Last weekend, Intelligentsia held it’s first Los Angeles In House Barista Competition. For me, the night was inspiring. There were 7 competitors, of which 4 would be moving on to compete in the Western Regional Barista Competition. Silver Lake, Venice, and even Millenium Park stores were all represented. Naomi Vaughn came all the way from Chicago to represent as an out of region, in house competitor.
I witnessed some seriously interesting presentations. There’s something about a competitor who has never seen a competition before that just seems to keep them free to be him or herself. My favorite presentation had to have been Jeff Gershik, a barista from Silver Lake. Jeff has an intense personality… and he showed just that to his judges. His opening line was simply, “I get board easily.” He then went into talking about how his short attention span leads him to like extreme things. Which, then moved into talking about how is coffee, a Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, was extreme (as in bright, acidic, floral, and unbalanced). The moment was so brutally and beautifully honest.
I opened the competition. My body decided to remind me that it’s competition season, and therefore I need to treat it that way… It’s been awhile since I poured hearts like the ones I did… It’s also been awhile since my hands shook that much. (Hydration is key, kids.) My coffee was a washed bourbon from Finca Santuario in Cauca, Colombia. It was pretty tasty that night. Though, I was still familiarizing myself with it… and therefore probably could have given it a couple more days to rest.
When the coffees had been presented, and the cappuccinos poured… The other competitors and I all waited for the results in typical fashion (with whiskey in hand). First place, and the first spot in the WRBC went to Mr. Devin Pedde. I had the honor of taking second. Third place, went to Ms. Nicole Mournian, and fourth place belongs to Mr. Gabriel Combs. The four of us will be preparing over the next few weeks to rep our shops hard at the WRBC. I’m stoked for this team, and I know we’re going to have some fun together…
I’m very much enjoying the conversation going on here. I have thoughts, arguments, and all kinds of ideas going through my head. Most of which have been stated in one way or another on the linked page.
The first time I heard about Double Shot, it was when they were in the middle of the fight to keep their name. They stood up against Starbucks and won. I was stoked to see an independent shop stand up and be heard.
The next time I heard about Double Shot was a the USBC in Portland last year. Someone pointed out that I needed to take a picture of the guy wearing an “I’m not Intelligentsia enough to win” t-shirt. I found this to be very funny…
I hate a lot of things… I hate the Yankees. I tend to hate the Lakers (My ice cold feelings are slowly melting away). Something about Michael Phelps rubs me the wrong way. I’m really not a fan of Starbucks…. Well, the Yankees are unstoppable. The Lakers are pretty spectacular to watch. Michael Phelps mortality is questionable… and at the end of the day, Starbucks employees are going home with steady paychecks.
I don’t hate Double Shot.
Barista competitions. A safe topic. This Friday, I will be competing in my first ever ‘in house’ barista competition. The company I work for is lucky to have enough people interested in becoming competitive baristas that for anyone to compete the road starts here. Interested competitors throw their hats in the ring. The rules mostly remain the same as the World Championships. The difference is that competitors have 8 minutes to serve an espresso course and a cappuccino course. The setup time is also cut to 8 minutes.
The top five competitors will be backed by the company, as they prepare and compete for the Western Regional Barista Competition. Any of those five who place first, second, or third in the regional, will then continue to be sponsored into the United States Competition.
I’ve been hesitant to compete this year. I felt so great after last year… Accomplished and happy. But I feel I can get better still. It’s taken some time to get truly excited for the season, but I’m feeling better about it as the first step gets closer.
Looking back, I’m relatively impressed with myself. I spent only three real days in New York and managed to get to seven coffee bars. Now, coming across the country, I had heard many strong opinions about different coffee spots. In my head, I had formed different hypothesis for different coffee bars, but I kept an open mind. Ready and willing to enjoy anything…
The second full day, I managed to get to 9th St. in the Chelsea Market, Cafe Grumpy in Chelsea, and Third Rail Coffee. The Chelsea Market seems like a place where I could spend hours. With a resource like that, there is no excuse for any New York barista not to compete. I was really struggling to hold myself back from buying all kinds of little plates and wares. Just wandering gave me ideas for table settings and drink preparation.
