Are you serving cups of coffee or cups of soap suds?

[PlantationCoffee]

I pose this question to cafe owners both current and prospective.
Many a time do i drop in at a random cafe and get served up with a super hot cup of soap suds. Which is why i pose this question to you all in the hospitality industry dealing with this beverage. I don't mean to beat you down or anything but read on and i'll explain how you might fix this problem.

Milk is such an ingredient that it has limitations with what you can turn it into, normally residing happily at 4 degrees C, it is most often steamed to temperatures over and above the 50 degrees C mark and served traditionally as a latte or cappuccino. Heat it to more than 70 degrees C and it begins to breakdown and burn up. But keep it lukewarm for a few hours and it will go off.

Most cafes use thermometers to measure and meet "health and safety" guidelines yet leave their steam wands in a most filthy state without having wiped the steam wands clean.

FIRST STEP- Clean your steam wands with a clean damp cloth. Purge steam out for at least 20 seconds if you've never purged them before.

Second step-
notice what your coffees look like- do they resemble a spongy-miranguey blob?

This industry has moved far away from this my fellow baristas-

Firstly - i would like you to place cold water in your milk jug and try and steam that , except angle the steam wand to get a whirlpool happening.
when u get that position hold it and remember it.

Then take cold milk and fill your jug a bit above half way, use the same position you got when u whirlpooled water , except with milk this time that should be whirlpooling.
Now lower your jug of milk gently until u hear it "whispering" that will enable
you to steam milk gently, untill you reach about 65-70 degrees C.

Now pour a latte and you should have smoothly steamed warm-hot lattes that taste much better than their mirangue-a-cino counterparts and look spectacular.

[JaneB]

Welcome to the forum - I've bookmarked your website to read. There is a wealth of info for coffee obsessives like me.

It's hard to understand why cafe owners spend a fortune on their machines but then buy boring beans which sit around for days and don't learn to understand the basics of coffee making.

We have a new coffee roasting cafe here on the Central Coast NSW and such is the desperation for good coffee that queues are forming out the door even though the prices are at the top of the rung.

[Uncomplicating]

For those of us who drink black coffee, espresso when I'm feeling puritanical and long black when I want one to last more than 5 seconds, the state of steam wands is that last of our concerns.

We have to tolerate coffee made from old beans that was ground an hour ago and has been sitting in the hopper, combined with a "barista" who has little to no idea of how to adjust the grind and set the right dose.

The result is typically a 10 second pour and a bitter, crema-less cup of dishwater that tastes somewhat like cardboard...and not very nice cardboard at that.

At least the "soap suds" hide this taste somewhat.

[Robert Gerrish]

I totally agree! I think the 'no crema, no serva' policy is the only one!

Robert

[KarenC]

The last few months we have been enjoying our fabulous DeLonghi coffee machine at home that grinds automatically for each cup. And, in addition, we have a wonderful supplier (Springwood NSW) who imports fair-trade and organic coffees and hot chocolate, and roasts and grinds them for customers to their requests. They specialise in traceable, ethically sourced, single origin state and single farm coffees of exceptional quality. Fabulous coffees and no headaches because there's no chemicals. They also have a blog and information page which is really interesting. (We no longer have any instant coffee.)
Buy online, posted anywhere in Australia. Highly recommended.
www.ministrygrounds.com.au

[Uncomplicating]

Originally Posted by KarenC

The last few months we have been enjoying our fabulous DeLonghi coffee machine at home that grinds automatically for each cup. And, in addition, we have a wonderful supplier (Springwood NSW) who imports fair-trade and organic coffees and hot chocolate, and roasts and grinds them for customers to their requests. They specialise in traceable, ethically sourced, single origin state and single farm coffees of exceptional quality. Fabulous coffees and no headaches because there's no chemicals. They also have a blog and information page which is really interesting. (We no longer have any instant coffee.)
Buy online, posted anywhere in Australia. Highly recommended.
www.ministrygrounds.com.au

I get my beans each month from the fabulous people at Morgans Coffee in Emu Plains. I have a reasonably decent grinder and I've just upgraded to an ECM Technika IV.

Still, as I have a home office it's worth every cent.

For those with an interest in coffee, I thoroughly recommend going on a barista course at somewhere like JetBlackEspresso or Toby's estate. Life changes completely once you realise what coffee should taste like.

[Geronimo]

Oh dear,

I must confess that having a home office with no good coffee close by, I drink Maccona instant. The one advantage however is that I really appreciate the specialness of good coffees when travelling. It's how I treat myself for getting up at 4:30am to catch flights.

[Uncomplicating]

Originally Posted by Geronimo

Oh dear,

I must confess that having a home office with no good coffee close by, I drink Maccona instant. The one advantage however is that I really appreciate the specialness of good coffees when travelling. It's how I treat myself for getting up at 4:30am to catch flights.

I wish I could find good coffee when travelling. There's nothing at any airport I've ever been to, and with an anecdotal 90% of all cafes serving really rather poorly made coffee, I rather dislike going out to uncharted parts.

At least I'm not being force fed International Roast. Now that is a fate worse than death. My wife used to do charity work at a homeless shelter where they supplied toast, tea, coffee and so on. Even the homeless guys kicked up a fuss when presented with International Roast.

[PlantationCoffee]

Thankyou JaneB - yes please follow my blog, every now and then ill update it with something new and interesting.

Uncomplicating-

you are dead right!! i call them 10 second toilet flush shots.
Old coffee + wrong grind usually = 10 second shots of dishwater.
In fact some of these cafes wont even allow their staff to touch the grind settings or else YOUR OUT!! FIRED!!


My message really is to all those in the hospitality business, i really would like them to understand that the way coffee was made in the 1980's and 1990's no longer applies, there has since been such a revolution of massive proportions.

Yes business owners pay a lot of money for equipment but usually have left their skills behind. In fact they've become so tied up with their work that they have probably never looked outside the box.

I personally am a specialty roaster out here in brisbane, but ive been a barista for quite a long time as well and so i understand their predicament.

[Uncomplicating]

Top three worst coffees I've ever been served

3. Sebel Resort and Spa, Hawkesbury Valley. 4.5 Star hotel at $400ish per night. Staff walking around with large flasks of an extremely hot brown beverage masquerading as coffee. When I asked if it was possible to get a proper coffee I was told is was an addition $4.50.

The coffee arrived and I sent it back immediately. Woeful, just plain woeful.

2. Country Comfort in Mudge. Large pour it yourself flask of something brown dissolved in water. The less said the better.

1. My mate Pete's...bless him. He insists on buying International Roast, and as previously noted, even the homeless choose to go without rather than drink it.

Hey, who'd have thought. Beggars can be choosers.