Vindication!

I like to think of my blog as primarily a learning tool for people who aren't immersed in coffee quite as much as I am, but who are still interested to read and learn and improve their hot beverage offering, or better understand what they are drinking.

Today I visited a number of coffee shop customers in St. Helier which is always taking a bit of a chance, however I have to say the coffee I tasted on all of these sites proved to be of a very high standard.

Why? Well of course it must be the quality of Cooper's coffee! That's a little bit of wishful thinking on my part, because once the coffee beans are out of our reach, what is delivered into the cup is very much down to my customers.

This can be a very frustrating part of my job. I carry out many training sessions, during which I try to encourage people to make coffees themselves and to share some of my passion. Getting passionate about coffee isn't very easy if you're only paid the minimum wage and it's perceived as a job of little worth.

However today I was really proud of all my customers. My first taster was a customer of ours called "The Taste II" The Polish girl Ania who made the espresso did an excellent job in ensuring that the "portafiller" was full of coffee prior to making me an espresso, not easy when you are using a single shot measure, as coffee grinder dispensers usually come up short.

My second customer, Jonathan at "Simple Simons" is a regular traveller to London. One of his favourite places is the ATM chain. In fact he tells me that he even asked one of his favourite haunts to "lend" him some coffee beans to try in Jersey. When he got back he found that our coffee was of at least an equal standard - a pleasant discovery for both him and me.

My next destination was the Jersey Pottery cafe on King's Street in St. Helier. Probably the busiest coffee shop in town. The manager there told me of an Indian gentleman who had recently come to the Island and who having tried many other establishments was interested to know which blend they used and from where he could purchase it.

This is a blend we have created uniquely for the Jersey Pottery and so sadly from this man's point of view he's just going to have to keep going back to their shop.

Finally I visited a very new customer of ours, "Cafe Society" in what is commonly called French lane at the back of the Central Market. Not only was the coffee great, but what I really appreciated was the cleanliness of the coffee making area. Everything was immaculate and as a customer inspires confidence in what is being produced.

What's really great from my perspective is that each site really cares. I have trained staff at many sites in the past only to see them fall back into bad habits a week later. I've seen so many sites, and this includes some leading London names who boast loudly about how great their coffee is only to be let down in the delivery. The most common one is to serve an espresso without the glimmer of a crema on its surface - a rudimentary error.

And finally given that we create all our own blends, sometimes with customer input, it was great to get a direct comparison with coffee roasters with a far greater reputaton than ours and to be compared in a favourable light.

It doesn't always feel this good, but it proves the value of perserverence and belief in that what we are doing may not be perfect but at least I am reassured that we are headed in the right direction.

Vindication!