We’ve taught “Espresso and Coffee: More Different than You Think” at Coffee Fest for more than 15 years. The underlying premise of this class has always been that a coffee house’s espresso program should emphasize quality as that is the best way to stand out in a very crowded coffee market. We argue this not only because so few cafes produce high quality espresso and espresso drinks but also because high quality espresso is naturally sweeter and more delicious than what 90% of cafes produce.
In recent years, though, we’ve updated the way we teach the class. We now incorporate an observation about the success of the coffee house chains: Consumers will prefer consistently mediocre coffee and espresso over inconsistently high quality coffee and espresso.
In light of this, coffee houses that want to emphasize the quality of their espresso FIRST need to establish their ability to produce drinks with little/no variability. Only once a coffee house establishes that consistency should it work to raise the quality of its espresso program. In other words: Learn to walk before trying to run.
In our experience, a coffee house that aspires to serve quality espresso can struggle with consistency for one (or more) of the following FOUR reasons:
Insufficient Barista Training- Part 1
Consistency invariably requires heavy investment in barista training. The first goal of training is for an individual barista’s first espresso shot of the shift to be just as good as the ones in the middle of the shift and also the ones at the end of the shift. Achieving this type of consistency requires a lot of practice- roughly 250-500 shots by our estimate- so that every step in the espresso making process becomes second nature and can be performed regardless of whether the store is slow or busy.
Insufficient Barista Training- Part 2
The second goal of barista training is to ensure that every drink produced by the team of baristas taste the same. It shouldn’t matter who is on bar. Achieving this type of consistency requires running every new hire- even those with previous coffee experience- through the full training program. Given the challenge “untraining” experienced baristas, we know of some shops will only hire candidates with no coffee experience.
Choice of Espresso Machine Configuration
Having invested heavily in training their baristas, many quality-focused cafes opt to showcase the “craft” of espresso by using manual (i.e. semi-automatic) or lever espresso machines. Unfortunately, few of us- not even our highly trained baristas- are as good at multitasking as we think, particularly in the middle of the morning rush.
The challenge with manual machines is that keeping the espresso within desired extraction parameters requires juggling multiple espresso variables- not just the grind setting but also input water volume, output espresso volume, and/or shot extraction time. And cafes that opt for machines with pressure profiling capability are putting even more variables into play. With most baristas charged not just with pulling espresso but also with steaming and texturing milk, having them monitor multiple espresso extraction (rather than just one) becomes challenging and helps produce inconsistency.
Our recommendation is that shops use auto-volumetric (i.e. fully-automatic) machines. Not to be confused with the super-automatics deployed at the chains, these machines require the barista to grind the beans, prep the portafilter, and start the espresso shot. The auto-volumetric machine, however, automatically end the shot once they’ve dispensed a pre-programmed amount of water (hence the name “auto-volumetric”). This leaves the barista with only one variable to adjust (grind setting) with all other extraction variables be locked down. That leaves extraction time as the one dependent variable to monitor. Shorter (or longer) than targeted extraction times will indicate when a barista should adjust the grind setting.
Constantly Changing Espresso Bean
Although coffee is a seasonal crop, this doesn’t mean that the taste of your espresso (and espresso drinks) should change over the course of the year. Having a seasonally changing espresso blend (or a rotating single-origin espresso) violates a Cardinal Rule of Business: Letting your problem become your customer’s problem. Achieving consistency in an espresso profile requires you (or your roaster) to create an espresso blend in such a way that components can easily be switched out as beans change (or are no longer available). [To learn more about espresso blending: Start with this Roast Magazine article.]
To Learn More about Espresso: Visit the Espresso Education section of our website.