Seeking Baristas: A Call to Action for the Coffee Service Professional
by Colin Whitcomb, Madcap Coffee Recently, much has been said and written about the evolution of specialty coffee’s retail side. Oftentimes the cry to disrupt current models has centered on an argument that diversity in an increasingly competitive retail environment is the key to discovering new modes that will carry us forward. These arguments in favor …
Milk Foam: Creating Texture and Stability
by Thom Huppert, NIZO Food Research We’re always focused on the coffee, but most baristas use milk nearly as frequently every day to make customers’ favorite cappuccinos, lattes, and cortados. More than just nature’s baby food for calves, milk is a chemically complex fluid with unique physical properties. The more we know about how milk “works,” …
Collaboration in Competition: An Interview with U.S. Barista Champion Laila Ghambari and her Team
The road coffee takes from seed to cup is most often conceptualized as a chain. The beans, or later their extracted essence, are handed off from farmer, to green buyer (and/or importer and exporter), to roaster, to retailer, to barista, to consumer. Each link typically only interacts directly with the ones before and after, and …
The Cost of a Cup of Coffee: Where Does the Money go?
by Maria Hill, Say Hey Girl Over the past few years, the specialty coffee industry has experienced a fluctuating market with coffee prices trading slightly higher than traditionally expected. A shift in the price of coffee also affects the price of the finished cup, which has led even major cafe chains to increase their menu …
The Importance of Exercise: Palate Development
by Julie Housh, Intelligentsia Coffee As coffee professionals, we practice tasting coffee on a regular basis—whether via cupping or dialing in—employing tools like the SCAA Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel to articulate the flavors we find in coffee. In my everyday role as a coffee educator, I often hear new baristas and consumers admit that “coffee just …
The Barista: A Sustainable Profession in the Making
by Anne Nylander, SCAA The term “professional barista” simply did not exist in coffee 30 years ago. This role in the industry was built in no small part by large coffee retailers who brought the professional barista to the masses, and baristas now grace our cafes on a daily basis. Today, baristas are often seen …
A Fly on the Wall: The Sociability of Coffee
by Amy Hall, Espresso Elevado It’s a quiet afternoon in Plymouth, Michigan. A young woman strolls into the little coffee shop on the corner where I am standing behind the counter with a smile, ready to take her order. “I’m waiting for someone,” she quickly alerts me. I nod and tell her that if she …
90+ Profiles: Getting to Know Charles Babinski
Who are you and what do you do in coffee? I am Charles Babinski, co-founder of G&B Coffee and Go Get Em Tiger, two coffee shops in Los Angeles, CA. How and when did you get started in the coffee business? I got started in the industry when I was 19 as a barista in …
Portfolio | Issue No. 4 | Technology
HARIO “the King of Glass” is a manufacturer in Tokyo, Japan that specializes in heat resistant borosilicate glass. HARIO first began as a manufacturer of laboratory equipment in 1921. The skills and techniques learned from creating these precision scientific tools have been applied to the production of HARIO’s coffee and tea brewing equipment. As a …
Portfolio | Issue No. 4 | Connections
STiR Tea & Coffee Industry International is now the leading-circulation magazine for the tea and coffee industries globally. STiR’s editorial team brings you all the latest trends, sourcing, and markets for the vast range of tea and coffee industrial and retail products worldwide. STiR Tea & Coffee also brings to readers regular profiles and updates …
Announcing the Newest SCAA Certified Home Brewer: KitchenAid® Pour Over Coffee Brewer
For its newest coffee brewer, KitchenAid Brand went straight to the source and partnered with industry experts to design the new Pour Over Coffee Brewer. In addition to partnering with baristas, the brewer was developed from the ground-up to meet the SCAA’s rigorous technical guidelines, to ensure that the highest quality home brewer was designed. It …
New SCAA Certified Bonavita Brewer Coming in October
Bonavita now has three SCAA certified brewers, with their newest addition (Bonavita Coffee Maker BV1900TS) due to market in early October. Building on the success of predecessors, the Bonavita 8-cup Stainless Steel Carafe Coffee Brewer features improvements that will result in an even better cup of coffee. Bonavita is committed to bringing the highest level of coffee brewing …