There is a difference between consistency and quality. Some cafes simply lack quality, whether they lack training, don’t care, think what they do is good enough, ignorance or whatever the reason you first must have the quality coffee which  brings in customers and what brings customers back time and time again is the consistency.

Consistency gives the consumer confidence in what you (the barista) are doing.

I’m reasonably observant. I remember my last coffee. The ‘better’ cafes may have a hiccup and serve a standard less than they are known for, this does happen at every cafe but should it be too often,  then we should be asking some serious questions. Perhaps I need to stay away for awhile and that time away could be 6 months or year – who knows? Of course this applies to all cafes and in particular the newer ones have to work that much harder to keep customers and get that consistent quality going from cup no.1. With the internet word gets out on the first day, on the first minute of trading so you cant have  excuses, be prepared, make a good launch and make it last.

The ristrettos I like to drink are perhaps an easier drink to get right than a milk based one. There is after all only one process that goes into the cup – coffee. A cappuccino or latte has 2 – the milk and the coffee, double trouble, more reasons to get it wrong. Whatever coffee drink is being made every step/process has to be consistently on the mark to give your cafe every chance of you coming back.

Busy periods for cafes are the tester. I sometimes read or hear about the coffee that ‘wasn’t very good’ followed by ‘they were very busy’. It may sound a bit harsh, but customers don’t care how busy the cafe is – they just want consistant good coffee and many are prepared to wait.

It’s the cafes job to give the customer a reason to come back, busy or not – offer that consistent high standard all the time and you’ll stand head and shoulders above the rest.

]]> http://adelaidecoffee.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/coffee-consistency/feed/ 2 consistency coffeeadelaide consistency http://adelaidecoffee.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/sa-barista-champs/ http://adelaidecoffee.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/sa-barista-champs/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 12:57:35 +0000 Bobby http://adelaidecoffee.wordpress.com/?p=1820 Continue reading »]]> This past weekend South Australia had a few competitors in the Australian Barista Champs in Melbourne. Any barista going onto this level has my attention and always should be considered and put on the ‘to visit’ list.

So who are they and where do they work?

Mike Wells is from First Pour in Melbourne Street. First Pour is new but Mike isn’t – Drop by and make sure he makes your coffee.

Jonny Pisanelli used to work for CIBO, but now has his own business – from Scratch Patisserie http://www.fromscratchpatisserie.com.au/

Daniel Freer works at Bar9. http://bar9.com.au/   Again, pop by and make sure Daniel makes your coffee.

So, you know who they are and where they work. What are you waiting for then?

Go and try their coffee!

Image Definition:

Uninspiring, uncreative, unexciting, unimaginative, unimpressed, uninteresting, uninventive, unmoved, yawn, boring, mediocre, characterless, conventional, dull, mainstream, ordinary, pedestrian, run-of-the-mill, second-rate, undistinguished, unexceptional.

My Point is avoid shops that pre-grind the coffee. All top cafes grind to order giving best results, pre-ground coffee cannot compete.

<—Image showing preground coffee. You can easily spot this (the grinder) in cafes as it is located next to the coffee machine. Is your cafe is doing this?

If you’re reading this for the first time and wonder what this is all about …..well, what I have done is to visit a different cafe in Adelaide each week for a year and have 2 coffees, (although in the beginning I had only one coffee) a cappuccino (full cream milk) and a ristretto. I took 2 photos and wrote what I thought about the coffees. There was no official rating system used, other than my taste buds and eyes, and today what I have is a short list of cafes that I thought deserved to be mentioned.

So, how did Adelaide cafes make today’s finals list? Simply put – by making 2 good coffees. On my first visit they had to show that the cappuccino had good milk “texturing” and the entire coffee had to be enjoyable – airy froth and harsh or out-of-whack coffee were not acceptable. The ristetto needed to be intense, with viscosity and have a personality, not just a heavy dose of strong coffee nor was it to be of espresso strength which is also incorrect. If the cafe demonstrated the above, it was re-visited to assess them again. If they have done well on both visits then they are on today’s list.                                                                   

In the beginning of this coffee journey, I wanted to take videos of coffee art from various cafes but that fell away as it didn’t and couldn’t fit into the way I was doing the reviews. Also, in the first few weeks or so, I only had a cappuccino so I had to go back another time and get a ristretto and decided whether or not it was good enough. The whole judging process for 52 weeks was not perfect ,but I’ve tried to be fair and most importantly, honest.  

I will also just mention that there are influences that are hard to ignore but it is important to try; this applies to experienced or well-known baristas and the cafes where they work in comparison to those who can also make coffee, but they may not work at a popular cafe. So over and above anything that stands in the way, the coffee is what interested me.

There is no decent coffee without a good barista; it doesn’t matter which cafe they work in, or what equipment they use, without someone who has the persistence and determination to make consistent good coffee, there isn’t much hope. In most cases for the finalists (as listed below) the owner of the cafe is a barista himself, (sadly there are no female owners – c’mon girls!), and is actively involved in the business.

[Update - there is one cafe owned by a gal - Talia! who owns Avila)

(Photo taken by Abigail, barista at Argo On The Parade and who blogs at two&five photo blogging)

Below lists a breakdown of the milk used, Tweedvale the clear winner from the cafes I visited. Over the last 52 weeks an average cost (rounded off) of a cappuccino is $3.40 and the ristretto is $3.00

(Photo taken by Abigail, barista at Argo On The Parade and who blogs at two&five photo blogging)

Below lists a breakdown of the coffee bean roasters from the last 52 weeks. It shows how many cafes are using each brand, it also shows how competitive it is, look at how many different roasters there are.