We wandered up to the Ninth Street bar and I ordered an espresso. The espresso was solid. Very consistent to what I had tasted the night I arrived at the original store (9th & C). However, the experience was a bit lacking. The baristas seemed to have no desire to engage the customers. That topped with the way my espresso was slammed onto the saucer and sorta shoved my way, I just expected more. It’s not that anything tasted bad, but everything I had heard about New York had pinned these guys as the best. Once again, not bad, but underwhelming.
The next stop was Grumpy. This was my first stop where I knew the brewed coffee wasn’t going to be coming from an airpot or a fetco brewer… At the same time, people I had talked to had some stuff to say about how they were brewing their coffee on the Clover. I was ready to put it to the test. There were 4 available coffees. 3 that were roasted in the new Grumpy Roasting facility in Greenpoint and 1 that was from my friend, Matt Higgin’s at Coava Coffee in Portland, Or. I’ve been curious about Matt’s coffee and missed my chance to taste anything while I was last in Portland, so I chose a cup of the Coava Kenya. It was delicious! …and I mean, remarkably delicious. Sweet as ever, beautifully acidic, and well balanced for a coffee from Kenya. Being relatively familiar with brewing coffee on a Clover, I can say that the brew tasted flawless.
During my visit, Grumpy was only offering one espresso, and it was the Heartbreaker blend from Novo in Denver, Colorado. One of the baristas, Amanda, told me it’s a blend of Ethiopias and a Costa Rica. The espresso tasted very sweet and balanced. There were some lovely floral tones to the back end.
All in all, the experience was rad. Not to mention I got to see Renee who moved to New York awhile ago after spending some time at Ritual in San Francisco. Renee was one of the finalists in the Western Regional Barista Competition and may be one of the nicest people I know. It was great to see her.
Finally, we made our way to Third Rail Coffee. Third Rail is using Intelligentsia coffee. I ordered an espresso and a short americano. Both were solid. Couldn’t complain about the drinks at all. I was amazed at how much was packed into such a small space… Not in a tacky manner, either. The layout was smart. I enjoyed it. Here, we ran into Colleen from Grumpy. Pre-Grumpy, Colleen spent some serious time at Ritual. Now, she’s the green buyer for Grumpy’s new roasting adventures. We ended up talking for a solid hour… and somewhere in that, Amanda, who had served us at Grumpy in Chelsea, wandered in and we all got to catch up. It was one of those moments where the people just made everything taste a bit better.
By the end of the day, I was caffeinated and set. It was nice to be able to taste coffee at multiple places and have everything taste fairly good. Nothing was bad…. I’ll leave it at that for now, and save the last two spots for later.
More thoughts and explorations… It was on the plane back to Los Angeles that I realized why these trips are important to me. It’s travel, and seeing other coffee bars that keeps me wanting to get better at what I do. It’s the experience I get from being a customer at a new coffee shop that makes me want to tweak aspects of how I am to customers and how we offer our service. In Los Angeles, we are most of the coffee culture. We don’t have other shops to visit, and we certainly lack a barista community outside of the Intelli staff. It’s makes it very difficult to slip outside of our umbrella to take some things in.
One fine example was on Tuesday night we wandered into a bar called Little Branch (which is some-what of speakeasy). We being my girlfriend, Sam, and our friends, Jessamy and Max from Los Angeles. I really couldn’t have asked for better travel buddies.
