On my recent trip through middle America and back into the West, I found myself often looking for a good cup of coffee. The fastest way to find it was to call up a list of all the cafe’s nearby, sorted by the number of stars, and start clicking through the recent reviews, and photos until one felt right.
Reading through the aggregated data is a skill we’ve all developed, as is writing reviews. I think this coffee is really good. So do you. I post a review. Then so do you. We add our voice to the collective audience of individuals adding reviews, and creating a picture of a business or a product or a service for others to view in the future when they are making their own choices.
At its best we’re creating a visual record that helps us determine where we spend our money. By creating a numerical language we’re creating ways to compare our perceptions of quality, and hopefully able to create the best coffee or hospitality experiences for ourselves.
On the show this week Siri Simran Khalsa (Executive Director of Coffee at Lofty Coffee Co.) and I talk about coffee reviews and more specifically Coffee Review. Coffee Review has a been awarding scores on a 100-point scale since 1997. When you see an Instagram post about a coffee receiving a 94-point score, it’s probably from Coffee Review.
You don’t often see bad scores, because, frankly, no one is blasting out the news that they got a 75 out of 100, but Coffee Review does publish low reviews. You can see them all online.
The Specialty Coffee Association also uses a similar system for teaching roasters and coffee fans how to compare coffees during the cupping process. There are a lot of rules about everything from equipment to preparation to the process in how the tasting should take place. A score applied to each stage—aroma, flavor, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance, sweetness, clean cup, uniformity, overall, defects—all along the way.
In the end, we have to decide for ourselves if we trust the reviews, the scores, the collective visual, or not.
In the show, Siri and I talk about what it is like to work in the coffee industry. At one point earlier this year I was considering taking a role in coffee production, and I examined why it might be or not be a good fit. There are a lot of variables.
Siri and I’s conversation could help you identify if you have interest in a coffee job, but even if you already know you don’t, you’ll learn a little bit more about what it takes to be in the industry, how Siri views her craft, and it will probably inspire a little more appreciation the cup you’re drinking today.
COFFEE ON THE ROAD
A couple times a year I drive East, and regularly spend the night in a small-ish town of about 14,000 on the edge of Utah, on the Colorado side of the line, known as Fruita. We stay in the same AirBnb. We get pizza and beer at the Hot Tomato. We peek into bicycle shops, and wander through the park.
Somehow, I’ve never stopped into Aspen Street Coffee Company despite having passed it at least a dozen times in the past few years. I didn’t make that mistake again during my last pass.
Katie Hendricks, Manager of the Aspen Street Coffee Company, spent a few minutes chatting with me on my recent visit about the cafe and why Fruita is the best. Listen to it in the back end of the podcast.
ROAST! INDUSTRY PARTNERS
It’s getting a little close to the holidays. Time to start thinking about giving the gift of coffee.
Thanks to the the Roast! Industry Legacy Partners. Click these links. Drink their coffees (and whiskey).
Zumbar Coffee & Tea • First Light Coffee Whiskey • Leap Coffee • Steady State Roasting • CAFÉ LaTERRE • Mostra Coffee • Cape Horn Coffee Importers • Marea Coffee • Coffee Cycle • Camp Coffee Company
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COFFEE CINEMA IN CLOSING
Are you telling us everything?
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Roast! Coffee Smarter Week 7