TampTamp Inc.

Recently, I upgraded my home grinder from a Mr. Coffee Electric Blade Grinder to the Hario Skerton Coffee Mill. The quality of the coffee I’m able to make for myself and my friends has increased exponentially.

The Good:
Price – For anyone on a budget, the price point of $40 for a burr grinder can’t be beat. If you have more money to spend on a grinder there are definitely better, more efficient options. But if, like me, your home brewing budget is limited (i.e. asking for coffee gear for Christmas), the Hario Skerton is the grinder for you. I would also go so far as to say that aside from improving your technique, buying a burr grinder is the best way to improve the quality in your cup.

Size/Portability – In NYC, or any small and cheap barista apartment, counter space in the kitchen is tight. The Hario Skerton has a very small foot print and fits nicely next to your coffee mugs in the cabinet. The Hario Skerton likes to travel. Toss it in your carry-on bag for your next trip home to Mom and Dad’s. Now you can bring “the best part of waking up” with you!

The Challenges:
Time/Physical investment – This is a HAND grinder. So yeah, you have to put a little muscle into it. If you are the type of person who can’t really deal with life before a certain amount of caffeine has entered your system, a hand grinder may not be the best option for you. Even if you can coast on fumes for the first few hours of the day, the Hario Skerton is a bit awkward to use. It’s definitely made me evaluate my morning cup from a new perspective: dose size and grind size. The bigger the dose and the finer the grind size, the more reluctant I am to reach for that brewer at the start of my day. That said, coffee is always (at least for me) a labor of love.

Fly away beans – As you reach the end of the dose you will find that bean particles like to jump out of the hopper (just like any burr grinder). Unfortunately the handle prohibits a lid on top of the hopper and I always find myself picking up a few bean particles from the floor. I’m thinking of making some sort of makeshift plastic wrap shield to keep this from happening especially since my Boston Terrier puppy, Pickles, likes to eat everything on the floor. She’s got enough energy without eating beans!

Making adjustments to the grind – With the Hario Skerton adjusting the grind is very straight forward. It does take some experimentation at first. If you are brewing with the same method all the time, you can set it and forget it, but there’s no real way to mark different settings for different methods. As with any machine or appliance, over time you become more familiar with the ins and outs of the equipment and the Hario Skerton is no exception.

Overall:
For my money–all of $44 + shipping–the Hario Skerton is a great grinder. It’s a great piece of gear to add to your home brewing set-up. It also makes a great addition to your retail offerings. The regular whole bean customer who comes in once every two weeks to get a pound of beans ground for French Press is pretty much begging you to stock this grinder.

-Sarah Leslie

View The TampTamp Coffee Map in a larger map

Is it really time to start talking about our favorite cafes of the year again? Yes. It is. You may remember our last couple of lists. The first year we made of tour of great coffee, regardless of any other criteria. Last year, we only added the coffee shops that we at TampTamp likes most. This year, we’re hoping to add some more science and method to our list, so we’re asking the coffee-obsessed public to choose.

What we’re planning is an Academy Award style for vote-getting. We’ll send a ballot to a carefully selected group of voters (more specifically, everyone on our mailing list) and have them vote on a secret set of criteria. The winners of each category as well as the top 10 overall winners will be announced near the end of the year.

First, though, I need to make sure my list is up to date. Take a look at our map and see if there are any omissions, then when you find one, send it to me at neil@tamptamp.com. I’ll add it to the map and then have a better pool from which to conduct the grading.

Add your own coffee shop! It’s not tacky to vote for yourself!

Anne and I like to watch Ted talks in our spare time and came across this one from 2007 about the ECEX in Ethiopia. Really fascinating.

TampTamp Inc. is dedicated to making great coffee. We strongly believe in formalized training for everyone, including ourselves. Anyone making coffee in a cafe setting receives some level of on-the-job training about how to make coffee, extract espresso, and steam milk. Once you become proficient in the skills needed to make coffee on a regular basis for paying customers, further formalized training is often deemed superfluous. There are several benefits to formalized training at all stages in the career of a barista that are often overlooked due partly to the time and money it takes to send someone to a class, but also because as the old adage goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. However, formalized barista training helps to build confidence, leads to continued growth, and allows for evaluation of skills outside of a barista’s comfort zone. These benefits are shared not only by the barista herself, but also by the cafe who employees her. How does training do these things? Why are these things good for everyone involved?

