Because I don’t really believe in vacations anyway, I decided that while I was up on my working vacation at Dotties (where temptamp sends baristas to chill and work a few shifts at a sweet cafe in the Berkshires), I would put together an event for the baristas in the region. Rather than having the usual cupping or talk, and after my month-long high from the Easton barista jam, I decided I’d do one too! And just like that, I did.

Thanks to the contributions from coffee companies, High Lawn Dairy, and even Tortured Orchard, who provided us with Jam (get it, for the barista jam? Yeah ok Neil & I thought it was funny), the event went off spectacularly. And it all started right at the coffee Altar:

Our classes took place at the Alchemy Initiative, a corporative project that has reclaimed a church for education about arts, crafts, and local and organic food. Since we fit right in to that description we lined up in our pews and started talking coffee!

First up was Michael DeJesus, or Mike D as I’ve known him since he first helped me recover an espresso machine that had taken off in flight (the steam boiler pressure stat needed to be replaced). Mike held a q & a on espresso maintenance, covering the basics of good, clean equipment. He shared that a lot of what technicians in the industry are not telling you: basic information about your machine so that they can continue to make money on servicing your equipment. It’s up to the cafe owner to educate themselves as much as possible on their equipment so that you can beat the bad tech and prevent multiple service calls to fix the same problem.

He also urged to keep your filters clean to slow the scale buildup in your machine, remove and clean your dispersion screens daily, and regularly replace or sharpen your burrs. All sound technical advice if you ask me, which really isn’t technical at all once you try it. He also highly recommended the folks at Espresso Parts NW for their advice and support. Sadly Mike isn’t a full time tech we can call anymore, but he’s still up for talking coffee any time at Dallis Coffee in Ozone Park, NY.

Next up was Ben Wilkinson, NE Regional Chapter Rep and all around nice-barista-guy from Blue State Coffee in New Haven, CT.

Ben’s talk was titled “Five ways to become a better barista,” which he got to eventually, but first he asked people what they wanted to learn from him. The responses he got and the discussion that ensued I think surprised us all.

Rather than ask about extraction times or upselling products in your cafe, Ben was asked about why he didn’t describe himself as a “Professional Barista.” Wasn’t he a regional finalist? Didn’t he manage and train the staff at a successful cafe? Heck, didn’t he drive up here at the crack of dawn to get in front of a room and talk about being a better barista?

Ben reminded us that the barista craft is an ever changing and ongoing educational process. While he’s done a lot to learn how to get better, he’s still on a path to more coffee education. For those of you playing along at home, he’s hit the nail on the head with this observation. The best baristas in the world are the ones that continually strive to make better coffee, to learn more about what they do, and to learn how to convey that knowledge to their customers in a digest-able (literally and figuratively) format.

That then segued into a chat about handling customer service interactions, learning how to anticipate the needs of customers, conveying your information without being snooty, and finding ways to keep your coffee quality high even if there’s a line out the door. All of these are challenges to the barista craft, and great baristas love to rise to find solutions for the challenges.

So finally, Ben got around to doing the top 5 ways to be a better barista. And here they are.

1. Go to a Barista Jam. The first Jam he attended he had the horrifying experience of serving espresso to the reiging WBC champ at the time, James Hoffmann, but he learned from that experience and has been attending them ever since. Jams don’t have to be big formal affairs – 3 baristas in a room talking about coffee is all you need to be a jam.

2. Go to a Barista Competition. As a competitor, it’s like a jam but much more nerve wracking. As a volunteer if you’re not ready to compete, it’s a great way to meet like-minded people and see what competition is all about.

3. Read. Espresso Quest, Barista Magazine, The Professional Barista’s Handbook, Gimme! Espresso Manual 1.0, Espresso Coffee: Professional Techniques. And blogs.

4. Become a home barista. Particularly drink coffees, all different kinds, at home. Try different coffees. If you can swing it, get an espresso machine and start tasting your espresso in your kitchen.

5. Join the Barista Guild. Joining the Barista Guild gets you connected with hundreds of other like-minded baristas that want to learn. In the Northeast, where baristas are marooned on life boats among the choppy seas of Dunkin Donuts, we have to remember that we’re all on the same side. Our little cafes are not in competition with one another, and if we share our knowledge we’ll all be able to rise to the challenge of making great coffee, being nice about it, and making some money so we can continue make great coffee again tomorrow.

Then it was lunch time, where we headed back to Dottie’s and hit up Neil, who was rocking the Guest Espresso grinder. All this week we’d been giving espresso to anyone who want to try it – we started with Black Cat, then we handed out Ritual’s Sweet Tooth Mutwewathi from Kenya, and on the day of the jam things got crazy – we rocked CCC’s Aficionado and Idido Misty Valley for espresso, A-Train espressos. Everyone had fun tasting all the different espressos – and a big thank you again to everyone who shared with us! We continued guesting all this week at Dottie’s.

The afternoon coverage will be a little spotty since I was upstairs leading one class (and our camera broke!!). Downstairs Gerra Harrigan of New Harvest Coffee Roasters was leading a cupping that included coffee from Counter Culture, Gimme, Barismo, and Barrington. I wasn’t there so I’m not sure exactly went down, but the cupping notes on the board sounded delicious!

Meanwhile, I was upstairs rocking the Chemex brewer, and holding a Q & A with Liz Grassy, the president of Chemex Coffee (based in Pittsfield!). She shared a bit of history about The Chemex, which was invented in 1941 in New York City. Peter J Schlumbohm, a chemist, made the device along with several other pieces of chemical machines and equipment – he holds over 3,000 patents. The Chemex is now in the permanent collection at the Moma as an example of wartime design. We also learned that all Chemexes are hand-blown using a specific glass recipe. The woodneck handles are also cut and varnished by hand and custom fit to each hand-blown neck.

I, meanwhile, went over how to make a Chemex coffee using James Hoffmann’s Chemex video as a reference. We that video as a rough guide to begin making Chemex coffee, then refine the procedure to taste. In the first group of students, I talked a lot about why I don’t have one “way” I make coffee – really any type of coffee – but instead I constantly experiment and hone in on what I’m trying to achieve. Still, it’s good to start somewhere, and I think that James’ video is excellent for that.

We brewed up 3 totally different coffees from El Salvador, just to show that there really isn’t one “way” coffees from a country taste. We had Plowshares’ Pacamara from Las Delicias, Intelligentsia’s In Season Los Immortales Bourbon, and Barrington Coffee’s 2006 Aged El Salvador. All proved to be tasty, thought-provoking coffees in their own right, from ranging in the flavor spectrum from floral and citric down to sweet tobacco notes.

And then the jam was done! It was time for a visit to Brew Works, the delicious local brew pub, and then onto our less formal affair, the Thursday Night Throwdown!