Many in the coffee industry speak volumes about wanting to market themselves to the public as the “new wine.” But if we examine the practices the industry has taken on to accomplish any of this, it has failed miserably on nearly all fronts. What becomes all too clear is that the coffee industry either doesn’t want to engage with its customers or awkwardly has no clue how to do it — despite the many hints and clues left by the wine industry it supposedly looks up to.

Let’s examine the closest things the coffee industry offers in terms of public outreach, contrasting them with similar practices in the wine industry.

Death by barista competition

The new season of barista competitions is upon us once again (this is the original inspiration behind this post). Barista championships are widely considered one of the prouder, most marketable achievements of the specialty coffee industry. And yet they exhibit all the hallmarks of a navel-gazing insider event that feigns courting but really disregards the coffee consuming public.

Whether in person or via online video streams, following a few seasons of them creates its own form of repetitive stress injury. Bear witness to a few consecutive seasons, and it’s little wonder that people in the coffee business for any length of time simply stop attending. And despite a frequently-stated desire for a TV-ready, Top Chef-like equivalent for the coffee industry, these competitions are even more tedious for the coffee consuming public.

The competitions demonstrate a form of precision gymnastics to which no retail coffee consumer can relate. Glowing red timers on the walls; a dog-show-like presentation complete with mic’ed up headset and mood music; a hunched-over team of clipboard carriers who scurry like roaches as they inspect spent pucks and leftover grinds in the hopper. Even the specialty drinks compulsories are completely disconnected from anything resembling coffee in a retail environment. (As we’ve always liked to say, “if it requires a recipe, it’s not coffee.”)

To make matters worse — or at least more puzzling to consumers — the USBC has now introduced the concept of the Brewers Cup: to exhalt the art of pouring hot water over coffee grounds. Then throw on more formal recognition of latte art competitions — the industry’s push to elevate coffee not so much as a consumable, but as an art medium not entirely unlike pen & ink wash or watercolors. Huh?

Can the coffee industry produce a public event that isn’t a game show?

If we look over to the wine industry, just how many of their public events are modeled after reality TV game shows? A competitive sommelier beat-down, perhaps? Painting with wine contests? PBS surprisingly opted to renew The Winemakers for a second season, but microscopically few wine fans have ever heard of it.

There are competitive events such as the SF International Wine Competition, but they actively engage public participation, offer public education, and generally prevent these events from becoming industry navel-gazing or a mere spectator sport. However, the wine industry frequently engages with consumers through targeted consumer appreciation events as varied as the Rhone Rangers or the Family Winemakers of California or even cultural attaché marketing arms such as local chapters of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin.

And coffee has… well… the SCAA conference. The conference made recent overtures to invite the culinary world to their events. But that’s still just business-to-business marketing that completely ignores consumers. With coffee, it’s as if the trade is all that matters. This is also reflected in the industry’s most popular publications — i.e., magazines such as Roast, Fresh Cup, Barista, etc.

Yet when you compare the number of coffee consumers to wine consumers, and the frequency that each consumes their respective products, doesn’t this suggest gaping holes in the coffee industry’s consumer outreach strategy?

Making consumers bend to the industry vs. the other way around

Even when the coffee industry makes a direct attempt to engage consumers, it can blow up on the launchpad. When it tried to court consumers with the concept of comparative coffee tastings, it instead opted for the industry trade practice of cupping — with all its obscene slurps, crust making-and-breaking, and spinning a lot of defect detection as if it were a social event (meat inspection, anyone?). As such, coffee cupping resembles nothing like the experiences that made your average coffee consumer a fan of the stuff to begin with.

The idea of using coffee “disloyalty cards” to introduce consumers to new coffee houses is a more clever consumer outreach program that has caught on in a number of cities. But none of these programs have had much impact beyond a small audience enthralled with their initial novelty and a few local press releases.

And if you look at the way quality coffee is marketed in the press today to consumers, it’s as if the industry is hell-bent on a mission to prevent good coffee from being consumer-friendly and approachable. If you purchase a retail coffee beverage in a shop, consumers are barraged with price-tag hype and the programmed obsolescence of the latest espresso machine. Consumers brewing at home are bewildered by the pour-over arms race.

