What on earth are you kicking in a coffee shop?

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At the end of the wind, there has been a little fry in the coffee man circle in the past two days. A column about visiting stores has caused a great deal of controversy.

Today, let's talk about the phenomenon of "kicking" in coffee. About kicking the gym, what on earth are you kicking?

Let's do a survey first:

one

In the past two days, the coffee circle has been very lively on Zhihu. A column about visiting stores has caused a lot of controversy--

A person in the coffee circle posted an article written after visiting stores in Zhoushan and Ningbo in Zhihu's personal column and "commented" on the six stores he had drunk one by one.

However, the owner of one store was not happy when he saw it. "Why do you say my shop is bad when you have a cup of coffee?" As a result, the two "tore" on Wechat. Then you went back and forth, and more people in the circle were involved, causing a lot of controversy. (details of the incident can be searched in Zhihu.)

It's too hot for everyone to light the fire. However, taking such an opportunity, we can discuss a kind of emotionally complicated phenomenon of coffee-kicking restaurant.

In China's broad and profound tea culture, there is a custom loved by onlookers-fighting for tea, which is quite similar to the "kicking restaurant" of the coffee industry.

In a popular TV series, there is the following scene:

Bring your own coffee beans and coffee cups. Usually, at this pace, the next step is to find out the "junk barista" at the bar, make two cups of concentration, drink it, leave one cup, and walk away.

If you take a loudspeaker and say this shop sucks after you finish it, I'll throw up and beat me to death. You can imagine how bad it is for the store owner.

two

When it comes to kicking the restaurant, opening a cafe has the most direct feeling. Every day, while serving with a thoughtful smile, we should also observe what the purpose is for this person to look around and shoot around.

Especially for the newly arrived coffee shop waiters, when they encounter someone entering the door, they ask, "where did you get the beans, how much is it per jin", "what type of coffee machine is it", "have a cup of Espresso, Double"... I was terrified.

But I have to say, this is also a very level of exercise. 喜悦 of Qiao'an Coffee said that he once chatted with a non-local guest and talked about the local coffee atmosphere. The guest smiled mysteriously, "do you know why it's good? they were all kicked out of the restaurant!"

The shop assistants who came to the internship were trembling every day for fear of unanswerable questions, especially the barista in their store who had just been working as a coffee for a year, went home every night to find various channels to study, and went to listen to good training classes when he heard of them.

▲ has become a way of being forced to grow up.

Over time, new customers become gluttons, new baristas become versatile, and eventually you will be surprised to find that the products of every coffee shop are beginning to stand up to scrutiny.

three

However, the "quack" behavior of kicking the pavilion has also confused many stores:

How does running a cafe help your business with the "super" behavior of your peers?

Kicking is usually carried out under the banner of "promoting industry exchanges". But in fact, a lot of kicking behavior does not seem to promote the exchange of the industry. On the contrary, it is easy to fail to grasp the yardstick and send some provocative signals, bringing unhappiness to both sides.

An owner who has run a cafe for a long time told me that most of the people who came to kick the restaurant were naive and thought they had mastered the standards after taking a few years of training courses or delving into their own skills.

As a matter of fact, there is a standard for service, but there is no standard for taste. Whether it is kicking the library or being kicked, the evaluation of product quality is out of the subjective judgment of personal experience, and there is not a standard evaluation system.

NeverCoffee often organizes some kicking activities. But the standard of kicking pavilion comes from the comprehensive experience of customers, rather than a single production technology. Founder Liu Zuofei said that many people who open independent cafes often do not think about making money and are really in love with coffee, so they are sensitive to the evaluation of kicking cafes.

Ji Ming, the first president of the Beijing Coffee Association, made it clear: do not advocate provocative kicking behavior on the products, taste is everyone's business, there is no unified standard.

▲, so when it comes to playing gymnasium, a lot of people think, "who are you?"

He suggested that independent cafe owners can put up notices: our baristas serve ordinary consumers, welcome peers to taste, but do not need professional judgment.

four

The behavior of kicking the library, in the eyes of those who kick the library, is mostly endowed with the halo of "just mission".

Admittedly, with the rise of boutique coffee, the standards of industry restaurants are mixed, which is a reality.

But the technological struggle, in the current market, can not bring better progress to the industry.

As a kind of self-consciousness of coffee people, we should all understand that opening a coffee shop is a service industry, and technology is only one kind of scale. Man is the yardstick of everything.