We struck up conversation with the bar tender and all too quickly mentioned we were from Los Angeles. He immediately asked if we had been to the Varnish, which is another speakeasy-ish bar in downtown Los Angeles. I told him yes, but mentioned that there are a couple places which I think have better cocktails. He immediately shut down on me and gave me a look like I had no idea what I was talking about… Lesson learned. I cannot even begin to count the amount of times I’ve done this (in reference to coffee shops) to customers traveling to Los Angeles from NY, Portland, Minneapolis, and a handful of other places. This is why it’s important to remove myself from my everyday circumstances.
Okay, more to come later today, but I think the farmer’s market and breakfast are calling me…
I’m blogging to you from New York. More specifically, a beautiful apartment in alphabet city. It’s my first visit to New York and it’s long over-due.
It seems that whether we’ve tasted the coffee or not, we all form relationships in this industry. Directing our traveling customers to a spot we know or we’ve heard of. I’ve been directing people where to go based on what many of my coworkers have told me. Now, I’m excited to finally put the coffee to the test.
I arrived yesterday and quickly found myself inside the original 9th St. Espresso location. Where I’m staying is a convenient 6 blocks down. Intelli currently roasts the coffee being used by 9th St. I was under the impression that the blend being served was very similar to black cat. However, even at the uttering of the worlds Black Cat, the barista was quick to make it clear that the blend they use is their own. As they’ve used other roasters previous to us, this seems to be something I’ve always heard… Ninth Street fights hard to hold it’s own identity. This is something I can respect.
Anyway, the espresso… It was a solid, happy two ounce extraction. Most of my travels seem to be in the Northwest and it was so nice to see a proper extraction away from home. It tasted delicious. Nothing about it was overly acidic or bright. The majority of the flavors were chocolate-y, nugget, and caramel. The coffee made me happy.
We walked from Ninth Street to the block that seems to be ran by Momofuku… As in, all three or four, five or six types of restaurants. Miss Liz Clayton had keyed me in that the Ssam Bar was her fav, so we headed there. I have a new found love for fantastic artisan cocktails. I like creative stuff. I respect the classics, but show me what you can do with weird, fine ingredients. That said, I had an amazing pomegranate, ginger sour. The combination of rye whiskey, pomegranate molasses, ginger, and lemon was spectacular. One of my favorite drinks in a while, for sure. The pork buns are what everyone raves about here. They were amazing. So sweet. So spicy. A dish I’ll remember for a long time.
Today, we woke up at a reasonable time and headed straight to the Ace Hotel. I was very anxious to see the Stumptown cafe and some old friends. I was especially interested in seeing what the coffee was like after tasting Hairbender in both Portland and Seattle a mere two weeks ago. I found the espresso to be better than anything experienced in the west coast stores. Bright, clean, and sweet. I accompanied that with a mug of Finca El Puente from Honduras… which had some lovely milk chocolate up front, and continued to get sweet with persimmon on the finish.
Hanging out in the lobby of the Ace was rad as well. It’s a large space with so much comfortable seating. Apparently, they are doing coffee table service too. The experience is very comfortable. I like the fact that the best cafe seating is so separate from the bar. It allows one to escape what can be a busy and noisy scene to enjoy their coffee in a quiet, more laid back setting.
The rest of the day has been spent at Brasserie Les Halles and the Met. We’re gearing up to head out for some Indian and to explore more cocktail bars. I’m stoked. Today was a healthy 20-ish degrees. It’s so nice to be in real cold weather. I’m digging this city. Tomorrow, I think we’re going to explore Brooklyn and more of the coffee over there.
Apparently, I need to start writing shorter and sweeter posts. Then maybe all the thoughts going on in my head can make it out. Right now there’s about 6 thoughts I’ve been wanting to share, but haven’t been able to prioritize.
Something I’ve been contemplating for a good while now, are the many faces of Intelligentsia. This is the largest company I’ve worked for. It’s very different from simply being part of a local cafe with a staff of 10. There’s much going on, and it can be hard to keep up with all the growth and changes. Granted, this post is coming two years after jumping on board, but I think some of that has to do with how much has changed in the last year. It’s all great and for the better, and we’re heading in amazing directions, but it’s presenting interesting challenges.