Wine may have more than its fair share of gadget hawkers — e.g., the next Rube Goldberg-esque cork pull or aerator gadget. However, wine consumers aren’t inundated by a monthly one-upsmanship competition telling them that how they appreciated wine last month is now wrong, outdated, and no longer expensive enough. We cannot say that about quality coffee, whose public marketing strategy has more in common with 4G smartphones than with wine.

What we’d like to see as coffee consumers

As much as the coffee industry has promoted the idea, we’ve always felt comparing itself to the wine industry was generally a bad idea. Even so, there are simple things the coffee industry could be doing that might include consumers in their success — rather than putting up barriers, refusing to accommodate consumers, and yet still hoping they still find a way to engage themselves to keep their industry afloat.

Given the belief in coffee terroir, why not demonstrate and educate consumers on it? For example, we’d love to see a coffee-growing-nation-sponsored, consumer-focused event that explores the various roaster expressions of the latest crops from, say, Guatemala. Or if not a tasting event based on regions, how about growing seasons? The Cup of Excellence program has elements that can be applied here. However, it is modeled as purely a trade event and many coffee growing nations aren’t even represented.

Come on, guys. We love your stuff. Why do you have to make it so ridiculously hard to participate, let alone enjoy it?

Now that we’ve caught your attention with the sensationalist title, we’ve had a thought that has been milling around in our heads for quite a while. All this talk about a supposed Third Wave in quality coffee (it truly is that hard for us to restrain our contempt for that term) seems to have coincided with another odd phenomenon: that of the barista becoming not only the predominant face of the entire coffee industry, but also a sort of rising expectation that the barista should be the coffee industry.

When it comes to the coffee delivery chain, there are a lot more people employed in the barista service end than anywhere else. And the barista is certainly the front face of the industry that consumers most interact with (at least when they are having espresso-based drinks). But while they are far from the only role in the coffee delivery chain, you certainly wouldn’t know it based on the proliferation of magazines, social networks, blogs, competitions, and coverage in traditional media.

And while all good baristas should aim for a bean-to-cup knowledge of what makes a great espresso beverage, many baristas and espresso enthusiasts alike seem to be encouraging a model where top baristas are expected to manage every aspect from bean-to-cup — the benefits of specialization in modern society be damned.

The barista as the face of the industry

So what makes us think that the barista has become the focal point for the entire coffee industry — in a way that is out of proportion with reality (and need)? Although the majority of the decent coffee served in this country involves some form of a barista, a barista is not necessarily required.

Furthermore, today avid coffee consumers cannot escape the barista-heavy bias when it comes to discussions of good coffee. There are an absurd number of redundant social networking sites for baristas — from Barista Exchange (founded by the nice guy whose prose ultimately made us cancel our Barista Magazine subscription) to Barista Connection to the offhand Common Grind: Tales from the Driptray … to redundant presences of these same entities on social networking sites such as Facebook.

What next? Social networks for all those bikini-clad baristas in the Northwest? A kind of Suicide Girls meets Starbucks Gossip? Someone better start up a business plan.

But if we were to dismiss the number of these barista-focused blogs and networks (at the expense of other roles in the coffee industry) on the basis of the sheer number of baristas, coffee consumers clearly outnumber baristas many times over. Looking at the few social networks and Web sites dedicated to coffee consumers, they’re mostly pretty lame. (See: Coffeenatic.)

The regular mainstream media drumbeat of barista championships, latte art contests, etc., also seems to drown out any mentions of Cup of Excellence bean growers or even roasters to a large extent. And any acknowledgment given to buyers, blenders, and like is virtually non-existent. Can we really be faulted for having this impression of barista bias? (Or call it “Barismo“, if you wish.)

The barista as The Industry

We are actually a bit shocked at how few baristas we know are also home roasters. Yet it’s becoming more common to read stories of baristas who are training to become everything from certified Q graders to roasters. In part, this reflects the role of barista as a popular entry-level position to the coffee industry — even if it is by no means the only one.

