Lifers, lovers and part-timers.

Before I started drinking coffee almost 6 years ago, I thought that without a doubt that I would go throughout the rest of my life without drinking coffee. It wasnt a disinterest, and it wasn't because I hated it. The reason why I never wanted to have coffee was because I had never had good coffee. Every shop and every coffee I had ever tried up to the point I went to The Ugly Mug in Ypsilanti was contributing to this idea that all coffee was horrible. Looking back, I can see that maybe it was in part an over-roasted coffee, or maybe the blend was just horrible. But, now I think I'm coming to the conclusion that it could just be the people preparing and serving the coffee. My conclusion comes with a theory on people I meet in the coffee world. These people are loosly classified into three categories: Lifers, Lovers, and Part-Timers.

It has been from experience that I have learned to spot a "Lifer" from a mile away. They usually are wearing a coffee related t-shirt, always talk at length about coffee, and know where all the spots to go are in any town around the world. They can come off as pretentious at times, but have all the best intentions of spreading the word of coffee far and wide. These are the people who are always tweaking, playing, and doing things a million different ways just to see where it can go. Coffee is fun to these people, it is what they think about when they wake up, and it is what they think about all day long.

You have the Lovers lumped in this large middle category. It has its basis in people who can love and appreciate coffee for all its intricacies, but never take what they have in front of them any further than just that. It is an appreciation of it, not a quest to better themselves with the coffee. They generally work in the cafe for the environment and the people they will meet and hang out with but are not really interested in investing much beyond the social aspects of cafe life.

The part-timers are the people in the industry that I am not very fond of. You know these people when you walk into a cafe and clearly see the disdain on their faces. They hang out or work in coffee shops most likely part time to help supplement their other income or job. They don't care about the coffee, they don't care about what they are doing outside of making money and having a job. Quality, what quality? Not here, not with these people. Absolutely zero investment in the coffee, customer, or coffee shop.

Now, why would I mass generalize about what I perceive to be as separate groups of people in the coffee world? Well, because recently I have noticed how I rarely go into other coffee shops because I know whatever I get is most likely going to be made by part-timers. Even if I know that the coffee shop has a good coffee roaster behind them, the final results in the cup are not going to do justice to the coffee. So, what can be done about this? What can I do about this? What can we do about this?

I would really like to find a way to influence other coffee shops and interested coffee "lovers" to move into the first category of "lifers" and use the time that they spend in the cafe to learn and to have fun with the coffee. My parents did a good job teaching me as a kid that having fun with something will make the time go by faster, and make life all around more fulfilling and better. I know though that its not possible to show everyone that they can have fun by learning about coffee because people still have this archaic view of coffee as coming from a can, produced by some Latin American guy wearing a poncho with donkey in tow.

My idea to semi-remedy the problem is enforcement by cafe owners and managers to have Baristas do what is defined in their job description. The job of a Barista in my eyes is that of someone paid to properly represent the coffee they are given. Whether that be by making sure a grind setting is on, making sure the brew weights are right, or even to make sure the origin of coffee is done justice by the brew method. If a Barista pulls a shot based on volume and not by when the shot is properly extracted, they are not fulfilling their job title. It is as if I have seen time and time again that most people in the coffee industry calling themselves Baristas do not look at it as a real job. There is no final outcome for these people, it is just a food service thing for them. No value for them or anyone, just means to an end.

My conclusion is that the job of a Barista should be one of respect, a career, and one of constant betterment and learning. I am unhappy about the fact the the job of the Barista has been demeaned by the corporate coffee world. The majority of Barista jobs around the U.S. holds no value for anyone beyond being the new burger flipper at a Micky D's. Cafes, cafe owners, and cafe managers need to give the job respect again and create more lifers for the investment and return they will get from the customer. These are the people who will start to also respect the position and in turn take pride in contributing to the craft that is being a Barista. When you think about turning the job of a Barista into a career it starts to take on a different form. You start asking yourself "What can I do to do my job better?" And, "What can I do to bring respect to my job and therefore myself?"

I am a lifer. I love, respect, cherish my job and position in the coffee world. My goal is to do the best I can with what I have, to produce something everyone in the world can tell that I take pride in. Here's for hope!