napierzaza wrote:Louis was it just the Barista course?

Their home barista course. I forwarded them my comments and got an answer from Jean-François, explaining that it is difficult to have a uniform group and that they may offer a more advanced course in the next weeks.

As for the cupping course, there is a disconnect between what their website states for their courses and what they actually sell on their online store: the first one specifies both a "From the field to the cup" and a "Cupping" courses, while their online store only offer one course covering the two aspects.

I haven't asked questions on their cupping course. I don't know either who will be offering the course. You should probably give them a call...

Robust Roasters posted this on Kijiji today.

http://montreal.kijiji.ca/c-communaute-...Z301207571

Does anyone know about them? I am considering taking it since SaintHenri rebuked me for a cupping coarse (for whatever reason). But I wonder if it's worthwhile and whether they are particularly well known?

napierzaza wrote:I am considering taking it since SaintHenri rebuked me for a cupping coarse (for whatever reason).

So you took Saint-Henri cupping course? What did you like/dislike?

I also took a beginners course from Counter Culture which was geared to the working Barista. I agree that some of the instruction did not seem improtant to someone pulling one or two shots on a lever at home. I must say that I found it worth every penny I spent. I came away with a better knowledge base on milk chemistry, dialing in a coffee more efficiently,proper drink preparation, and more importantly to me, new friends that are interested espresso. I now attend and learn from the Friday coffee cuppings when I can, and feel comfortable at other events hosted by the Charlotte Coffee Community. If you already are lucky enough to have a group of interested coffee people to get together with, lucky you. If not try a class,learning new things is good, making new friends that share an interest with you is great, and for me has helped me continue to learn.

No I didn't they wanted me to take some intro course first or something that is about the history of coffee. I am looking at some other places since it's less covenant to take their course than I thought.

I've enrolled myself for the basic & advance barista course 2 years ago. To me, the money is definitely well spent. Topics that were taught are basic roasting introduction, cupping, roasted beans characteristics, proper grinding and the list goes on. It'll definitely take you to the next level

boar_d_laze wrote:Ira,
That made a huge amount of sense. I'd thought about taking one of her classes, now you've got me thinking again. If only it weren't so expensive...
BDL

Well, it was a private lesson for just the two of us. $1200 or something close to that. it was $400 or $500 for a class and for the bit extra we got 8 hours with Heather doing whatever we wanted and no worries that the other class mates wanted something different. I wanted to go, but it was more money that I was willing to spend, but Ross is my Australian supplier and I knew he would love to go so I arranged the private class for the two of us. Took him to see The Wall a few days later, something I would never do, but he was in heaven.

Ira

Okay, I took "From the seed to the cup" at cafe St Henri after all. It was half intro to coffee and how it exists. So I mostly knew it already (varietals etc). I don't have a problem with it, it was certainly new info for the other people there, but I had already heard of most of it.

The other half was a cupping and an overview of the roasting process. That was really interesting. We cupped 4 different coffees from different places. We went over the different flavours and just generally talked about the coffee.

It was really interesting. I definitely felt like I learned a lot but really was only touching the tip of the iceberg. I think I will have to cup more and see if I can develop some sort of capacity to taste these flavours. Though in many ways it makes me realize that I should be tasting everything else too since you need to know what a black currant tastes like before you can identify it.

Embarrassing story: I was cupping the coffee and over and over I was thinking I was tasting a chocolate bar, a specific one, but I didn't know which one. After about 5 minutes of puzzling I realized I was thinking of Coffee Crisp.

Embarrassing story: I was cupping the coffee and over and over I was thinking I was tasting a chocolate bar, a specific one, but I didn't know which one. After about 5 minutes of puzzling I realized I was thinking of Coffee Crisp.

Now that is funny.

I believe I am going to approach one of the baristas at either Four Barrel, Ritual or Blue Bottle and make a genuine offer of somewhere in the neighborhood of $100-125 for one to one and a half solid hours of instruction on my equipment. It will be hard because I don't have a four group La Marzocco, but I believe I can learn a great deal non the less.

I've learned so much from reading here and CoffeeGeek for the past 3 years, but certain dynamics are hard to fully comprehend, specifically, when I was having problems with my steaming... videos on you tube even the high resolution ones, aren't a good enough picture to be able to assess how "wet" the steam is, in comparison to my own.

Having an experienced pro giving me some hands on tips will be worth the money for me in the long run, I believe. I might even extend the offer to someone here on the forum in the bay area.