But when you combine these trends with the nascent (and latent) obsession over, and coverage of, Fair Trade, you’d think that the quality coffee industry consisted entirely of impoverished growers, minimum-wage baristas who manage everything from bean-to-cup, and an array of useless middlemen and (dare we suggest?) evildoers in between. As a result, it undermines the value that everyone from buyers, graders, shippers, and, to a lesser degree, some roasters provide in the chain.

In today’s landscape, where is the role for future Ernesto Illys if they are not baristas?

Our point isn’t to squelch the voice of the many ambitious baristas who have the commendable goals of quality coffee in mind. But we question whether should they be the only voice. It’s time for the rest of the industry to speak up — and be recognized for the value they provide in the coffee chain.

The role of consumers

And on a slightly different note, because consumers of quality coffee need representation of their own kind, we believe we need a spokesperson. Forget Cicely Tyson sipping to the music of ELO for the NCA’s Coffee Achievers campaign — we’re voting for a new Espresso Achievers campaign featuring Iggy Pop and his heroin-addled body singing “Gimme Danger”.

Iggy is our kind of spokesperson. Today the Daily Mirror (UK) reported on how he conquered his addictions through a love for red wine and … strong espresso: Iggy talks about addiction. We can see the slogans now: “A strong espresso: it’s better than heroin.” Sign us up!

Video: Iggy sez: Gimme a doppio.

Because there are only about three or four people who write any original content anymore — and millions of others who just copy them and each other (see: us) — the Washington Post joined in on the San Fransisco Chronicle‘s act (ROAST WITH THE MOST / A new generation of Bay Area coffee roasters pushes the perfect cup to the next level) and published a similar story today about Washington D.C.’s own area roasters: Roasting Raises the Coffee Bar – washingtonpost.com.

Here the article was penned by Michaele Weissman, who has been out on a book tour promoting her new book, God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee. Which, curiously enough, closely mirrors the title of Instaurator’s The Espresso Quest recently released book (which itself was to be titled God In My Espresso Cup).

Ms. Weissman, a reporter by trade, is a good layman storyteller — something the coffee industry severely lacks. We recently let our subscription to Barista Magazine expire — mostly because the writing was so poor. (Sorry, Matt Milletto — you seem like a nice guy and all, but you really ought to stick to coffee. That droning laundry list of a coffee travelog in the Feb/Mar issue probably put us over the edge.)

But unlike Instaurator in his book, Ms. Weissman unfortunately takes on the rather gullible stance of a coffee outsider who buys hook, line, and sinker into the Third Wave myth. (Not surprising, given her Counter Culture Coffee loyalties.) But despite that, we still might still check it out at the S.F. Public Library someday.

With Spring upon us, that means it’s time for the 2008 Western Regional Barista Competition (WRBC): ‘Attention to every detail’ at Berkeley barista contest – San Jose Mercury News. Starting this past Friday and ending today (check out their photo album), the 2008 WRBC performs a time-honored ritual to select a barista champ representing our region to send to the nationals, the U.S. Barista Championship (USBC), to be held in Minneapolis this May.

The WRBC is the biggest of the nation’s ten regionals and includes competitive baristas from California and Hawaii. This year they even drew in a couple of competitors from Seattle’s Zoka Coffee.

But the big question was whether Coffee Klatch‘s (San Dimas, CA) Heather Perry, the WRBC’s “Iron Barista” of the past several years, could be unseated from her usual first place finish. Last year, Heather defended her WRBC title yet again, went on to win the 2007 U.S. Barista Championship (a feat she also accomplished in 2003), and then placed second in the 2007 World Barista Championship (to the UK’s James Hoffman).

But there was more at stake than just Heather’s streak. After spending a few years in Petaluma (where we reviewed the 2006 WRBC), this year’s WRBC moved to downtown Berkeley. And this year there were more seminars, training opportunities, and awards.

Berkeley, we have a problem…

Many baristas and coffee fanatics in the Bay Area were enthusiastic about the WRBC’s choice of a new location and venue — including us. But when we attended today’s competition finals, we found both negatives as positives with the switch.

