This piece is dedicated to Umeko Motoyoshi, our excellent Patreon supporter whom we love and appreciate.
By Colton Kirby
NEW YORK, NY— Over the weekend, eager new barista Freddie Stapp read a blog post by a former world barista champion regarding extraction percentages and TDS numbers. Heavy with the knowledge that his cafe was failing to utilize, Stapp showed up for his Monday opening shift ready to show his otherwise-seasoned team how to make great espresso.
“No one in my shop talks about this stuff. I doubt they’ve even heard of a refractometer,” Stapp told our reporters. “I know I’m new, but I read, like, seven of those blog posts and we don’t do anything like what I was reading. I’m ready to show everyone how to improve our product using real, objective science.”
After breaking out the refractometer he had immediately ordered on reading the blog post, Stapp said that the ratios, times, and recipes he was reading about were notably different from what he’d been taught by the training team at his shop.
When we asked head trainer Charity Ramirez, who oversaw much of Stapp’s training, what she thought of the eager young barista’s newfound knowledge, she declined comment, chuckling quietly to herself.
Despite now being more technically knowledgeable that his coworkers, Stapp was surprised to find his first dial-in of the shift tasting less than stellar. After making several wild changes to the grind settings and ratios, even going as far as tweaking the pressure on the espresso machine when no one was looking, he had this to say:
“It’s not bad. I think it’s just a preference thing. Everyone here is used to the way we’ve dialed in before so this is new territory to them. It’s definitely just that.”
Stapp plans to continue utilizing science and educating his coworkers on “the numbers.”
Colton Kirby enjoys people, coffee, music, and writing, roughly in that order.
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