Barista Magazine

JUN-JUL 2014

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very Friday morning, a small group of lead baristas and managers gets togeth- er at the University of Washington to sample new batches of roasted coffees, some which are being offered in the stu- dent cafés and others which are simply there to try. Conversation during the two-hour cupping get-togethers swings easily between small talk sur- rounding weekend plans to more coffee-focused topics such as how to standardize training sessions for new hires, or stream- line cleaning and café maintenance. These young coffee pro- fessionals who manage staffs, roast coffee, and pull shots for the university-owned student company Husky Grind, are most energetic, however, when they're discussing how to better edu- cate their teams of student employees, and the customers those students serve. The weekly cuppings take place in the university's coffee lab, a newly constructed space on campus that features a 2.5- kilo Diderich roaster used by Husky Grind staff to craft some, though not all of the café's coffee production. The lab is part functional workspace, part classroom, and all one big experi- ment developed to explore whether locally roasted, slow-bar style coffee can become a popular, and cost-effective staple of the university dining system. Created in 2013 under the watch of the Housing and Food Services Department, Husky Grind is the University of Wash- ington's in-house coffee brand, employing four full-time staff members and around 15 student baristas and coordinators. The Husky Grind concept is part of a small but growing movement nationwide of universities creating café programs to serve up lessons in coffee culture, business, agronomy, biology, hospi- tality, economics, and marketing alongside high-quality cups of coffee. Other cafés, such as Roasted at Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Penn.; Yale's KBT Café; and Barefoots Joe on the campus of Union University in Jackson, Tenn., have all structured their coffee businesses to operate more like col- laborative classrooms than typical coffee shops. Barefoots Joe, which was forced to rebuild following a devas- tating 2008 tornado, took what could have been a business-end- ing disaster and used it to bring the community together to rebuild the space, which is now one of the area's most lively and unique coffeehouse environments. "The impetus to create this shop came from the students who wanted to see a collaboration of their various disciplines," says Joy Moore, the café's faculty supervisor. "They wanted a chance to implement their learning into a real place, and that vision has shaped our identity and mission." After the tornado, Barefoots Joe was rebuilt as a creative space for artists, performers, students, and faculty mem- bers—and of course, serious coffee lovers. The café employees upwards of 12 student baristas as well as an eight-member lead- ership team that coordinates live music and art events, promotes educational outreach programs, and also works to decide the future of the business. Barefoots Joe is one of a select few campus programs that employs a full-time student as its master roaster. Levi Harts- field, a Union sophomore, is expected to balance production and demand with the cost of green coffee; research new and seasonal offerings from importers; teach baristas why different coffees showcase different flavors; and most importantly, troubleshoot when things go wrong. These are all issues being tackled in classes like economics, geography, biology, and sociology, but thanks to his job at Bare- foots Joe, Levi is equipped with the real-world ability to practi- cally apply those subjects' lessons. Working on campus under the guidance of a full-time staff member allows students like Levi to gain authentic experience in an environment that is a bit more forgiving and far less stressful than what he's likely to encounter after graduation. Besides beefing up a student's resumé, on-campus cafés are in many cases a young person's introduction to the world of craft and locally roasted coffee. Gaining knowledge and a taste for unique varieties of coffee while still in college may very well give students seeking a career in the café industry a leg up on their competition. The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) esti- mates the current value of the United States coffee market to be between $30 and $32 billion, 37 percent of which is made up of specialty retailers and roasters. The SCAA also estimates the number of coffee drinkers between the ages of 18–24 to comprise 40 percent of the total number of specialty-coffee con- sumers, up from around 30 percent in 2010—and those numbers continue to grow. With an exponentially increasing demand for high-end coffee, particularly among twentysomethings, college students exiting higher education with solid skills in and an understanding of contemporary café business and culture will be at a significant advantage over their peers. "Education is really the main thrust of what we're doing," says Joseph Maurey, manager of Husky Grind. "Education is everything. Hopefully we're offering our people—whether it's our full-time baristas, or our student team members—a type of program they can't get anywhere else on campus. We have the coffee lab and we also have the new facility at Local Point (a dining concept in the basement of newly-built Lander Hall) which has an espresso machine and grinder and stadium seating for training." The University of Washington has invested in a coffee pro- gram that allows students and full-time staff members the chance to be a part of a contemporary coffee experience, one that involves manual brewing methods, traceable, microlot coffees, and occasions to work with high-grade, cutting-edge equipment—all without leaving campus. "It's unprecedented, the opportunities that our student employees have," Maurey said. University-sanctioned cafés, especially those specializing in single-origin or locally roasted coffees, also operate as a sort of gateway to the greater student population, informing young consumers about flavor profiles and brewing methods perhaps previously unavailable to them at home. As these programs con- tinue to come online, their influence on the industry and on the next generation of coffee drinkers will be ever more apparent. E 74 barista magazine B o o k 4 7 - 9 2 . i n d d 7 4 Book 47-92.indd 74 5 / 1 5 / 1 4 1 0 : 4 6 P M 5/15/14 10:46 PM

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