Barista Magazine

FEB-MAR 2015

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F O A M : N E W S FAMILIAR FACES STEP INTO THE SPOTLIGHT TO REPRESENT SPECIALTY COFFEE SPECIALTY-COFFEE PEOPLE MAY have noticed that lately, more familiar folks and places are popping up on their screens than ever before. Whether you've been flipping through TV chan- nels or seen a clip on your Facebook feed, chances are, you've had a reaction along the lines of, "Hey, I know that person!" or, "I've been to that shop!" Perhaps the most memorable such clip of late was the November segment of TBS's Conan talk show, in which Conan O'Brien and comic foil Jordan Schlansky visited Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters' Los Angeles roasting operations. In the segment, roaster Sam Sabori leads Conan and Jordan on a tour of the roastery that ends in the cupping room, where they're joined by Intelligentsia edu- cator—and veteran barista competitor—Eden-Marie Abramowicz for a coffee tasting. Not surprisingly, Conan cracks wise throughout the clip, taking aim at Jordan for his intense interest in coffee and eventually dumping chocolate-chip-cookie-flavored creamer into one of the cups. The bit brings up an interesting challenge for specialty-cof- fee representatives appearing on video: How do you play along with the joke while still ensuring that the "specialty coffee" brand comes away looking dignified? (After all, this is a clip with an impressive 833,000 views on YouTube at press time.) Sam and Eden-Marie manage the feat admirably in the Conan piece, sup- plying information when called upon but good-naturedly stepping back to let Conan run wild. Pete Licata encountered a similar challenge when he appeared on a December episode of Somebody's Gotta Do It. The hour- long CNN show starring Mike Rowe (who previously hosted the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs) came to Kansas City, Mo.'s Parisi Artisan Coffee for a cupping with Pete, the 2013 World Barista Champion. Throughout the segment, Mike jokes about everything from the names of the coffee origins to the slurping step of the cupping process. Pete says that although Mike took a silly approach, he wasn't worried about specialty coffee being the butt of the joke. "He had some goofy moments, but most of the humor in the segment was injected through editing," Pete says. "I personally try to show our industry in a professional but approach- able way, and our time filming was really just fun and educational." Pete says the Somebody's Gotta Do It crew filmed about four hours of material at Parisi, though less than 30 minutes was used. While he feels the segment accurately represented the industry, there was one editing touch that left him "distraught." " When Mike asked me about the AeroPress, my full thought was cut off and it sounded like I just hate the brewer," says Pete. "The full thought was, 'I think it is the ugliest brewer out there, but I think that it makes really tasty coffee!'" Another high-profile set of coffee-related videos are those from Jerry Seinfeld's Web series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. (High-profile will happen when you create one of the most popular sitcoms of all time.) Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee premiered in 2012, and the title accurately captures the format: Car aficiona- do Jerry procures a different beautiful car for each episode, then picks up a comedian and sets off on an adventure that includes stopping somewhere for coffee and conversation. The show recently finished its fifth season; coffee spots in the episodes often include diners and delis, but Jerry and his guests have hit some specialty shops over the years, including Southern California's Jones Coffee Roasters and the now-defunct Handsome Coffee Roasters. Specialty coffee gets a whole lot of screen time in a recent episode set in Portland, Ore., when Jerry picks up Fred Armisen (of Portlandia fame) in a vintage Saab 96 Monte Carlo 850 and takes him to Coava Coffee Roasters. The episode includes many elegantly composed shots of brewing, roasting, and patrons enjoying cups. Like the other videos, there is also some humor at specialty coffee's expense: A "Portland Hipster Service Wait-O-Meter" monitors the time the comedians wait for their pourovers. The result, however, is a positive one for specialty coffee (and particularly Coava) when the stars receive their coffees, with Jerry proclaiming: "This is a reason to live here." While Jerry's show samples retail coffee, another well-known Pete Licata snapped this selfie with the crew on the set of Somebody's Gotta Do It, the CNN television show he was featured in recently. Communicating to a mainstream audiance about the real story of coffee and the work that goes into it was a challenge for Pete, but the 2013 World Barista Champion says that while host Mike Rowe took a jovial approach to the subject maer, the show didn't make a mockery of specialty coffee. PHOTO COURTESY OF PETE LICATA 18 barista magazine

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