coffee and consulting

I recently found myself standing at a counter at a cafe in Williamsburg having to instruct the barista through every step of making my order. I even had to ask him to please rinse out the porta-filter (the handle thing you put the espresso in) and then explain that by not rinsing it out between each drink, it’s not only gross, but makes the drink taste unneccessarily bitter. Silly barista.

One thing that I’ve been saying for years is to “never entrust coffee to a child”. That means that though your local (or global chain) cafe may happen to employ teenagers and college kids to sling drinks, those kids are usually working there for the $7 an hour and the couple of bucks in tips they might make, and not because they enjoy coffee or are even remotely good at what they do. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with trusting your employees to provide a quality service just because you’re paying them. It’s just that coffee (like web design/development) is a special kind of service that creates a special type of product.

What is it that is the difference between a decent cappuccino and a great one? It’s the same things that divide quality interactive work from everything else. Ingredients, skills, and the most overlooked, passion. No matter what it is you do, you’ll always do a better job if you do it because you love to do it.