I've been meaning to check out that film.

another_jim wrote:At Washington's Reagan Airport, at the Cibo World Gourmet Market, Vita's coffee done on a Robur and Synesso yielded a shot that tasted mostly like stale pumpernickel.

DC has great coffee, but Cibo is about as "third wave" as 7-11...

pngboy wrote:I've been meaning to check out that film.

I put up a review here: http://millcityroasters.com/film-coffee/

You know it's too late already! People always get the advertising right even if they can't follow through with product. But if they have to tell you they are good, you know they probably aren't

Along those lines most 3rd waves don't use tag lines or descriptive advertising.

Did you visit DC cafes or roasters?

Honestly, I have had a recent spat with this, but it has been with shops that are trying to model themselves after what they see in SF, LA, NYC, Chicago etc and have no clue what they are doing. It's really apparent because they are roasting themselves and have no clue.

Most recent case went to Bright Coffee in Monterey CA. Walk into the shop it seems to check all of the visual clues exposed wood, even a two group lever machine. However, the coffee roasted in house was horrible and the baraista was bad too. The coffee was roasted mediumish, good, but had no flavor other than stale stalled out roast i. I went to Starbucks to get the taste out of mouth, it tasted like brown coffee filter.

I think the 3rd wave has reached critical mass.

Bak Ta Lo wrote:"Third wave" shop opened near me recently by a young guy with a couple years coffee experience.

I'm not joking with this list of the equipment on their bar:
Alpha Dominche SteamPunk
Kees van der Westen Mirage 2G
LM Strada MP 2G
LM GS3
LM Volcano grinder
Mazzer RoburE
EK43
Fuji Royal grinder
Etc... Etc...

And apparently a new Fuji Royal roaster is on the way. All to prepare around 30-50 drinks a day.

Third wave here is in some kind of coffee cold war technology arms race, rather than compete on quality and service

Sounds like you get pretty decent deals on high end coffee equipment soon.

+1

QC is hard, I'm learning. I was gone on a sourcing trip for 2 weeks, came back and heard things were slipping while I was gone. No amount of training can instill passion that is self motivating. Many times passion creates divas and the "rockstar" mentality that cause a number of problems in back of house. Sometimes, people just have bad days.

Crazy, I know, but most baristas don't sit around on forums after a 6 hour bar shift and try to learn everything they can about coffee. Many home baristas are more knowledgable about coffee than most baristas. I mean, there are a great number of people here who have forgotten more about coffee than I have ever learned, and I'm pretty high up on the passion scale.

What is heart breaking for me is that my little company is finally stepping into the craft coffee scene and getting a few more visits from coffee geeks, and my baristas have been harassed more by those types than encouraged by them. Coffee geeks can sometimes be more interested in being right than in helping people fall in love with coffee, I've noticed. It's a tender thing, helping people fall in love with coffee.

Maybe some shops have all the signs but can't execute. Maybe they're trying really hard though and you came in during a rough time. Maybe they're starting out in a market with no passionate baristas and are forced to try to train passion into their staff. That's tough stuff.