www.wholelattelove.com: our caffeinated commitment to you

Skip to content

Roaster's café versus their clients' cafés - Page 5

Which is better: Roaster's cafe or their best client's cafe?

Roaster's cafe is better
22
79%
Client's cafe is better
2
7%
They're about the same
4
14%
 
Total votes : 28

Postby zin1953 on Fri Dec 19, 2008 11:38 pm

pdx wrote:I think you'd find that Stumptown is consistently better than Vivace, and certainly better than Peet's.

To be clear, I'm not putting Peet's in the same category as Vivace, merely as a very busy place that achieves consistency. I would certainly expect Stumptown to be better that Peet's. Its inclusion in my post has to do only with the consistency of their drinks.

Also, please note that I pointedly mentioned "the cappuccinos at Peet's." I don't do espresso there . . . :wink:

pdx wrote:Do they not tell you when they were roasted? I know Stumptown accounts always know the roast date, and their retail bags are always date-stamped.

The café that resells Flying Goat Coffee bags it up there from the large mylar bags. I have no idea when the coffee was roasted, nor when the mylar bag was opened -- only that it was "scooped" the moment I bought it. :twisted:
A morning without coffee is sleep. -- Anon.
zin1953
 
Posts: 2513
Joined: Dec 27, 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA USA
Top

Postby zin1953 on Fri Dec 19, 2008 11:43 pm

Marshall wrote:But I would want a great deal more information than was posted here before questioning the "quality and dedication" of a shop of Stumptown's repute.

OK, I'll grant you that, but then I (as with most others, it would seem) expect (rightly or wrongly) that the roaster's own café would be the best place to get that roaster's coffee -- so to hear that not just one but three places are "consistently better" is an unexpected surprise to me . . .
A morning without coffee is sleep. -- Anon.
zin1953
 
Posts: 2513
Joined: Dec 27, 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA USA
Top
www.seattlecoffeegear.com: let us help you find the right gear
www.seattlecoffeegear.com: let us help you find the right gear

Postby pdx on Fri Dec 19, 2008 11:48 pm

zin1953 wrote:so to hear that not just one but three places are "consistently better" is an unexpected surprise to me . . .


I don't think it should be a surprise. Like I said, its how much attention each specific person pays. If you have a staff of 6 that's easier to accomplish than if you have a staff of 50.
Ben King.
pdx
 
Posts: 139
Joined: Jan 05, 2006
Location: portland, or
Top

Postby Psyd on Sat Dec 20, 2008 2:41 pm

zin1953 wrote:The café that resells Flying Goat Coffee bags it up there from the large mylar bags. I have no idea when the coffee was roasted, nor when the mylar bag was opened -- only that it was "scooped" the moment I bought it. :twisted:


The person that is scooping it is standing right next to the bag with the roast date on it. Next time, ask. The kids at the local roaster where I get my beans are getting used to me asking for the roast date, and if there is a more recent roast than the one they are scooping from, they'll open it. Odd, though, that they still ask me if I want whole bean. I've never wanted anything else...
Espresso Sniper
One Shot, One Kill

LMWDP #175
User avatar
Psyd
 
Posts: 2077
Joined: Feb 21, 2006
Location: Tucson, Arizona
Top

Postby RegulatorJohnson on Sat Dec 20, 2008 3:39 pm

my cafe, bevalo falls into category three.

we proudly brew barefoot coffee we were trained by barefoot coffee roasters.

it is just my wife and me behind the bar. we have pride in our business and every cup we make.

from time to time someone who has been to the barefoot cafe comes in. Al sterling came in one day and we talked for a bit, he is on home barista right now probably. i hope his SARS has been cured by now.
jon stovall
--
coffeetoolsapp.com
User avatar
RegulatorJohnson
 
Posts: 492
Joined: May 08, 2006
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Top

Postby malachi on Sat Dec 20, 2008 6:24 pm

zin1953 wrote:OK, I'll grant you that, but then I (as with most others, it would seem) expect (rightly or wrongly) that the roaster's own café would be the best place to get that roaster's coffee -- so to hear that not just one but three places are "consistently better" is an unexpected surprise to me . . .


We have one person who has said that two of the three are consistently better. We have one who says that he's "not been there, but his friends say" one of the three is consistently better. We have others who say there are three places where you can potentially get shots as good as if not better.

This is hardly a "surprise" IMHO. And it's something that you'd probably find the folks at Stumptown incredibly proud of. Having accounts that are pushing your own cafes on quality is a sign that you are doing something REALLY right.
"Taste is the only morality." -- John Ruskin
malachi
 
Posts: 2614
Joined: May 05, 2005
Location: sfca
Top

Postby Stanner on Tue Dec 23, 2008 3:27 pm

shadowfax wrote:This is my experience. Both of the major roasters here in Houston, Cuvée Coffee and Hopson Coffee, lack a café sort of storefront, and only roast for online orders and commercial (shop) orders. Now, Cuvée has a cupping/espresso lab, and Clancy Rose (SCRBC Champ this year) pulls a shot that's pretty much to die for there (for free, at that...). Out of this world cappuccinos, too. In my visits to their primary client, Caffé Medici, in Austin, I rarely get anything that really comes close to what he makes. It's really amazing, to me, the difference that there is between a top-tier barista and a good one.

My experience (which is super-limited) is that trying to meaningfully compare roasters and their clients is an impossible task. Assuming that the roaster and client café each have high-quality setups (and the good ones do), the 'thing' that makes the difference is the barista. Here in Texas, even the best shops have 2 classes of baristas: the ones for whom it's just a job, and the ones for whom it's also a passion. I imagine that at the very best shops on the west coast, you can find shops that have only the latter type of barista, but here we're not so lucky, and that factor (who the barista is) determines whether I go into a shop and get a cup that I can drink pleasantly and a cup that is so delightful that I have to have another.

I think I'll have to visit Cuvee's main facility and get a taste; I've had shots and cappas from the 2nd and 3rd place baristas from this year's SCRBC and they're consistently amazing. They have an intense passion but I do agree some are there (Medici) to just pull shots.
Stanner
 
Posts: 82
Joined: Jul 30, 2008
Location: Austin
Top

Postby EricL on Mon Jan 12, 2009 2:55 pm

At least locally, Vivace locations are consistently better than any of the local cafe's using Vivace. But when you've got David Schomer looking over your shoulder...
The closest cafe here uses only the Vita blend. I've stopped going in the afternoon after watching the overwhelmed barista tamping at a 15 deg angle, leveling grounds back into the doser, and other bad habits.

I'm making a trip to the Stumptown Roastery location in Seattle on Friday. The l had a local cafe that served stumptown and did an outstanding job. The owner was there most of the time and really pressed on quality control, and the stumptown guys who delivered also did checks on the equipment, did demos, etc.
EricL
 
Posts: 207
Joined: Dec 15, 2008
Location: Edmonds, WA
Top
Previous

Return to Cafes and Get-togethers

ContactContact Us

Legal disclaimer and copyright: This content and all its parts are copyrighted, all rights reserved. Content including all text and images in part or in whole may not be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission. Home-Barista, Home-Barista.com and related logos are trademarks of Home-Barista.com, LLC. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. By accessing this site, you agree to the terms of service.

Overall speed: , current page: s, avg: s, max: s