Good Coffee Is Now Bad

If specialty coffee stops being "different", then it's no longer specialty - it's a commodity.

I'm reading the "Best of Jimseven 2004-2015" [1] book, where then-blogger, now-Youtuber [2] James Hoffman explores his own journey starting a cafe. And, in it he talks about the original marketing challenges of positioning a specialty cafe:

> What those of us in specialty coffee offer isn’t necessarily unilaterally better coffee, but among our offerings are different lots of coffee someone will probably enjoy more than what they’re drinking

> My concern is that when our tone implies we have something better, because we think what they are drinking is terrible, then we're likely to have them become closed rather than open to trying something new and better.

James concludes that calling specialty coffee "better" is counter-productive, and that specialty coffee should instead market a "diversity" of experiences.

As nondescript cafes like Blank Street rise in prominence - that means that baseline coffee expectations of society have increased, from gas station sludge to robot-brown-water. But, "better" doesn't mean "specialty."

There's still room for cafes that offer different experiences - like a nice Sey roast. Specialty is best defined by "different" or "unique". And, what qualifies as "different" may be a moving target. And, that's ok - not every cafe can maintain a unique experience and not every customer wants a challenging cup of coffee.

You can have a great cafe without superlative-inspiring brew. Let's face it - the customer service of a local cafe impacts people's experiences far more than the particular coffee they're served.

[1] https://tenshundredsthousands.com/products/the-best-of-jimse...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ

Agreed, I think the average “coffee snob” really just wants people to enjoy coffee that doesn’t have to be 50% cream and sugar. Coffee doesn’t have to be that acrid tasting black water made from over-roasted, stale, coffee grounds that our parents often drank.

This is true in the US but not universally true. We are a commercial society where the money matters more than the prestiege or whatever other reward for making a great product. There are places I’ve been to in Italy or Japan where this is not the case, in fact I wouldn’t even know what good coffee was if not for those countries.

Good coffee, really good coffee is easy. You get a heat gun, you get an old fashioned flour sifter. You order some interesting green beans from sweetmarias.com. You roast the beans over the heat gun while holding the flour sifter and cranking. I do 2/3 pound batches. There are lots of fast and easy ways to brew the coffee. My current favorite is an aeropress because it takes a few minutes, but moka pots are very good.

This is good coffee. Truly good. I can roast dark, light, Kenya, Java, Mexican. I can make my own blend.

Or I can go down the street or drive and get some coffee and pay a huge amount to someone who can't roast as well as I can. Doesn't know which coffee beans are best. Where I will never be able to try Yemeni Bani Haraz.

You could call me a snob, but I work for my coffee.

> But since I can't really whip out my french press in an airport

You can whip out an aeropress in an airport, and can probably finnagle 200mL boiling water from one of the eateries or shops (I would assume that to be the bigger challenge as you can’t exactly start a fire at the gate, not to mention carrying a gas cartridge through security).