The good

• Location, location, location — A block off of BART? In downtown Berkeley? In a town where Alfred Peet started his specialty bean and leaf business back in 1966?
• An upper balcony, for viewing the competition from above — The Gaia Arts Center provided the public with more and better angles to view the competition.
• Video projection — And where Gaia’s upper balcony views weren’t enough, the WRBC used video cameras and two projection screens to zoom in on the action — providing detailed, hands-level views to many attendees.
• The Clover brewer at the 4th Machine — Introduced for the first time at the WRBC, just in time for Starbucks to buy them out, some area roasters featured Cup-of-Excellence-quality coffee. Maybe these machines have little place in a barista competition per se, but they have good company around coffee lovers everywhere.
• Merchandising — Every event planner needs to raise a little cash to keep operations going and improve the event (especially at this price: free). The WRBC seems to have expanded beyond the T-shirt offerings and is now hawking espresso cups, cappuccino cups, tampers, shot glasses, etc. All of which seemed to be doing a brisk business at the entrance.

The bad

• Cramped facilities — Despite the location and the upper balcony, the facilities themselves seemed woefully inadequate. The space was too small, and crowds packed in the main competition area so much that some attendees had to fan themselves from the build-up of body heat. People crowded the stairs leading to the upper balcony just to find space for a better view.
• No barrier between the competition area and the 4th Machine — “Kitchen stadium” (to use an Iron Chef term) was always at the mercy of the noise and distractions coming from all of the socializing by the 4th Machine — where attendees lined up for a free espresso, cappuccino, or Clover-brewed coffee. You couldn’t hear the baristas nor the emcees over the din.
• No press box, no sponsored booths — The WRBC isn’t a conference. Or is it? There already are speakers, trainings, etc. But if this competition expects the media coverage it craves, it needs to think bigger. That will irritate many die-hard, DIY baristas as “too corporate” — the event still has the strong feel of their private, exclusive club or party. But coffee is also a business — it must decide to either continue to play coy with the real world, and favor their own anti-corporate Hipsters in its own private sandbox, or it has to reach out to play with and compete against the big boys in order to be taken more seriously.

The ugly

• Is there a steady cam in the house? — While the use of video projection was a plus, unfortunately very little of it was useful. Perhaps the cameramen had too many espresso shots from the 4th Machine to hold anything still, but we couldn’t help but feel we were watching The Blair Witch Project turned on to coffee.
• The emcee — Maybe it’s just impossible to replicate the coffee street cred, public speaking skills, and infectious enthusiasm of Barefoot‘s Andy Newbom as when he emceed the 2006 WRBC. But emcee Sarah Allen was not terribly dynamic nor engaging in her role. Coincidentally, Ms. Allen is the editor of Barista Magazine — a magazine subscription we’ve recently let expire because, well, as much as we like the subject matter, we find the writing to be rather poor at best. (For example, most articles from the far corners of the world are activity logs rather than actual writing. With the exception of Ritual’s Gabe Boscana and a few others, good espresso artists aren’t always good writers. Public speaking isn’t far behind.)
• The other emcee — While we did not have the privilege of hearing the other emcee for the event — Jana Oppenheimer, a regional sales manager for Franke — having a sales rep from Franke emcee a barista competition makes about as much sense as having an SF Muni official emcee a NASCAR event. La Marzocco GS/3 distrubution included. But given that Krups is once again sponsoring the USBC in May, this is one of the prices of going corporate while still keeping the event free to the public.

And the winner is…

Of the six finalists, half was a posse representing Intelligentsia‘s Silverlake (LA) location. But in the end, the “unthinkable” happened. The final results?:

• 1st Place: Chris Baca of Ritual Coffee Roasters, SF
• 2nd Place: Kyle Glanville of Intelligentsia, Silverlake
• 3rd Place: Heather Perry of Coffee Klatch, San Dimas

Congratulations to all winners, all finalists, and all contestants…

UPDATE: April 4, 2008
Today NPR’s The California Report aired a radio segment on the 2008 WRBC, interviewing Kyle Glanville and Chris Baca: KQED | The California Report | Crowning the Best Barista.