Get off the floor! Formalized training helps increase skills and therefore creates a more confident barista. On-the-job training is often abridged to save time and money in order to bring staff up to speed quickly. Training will cover what to do in order to make good drinks at a particular cafe, but often the reasons why we do and don’t do certain things in the coffee preparation process gets overlooked. Training classes outside of the on-the-job environment are often longer and more in-depth. Going over the theories and science behind good espresso extraction and milk makes more confident baristas. The barista who has the reasons and knows why certain things are good and bad for espresso will make drinks with both skills and explanations, which reinforce their behaviors. Not only that, the baristas can share their knowledge with others. The next time someone asks why they can’t have their latte extra hot, instead of replying “Because it’s against our policy”, they can politely explain what happens when milk is over heated and why it is that they don’t make lattes extra hot. So not only does the barista have a more positive, less stressful experience behind the counter, the customer also receives better service. Now the cafe owner benefits as well because customers are learning about coffee and this cafe has become a trusted source of knowledge for the consumer.

Before I took courses out of the line of sight for customers, I wasn’t very comfortable dealing with customers who wanted to talk about coffee. I was afraid that they would know more than I did and if we talked about they would find out I was faking being a barista. Well, to some extent I guess I was faking as a barista because I didn’t know a whole lot about coffee. After my first training class I realized that a lot of people know way more about coffee than I may ever know, but that is how is and I shouldn’t be afraid of having conversations, questioning, and developing my own skill set.

The great thing about formalized training courses I’ve taken is that being in a lab or classroom setting evens the playing field. Some students are more outspoken while others are more reserved, but in the end we are all students there to learn from the instructor and each other. Previously I found it intimidating to stand around the machine at work and “talk shop” with other baristas especially when there were drinks to be made, dishes to be done and things to be restocked. Being away from the customers and the minute-to-minute stresses of a busy espresso bar allowed me to open up and evaluate myself as a barista while increasing my confidence and knowledge.

Push yourself. Formalized training allows baristas to evaluate their skill set outside of their comfort zone. It is easy for baristas who are successfully serving coffee on a daily basis to think that their barista skills are pretty awesome! If they are pouring at least half-way decent latte art, they are probably getting a few compliments and feel pretty great about their skills. Or maybe they are the type of barista who gets easily flustered by a long line and tends to be overly critical of their drink making skills. Hands-on practice and group discussions will make areas for improvement more apparent to the barista who sees their skills as perfect. Hopefully with some newly found humility, baristas will take their new knowledge back to their cafe to improve the quality of their drinks and strive to keep learning.

Formalized training encourages the barista to ask questions, do research, and grow as a barista. In day-to-day coffee making, it is easy to fall into a routine. Formalized training can open a barista’s eyes to theories and techniques that she was not familiar with before. It doesn’t take a very strong push for people to fall down the coffee rabbit hole. It also a great incentive to make your employees feel supported and encouraged. A barista who is constantly learning and growing will share their knowledge and passions with owners, managers, coworkers and customers. And, by proxy, the barista’s enthusiasm is helping to grow the business of the cafe.

Since it’s only about 5 months until the US has their first regional competition for next season, we at TampTamp think it’s time to start thinking about competition again. I thought I’d start by talking about what I did to prepare for my first time last year.

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Did you know we have an Amazon Store? We’ve put a few things we really like in it. Today, Anne was on Martha Stewart Radio talking about iced coffee and cool new stuff.

If you sign up for our newsletter, we’ll send you our favorite iced coffee recipe, as mentioned on air!

Also, check out Anne’s favorite new thing at our store, the Mypressi Twist.

Things are a little a fluster here at TampTamp HQ thanks to today’s NY Daily News story about civet coffee. We’re always grateful for the press, and today’s story is no exception. I did want to take a bit of time to discuss what civet coffee is and why this story comes up so often.

Civet coffee, otherwise known as Kopi Luwak, is frequently cited as the most expensive coffee in the world. And why is it so expensive? There are two main reasons:

The first is that it is extremely expensive to produce. Cat-like animals called civets are raised and fed ripe coffee cherries, with then pass through their digestive systems and are then cleaned, dried, and distributed as green coffee. This is a much more expensive process than even what coffee experts argue is the next most expensive method, natural or sun-dried coffee processing.

The second is that, from its start of being a slightly more expensive coffee, the mystique of having “the most expensive” coffee in the world has pushed Kopi Luwak’s demand through the roof. There are many coffees who fight civet coffee for this title, such as Hawaiian Kona coffee and Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, but none quite capture the attention of the press in the same way.

