Surprisingly a hint of lemonade acidity with red grape juiciness finished with bakers chocolate powder and a soft whisper… a pianissimo hint… as though someone somewhere down the street on a balcony was reading the newspaper enjoying a pipe. wearing a fedora of course and you turn around thinking, “where is that wonderful smoke scent coming from?”

So I’m writing all these posts in hopes that they inspire people in someway thoughtful BUT at the very least I’m going to try hard to make them brief. That way if they suck they don’t waste too much of your time.

That being said I won’t be spending hour and hours on them so please keep your expectations low eh? I’m hoping they get better with more iterations.

It’s like your the star of the show. Much like a bar tender but your customers interact with you in their daytime life instead of their nightlife. Sort of.
You get to flirt, empathize, introduce, discuss, serve, brighten someone’s day.

In the UK and South Africa your roll is more that more of a line cook. You rarely interact with the customer in conversation. They often have their coffee ordered by and delivered by someone else.

In the US you get to pour the latte in front of there eyes and say, “Here, i made this for you. How have you been?” or if you’re really busy, “Here, I made this for you and hi really quick, but I gotta run to make the 6 other cappuccionos, we’ll chat later!”

The interaction between maker and guest is what I love about the American service. Its much more about community than the other cafe styles I think. At least between barista and customer.

Among other things too of course.

so.. maybe check out his stuff instead?

The cool thing is that as I learn i other things change my mind it will become less Seth Godin and more the next dave.

There are a few people I follow online consistently. I hope you have people you are learning from too. Seth Godin encourages everyone to blog. Rather than a journal to yourself it puts you on the hook to communicate your ideas so others can understand them. At least somewhat.
So here it is.
I’ll try to acknowledge Mr Godin when I can and if you’ve followed him at all you might see this blog as a coffee centric version inspired tremendously by his thinking.

At least I hope you do.

Go enjoy some espresso now eh?

sans milk of course.

some coffee companies ( usually older ones) have a bad reputation with new coffee companies.

Derek Sivers has a theory that if you never put any effort to being loyal to anything and in fact try to be disloyal, you will inevitably end up unwittingly being “loyal” to something. If you constantly choose a different path inevitably someone will have chosen the same paths away from the crowds.

As an optimist I like to think that each coffee company is trying to make the best coffee at the best price for their employees and for their customers and for themselves.

Obviously sometimes ideas on what is better for coffee or worse for coffee will conflict.

I’ve heard a few times, “We don’t speak the name of <bad guy company> here.”

I don’t see why not. They are just a coffee company doing something different than what you prefer for different customers. Your simply different. Right? Maybe?

Raise your hand if you hate Starbucks.

My mother loves Starbucks(Venti Decaf Skimm Latte). To this day the best decaf espresso I’ve ever tasted was at a Starbucks Researve with my mother

My mom drinks Venti Decaf Skim Lattes from Starbucks
I drink coffee sans milk.  Not even cortados.  Usually as espresso.
My 1st time at Ultimo in Philly Aaron was working alone behind the bar.  He gave me a coffee.  I mentioned that I was into wine.  He mentioned that there is a solid crossover in wine speak and coffee speak(not in those words.)
A beautifully pulled espresso from a barista who asks me how my day is makes me really happy.
I love my mom.  I let her taste my Aeropressed Ethiopian Ardi and Single origins made at the best cafes we encounter.
Venti Decaf Skim Lattes STILL make her really happy.

Thinking of all those people made happy from all the different kinds of coffee makes me happy.  Decaf skim with 5 pumps of peppermint…
or 
sans milk  

sweet elderflower with a whisper of raspberry water.

From Truth Coffee Roasters – Cape Town, South Africa