Previously, we had written about Coffee Bar when it was still under construction. It has since opened on the longest night of the year, December 21 — with limited initial fanfare, as the partners first wanted to iron out some of the kinks that naturally come with opening a new space. And it is a rather huge, quasi-industrial space at that (Oakland shipping/container crane motif notwithstanding). Coffee Bar’s partners consist of two childhood friends, Jason the stage man and charmer of the house and Luigi the coffee obsessive (and of the Di Ruocco family that has owned and operated Oakland’s Mr. Espresso for decades), plus Andrew the consultant/wine obsessive.

Past an entry patio, there are two levels of wooden tables of various sizes (including some very large ones), counter seating, a private room for events, sofas, and metal chairs. The airy space, exposed concrete, and metal chairs make the place a bit cold in SF’s fouler weather, but it warms up with a number of interesting wine options by the glass and bottle (it becomes something of a wine bar after 5pm), small plates, and great coffee.

For coffee, there’s a huge paper roll menu above the first floor bar. Espresso is served as a doppio by default, and they offer four different bean choices: two for espresso from their three-group E91 Faema Ambassador, and two (or more) for their Clover machine. Our first visit featured Mr. Espresso’s Neapolitan Espresso and Kenya AA for espresso and Guatemala Asobagri and Bolivia Cenaproc for the Clover. After the 2006 demise of Café Organica, it is a welcome return to see SF espresso bars once again offering multiple bean choices for your shot.

The Neapolitan shot is served (by Luigi’s expert, timed hand) with a rich, mottled medium- to dark-brown crema of decent thickness. It has a sweeter edge of honey on top of a pungent flavor of herbs and cloves, and it is a touch lighter on body and flavor potency when compared with the shots Luigi makes at the Mr. Espresso employee espresso bar — which still ranks as our highest rated shot in the Bay Area.

Luigi (and, by extension, Mr. Espresso) is not a card-carrying member of the regrettable Third Wave clique. (For example, Luigi was in full presence at last year’s Host Milan, but you wouldn’t read about it in Barista Magazine.) But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t take his shots seriously. After reading Coffee Bar’s review on CoffeeRatings.com, Luigi wrote to me of his espresso shot, “I had timed your shot at 24 seconds and I felt for the volume I produced it should have poured in about 26-27 seconds, but it looked beautiful… amazing what a couple of seconds can leave out in your shot!” It is that attention to detail that separates the truly great espresso from the “merely” good.

As for their single origin espresso shot, Barista Magazine was accurate in suggesting the “Death of the Blend”: the single origin espresso has come to be what single malts are to blended scotch. And their Kenya AA shot is what you’d expect from a single origin espresso; there’s some blonding on the thinner medium brown crema, and Luigi cuts off the shot early as its pour thins much more quickly than that of a blend. One of the big downsides of the single origin espresso is how it typically lacks completeness and well-roundedness, and yet that is also part of the attraction: to taste something so clean, sharp, unique, and unadulterated. Not surprisingly, the resulting cup has a potent, clean, sharp, almost citric sweetness. Served in small white Nuova Point or larger classic brown ACF cups.

(Luigi also noted that at last year’s Host Milan, Italian roaster Sandalj, of Trieste, Italy, was one of the few Italian promoters of a choice among multiple single origin beans for a customer’s espresso. This is another area where Italy seems to be slowly following America’s lead.)

At the time of writing, the Neapolitan shot placed Coffee Bar tied for first in our listings of San Francisco’s best espresso. Because the aggregate score for our espresso ratings comes from a formula, not unlike barista competitions, the final rankings are something we can’t predict until we plug in all the numbers. (Our scoring system equally weights aroma, body, brightness, crema, and flavor plus a taster’s correction.) But anytime a new café arrives in the top 5 in town, it’s cause for celebration.

Read the review of Coffee Bar.

I have a lot of respect for Nick Cho, owner of Washington D.C.’s murky coffee. He’s established a place that pulls some of the best espresso shots on the East Coast. He’s arguably the primary brainchild behind the Portafilter.net podcasts. And he’s also known for his quality coffee industry “altruism”: supporting aspiring baristas and café owners who want to commit their livelihoods towards making some of the best espresso on the planet.