The greatest challenge, is showing our regular customers what Intelligentsia really is. To them, we’re a coffee bar. A local spot, which has gained a painful reputation for being where all the neighborhood hipsters hang out. We’re the trendy cafe. This may be what they see on the surface, but I keep looking for opportunities to key them in on what’s really going on…
I recently found myself sitting in a neighboring wine bar, talking with a woman who has lived in Silver Lake for 8 years. Quickly, our conversation turned into her explaining why she doesn’t feel cool enough to sit at our coffee bar and drink our coffee, exaplining that the too-cool-for-school crowd drives her away. Instead, she goes to the spot on the other end of the block. It’s more affordable, and she’s been going there for years.
It pains me to know what many of our customers will walk in and out without really getting the full story of why the coffees on our shelves are so different. The part of the company that makes me the most proud is our sourcing. It’s the work that Geoff Watts, Sara Kluth, and Kyle Glanville are doing. It’s the relationships we’ve established that have yielded such spectacular results. Yet, it’s hard to get everyone who walks through our doors to understand it.
At the same time, we have a collection of geeks and foodies who do care. They do understand, and they share our coffee with friends, often in the best way by telling them the story of Direct Trade and why we are so different.
Twitter and the different blogs out there are also breeding a new kind of customers. The web-geek customer. We’ve been getting interesting phone calls at the store from people in Arizona and Oklahoma who want to buy our coffee and are curious about where the best place is to buy it, and how can they learn more information.
I think the next step to spreading the word of what we really are about is to further our in store education. When we opened we held a weekly home brew class. It’s something I’m hoping we can bring back to life in early 2010. Also, we’ve talked about holding more tasting events when we release new coffees. I’m all for putting more energy and store resources into getting people to taste coffee with us. Giving them a forum to try new things, while hearing more of the story behind the beverage.
Over the weekend, we had an interesting issue arise. We ran out of chocolate. Our chocolate is something we took a lot of time to develop when we opened our store. It’s actually a gnache made by breaking down bars of Scharffenberger chocolate and mixing it with heated heavy cream and agave nectar. The initial recipe was created by Nick Griffith, and it’s been amazing ever since. Our mochas and hot chocolates are phenomenal, so much so, that even I, on my anti-milk campaign, have to sit down every so often and drink a hot chocolate.
The issue we ran into was that we ran out of the Scharffenberger bars. This happened on Black Friday… the beginning of a weekend we knew would be filled with hot chocolate and chai. Normally, the bars show up direct from the factory, so we knew it could be a couple of days. To fix the problem, we decided to run out and grab some chocolate from a local grocer.
In the end, we were left with a very different gnache. It was less ply-able and harder to blend with our espresso… slowing down a busy line. The really frustrating thing was that it wasn’t our gnache. We had hundreds of customers pouring in from all over the country, coming in for what may be there one and only experience at our store, we had to give them something different.
I started to wonder what is worse… To not have a mocha or a hot chocolate on the menu or to have it there, but not to be serving our version. To me, it’s a balancing act. We aren’t just a neighborhood coffee shop that is trying to get by. We’ve made it very clear that we want to offer the finest and the best of everything we do. Yet, we also want to be approachable and have a non-elitist mentality. Did we do the right thing? I’m interested in hearing others perspectives…
Personally, I think we could have handled it better. We handle every other issue by not telling our customers what they can’t have, but by telling them what they can have… Want an espresso to go? I’d recommend a small americano with less water… Iced espresso? How about iced coffee… it has more caffeine! I think we could have gotten by without chocolate. Our chai is also pretty damn good…
One of the biggest challenges I’ve had to deal with, since moving to Los Angeles, has been the changing (or lack of changing) in the seasons. This year seems to be the worst. It’s my third year and the city of angels seems to be struggling to make up its mind on whether it’s still summer or not. Halloween, for me, usually means that cappuccinos start sounding delicious again. Coffee becomes less of a fuel for my friends, and it moves to being a thing to do. A way of bringing people together, and keeping you warm in nippy weather. Yet, the past few weeks have involved more shoveling ice than anything else. Rumors were floating about that the weekend was supposed to hit 90… I was concerned.