When the Civet story comes around again, as it invariably does, there is always a slight internal groan on behalf of specialty coffee. We see this story, which is really a fascination between gimmicks and economics, as a challenge to what the specialty coffee business is trying to do – sell really delicious tasting coffees. Kopi Luwak, almost everyone agrees, tastes decidedly boring. While one can buy it just for the sheer thrill of throwing money at an average tasting cup, those of us who have developed our palettes always shake our heads and scoff at those that say “tastes ok to me”.

What I will conclude with, then, are three coffees people can try that will match price with taste experience. These coffees will taste good. I will also contend that it’s ok if you can’t taste every nuanced flavor note in a coffee, much the same way I drink wine from Trader Joe’s (admittedly, my last safe place for unpretentiousness). As a consumer, it’s important to buy what tastes good to you, not the experts. But most of the experts agree, you can do much better than civet coffee, for a fraction of the price.

For a similar flavor as the Kopi Luwak – ie, chocolately, and earthy, I recommend Madcap Coffee’s recent coffee from Sulawesi ($16/lb). This coffee, at a tiny fraction of the price, achieves a much better overall flavor than civet coffee.

If you’re ready to try your coffee without milk, I’d recommend one of the best Kenyan‘s I’ve tasted this year, from 49th Parallel in Vancouver, B.C ($19/12oz). This coffee has a distinct, highly acidic but shining flavor. It is definitely not for everyone, but us coffee snobs go nuts about this type of profile.

And finally, if you want to buy an expensive coffee whose flavor matches its price point, we continue to recommend the Hacienda la Esmerlda from Panama. A consistently award-winning coffee and top auction taker year after year, the story of Esmerlda is one that even the snobbiest of us snobs think is a great example of due reward for excellence in the cup. So give it a try – but definitely taste it black before adding milk!

Related links:

http://www.jimseven.com/2007/07/13/kopi-luwak-in-the-la-times/
http://danielhumphries.livejournal.com/34273.html (worth the read just for the photo captions!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak

What are your thoughts about Kopi Luwak?

One of the biggest things to come out of our recent company retreat were our company principles. These are the guidelines we live by, and constantly look back at, to make sure we’re providing the best service we can.

1. To ensure quality, we must fully understand the challenges we face before we can successfully address them.
2. We deliver the highest quality possible from a cup of coffee to TampCamp training to Coffee Planners consulting services.

   “If you want a vanilla latte, we will make every effort to make the best vanilla latte you have ever had.”

3. We respect and sustain the relationships we have within our industry, our community, and within TampTamp.
4. We create an environment that fosters creativity, personal expression and enjoyment.

When we are in contact with customers, we want to share the joy we have for coffee: making it, teaching it, or running a business for it. We believe that the best ideas come from an environment that balances serious work and serious pleasure. We want to love what we do, and share that with everyone we touch.

While it was definitely iced coffee weather in New York City last week, team TampTamp took some time out of the office to retreat on beautiful Lake Champlain in upstate New York. One of the things we took some time to do was cup and taste coffee and we got to taste some really good coffees. Here’s some tasting notes:

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By: Wiggles

After spending two killer days at TampCamp Bar Ready, I learned a great deal of information, both audibly, and hands on: about milk taste, texture, and chemistry- about cupping for beginning cuppers, and how to get beautifully textured milk, consistently.

But mostly I learned one cold hard fact: I’ve been a voodoo barista. I’ve been a barista who made drinks inconsistently, and with lots of wasted steps. If you’ve spent any time in coffeeshops, you’ve probably seen barista voodo: excessive and inconsistent dosing by repeatedly knocking the portafilter on the grinder fork. Lots of un-repeateble grooming moves, unnecessary tamping methods, and the portafilter flip, which looks kinda cool, until you lose your puck and try to pull an espresso shot with no coffee. Not so cool then.

The worst, though, was my voodoo latte art. Up until TampCamp, I’ve never taken a hands-on latte art class- I’ve tried to learn by watching and practicing. Without the formalized, hands-on training, I wasn’t able to pour the same way every time, I’d been practicing more voodoo: lots of unnecessary steps, that aren’t repeatable- a little ring around the rosy here, a little wiggle there, and then ‘oh hey, that looks kinda cool’- but I hadn’t been able to pour the same looking rosettes and hearts time after time.

One thing I’ve learned about baristas – we love to touch stuff. If you put a group of baristas in a room, especially a room where there’s coffee, and coffee making equipment, five minutes later you’ll hear grinders thawking. The problem is, we don’t always touch stuff cleanly and consistently, with minimal voodoo. Trust me, you don’t want your pipe-fitter to be doing voodoo welding, you want that welding as consistent as possible. If being a barista is to become a respectable craft, than we have to learn cleanliness and repeatability, and the best way to do that is through formalized training.