However, Nick Cho’s reputation will unfortunately always be marred by his association with one of the most arrogant and proposterous claims ever made in America’s modern day quality espresso business. It’s the notion that quality coffee is in its Third Wave, a.k.a. the “Third Wave of Coffee”.

This is particularly unfortunate because the idea isn’t even Mr. Cho’s to begin with. As even he once pointed out, the blame lies squarely with Trish Skeie — who otherwise is one of quality coffee’s luminaries, given her role behind the Sebastopol, CA roastery, Taylor Maid Farms. (She is now Director of Coffee for Seattle’s highly respected Zoka Coffee.) In my mailbox today, I found this month’s Barista Magazine, which features an article by Trish Skeie under the self-serving title, “Third Wave In Its Third Year.”

“Hey, baby, what’s your Wave?”

To boil this whole pompous wave theory down, a few years ago Ms. Skeie postulated that coffee consumption and preparation was progressing through three distinct transformations.

The First Wave is consumption — marked by America’s early preoccupation with poor quality coffee, often instant or freeze dried, that was more a caffeine and heat delivery mechanism than anything with an enjoyable flavor. The Second Wave is about enjoyment and defining specialty coffee — characterized by the selection of arabica beans over robusta, Colombian coffee’s Juan Valdez marketing campaign, and the proliferation of espresso and Starbucks.

So where are we now? Supposedly, this Third Wave is all about letting the coffee speak for itself — or enjoying coffee for coffee’s sake. Confused yet? You should be, because here are the problems with this logic and how people in the industry are misusing and abusing it…

Quality Espresso?: Not Invented Here

The whole Third Wave concept has since been bandied about in the specialty coffee industry as a sort of pompus and self-congratulatory marketing hype about their products and services — a self-appointed seal of approval. Yet this wave theory doesn’t describe the coffee or even how it is prepared. In actuality, it most accurately describes the coffee consumer. It has little, if anything, to do with the actual businesses that are now proudly tattooing Third Wave across their chests.

And here’s another problem with all those who like to think of themselves as Third Wave: the wave theory concept essentially presumes that quality espresso simply did not exist on this planet until three years ago (e.g.: Trish Skeie’s recent Barista Magazine article). In the world of quality coffee, this is akin to saying that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America — while ignoring the brain anyeurism that must have lead to our overlooking the Lucayans who had lived in the Bahamas for centuries prior.

The facts are that great espresso has existed long before naked portafilters, single-origin bean roasts, and other gimmickry that some might associate with the Third Wave. In Italy, for example, the four Ms — miscela, macchina, macinatura, and mano (or the beans/blend, the machine, the grind, and the “hand”) — have been widely recognized as the fundamental keys to great espresso for generations. Even to this day.

Even here in our backyard, businesses such as Mr. Espresso have been promoting the highest quality standards in beans, roasts, equipment, and barista training for multiple generations — i.e., since the likes of some of these self-proclaimed third wavers were still in Pampers. Quality espresso is not the sudden confluence of modern scientific discovery and magic. It’s been around for decades, and its supposed “secrets” have largely remained unchanged throughout.

Unfortunately, since people like Ms. Skeie had their first “real” espresso in recent years, many will keep on presuming it’s their own discovery and that they are at the vanguard of something new. But when we talk about any Third Wave, what constitutes quality coffee hasn’t really changed. What has changed is the education and sophistication of the American coffee consumer palate. It’s just a lot more convenient for some businesses to take credit for what rightfully belongs to their customers.

Comic relief: Paulie Walnuts and Big Pussy of TV’s The Sopranos ponder the Third Wave

Is your barista worthy?

The Specialty Coffee Association of America is holding their annual convention in Charlotte, NC beginning April 7. One of the main events coinciding with the conference is the 2006 United States Barista Championship. From Business Wire: Barista Champion to Be Revealed from Among Nationwide Competitors; The Specialty Coffee Association of America’s 2006 United States Barista Championship, Hosted by Krups, Takes Place April 7-10 in Charlotte, N.C. (Since when did press release headlines become novellas?)

