Communication between bakers and baristas should be strengthened.

The last time A Chao went to Qingdao to communicate with the baristas, Barista asked, if you encounter a strange bean, how can you grind it more quickly and effectively? The adjustment of basic flow rate and cup size is already a basic skill for most baristas. But 30ml of Espresso in 25 seconds and 28 seconds are clearly a thousand miles apart, so how does Barista know that this Espresso is its best taste?

First, as Tim Wendelboe puts it, baristas should have basic coffee tasting skills in addition to making skills, and second,"Barista should have basic roasting knowledge to understand how roasting affects coffee flavor, and the same coffee will have different taste results due to different roasting methods." I think all Barista should try to talk and exchange ideas with the baker, at least to know the meaning of the baking date on the bag and other important information accompanying it. I also feel that roasters and Barista must test all kinds of coffee at the same time. By giving feedback in this way, roasters can grasp the brewing needs more accurately, and Barista can learn more about roasting. This is definitely a win-win way for everyone."

For me, who is now roasting, the last thing I want to see is nothing more than my coffee being unrecognizable in the hands of some barista, completely different from the taste it should have. At this year's Barista Competition in Beijing, I served as a technical judge, and a Barista selected our coffee beans (wildflower mix) before the competition, which I knew only when I saw the label during the competition. However, due to various reasons, the coffee produced is not the typical characteristics that wildflowers should have, so I came down and said to him,"Look for me after you finish the game, I will say a few words to you." Later, the barista could not find me because of time constraints, and I was deeply sorry, in addition to trying to help him improve his production skills, but also because my coffee did not perform well.

In the process of making competition beans for A Chao, we always maintain the closest and most detailed communication. He advocates the theme flavor he wants, while I express the flavor he wants through blending or single item and baking. During the game, I was obviously playing the roaster role and he was playing the barista role. Even with such communication, due to different production habits, it will also cause flavor deviation, so we will make fine adjustments, including formula and baking degree, etc. When the barista is dominant, the barista should have a clear idea so that the roaster can cooperate.

Usually, when the store gets a finished coffee bean, the roaster becomes the dominant one, and how the coffee taste made by the barista depends largely on the coffee flavor that the coffee roaster wants to express. At this time, if the roaster can clearly tell Barista through some channels what the coffee bean should taste like, the general problems that should be paid attention to in the production process, etc., the coffee will come out as close as possible to the flavor and characteristics that the roaster wants to express.

Unfortunately, at this stage, such a communication mechanism has not yet been established. The roaster silently roasts and the barista silently produces. How sad it was to walk into a coffee shop one day and complain that the coffee tasted bad, only to find that it was made with beans roasted by oneself. To this end, we started from the first half of this year, referring to SCAA and ICO related information, combined with the characteristics of their own coffee beans, the basic standard of hand-brewed (filtered) coffee, and we will continue to improve the production of blending suggestions to help coffee makers better use our coffee beans.