The Coffee Life of barista Liu Xiaoxiang

When he first met Liu Xiaoxiang, he said casually, "just call me Sam." Like his personality, the barista prefers a simple life. He thinks coffee brings him the most idea of a happy and simple life. At the age of 29, with ten years of coffee work experience, he has witnessed the rise and popularity of coffee in recent years. He believes that the coffee atmosphere in the metropolis will become more and more mature.

The charm of coffee lies in its changeability.

Adjust the pressure and temperature and preheat the coffee machine for 30 minutes. Sam grinds the coffee beans into powder, compacts the hill-high coffee powder on the handle with a powder press, and puts the handle to the outlet of the coffee machine. Turn on the water switch, the water seeps through the gap between the powder and the powder, and the coffee cup is already waiting below. About 25 seconds, a cup of 30ml espresso finished.

During the break, Sam Youyou talks about his first contact with coffee ten years ago. "it was the first cup of freshly ground black coffee in my life. The coffee made from ground coffee beans is covered with coffee oil, which is novel in shape. When you drink it, the taste fills your nose and mouth, and it has a good aftertaste. " Sam fell in love with coffee for ten years. Coffee is a topic that Sam can never talk about. In his eyes, the variety of coffee taste and program shows charming elegant demeanor.

Coffee machines and beans are the key to making coffee. Semi-automatic coffee machines are usually used to make fancy coffee, while fully automatic coffee machines are often used to make half-grade coffee. As far as Sam is concerned, there are at least a dozen ways to make coffee.

Even the finished coffee has the same variety of flavors. Espresso is the essence of coffee, a cup as small as 28ml but very bitter and sour; fancy coffee cappuccino is milk coffee, the ratio of coffee, milk and bubble is 1:1:1, bubbling adds a smooth taste to the coffee. The soil of different regions, different moisture, weather and altitude, the technology and preparation of fried coffee beans will have an impact on the taste of the final coffee.

The charm of coffee is not only the complexity of the production process, but also the variety of practices, and Sam often draws inspiration from cooking and travel. For example, you can choose to fry and cook in a variety of ways. Sam has tried to make coffee in a pan, adding lemon peel to boil and filter the coffee, and there is lemon flavor in the coffee; he has also tried to use different cooking ingredients to match coffee, such as stirring biscuits to make smoothie coffee, which has a biscuit flavor, as is the principle of Starbucks Starbucks Frappuccino.

Coffee allows people to enjoy quiet and alone space.

Ten years ago, most of the drinks in people's hands were milk tea and soda. Sam still remembers that the rise of coffee was after Starbucks entered China, the atmosphere of coffee in the city quietly changed, and slowly more and more people accepted coffee. Young people prefer less sweet coffee, mochas and lattes are both refreshing and fashionable, while middle-aged people often order double espresso.

What do you recommend for coffee lovers? Sam said that boys are suitable for bitter coffee, which is used for refreshing work, and as breakfast, they can drink individual products, espresso, black coffee, etc.; girls are suitable for light fancy coffee, mocha, chocolate coffee, etc., but don't drink five or six cups a day. It's not good to absorb too much caffeine, and your skin will go bad. As for children under the age of 15, it is not recommended to drink coffee, which is not good for bone development; the elderly can drink less strong coffee. The main thing is to find your favorite coffee beans.

How to tell whether coffee is good or bad? Sam said that good coffee depends on the acidity of coffee beans, roasting methods, brewing methods, pay attention to the taste and smoothness of coffee, bad coffee depends on whether it deviates from the desired taste. What matters is whether the barista makes the taste you want when you drink the coffee you want.

Sam once came across a cafe with the theme of animal dolls, which is full of animal dolls, which can attract the attention of people who like fresh things. Sam also came across a book cafe, which he thought was the kind of themed atmosphere he wanted to bring to coffee.

Coffee allows people to enjoy their own space quietly. In the hotel where Sam works, there are always some regulars sitting in the corner. There is a middle-aged man who has been drinking coffee in a hotel for the past two years. Three or four times a month, he orders a cup of Nanshan or a single product, reads a philosophy book, and sits alone all day.

Sam believes that making coffee is easier learned than refined. Cool can be used to make coffee for a while, but it is difficult to cool all the year round. You can't last long without love and persistence to your career. If you want to learn coffee, the only requirement is not to heat it for three minutes.

Sam's dream is to open a coffee shop. Six years ago, Sam read in his coffee tutorial book that there was a young Japanese man who had converted the first floor of his two-story Japanese house into a coffee shop, which had been open for 20 or 30 years. This is also what Sam thinks the cafe looks like: "you don't need to be too big. A restaurant of about 60 square meters has a bar in a prominent position in the cafe. There are 20 tables in the house, and there are tables outside where you can sit, drink coffee, bask in the sun, and draw pictures in the cafe."

In 2012, a female guest smelled coffee at the bar where Sam worked and suddenly said, "it smells good. I haven't had it for a long time." She asked her husband to sit with her children at the bar for a long time, watching Sam make coffee and telling her two-or three-year-old son a story about her past in the coffee industry. Sam hopes his cafe can bring such a warm atmosphere to people.

In 2008, an Australian congresswoman tried his product and wanted to poach his skills by giving him a business card to allow him to be a skilled immigrant. Although the coffee culture there is so strong that he may be able to buy a house in two or three years, he did not go because the original simple life is enough, and he does not like the assumption of "if". "so it's easy to stick to your dream. If you like it, you'll keep trying to make it right. How can you feel depressed?" Sam makes coffee with this attitude, and now he is going to learn to paint in order to make the flowers more beautiful. Because he needs to know more about the subtle molecular reactions in coffee, he also plans to study chemistry.

Sam thinks that he likes simple personality from coffee, a small cup of coffee, Sam in the beginning to pull flowers to learn for three years, brewing good coffee requires meditation, Sam in this impatient polishing process more and more precipitate. Satisfied with today's life, Sam hopes to open a coffee shop in his fifties and sixties in the future, so that more people like coffee.