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additional flavors to coffee. James Freeman "started the company in counterproductive. The best outcome is when the drink highlights the coffee, rather than the time when pumpkin-spiced lattes were becoming really popular hiding it. The coffee should not become the boring part in immediate and [people were requesting a] double-pump mocha and all that kind of stuff, and he wanted to shift back to understanding the actual taste need of a sugar-laced cloaking device, but an exciting product that deserves to be shown off. of fresh coffee," says Bennett. "What is this ingredient that we're so fixed on? It has flavors of its own even if we don't put a lot of this or a lot of that in it. What are Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood's and Colin Harmon's signature drinks those like?" he says. This perspective seems to be representative of might not be completely practical in terms of expedient shop serthe majority of current specialty-coffee shops, and leaves us to serious- vice, but their experimentation is just as complex and considered as ly question whether we should continue to value the signature drink, Catherine and Krysty's creations. More so, just like Curators Coffee, their signature drinks are intended as a challenge to the fabric of the either in the shop or at competition. "I feel like if signature drinks were the wave of the future or were in expected coffee experience. The inherent creativity involved in the some way beneficial to our industry on a retail level I would think that preparation of the signature beverage is being used to propel percepthey would have happened. And, you know, that's one thing that makes tions of coffee from inside and outside of the industry. These represent one extreme of an exciting wave of signature me hesitant to say that it will happen," Bennett admits. Though the competition undoubtedly represents a unique environ- drinks that use tasting flights, spherification, cold-brewing, infusions, ment for coffee development and experimentation, it ought to also and numerous other inventive and challenging culinary techniques to be a trailblazer for the possibilities of worldwide coffee service. If the further our understanding of coffee. Shops like Curators Coffee may products and skills of competition can't be put to use in a custom- have broken these methods out of the competition matrix in a flight of er-oriented environment, then their inclusion could easily be called "caution to the wind," but their success has clear lessons for the industry. Given the right environment, this model of coffee, of celebrating into question. Bennett counters, "I think competition is a way to keep us thinking the signature beverage, can find a place on the manicured chalkboard about what we're doing as coffee professionals, and I do think that menu of the contemporary coffee shop. the signature beverage plays a role in that. You have this elaborate thing that you wouldn't normally do for a customer, but in doing this elaborate thing you have a moment to flesh out a bigger idea." HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT He talks passionately about a barista championship routine devised by Charles Babinski, now co-owner of Go Get 'Em Tiger and G&B; Coffee in Los Angeles, which was all about coffee service. Charles seperated the judges into two groups, treating two of them as the experienced coffee experts they are, and two as more ordinary coffee shop customers. "It fundamentally changed the way I approach incoming customers," Bennett says. "I owe that to Charles, bringing that up in a competition setting, so that's really valuable. "I am a big fan of signature drinks that make me think about service; that make me think about coffee preparations; that make me think about that troubling customer I have in line; WIN FREE STUFF FROM COMPANIES LIKE BARATZA, that make me think about the way that we're PRIMA, ESPRESSO PARTS, AND MORE JUST BY doing what we're doing, and I think that that READING BARISTA MAGAZINE! for me is the kind of redeeming factor about signature drinks." =n]jqO]\f]k\Yq$nakal:YjaklYEY_Yraf]k:dg_lg The question, as Bennett rightly identifies, answer a trivia question (psst! All the answers can be is not whether coffee shops adopt a signature found in the latest issue of BMag!) beverage. Over time, some will, like Curators Coffee, and some won't. The question is: Correct responses are entered into a drawing to What should their aim be if they do take on WIN FREE STUFF! a signature beverage? What value can it provide for the shop and the coffee industry? EVERY WEDNESDAY at Signature beverages can be beneficial to a www.baristamagazine.com/blog specialty coffee shop, but they can also be www.baristamagazine.com 71