Espresso at Home with James Freeman

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#1: Post by La Marzocco Home »

Espresso at Home with James Freeman
A glimpse into the inspiration behind people who make coffee at home. The Founder of Blue Bottle shares his story over a cappuccino.
All over the world, people start their day by making a cup of coffee. Espresso at Home gives us a glimpse into the ritual of home baristas and what inspires them in their daily life. Up first is James Freeman, Founder of Blue Bottle Coffee, one of the most influential specialty coffee brands in the world. See the full post on our Blog.



Also, a quick note...

One thing we've found to be true over the years is that coffee truly forms community. That's why we love home-barista.com and the vibrant community of Home Baristas that has developed here. So, to celebrate everything that comes with being a home barista, we've partnering up with the team at home-barista.com for a contest of sorts.

Check out the full rules at the link below, but a humingous thanks to Dan and everyone on this forum for making this community so wonderful.

Be sure to vote in the Home-Barista.com x La Marzocco Home MVP Contest! Winners will receive 6 months of our Home Espresso Subscription.

Vote here: Home Barista MVP Celebration!
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another_jim
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#2: Post by another_jim »

This is a wonderfully produced movie. But the headline ...
La Marzocco Home wrote:A glimpse into the inspiration behind people who make coffee at home. The Founder of Blue Bottle shares his story over a cappuccino.
... is a stretch.

It reminds me of an afternoon in another kitchen and another Linea, in the spring of 2002, when I met Doug Zell of Intelligentsia to help him plan a get together of coffee professionals and amateurs at the Intelligentsia roasterie. The Linea was a single group on a cart, next to a Jolly, with a Procon and water bottle on the bottom shelf, a veteran of several SCAA annual meetings. The get together was this one.

The article is a good read for anyone interested in the early internet coffee scene, both the the facts and the tone.
Jim Schulman
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chipman
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#3: Post by chipman »

Years ago while purchasing a cup at the Linden St Kiosk I struck up a short conversation with Freeman (who happened to be there) I mentioned that my Giotto was on the fritz and couldn't find anyone I could take it to and have repaired. He pulled out his wallet and handed me a business card for the guy who serviced their machines. Seemed like a really good guy. Now he is a really rich, I hope, good guy.

benjablake
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#4: Post by benjablake »

another_jim wrote:This is a wonderfully produced movie. But the headline ...



... is a stretch.
Ah, thanks for sharing that article! It's cool to look back on moments like that-I hadn't even begun my coffee journey yet, but I can see how "alties" and coffee buyers/shop owners like Geoff and Doug were laying the groundwork for me to have my first "a-ha!" moment at Intelligentsia Millennium Park just a few years later. Seeing it from 2019 is like looking back into a time capsule-it's crazy how things have changed, but also stayed the same in a lot of ways. Do you know of any more recent espresso-ins like this?

Also, curious what about the headline rubbed you the wrong way?

Thanks for sharing!

Ben

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another_jim
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#5: Post by another_jim »

The stretch is that people have been making coffee at home for a while; like a few centuries before Blue Bottle got its start.

More up to date, if you look just at the internet coffee scene in the late nineties and early aughts, many people got their start from Starbucks, back when they were mostly selling packaged coffee and coffee makers. In the late nineties, Starbucks retrenched into a "lattes for commuters" model, and a good deal of the earliest posts about coffee on the web weree about getting the decent roasted coffee and replacements for the Gaggia Classics people had been buying there.

In Chicago, Intelly was catering to home coffee buyers as much as it was to making drinks, and realized that at the budding high end of the market, there was a sweet spot of both selling and making very good coffee. There were several other companies around the States doing the same. Vivace and Zoka in Seattle, Ecco in Northern Cal, and Klatch in Southern Cal come to mind. And George Howell had been doing the same in Boston longer than anyone.

Blue Bottle is a great cafe/roaster, but also one of the newer guys
Jim Schulman

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#6: Post by DaveB »

Jim - thanks for sharing that well-written and very entertaining article. I enjoyed it very much!
Von meinem iPhone gesendet

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yakster
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#7: Post by yakster »

I remember when Starbucks was the place to buy tampers, streaming pitchers, Cafiza, grinders, and espresso machines.
-Chris

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#8: Post by Javier »

another_jim wrote:More up to date, if you look just at the internet coffee scene in the late nineties and early aughts, many people got their start from Starbucks, back when they were mostly selling packaged coffee and coffee makers.
No kidding. When I joined Alt.Coffee (I am pretty sure it was in the late nineties) my initial question was about getting better coffee beans than the one from Starbucks. At that time I was using a Starbucks Barista machine fitted with a non-pressurized portafilter that I got straight from Saeco.
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guydebord
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#9: Post by guydebord »

Is La Marzocco now partnering with Nestlè? They own 68% of Blue Bottle, or is it just a relationship with Freeman?
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