this blog … doth it protest too much?
June 5, 2006 – 10:44 pm
the bitter juicy dregs at the bottom of my lemony cuppa yirg, clover-brewed, at chicago’s newest intelly. also: nate the finger tries to share.
if, say, you were a quality espresso heavyweight, one of the few nicely profitable trinitarian-wave companies with the ability to snap heads around and effect the sort of mass consumer evangelization that would take isolationist nerds like this blog lifetimes to achieve … if this were your implicit mission, say, and you were accustomed to paying top-tier prices for some of the best green coffees available … if you were, in short, the coffee mecca of the midwest and a serial banner-holder for quality espresso exposure nationwide and you purchased a groundbreaking, $9,000 brewing device, one that could “save single origin coffee,” that’s been called “the best way to … prepare high quality brewed coffee in a retail environment,” that was the buzz-generator at this year’s specialty coffee bash, that has the ability to profoundly tweak the on-demand manic-consumer nerve native to every american …
… if all this were yours, let’s say, where would you place this device in your shop?
that’s the kernel of this blog’s quibble with intelly, where, last week, i entered the gleaming new randolph street location with a posse of middling coffee lovers already stoked with expectations on the basis of my clover-preaching — and found that one could not see the machine from the counter, could not watch the seductively simple vacuum/press brew process, could not observe the selection, grind and exacting extraction of your on-demand bean selection.
that’s all, really. nothing terrible or overtly antagonistic here. just a simple thought that, if i were going to introduce the unenlightened to joe-strength coffee such as they’ve never before tasted, i’d have that sucker purring in a prominent nook, with a clover-versed salesman grinding and squeegeeing and inviting customers to take a whiff. in short, i’d put the coffee on display. as it was, there was a small placard that, i suspect, meant nothing to the average ingester: “clover brew bar.” i stood on tiptoes and tried to point out the mechanics to a vitally curious member of the entourage. but, alas, she couldn’t see.
in fairness, this blog should note that the la marzoccos sported spiffy orange side panels!
UPDATE: this blog ain’t the only one to wander into the millenium park location and wonder, “huh?”
Depends what it is that you want to highlight, the machine, or the coffee. Depends on whether you have the machine in response to the hype, or what it can do.
maybe. and yet, that’s been the repeatedly stated beauty of clover (others say it, not me): it’s a machine that DOES highlight the coffee.
that’s the point.
Sorry to break the topic of discussion, but just had to comment.
Notice the young lady just over my left shoulder. Yes, my friends, that would be my (Nate the finger’s) righteous fox of a wife (pregnant with child!) Dang, am I lucky!
However, to justify posting, I would have to agreee with Ben to a large degree. I appreciate great coffee but cannot divorce it from the means in which it is produced (which is an art in and of itself!). From a guy who deals primarily with presses, this trip was a must, yet I felt as if I had great Japanese food without experiencing the chef’s mesmerizing ability to prepare it with skill and technique. There is much to be appreciated about one’s ability to design a machine that delivers such quality and consistency. But, for the record, I understand your point, Nick. Chef’s don’t typically show their dirty pots and pans to the consumer. The meal is ultimately the focal point.
well, nate, so much for subtlety. ahem.
>I appreciate great coffee but cannot divorce it from the means in which it is produced
good point, and perhaps it’s because yer a budding process nerd. BUT i would take the need for more prominent clover brewing further. forget about us machine geeks … i think the general public would catch the fever more enthusiastically with more prominent play given to this techtonic shift in brew methodology — a visible machine being only a part of that prominence/educational commitment.
One of the reasons I was excited to try Clover coffee was the fact that I would have a cup made specifically for me. If the machine was more visible, I would think more curious customers would see that this is the case.
On the other hand, maybe it is left a bit ambiguous to prompt folks to ask “What’s a Clover?, allowing the barista to engage and educate.
At any rate, I figure those guys know what they are doing, so I am content to geekily muse.
i wondered if i shouldn’t just keep my mouth shut as well.
but a gratuitous world cup analogy: in the same way that americans, in general, are ignorant on the finer points of soccer and yet NOT as stupid as the espn announcers would indicate by their loathsome, condescending coverage, most coffee consumers have no idea about brewing processes, cup quality and origin.
BUT that doesn’t mean they’re stupid. no need to hide the apparatus under the assumption that they won’t get it or don’t care. clover’s beauty, as noted, is that it (a) puts the coffee itself on display with its transparent brewing process, (b) it thereby seduces people and educates them without condescending to them, and (c) it adds to the enjoyment of the (superior) cup to be able to see how it was done, and why.
the mysterious, behind-the-curtain thing helps no one.
just check out the quotes from clover guru zander nosler and vancouver shop owner alistair durie in the latest barista mag.
nosler: “the clover does a really nice job of what the cupping table does, which is draw out flavor and make it accessible for the consumer. they see for the first time that there’s really quite a bit of complexity and depth in coffee they haven’t seen before. then you brew a couple of single origins for the customer and they’re really blown away. that’s fun to see, and it’s really exciting.”
he also notes that clover adds an “element of theater” to the process. “everyone who drinks coffee has a tradition or ritual around it.”
why hide this? the article notes the value of an espresso bar that “gives a natural way for customers to order a drink created specifically for them right in front of them.”
intelly removes half of the seduction!
durie: “i’m extremely happy with how it has allowed us to expand our coffee discussion with customers who used to see coffee as ‘just coffee.’ … there has been a huge increase in dialogue between the customer and the baristas.”
’nuff said.