I hear what he is saying about the fetishizations of coffee culture, but coffee is part of a joyful ritual in my life. You could just as easily say the same for tea drinkers.
Keurig is ridiculous, however.
I'm about to take a lease on a space April 1st and turn it into a coffee shop. There isn't a coffee shop anywhere close to my house so instead of opening a bar I'll open a coffee shop in the neighborhood which I am living. I haven't worked coffee in about a decade but when I did I had some of the best training that was available short of working for one of the coffee shops that prides itself on winning competition medals. I'll be talking about this more in the future but for the moment not much more to say. I don't fetishize coffee but I'd like to be able to get a decent cup of it where I live.
I made an inspirational Pintrest board to help you kind of set the vibe of your coffee shop. All about "creating an experience" you know. http://www.pinterest.com/jacqueouioui/my-new-coffee-shop-inspiration/
I'm glad you mentioned the fluorescent lighting. That suggests you aim to change it. Nothing kills a coffee shop experience like fluorescent lighting. I'd suggest getting a number of people give you feedback on the setup/flow. Common themes in their responses might prove helpful in decision-making.
Nope nope nope. Does the author only eat food at diners too? Roasting coffee is just cooking. That's all it is. You're cooking something so that it tastes good when you eat it or drink it. The trend in coffee isn't strange or crazy. This is a beverage that a lot of people drink every single day of their lives. What is happening is that some people (both customers and distributors) are saying "Given this, I'd like it to taste good." That's it. It's wanting the food you're cooking to taste good. For shop owners and roasters it basically means giving a shit about what you sell to the point where your food isn't over a 2 or 3 weeks old and stale, and putting some effort into selecting good ingredients whether you roast yourself or buy from a roaster. And it makes a difference. I roast my own, and I can buy a sampler pack of raw greens blind from Sweet Maria's, take any one of them to the beginning of second crack, and brew it two days later and it's going to be better than anything Starbucks could hope to serve me. I don't have to fiddle with a 'roast profile' or even read the origin of the bean I pull out of the bag. It's not weird that people who's business it is to sell coffee to people would care about that, and it's not weird that people would want to drink a better version of something they drink every day if the price works for them. It sounds like the author is getting too caught up in the marketing surrounding the food trend. 95% of the third wave shops out there are not using the word 'artisinal' or 'craft', nor are they putting a bird on it. Again, I can't get the diner analogy out of my head. For a lot of people coffee is just dirty water that acts as a vessel containing caffeine. For a lot of people, food is just something that you gotta do and like doing more when you haven't done it in a while. Other people are more into it than that. Coffee is one of the most actively traded commodities on the globe, and has been for a long time. It is remarkably subject to market forces, and hasn't enjoyed large scale protectionist distortions since (If memory serves) the early 1900's. On the consumer end you can "overpay" for a k-cup brewer (hint: you're not overpaying because you're paying for convenience and coffee), or you can get a press pot for 15 bucks that will last you decades. cgod, seeing as you're planning a coffee shop and you're a bit of an economics and history buff, you should totally read Uncommon Grounds. I read it recently and it's a pretty interesting history of the commercial coffee trade. A general audience might find it a bit boring, but I dunno...I liked it.I will gulp down a cup of it after a sleepless night, by and large I’m mystified that so many smart, caring, sensitive people that I love and admire are so enthralled by what are literally the dregs of caffeine strained through ground beans...In the West, and particularly in urban centers of the United States, we’ve turned coffee into not just a daily habit, but a totem of conspicuous consumption.
They’re like our hood ornaments: branded markers, symbols of our fealty to given coffee houses that, we are convinced, make us better, more informed, more authentic, more committed consumers of dirty hot water...
And it’s an economic scam too: coffee is exorbitantly priced
Neither of my parents drank coffee so I was never really exposed to it growing up. By the time I hit college I made a conscientious decision to drop caffeine so I stopped drinking soda and nowadays the only caffeine I get is the one day a week I eat chocolate or drink tea. I've never had much interest in coffee despite it becoming an artisan item of sorts. I'm indifferent to coffee but enjoy a good coffee house for the atmosphere, pastries, fruit based items, and occasionally beer.
I'm not sure what is up with the wave of dissin' that GMCR keeps getting, and Nope, I don't work for them. I just like their coffee. Not that I like k cups - not at all. I reject k cups out of hand, but never mind. GMCR not only treats their employees fairly well, they also do make a serious effort to be green, as seen from the roof. I did not understand it at the time, and still do not, I simply noted back in 2011 that GMCR seemed to face significant . . . criticism . . . from outside Vermont, quite possibly from individuals operating with ulterior motives . . .
This argument applies to a whole host of industries. If computer makers were not so intent on dictating access to the internet then htm standardization would have been a much smaller issue than it has been. Everyone seems to be attempting some form of vertical integration of some kind, creating a dependency within dependency in the name of profitability, and it is wrong. But instead of attacking a fairly progressive company over common corporate behavior, why not instead focus on the behavior itself? What I mean here is which is preferable? demise of the company? or the practice?
I probably take my coffee a bit too seriously, roasting my own and all. That being said, my brother has a Keurig. He's a very busy corporate single dad. Perfect for him. Anyway, using it at his house, I came to the conclusion that if that shitty machine was on my counter next to a pack of K-cups, I'd be walking out the door with swill from it on my way to work multiple times per week. It is that convenient. So fast, no cleanup...simply effortless. I totally get why they are so ridiculously popular given the brands of coffee that people normally brew for work in the morning. It tastes bad but so does Folgers in a drip brewer. Given that, you're not losing on taste but you are gaining on convenience quite a bit.
You can get good coffee with the convenience of a Keuring if you're will to pay for it...Gotta get one of these. I keep debating whether it's worth spending $1200 on a coffee machine. My heart says yes, but my head says no.
My head and heart say no. If you're making single cups just for yourself most of the time, just get an Aeropress. It looks geeky as hell and it is. It also looks complicated and annoying but it isn't. In terms of how quickly you can brew a cup of joe and clean up, it's at the top of the list for a non-automated machine. Much quicker and easier to clean than say, a French press. If you make more than a cup at a time I'd just get a French press for twenty bucks, or if you don't care for sediment at the bottom of your cup, a Chemex which looks sweet to boot. Regarding the Jura and convenience, from what I can tell it auto cleans, but it needs a lot of "cleaning of the auto cleaning" as well. But that thing makes espressos, cappuccinos, etc, including milk steaming wands, etc. That's like, a whole 'nother ballgame. Once you're into espresso machines you're into cleanup and maintenance, I don't care what they tell you. But if that thing is a lot easier to take care of than other espresso machines and it brews coffee, I could see it more. Esp if 1200 is no biggie, then fek yea go for it.
Tsk Tsk Coffee is far, far more than some meaningless, self-congratulatory flatulation. Not only does it make for a fine social lubricant absent the headache found with alcohol, it is also known to prevent stroke and some cancers, and it lowers the risks of Parkinson's and dementia . . . Surely there is no need to wax philosophical over the negatives of coffee, for while they do certainly exist, the fact remains: Philosophy is dead and we need not indulge that habit of self congratulatory flatulation any longer . . .