before Christmas I was served one of these after I had asked for an....espresso. It didnt measure 10 mls.... Of course it was some whiz bang fancy Single Origin with a fancy latin american name..... It may have been a really good origin to start with, but it was turned into a few drops of crap, in the pursuit of the latest new wave espresso image. So, education is actually needed on all sides. Attilio professional coffee merchant, and still learning something new every day
