No More Coffee Snobs.
I feel we’re at a crucial point in our time of specialty coffee, and how to market it. On one hand, we are representing a premium product against an onslaught of average and mediocre coffee. We are representing coffee farmers who put massive amounts of care and pride in the coffee they grow, working to make lives better for their families, working to make growing quality coffee sustainable, and increasing the quality of coffee they grow so they make more money for their hard work. We roast these special coffees, sometimes as small as one lot from one farm, with special care, with no automation. The roaster hovers around the face of the roaster the last five minutes, working the tryer and using all his/her senses to determine the very best roast for this special coffee. In other words, we’re not buying, roasting, or selling $10 coffee.
We talk about better ways to buy our coffee, from a freshness perspective. We talk about better ways to brew our coffee, using methods like Clever Drippers, Chemexes, Hario V60s. We talk about things like avoiding adding cream and sugar (as I’ve read the conversation regarding Coffee Common’s neat idea of showing folks what adding these things to coffee does, and Mark Prince chiming in about not knocking the thought of adding milk to some coffee for some people.) And we talk about all these things because we care about the coffee, we are passionate about a really high quality product. We are passionate about it, because we see and know all the passion that goes into this coffee from sprout to cup.
And there lies the challenge. On the other hand, we have got to find a way to meet average customer halfway, without compromising our passion and thoughts on what good coffee is. I feel I, myself, am doing this the best way I know how through the Coffee 101/Tour/Samplings I’m doing with Scoutmob and Atlanta Culinary Tours. I share it with the Coffee Ambush, an opportunity to share specialty coffee with offices of people who, many have never had fresh roasted specialty coffee before. In a year, I’ve brought 1000 people into the Batdorf Atlanta Roastery, and each of these people have gotten a view of what I know of specialty coffee. And I sure hope at no point do I come off as a snob. I go out of my way to tell folks that I’m a coffee professional, but not a snob. I never judge anyone for their choice of their favorite coffee. We have got to accept everyone where they’re at.
And yet time and time again, we’ve heard the feedback on arrogant baristas. We’ve seen the Funny Or Die video “Coffee Snobs.” We’ve seen the cartoons making fun of baristas who treat their customers like morons for not knowing their language. Recently here in Atlanta, a friend was belittled at her choice of Decaf Americanos and Soy Macchiato at a shop featuring one of the most prominent roasters in the country. I recently read a Yelp review that someone left at our own shop, Dancing Goats Coffee Bar, here in Atlanta, where someone had a bad experience with a barista and how they were treated. And I’m reminded that our job is to share something that’s very special to us, to folks who don’t know or understand what makes a cup of our coffee worth $2.50 or $3.00.
We have to help folks understand why a one pound bag of coffee costs $18, and is still worth so much more. And at no point will pretention or snobbery play a positive role in this. At no point does this help the cause of specialty coffee. When we look down on a customer because they want to add cream or sugar to their coffee, or they ask for a decaf Americano. (And you do realize that someone who chooses to drink decaf coffee and decaf espresso does so not because they need a caffeine fix, but because they actually enjoy the taste of coffee or espresso so much that they have to still have it??)
Specialty coffee relies on us to present this really special product with care and passion, and without a shred of pretention. It beckons us to share it with people, and let them decide for themselves if it merits the price, and I would venture to say, for most people, they would say it does. But there will be a segment of people who don’t and won’t see it. And we have to be okay with that. There will be a segment of people that will still decide to put cream and/or sugar in their coffee. We have to be okay with that. We want people drinking specialty coffee. We can’t force our customers into becoming clones of us, we can educate them, and understand they’ll make choices for themselves.
I’ll leave you with this question: Does the farmer who grew that delicious coffee you roasted with care care about whether or not the end customer added sugar to it? I would venture to say they don’t, they are simply glad the coffee was bought, roasted with care by a passionate roaster, and brewed with care by a skilled barista.
(And for the record, when I hand brew on Friday mornings at Dancing Goats, I have folks ask me all the time if it would bother me if they put cream and/or sugar in it, and my response is always the same, “I’d like you to at least try it without it, I think you’ll find it doesn’t need anything, but if you need to add anything, that’s okay.” That lets them know I’m not going to judge them if they do, but gives them a chance to try it without first. I would venture to say more than 75-80% pass by the condiments counter and don’t put anything in it after I’ve said this, and most respond with the “this doesn’t need anything!” or “this is the first time I’ve been able to drink coffee black” comment. But, the key is, the customer is able to make that observation themselves, I can’t make it for them.)