None the less, it’s working out. The nights, here, are finally leaning towards that cooler, chilled state. I have to wear long sleeves now… As long as I’m in LA, I may never need a coat again. In the last few days, I’ve steamed more chai and poured more hot chocolates than I can remember (Which, if you haven’t had our hot chocolate, you’re missing out). Making coffee feels right again.
What I’m trying to say is that I’m looking forward to the next couple of months. I am heading up to Portland in the early part of December and I haven’t been this excited for it in a long time. I need to feel the moisture in the air. I need the rain and the overcast. Beyond that I can’t wait to see Intelli’s new Northwest wholesale rep, Jared Linzmeier and his rad girlfriend, Deanna Moody.
It’s full-on competition season again, and I’m getting pumped. I spent some of my day today thinking about converting the flight case for my amplifier into a case with layers for all my ceramics… Dreaming of a way to create foam cut-outs for all my cups. I’ve got a great plastic box that holds everything and has worked for the last couple of years, but how much better would it be to not have dozens of sheets of tissue paper? Plus, casters… I’m going to get back to you on this one… I’ve got some other fun ideas tucked away. The only thing that’s not too exciting about competition for me this year is the lack of travel. Rumor is that the Western will be held in Los Angeles again, and then the USBC will be in Anaheim… At least my manager will be happy.
I’m also stoked about the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We’ve stepped our home brew equipment way up from last year. We’ve got stellar pour-over methods, grinders, and more to offer our customers…. Plus, with the Hario hand crank grinders, there’s no excuse for people to not have a conical burr grinder! On my list of awesome, but offensive ideas, I want to create a shirt that says something like, “I never want to grind another pound of coffee for you ever again” on it… Then, maybe put a picture of the Hario grinder on the back… I know, a bit elitist, but a barista can dream. Besides, what’s elitist about wanting people to taste the best coffee possible in their home? I’m just hoping we can turn the crazy shopping season into a time of education and instruction for all those seeking to just give gifts.
With seeing this, I’m beginning to wonder if the Esmeralda hype is finally calming down. My first experience with this coffee happened in 2006. Since then, the farm has become notorious for it’s high priced, rare geisha varietal. Books have been written, and many tale a told about the coffee.
In recent days, Devin Pedde and I have debated what the real value is of this coffee. In the store this year, we’ve sold it as chemex and espresso. The most interest and success has come with the single origin espresso. The thoughts been thrown out about offering V60’s (melitta) this coming week, as it would lower our required dose and how much of the coffee someone may have to buy. The challenge for us, has been to simply find the best way to have our customers experience this coffee.
All in all, I can tell you that for me, the hype is over.
Here’s why I am no longer infatuated with this coffee. It’s good. Really, it can be incredible. However, I think that many of the other offerings that we’ve had this year have been on par with this coffee. To clarify, many of our coffees have been really good. Guatemala, Kenya, and El Salvador all stick out in my mind. We’ve had some great micr0-lots to spice up the mix as well. These coffees come from relationships we’ve built over time. They come from faster transport handled by Intelligentsia’s imports. These coffees taste great, but they come to our customers at a much easier price-point. We don’t have to play any kind of novelty card because they are what coffees should be… delicious.
I’ve head geeks and snobs gripe about how the Esmeralda is not as good as it was in 2007 or 2008… Sorry buddy, I don’t care about what kinda sentimental-palate shattering moment you had when you first tasted this coffee back then. This is the now, and the coffee is great! But that’s the best part… it no longer stands alone.
