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have perfected your brew with thermometers, scales, and refractometers, but all this can be intimidating to the brewing novice. If your manual brew is involved, make sure you're taking the time to break it down for the most basic of coff ee drinkers. Other educational resources like a brew guide or home brewing demos in the café go a long way in helping ensure your customers are getting a good introduction to brewing at home. And re- member: if a customer feels empowered to try manual brewing themselves at home, they'll likely look to you—their original educator—for what they need in terms of home equipment and whole bean coff ee. Design and presentation It's just disheartening to see a 'brew station' that consists of a Chemex sand- wiched between the pastries and chocolate bars. T at Chemex just seems to scream, "I don't belong here!" Although this is an extreme example, we've all experienced awkward manual brew mo- ments just like it. We won't try to tell you how to design or redesign your space, but there are some key questions to answer to make sure your design fi ts your core values. First off , does your design fi t the brew method and the supplies you need? Having a designated, intentional space sends a signal to your customers that it is a legitimate part of your menu and not an aſt erthought. A setup that is disorganized or cluttered makes cus- tomers uncomfortable and oſt en unwilling to order that brew method. A hard question to ask is: if you can't invest the space that the brew method requires, does it really belong on your menu? Your presentation should convey a sense of value to the brews you're selling. You don't need a 40-inch fl at screen playing videos from coff ee farms, but an intentional, well-thought- out display and presentation is key. It can be as a simple as a well designed printed menu or as involved as a video display of a visit to the farm. T e point is to make sure you're sending a clear message of how much value this brewed coff ee represents by how much time and eff ort you invest in its presentation. Menu and pricing Manual brewing is about quality—quality that takes time and hard work to accomplish. T is should be refl ected in your pricing and also the visual representation of your coff ees. Does your pricing refl ect the time it takes to brew, the setup required to brew it, the preparations taken, not to mention the value of the coff ees themselves? If your price point for auto-drip is the same as your pourover, it sends the message that it holds no greater value to the customer. Does it fit well with your business model? Some of the best implementations of manual brew are those that have it as the only option. If you have both automated-drip and a brew by the cup option it can turn into a question of "quick and easy" or "slow and laborious." It sets up a precedence of comparison for your staff and customers, and soon you could be hearing dreaded staff interactions where they www.baristamagazine.com 71 denigrate the pour over in favor of auto-drip simply because they don't want to hassle with it. If you started off with an automated brewing method it's important to consider the question soberly: Could we sustainably use both brew methods? How does it aff ect our fl ow in the café? Can our cus- tomers be won over to only serving brew by the cup? T ere are many ways of adjusting your business model to accommo- date manual or "slow" brew. T ere can be certain hours of the day when single cup brews are available and when there is adequate staff to handle it. Some cafés have a separate "slow bar" with staff devoted to manual brew and whole bean sales entirely. For some smaller businesses a member of back offi ce staff can be on-call to assist on the fl oor when there's a rush or manual brews are ordered. Make sure you're taking into account all the possibilities. Your way of employing a brew program doesn't have to look like what we see in the rest of the industry. Continued on page 83 ANACAFE ANACAFE