A Busman's Holiday - search for Great Espresso
by Stephen Morrissey, Barista at large and guest columnist www.flyingthud.blogspot.com/

It's all too easy to get a complex of isolation living in Ireland, especially if you're into quality coffee. While Ireland and the UK have what some in the media consider a thriving café culture, others including myself see only a growing number of establishments serving dirty, stale and simply unloved coffee. Consequently, the same folk tend to label the UK and Ireland speciality coffee scene, with the exception of a few, as horribly behind on the international scene; which is not exactly the best environment for a budding barista.

There's also only so much time you can spend online, lurking in the coffee forums or poring over articles on coffeegeek. So in frustration, I decided to find out how good or bad we were for myself. I arranged to spend a summer working in a city renowned in the industry for its higher number of quality cafés, Vancouver Canada. While my primary goal was to learn, I was keen to check the validity of the city's online claims. My hope was to find out whether their baristas were really more aware and more passionate about their coffees, if they differed, or were better technically and most importantly, whether the coffee they served was as consistently stellar as they claimed.

Vancouver
I spent my first few weeks getting to know the city, finding an apartment and learning the ropes in my new job as barista and trainer for Wicked Café. My boss for the summer, Brad Ford, owner of cafe, is also the Canadian distributor for the highly respected Chicago based roaster Intelligentsia, and kindly became my café tour guide for the city. We checked out well known cafés such as The Elysian Room, Artigiano, JJ Bean, Prado Café and Continental.

Short and Strong
The first and most striking difference to home was definitely the strength of the espresso. High end baristas are pulling shots around 45 to 60ml in volume with a double or triple basket, causing the Italian or WBC style of preparation to appear dated here. The result is a much more intense, earthy espresso with tonnes of body and a much more subdued acidity. The good shots had lots of sweetness coming through milk or dark chocolate notes but lacked any substantial floral or fruit in the aroma, although dark berry notes were common. Initially I found each shot so powerful that I couldn't take more than a few a day and even then I had problems differentiating between the different cafés' coffees. I found myself longing for a brightness and greater balance in my espresso and became quickly curious whether these coffees could perform as well or better with a lower dose. Aftertime behind the bar, adopting this style, I got more accustomed to it and eventually grew more familiar with the different flavour profiles at each café. There are four roasters that dominate the speciality scene here - Intellligentsia, Hines Public Market, 49th Parallel and JJ Bean. As to which I prefer, I am reluctant to say online however I will say that I have had just beautiful shots from each.

As to which preparation style I prefer, I'm loathe to commit to just one. There is a new understanding in the industry that suggests each coffee, be it espresso or filter, requires a specific recipe accompanying it from the roaster. This recipe would include the ideal brewing time, temperature, and indeed dose. So instead of adopting only one style, I would hope that I could adapt my style to bring out the best in each coffee. 'Hope' being the operative word here.

Going Naked and Favoured Machines

One of the factors that probably contribute to the stronger coffee is the popularity of the naked portafilters. At home these modified group handles still play a mainly training role whereas over here their improved extraction visibility is used for quality control. I guess they're so popular here they just didn't want to revert to spouts, especially as may of the cafes weren't splitting their shots in the first place.

The nakeds have been slated for their ill affect on stable brewing temperatures, but then the latest in machine technology, abundant in this city, seems to be addressing any issues in that arena. Many of the Marzoccos in use, either Lineas or FB70s, have been tricked out with 0.6 gicleurs, (slower flow rate) and PID controls (assists in stable brewing temperature) so as to perform better. The rest of the cafes for the most part are simply upgrading whenever a newer model or better machine comes out.

The rising star on the scene, however, would have to be the Synesso Cyncra. It is quickly gaining a reputation among baristas, not only for its aesthetic appeal both from a visual and ergonomic view, but also from its performance quality. As well as the latest Marzocco FB80, it already has the smaller gicleurs and PID as standard. In addition to the one boiler per group design, practically all the parts can be sourced at local DIY stores should they require replacement.

While not all the cafes are using the naked portafilters, two significant that do are the Café Artigiano chain and The Elysian Room; Artigiano only using their regular spouted portafilters when a customer specifically requests a single shot. The Elysian Room is working off a 2 group Cyncra and I believe Café Artigiano's busiest store is now awaiting deliver of a 5 group Mistral!

The single spout portafilters are used for back flushing only, their awkward basket design being considered detrimental to the extraction. This is not overly new as many cafes at home also don't use single baskets, but differ in that they don't go as far as to serve only doubles instead. At home, baristas will often pull two shots from a double basket but serve only one. The waste here is clear and can be irritating, but is excused as a victim to superior quality. Where some cafes will use the spare shots for ice drinks, the more common practice is to throw the other away, and so perhaps serving a double as standard does make more sense.

Providing the correct ratio is maintained, in theory the balance of the shot should persist through. In my experience though, many cafés over here seem to serve quite short shots, and so really their espresso design is more akin to a double ristretto.

It's tempting to relate it to the 'bigger is better' motto often associated with North America, but I think here it derives more from a quality focused motivation. The idea that an updosed double or triple shot, pulled to about two ounces and more commonly less, makes a better espresso, seems to be a trend that has caught on and become standard. I was always aware of the updosed practice for its popularity in Australia but I didn't expect it to be a standard over here too. From a competition view point, baristas must find it quite difficult to adapt to the rules and limitations compared to their daily routines.

Are the baristas better technically?
I would have to say yes, although they're not doing anything radically different to us. They all go through the same steps we do however some take more pride in how they carry each out. The main difference is simply that there are a lot more high quality baristas and while there may be only three or four in each café, those numbers alone easily outnumber us at home. For the most part they're also much more aware of their machines and how they differ in performance to others. We may lack a similar engineering knowledge and passion in as many of our baristas at home, but I would argue that our best are just good as their best.

Baristas here are also very familiar with their coffee and know quite clearly how it should taste, the origins of the blend, and exactly what's wrong if it's any way off. Everyone seems very aware of which café is serving what special coffee, how much it costs and especially how it tastes. They also all seem to travel around to other cafes each day, either hoping to pick up new tricks, or just to check out the competition. Many of these good traits flow from the top down, from café owners who demand high standards from their baristas and aim to inspire them as they have been. The city does have a strong community of baristas, however sadly they tend to stick mainly to their own cafes.

This is something I would particularly love to see more of at home. We need to instil respect for the craft in the people in charge, instead of tackling the ever rolling turnover behind the bars. It's not that Vancouver is a lot better than us at making good coffee, it's just that there are a lot more places that do. I think if you look at how the UK and Ireland Barista Champions have placed in the WBC recently, in comparison to previous years, it is clear that we are doing better and better all the time.

Stephen Morrissey

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