*** ADELAIDE TOP CAFES FOR 2012 ***

This list has more to do with the baristas and less to do with the owner if he/she is not making the coffee so mentioned below is the person(s) responsible for making my experience a good one. I thank-you.

The cafes listed here were tested on 2 coffees - a ristretto and a cappuccino, well done to those mentioned and you'll also find them on my 4square list. Some cafes came close, but I just felt they were a little short.

(**listed in no particular order)

_____________________________________________________________________________________

• Coffee Barun 219 Main North Road Sefton Park SA 5083 Ph (08)8342 2428 - Jeff and Ben have incredible coffee knowledge and barista skills and will make your coffee with attention to detail using their own in house roasted beans. One of Adelaides best.

• Avila Coffee 22 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide 5000 (08) 8223 3757 - A recent change in barista had me worried, but the high standard still remains - fantastic coffee and deserved to be listed here.

• A Mother’s Milk 105 unley road, Unley, SA 5061 Ph (08) 82714329 - Junko is the barista to watch out for in this new cafe. She cannot only make outstanding coffee, but great coffee art.

• The Lunch Room Espresso Bar 132 Grenfell Street, Adelaide SA 5000 Ph (08) 8227 1180 - Barista and all-round nice guy, an experienced Angelo will keep you coming back for more great coffee in this lunch time cafe.

• Muratti Cakes and Gateaux 114 Prospect Road Prospect SA 5082 Ph (08) 8344 9977 - Well known for its cakes, but they do take their coffee seriously and have shown that they deserve a spot here, ask for barista Peter to make your coffee.
• Bar9 96 Glen Osmond Road Parkside SA 5063 Ph (08) 8373 1108 - The owner and progressive thinker Ian has made me memorable fantastic coffee in the past.  He has a team of baristas now and continues to maintain a high standard.

• Coffee by the Beans Shop 3, 394 Henley Beach Road, Lockleys 5032 Ph (08) 8443 4007 - Uses their own roasted beans, and boy they are just fantastic! Beautiful tasting well made coffee in this cafe, well deserved to be listed here.

• Paddy’s Lantern 219 Gilbert Street Adelaide 5000 Ph 0402586245 - Barista Sam is the utmost professional and strives over and above most  to give the perfect coffee. Attention to detail this man has, well done Sam.

• UR caffe 119 Melbourne Street, North Adelaide 5006 Ph (08) 8267 3553 - We are lucky to have Boyd here in Adelaide in his own cafe making coffee for us, one of Adelaides best and highly recommended.

• The Pantry on Egmont 2 Egmont Terrace, Hawthorn, SA 5062 Ph (08) 8271 4409 New barista Emmanuel has refined, and perhaps even improved upon the already high coffee standards of this busy suburban cafe.

• The Grain and Bean West Lakes Shopping Centre Corner of Bartley & Fairford Terraces West Lakes SA 5020 Ph (08) 8449 1966 - This bakery and has certainly justified its place here in this list. Excellent consistent coffee made by Brent and Reece.

• Coffee Branch 32 Leigh Street, Adelaide 5000 Ph 0451 661 980 - Josh is the  owner and head barista, what a coffee maker!! Adelaides coffee scene is a better place with baristas like him. Well done Josh.

  ________________________________________________________________________________

This list can be shortened again to get a winner, but that’s best left for random, unannounced visits by many people. A good cafe will strive for consistency and quality and those testing busy periods can seperate the rest from the best. What I would suggest is to do something similar to the Coffee Army in Melbourne, where the public first go to a boot camp and then can participate in the judging through an online scoring submission after having visited cafe(s). Of course we can do it our own way but what the Coffee Army does is give ideas (thankyou) and they are always workable into our own way of doing it. I think something like this would help to raise the coffee standards and will promote the Adelaide coffee scene.

Poll – the poll below may not be fair in that there are new cafes so the older, more established ones that we have visited many times probably will come out on top, none-the-less it will be interesting to see the outcome. I’ve left one blank in case you have another preference.

A few stats about this blog which come from wordpress.com.

Busiest day on my blog over the last year was Feb 17, 2012 and it received 2697 hits for that day. Overall site hits for the year prior to this very blog post going out is 30659. The busiest page on my blog (there are 54 pages.. I think) is the home page (10302 hits), followed by the about page (2200 hits). Then the write-ups start and its mostly in chronological order (of when I visited them for the writeup.)

Referrers to my blog #1 Search engines (google easily comes out on top). #2 Twitter  #3 Indaily.com.au #4 – Facebook.

Search engine terms which lead folks clicking onto my blog  #1 Adelaide Coffee Blog #2 Tweedvale Milk #3 Adelaide Coffee WordPress

There were 72 blog subscribers and 23 comment followers.

Twitter was ideal for this coffee journey and greatly contributed towards its success. I’m not a facebook fan but in hindsight, a facebook page would of been a good idea and which may have led to quite a few more hits, judging by the #4 ranking for referrers (as above).

(**We have a winner – Alex, well done, cheers to everyone for entering) We have a coffee giveaway for one lucky reader. Coffee and cake for 4 people at the Coffee Barun. What you have to do is be the 2nd email through to me to win and just simply name a barista who works there. I’ll get back to you sometime during the day if you have won. When you send the email have ‘coffee winner’ in the subject and put the baristas name in the body of the email, thats all the info I need for now. My Email coffeeadelaide@gmail.com

Big cheers to all those reading and contributing to  this blog over the last year. Thank-you. Should I continue to do more reviewing  I probably would use some scoring. My thinking is to   add only one scoring element (ie – milk texturing) and test that for awhile and then consider adding more in due time.

Ciao for now.