Baristas are facing an uphill battle for legitimacy. Making a fine espresso is a lot like gourmet cooking — it demands quality ingredients, quality equipment, temperature, pressure, timing, skill, and consistency. And in a number of places in Italy, for example, being a great barista is an artisan craft with a legitimate career path.

Unfortunately, the proliferation of Starbucks in this country has publicly equated the profession with little more than a minimum wage McDonald’s fry cook. And as Starbucks needed to hire thousands of new employees to fuel their growth, they hired more of what was cheap and available in the marketplace: employees with less skills and lower wages. This progression was also largely facilitated by their widespread switch to push-button Verismo machines that a monkey could operate.

Bam! Goes the Weasel

Events like the USBC (and, ultimately, the World Barista Championship) help to elevate the profession and recognize the commitment and skills of those who truly are masters of an art … and science. Other advances include the recent introduction of Barista Magazine (to which I subscribe as a pro bono amateur barista myself).

Some baristas hope to one day see public legitimization of their profession reach the level of the “celebrity barista” — something of a public representative for the specialty coffee industry, not unlike the way that the Food Network has crowned many a celebrity chef (deserving or otherwise).

But despite the achievements of the world’s greatest baristas, I don’t see them ever making good television. Although they’re not accountants, baristas aren’t exactly known for having the most, shall we say, effervescent of personalities. (And I’ve probably been served by more baristas than anyone in SF over the past three years.) And while espresso machines are proliferating in the home, there’s a huge difference between the maestro with a three-group La Marzocco FB-70 … and someone at home, watching on TV, struggling with their Krups machine and pre-ground coffee pod.

It makes great espresso … once you change the light bulb

Speaking of Krups machines and seeking legitimacy… did I read that press release headline correctly? “Hosted by Krups”? And for the third year running?

I wrote about general experiences with Krups espresso machines in a previous post. I simply cannot imagine any self-respecting, professional barista doing anything less but snickering at the association of Krups with this competition. It’s like having the World Pastry Cup hosted by the Easy-Bake Oven.

Both the baristas and the sponsors are clearly hoping to use this event to reach out, educate the public, and improve their image. The only question that remains is who will win this tug of war: the champion baristas pulling up Krups’ image, or Krups pulling the image of the profession down with them?

Over the past couple of years, San Francisco has undergone something of a revolution in great espresso. Although the quality revolution has yet to trickle down to the typical corner café, great changes have taken place at the upper eschelon.

At the forefront of this revolution is a troika of relative newcomers: Blue Bottle Coffee, Café Organica, and Ritual Roasters. These three cafés have come to represent what some people have (ridiculously) referred to as the Third Wave of coffee in San Francisco. (I’ve come across a poster on CoffeeGeek.com’s forums who once said of me and this site, “He’s not very Third Wave” — as if it was some kind of management cult akin to California’s est craze in the 1970s.)

Personally, I simply prefer the term “good” coffee. This isn’t Moore’s Law or a generation of mobile phone technology that becomes obsolete every 18 months. While the approach and the suppliers have been finely tuned, great espresso has been that way for decades. Hold the techno-foam and the marketingspeak.

Now on to the troika…

Blue Bottle Coffee

I suppose if you had to choose an order, I’d start with Blue Bottle Coffee. James Freeman started in the Easy Bay with the bold statement of actually posting the roasting dates on his small batch coffee roasts. He emphasized freshness above all else, making it a policy to never sell beans roasted more than 48 hours ago. (Of the troika, Blue Bottle is the only member that roasts their own coffee.)

By 2004, James took his Berkeley farmers market stint on a roadshow, establishing a weekend espresso cart presence on farmers market days at the newly remodeled Ferry Building. Long lines soon followed.

However, perhaps the biggest imprint James first left on San Francisco was his partnership with the Ferry Building’s Frog Hollow Farm. Known more for their peaches and baked goods, James’ influence on Frog Hollow Farm’s coffee was total: from the installation of a La Marzocco FB70 … to the use of Blue Bottle Coffee beans … to impeccable staff training for how to produce the finest espresso.

