Want to know what it takes to become a barista? Read journalist Jeff Mahoney's adventure into learning the art of being a barista:
"In case you haven’t noticed, Hamilton is changing. It’s time to wake
up, stylishly late, and smell the Americano. I did, or at least started
to this past weekend, courtesy of the people at Detour Cafe.
Yes, we’ve always had a coffee “thing” here. After all, Hamilton is home to Store No. 1.
But no longer can we think of ourselves as a city that judges its joe
by how warm it keeps your hands in an arena. Low-grade stuff with no
subtlety, brewed from beans that might’ve been roasted in the blast
furnaces you see from the Skyway, just won’t cut it anymore.
These days is about the “good stuff.” Coffee is now an objet de
marquee. A headline act, menu topper. Boutique-y, “artisanal,” complex,
maybe even a little fetishistic. It has its own nomenclature.
Just look at the stores that have emerged in recent years. Homegrown
Hamilton, which roasts its own; My Dog Joe; The Cannon (Ottawa and
Cannon); Baltimore House; The Mulberry Street Coffee House on James
North, Johnny’s on Locke Street. Many others.
Fifty shades of café.
The Detour Café on King Street, Dundas, exemplifies the conceptual evolution of coffee in this city.
They invited me this past Sunday evening, along with four other
“coffee curious” media types, for a barista barnstorming, bud-popping,
nose-rainbow showcase slash how-to. Believe me, this was better than the
Oscars.
First, Detour owner Kaelin McCowan and Crystal Archer and baristas
Geoff Woodley, Will Thorburn and Momiji Kishi line up seven kinds of
coffee, including two Detour blends.
This is what is called the “cupping.” First, you bring your nose up
very close to the contents of each cup and try to capture the aroma and
identify accents.
“You can tell baristas,” jokes Geoff. “We have burns on the tips of our noses.”
Kaelin, who is, like, a coffee bodhisattva, breaks it down. “You try
to aspirate the scents for the big overarching themes, then identify
flavour profiles. Try to pick out the sugars — is the sweetness like
caramel? There might be floral notes or the coffee might remind you of
colas, olives or chocolate. When you have them side by side, it’s easier
to tell differences.”
At Geoff’s prompting, I take a spoon and push back the “crust” (the
flecking on the surface of the coffee) and dip into the liquid, from the
edge of the cup. This is called “the break.” You hold the full spoon
over a paper cup, then aggressively slurp it into your mouth and try to
swish it around to further develop the tastes.
There are coffees here from Brazil, Kenya, Bolivia, to name a few
sources. Kaelin travels to farms in places like Central America,
scouting out coffees.
Kaelin, a Toronto transplant, and Crystal Archer, originally from New
Zealand, started Detour as a coffee-roasting operation in Dundas about
five years ago. Two years ago, they moved the roasting to Burlington and
opened up the café/restaurant.
The barista workshop is something Detour is doing more of as patrons
and even passersby inquire after the mysterious subtleties of the coffee
arts (did you know that coffee “beans” are the pit of a purplish fruit
sometimes called the coffee cherry?).
Detour’s baristas are highly qualified to open the code for us. Geoff
is the reigning Central Canadian barista champion — there are
competitions culminating in the nationals. Momiji held the title a few
years before him. And Will is an accomplished latte artist, as well as
barista and roaster.
There’s an encyclopedic breadth to their and Kaelin’s knowledge of
coffee and its precise demands. Chemistry, acidity, the taxonomy of
drinks (flatwhite, latte, etc.). Even the choice of cups is important.
After the cupping and some “pulling shots,” Kaelin and Crystal sit us
down to a magnificent meal from Detour’s ever-evolving menu (kudos to
chef Chris Beltrano).
Then it’s on to espresso (130 pounds of pressure per square inch) and
some hands-on latte art. Will describes how the milk must be rolled
over the steam injection in just such a measure to create the right
consistency of micro-foam. He does a “free pour” onto the coffee and a
beautiful rosette appears on the surface. He also does a tulip and a
heart.
Then it’s our turn. I come up with something shapeless and bleary. I think of a Carly Simon lyric, “clouds in my coffee.”
The evening, one of sensual delights (the coffee’s amazing), goes
longer than scheduled but seems to fly by. I leave the café, it’s dark
out and suddenly the city seems different, younger somehow. You’re not
at the drive-thru anymore, Dorothy.
It’s a brave, new barista world."
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