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Continued from page 71 What does the future of the manual brew look like? As is true of every emerging trend, there will be a process of refi nement as manual brewing fi nds its footing in specialty cafés. T e businesses that are not implementing these methods well will soon see a decline in their use or a transition to an automated version, while those that are successful will continue to push innovation and a business model that fi ts it. We can defi nitely credit the continual elevation of the craſt of the barista in the last few years to the growth of barista competitions world- wide. T at makes it exciting to see brewing competitions like Brewers Cup, World AeroPress Championships, and the good old brew "throw down" proliferating as they will undoubtedly have a similar eff ect on improving manual brew implementation in cafés. T ere is defi nitely a place for the geeked-out "über brew" in a café setting. People want to be wowed not only in their tastebuds but also in presentation, and a slow bar or well executed café is a great place to expe- rience that. It can make your café a destination and draw attention to your excellent coff ees and the care you take in preparing them. Just don't lose sight of the experience. If a customer can't understand why your "über brew" is so great, or you are so focused on getting your brew right that there is simply no customer interaction, you're working against yourself. As with any trend, companies and individuals will continue to inno- vate and fi nd more effi cient ways to brew. T is has brought some automa- tion into the mix. T ere will most likely be a place for automation in some businesses that want to serve a high quality individually-brewed cup but can't fi t manual brew into their business model. T e concern with this trend is accessibility. If the customer can't reproduce the brew from that expensive commercial automated brewer at home, how are they going to enjoy that lovely fresh roasted coff ee you're selling on your shelf? If we make brewing continually more complicated for the sake of innovation and effi ciency, we risk alienating the novice home brewer and decreasing our whole bean sales. Also you could very easily be sacrifi cing the cus- tomer's experience. T e truth is people will always put greater value and feel a greater connection to the coff ee if it's hand-prepared by a barista who is engaging them and sharing with them its story. The bottom line Who knows how many adaptations of manual brew and innovative auto- mated options will arise in the next few years? T e one thing you can bet on is that coff ee drinkers will continue to brew coff ee in their homes with methods that are simple and give them decent consistency without a lot of hassle. Hence there will always be a place in our cafés for these techniques and a need to educate and provide them to our customers. Employing them in cafés where they are carefully implemented and maintained will serve many businesses well. As coff ee professionals it is crucial we not lose sight amidst the fren- zied nature of our industry and the emergence of trends, that the ultimate goal is maximizing our customers' enjoyment of the unique and fl avorful coff ees we serve. Everything we do—manual brew or otherwise—should be centered on that. Also, we should be vigilant to combat the all-too- present temptation to be drawn into methods of running our businesses that actually defeat that core aspiration. We're hoping to see more and more manual brew methods implemented well in cafés. T is will ensure that a wider range of customers are able to experience the best our coff ees have to off er at home and at their local coff ee shops. three colors. six sizes. one source. crema ware -70%'3**)) '31 espresso & microlots | roaster & barista training % RI[ ZIRXYVI SJ 4IXI 0MGEXE 6YWX]´W ,E[EMMER XLI XIEQ XLEX [SR XLI 9 7 &EVMWXE; 'LEQTMSRWLMT MRJS$MWPEGSJJII GSQ 800.782.6671 espressosupply.com info@espressosupply.com every little thing since 1993 www.baristamagazine.com 83