Serving a really good coffee to customers – simple isn’t it…
There is such a wide choice of coffee beans these days, ranging from dreadful (and not necessarily inexpensive) to exceptional (and expensive)…
There are Arabica coffee beans (generally high quality) and Robusta coffee beans (generally low quality) with most bags of roasted coffee beans you buy being a blend of the two to get a balance of flavour and price.
The region the coffee beans are grown makes a big difference. Arabica is fussy where it is grown and susceptible to pests, Robusta is more robust (!) and can be grown more widely, but is lower grade – Vietnam is a big producer of Robusta coffee beans, but a lot of that goes into freeze dried coffee for example. Here at ANVIL Coffee Roasters we personally like coffee from Papua New Guinea at the moment – but that might change next year depending on the weather when the next crop is grown – so we constantly test and develop new single origins and blends.
Our ANVIL #1 blend (which is a blend including beans from Papua New Guinea) won the Great Taste 3 Star Award in 2017 (the highest accolade achievable) and the BRAZIL single origin we chose won an additional 1 Star award. It definitely pays to choose the right green bean.
FRESHNESS
Freshness is another major factor. Some big brand coffee you see on the high street will have been imported into Italy (say) and sat around for a while, then roasted and bagged, and sat around for a while, then imported into the UK, and sat around for a while – then you get to finally make it… “fresh ground”. You’ll see what we are saying here...?
With the coffee we roast here we recommend you use it within 3 months – to get the very best from it. We roast to order, so the coffee you receive will probably have been roasted here just last week.
THE EQUIPMENT
The coffee machine you use makes a difference to not only the coffee you will get out of it, but the best beans to use. Some beans work well with “home machines”, others work well with bean-to-cup machines, others work well as a filter coffee, or with drip systems… while others will be best for a proper Flat White.
THE DAILY GRIND
The grind of the beans also has a MAJOR effect on the final outcome – you need to get the grind just right for your machine – you need to experiment with a grind which is, shall we say in layman’s terms, courser than talcum powder but not as course as fine sand – adjust the grinder each time and see what results you get – it seriously makes a HUGE difference. You will probably need to adjust your grinder throughout the day as the weather changes !
If your grinder is a good one, that will help. If it’s a cheap one, that will be a challenge. We sell espresso machines from a little under £2000 (all the way up to over £15,000) and the grinder to go with it costs from £400 extra - so it’s a significant element in the mix.
TRAINING
Lastly, if you are serious about serving a great coffee to customers, get yourself on a barista training course.
As an example of the possible complexities of coffee, we run a “boot camp” barista course for beginners which lasts 3 hours, and we have a City & Guilds VRQ Level 2 course which lasts 3 days – and our lead barista trainer has just completed a Speciality Coffee Association course which has taken him over 2 years to complete… funny because “coffee shops” who want to “serve the best” often want us to visit them and train perhaps 6 staff at the same time, in 30 minutes, and they say to us “will that be enough time to allow us to serve a good coffee” !
For some amazing (award winning) coffee beans, own-label coffee beans, espresso machines, barista training, and service, contact ANVIL Coffee Roasters at www.anvilcoffee.co.uk or on 01256 300 050.
|
Tel
01256 300 050
