"barista" news and stories

Even if you're not a real barista, you can pretend at home with Barista: The Game. Discovery Bay Games calls it "a strategic game of fresh-brewed fun," and it may be for the amateurs out there. But let's admit it: for hardcore baristas, we all know it's so much more than that. Like a bartender playing a drinking game, or a chef playing Wii Cooking Mama, it's a chance to show off your skills and prove yourself once and for all amongst your comrades.

For $14.95, you can roll the dice and flip the cards to "make" drink orders - but beware of fellow players spilling your drink or messing up your order! And don't get your hopes up when you win Barista of the Month, because with another card draw, your store can just as easily be sued for serving its coffee too hot.

Essentially, Barista is a card game, so you'll have to test your trivia and actual knowledge elsewhere (for a full list of rules, click here). But it's a cute idea, and a fun way to pass the time, for baristas and wannabes alike.

This weekend, if you're in the D.C. area, you should check out the Millrock Free Pour Latte Art Championship. It's held three times a year and features the best latte artists in the country battling it out for a top prize of $5,000.

The practice of latte art has been going on for years, and is an opportunity for local, independent cafes to distinguish themselves from chains. The precision and careful technique required for each masterpiece is appealing to many customers used to the "get in, get out" mentality and rushed service of larger coffee chains. Coffee art is like mint on your pillow in a hotel or a soft blanket on an airplane, delivered without being asked - nowadays, it's unexpected but greatly appreciated, and denotes an attention to detail that is often missing from our day-to-day life.

Contestants compete in "free pouring," a technique in which a slight maneuver of the wrist can produce museum-worthy rosettas, tulips, and hearts on the surface of the drinks. If done properly, the dark espresso brings out the glossy designs in the crema, producing a stunning effect that is almost too pretty to drink. However, in cafes, the deconstruction of the drink by the act of sipping is part of the fun.

The baristas have five minutes to make up to three lattes using espresso and steamed milk, and are rated on beauty, balance, color infusion, definition, and creativity.

Check out this cool Washington Post video of two guys from an Annapolis, Maryland cafe who demonstrate this unique talent.

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I want a coffee shop in my hometown that does this. Owner and latte artist Aaron Duckworth creates intricate designs on the top of lattes at his coffee shop, Espresso dell'Anatra in Kansas City, MO.

Now understandably, with line-ups out the door at various times of the day, it would be virtually impossible for places like Starbucks to even consider doing something like this to each individual drink. However I think this is kind of what we are all looking for when we make our way into a coffee shop and sink into the over-stuffed chairs, don't you? Not necessarily the art itself - that is just a bonus - but the time and care that is put into each cup of coffee.

According to Duckworth, the espresso temperature and foam have to be absolutely perfect or the designs won't hold, so you know that they have crafted a stellar cup of coffee for you.

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Earlier this month, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz wrote a company memo that expressed concern over what he termed the "Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience." StarbucksGossip.com first posted the memo online and its authenticity was later confirmed by Starbucks, then picked up by more traditional media outlets.

The memo basically said that because of the rapid and wide-reaching expansion of the company, as well as the desire to do so quickly and efficiently, there has been a "watering down of the Starbucks experience." For example, switching to automatic espresso machines removed "much of the romance and theater that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines (the manual machines the stores used to have)." Another issue Schultz had was with the store designs, which have become too standard, too sterile and, in some cases, too distanced from actual coffee.

Speed and quality are important to any food service business, but not at the expense of experience of the customers' enjoyment and Shultz is proposing that they start making some changes to recapture that coffee shop experience that Starbucks first offered. There won't be a full-scale reversal in company strategy in pursuit of this goal. Instead, changes will be implemented gradually to move the stores away from the cookie-cutter, fast food chain genre while still chasing a larger global presence. Examples of this include having baristas measure out freshly roasted coffee beans, rather than having them in prepackaged bags, and changing the merchandise to have more coffee-centric merchandise, like grinders and brewers, instead of stuffed animals.

The changes planned for now seem small, but getting the aroma of freshly roasted beans back into the stores is a step in the right direction.

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This week's NYT food section delves into New York City cafes whose baristas truly deserve the title. Before we go any further let me say that I've had my share of Starbucks espressos. Regardless of their caffeine kick, they're overroasted and bitter.

As the article states, one of the things that makes a great barista is having a machine that allows the operator to control the process. Roughly stated, the elements that contribute to the perfect cup are the quality of the beans, the temperature at which to brew a particular bean and how much pressure one uses to tamp the ground coffee. The perfect espresso is capped with a thick, ruddy crema. Instead of having a burnt taste, it should be redolent of such aromatic notes as jasmine and orange.

An ace espresso isn't the sole hallmark of top baristas. They should also be able to pour exquisite cappuccinos topped with freshly steamed milk. But how do baristas raise the bar? By pouring the milk in such a way as to create hearts, fern leaves and other patterns in the crema of your afternoon pick-me-up.

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