Saturday, May 5, 2012

Professional Baristas

There is a certain small, but growing, segment of the coffee industry that began looking at the barista position as more just a short-term, get-me-through-college job. We have taken seriously an art-like approach this drink - calling ourselves coffee professionals and professional baristas. However, just because we're serious about coffee, doesn't mean we need to take ourselves too seriously. I've seen this too much in the coffee world - excellent coffee craftsmen who are less than excellent hosts. There is this air of superiority, "I can brew better coffee than you. That makes me more valuable than the rest of you peons." This needs to go.


So, here we find ourselves - professional baristas - taking the art of coffee very seriously. But let's not mix our egos into our craft. There is a time to poke a little fun at ourselves, because - let's face it - we're just nerds.