The partnership was so successful that CoffeeRatings.com rated Frog Hollow Farm as the #1 espresso in San Francisco throughout most of 2004 — ranked even higher than James’ own weekend cart service next door. But it was perhaps too successful, as James seemed to have designs of his own for a regular presence in SF. The result was the opening of a rough storefront in a Hayes Valley alleyway. Meanwhile, James appeared to pull out of his partnership with Frog Hollow Farm, and the quality there, while still very good, hasn’t quite been the same since.

Their espresso has a real sweetness in the cup that I like, and they make mean macchiato. I also recommend picking up a bag of their Temescal Espresso blend for making your own milk-based espresso drinks at home (I’ve found it can be better than their own milk-based drinks!).

Ritual Roasters

Ritual Roasters is a great success story. Opened in May 2005 by Northwest expatriates, Eileen Hassi and Jeremy Tooker (and cover boy in the latest issue of the recommended Barista Magazine), Ritual Roasters shows an obsession with great espresso in a neighborhood that has largely neglected these values over the years: the Mission District.

Jeremy and Eileen met when they were first lured to San Francisco to help staff the once-excellent, Seattle-based Torrefazione Italia chain as it developed operations on Union Street and two downtown (on Montgomery Street and on Battery Street). (Disclosure: the son-in-law of Torrefazione Italia’s founder once worked for me.) For those who missed out, Torrefazione Italia may have changed owners several times, but the chain brought a modern quality and aesthetic to San Francisco espresso that previously did not exist here. Elegant Deruta ceramic cups (what, no paper?!), latte art, and baristas who strived for the best behind their dueling Elektra machines were their hallmark.

However, Torrefazione Italia’s last suitor, Starbucks ( a company that, for the record, I am quite neutral about), actually lived up to their normally undeserved Evil Empire moniker. By 2005, the staff was replaced by less competent baristas making far lower wages, and the product suffered terribly until all outlets were (deservedly) closed in San Francisco by September 2005. But like a phoenix from the ashes, Ritual Roasters was born out of the demise of SF’s once great Torrefazione Italia.

But here the owners of Ritual bring a passion for Portland, Oregon’s Stumptown Coffee. In fact, despite their occasional mumblings about roasting their own on site, Ritual has benefitted greatly from a relationship they established with Stumptown owner, Duane Sorenson.

Today, it’s great to see Ritual packed with many locals who have come to recognize the real quality in the product they produce.

Café Organica

Café Organica is frequently rated as pulling the #1 espresso in SF on CoffeeRatings.com. It also opened in early 2005, but it has a different lineage than the others. Owner Eton Tsuno developed his taste and knowledge of excellent espresso in Southern California and, later, Mountain View. And where I might describe Blue Bottle and Ritual as places of espresso artists, Eton is more of an espresso scientist.

The scientific approach is evident at Café Organica. Sure, they time their shots and apply methodical preparation techniques like the others. However, Organica leans a bit more on the experimental side. Here the baristas more frequently pull and re-pull shots for customers — partly as a measure of quality control, but also as a way of allowing their customers to taste the differences in both shots when they are prepared slightly differently. And of course, offering a selection of at least four different bean varieties underscores their commitment to customer experimentation and learning. Meanwhile, Eton is often trying new bean stocks and roasters, single-bean roasts and blends, and he was likely the first in the Bay Area to offer shots “naked” or “with spouts” (i.e., with open or the usually closed portafilter).

Eton has big ideas. If you catch him there, he can go on about his visionary ideas for espresso cocktails, educational centers with home espresso machines and training, and other industry trends that may or may not ever materialize. But whatever the espresso topic is, you quickly realize that he has thought about it a lot.

The espresso shots at Organica aren’t the sweetest and most full-bodied (when looking for those qualities, I am more apt to visit the other troika members). However, a visit there is like a wine tasting excursion. They produce some of the most meticulous shots you will find in the Bay Area — and always coated with a crema of dark flecks that I often associate with Chicago’s Intelligentsia.