Mentness

Pumphreys Coffee Centre and Brewing Emporium

mentness — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:30:51 +0000

As of today we officially open our newest venture the Pumphreys Coffee Centre and Brewing Emporium. As many of you know Pumphreys have had a site selling freshly roasted coffee beans, loose tea and various associated paraphernalia in the Grainger Market for over 40 years. We haven’t been fortunate enough to have the facilities at the Coffee Centre, or permission, to serve coffee and tea….. Until Now!

The adjoining units have always been pretty stable and there have been very few changes over the years so when the two units attached to the back of the coffee centre came up we jumped at the chance to take them on.

The idea behind the ‘Brewing Emporium’ is to showcase the coffees and teas we already supply, help people brew coffee and tea better at home, be a little one stop shop for coffee shop spares equipment and to caffeinate the general populous!

In terms of the kit we will be using (I know some of you will be eager to know) we want to be able showcase our coffees so have chosen appropriately.

Espresso machine: San Remo Verona TCS
Main Grinder: Anfim Super Caimano
Guest Grinder: Mahlkonig Vario
Decaf Grinder: Mahlkonig Vario
Brew Bar Boiler: Marco Über Boiler

So please pop down and give us a visit!

http://www.google.co.uk/m/places?oe=UTF-8&client=safari&hl=en#ipd:mode=pp&cid=15512360667742249624&q=Coffee&start=0

Quality – where to draw the line

mentness — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:37:35 +0000

I’ve been rushing around this week setting up our new coffee shop on the back of our existing Grainger Market site in Newcastle. As usual with any development everything has taken that little bit longer than I expected or planned for and it has made me think. Setting up a cafe is not an easy thing, not at all! It is hard work! In my experience anyone who thinks that it is has either trivialised that ‘type of business’ in their head and assumed that throwing money at it will work or has been involved in stamping out chain cafes after all the hard work has been done.

Whilst talking a break from the sawdust, paint and wiring I took the liberty of dropping in on Joe for a chat, who’s cafe Flat Caps does some great single origin pourovers and stupidly nice cheese scones. As always the conversation inevitably turned to coffee and a chap we both knew who’s cafe didn’t seem to be firing as we both thought it might. We found ourselves trying to understand the reasoning behind it. After some discussion we decided that his focus was wrong. His focus was on Quality! As soon as we said it we both realised that we sounded like every manager we hated from every greasy spoon/naff cafe we’d ever seen. ‘We’ll have to be careful saying things like that. That’s dangerously close to …… I know!’

To put things into perspective. In my opinion you can’t focus totally on quality…bare with me. In order to have a business in the first place you have to be in business and have a market. Now, if you are setting up a business you need to have a market to serve, if you don’t have one you will have to make one! Making a market takes a lot of money or a lot of time and most of the time both. If you are in the coffee industry, which most of you will be, you will know that coffee is either a numbers game or needs to be part of a business that sucks people in for bigger value sales. This is normally food in the form of sandwiches and cakes etc but can also be things like books, music, furniture and even in the case of ‘Look Mum No Hands’ food and bikes. If you are only making cups to coffee, which can be done, you need a lot of people every day just to get by. Say you make, to make it easy, £2 per coffee. How many of them do you need to make a day, every day to take home what you want/deserve for your hard work? Then consider how much your espresso machine cost you and how long you can do without that money in your account. Has the number gone up? Or course it has. Now consider your grinder… Up again? Now the rent…Up again? Etc etc. It’s a big number, isn’t it? Can you guarantee that number every day. Probably not! What do you do? If you haven’t got lots of money you have to take it slowly, build a strong ‘sticky’ market using the most reliable form of marketing ‘word of mouth’. Quality will create a sticky market for you but at what cost. There is really no limit to the amount of money you could spend increasing your quality. What is the right balance!

Now this is where Joe and I had an issue. Is spending all the money you have and some you don’t on the best machines, coffee and gadgets under the sun going to increase your market and ultimately make you a living?

Thoughts please!

Joe’s coffee shop – Flat Caps – A must visit in Newcastle www.flatcapscoffee.com

How can you be the worst barista?

mentness — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:09:38 +0000

During my recent dalliance into the cafe world the exact opposite of this question has been flowing through my brain! Having been a tutor of the C&G VRQ in barista skills for quite a while and a trainer at Pumphreys for much longer I have seen lots of differing skill sets and personalities passing though. Identifying people’s good points and bad points becomes easier after time although people never fail to surprise you. One of the most enjoyable parts of the VRQ is discussing service. Part of the course is a whiteboard session where the trainees shout out their best and worst service experiences. I don’t know if this is an English thing but in my experience people are able to spot negative behaviour or experiences a lot easier than positive. They find it very hard indeed to pick out their best service experiences.

In that light my I would like to answer the question in exactly the opposite way and reverse my answers to highlight the positives!

Here goes!

How to brew coffee well and still send people away in droves!

Be Unhygienic.

If you really want to put people off you should probably not wash your hands. I’ve found that having grounds staining your hands and espresso dribbling on your fingers every now and again looks great. Rubbing your hand through your hair and then dosing espresso, picking coffee cups up with your fingers in the rims, never rinsing your jugs or cleaning up your little spills and always wiping your hands on your apron whilst changing it as little as possible makes people feel sick. If they feel sick they will probably just walk out. Unfortunately for you, you won’t be able to tell which disgusting skill to accredit this to! Dam!

Have an untidy look.

Maintain a scruffy demeanour and ‘look lazy’. This really puts people off and is excellent for creating a lasting first impression that will increase the likelihood of non returning customers. Great! Also, as a bonus, people automatically assume that you don’t know what you are doing and can’t wait to leave for the day!

Be Arrogant.

Turn your nose up at people who ask for very basic advice on home coffee brewing. Make them feel like they are small and stupid by sniggering when they ask their trivial questions. Always maintain that you know best and that they couldn’t possibly know more about coffee than you. Tutting is also good! If someone politely returns a coffee to you asking if they could have it heated up always assume that it is the customers fault for not understanding that ‘We foam our milk like this to get the best flavour’ or ‘we don’t caramelise the lactose at that temperature’ or ‘ It’s to stop the proteins de-naturing’ etc. If you can get away with it tell them that they are wrong directly to their face or even better mumble grumpily as they are walking back to their table. Never actually test the coffee to see if they are right! Use the words ‘don’t, can’t, no, not and won’t as much as possible! Point blank refuse to serve americanos to anyone!

Let people wait.

Only acknowledge people when you are serving them and chat to other staff when you are doing that. This helps people think that their custom means nothing to you. Make them think that you think they are lucky that they are even getting your service and you have better things to chat about like ‘that thing Gwilym did’, ‘the new machine at [insert new London cafe name]‘ or ‘@coolbarista’s newest post’.

Don’t clear tables.

Maintain constant table clutter. There is nothing better that getting a customer to clear up after other customers before they can drink their coffee to put people off. This one is a winner! Don’t clean them for gods sake!

Have I missed anything?

UKBC South East Heat Live Stream

mentness — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:26:22 +0000

Hopefully this is the livestream of the UKBC South East Heat.Although as I post this the stream is down. Should be on all day tomorrow (Sat 20th Feb) tooFingers crossed

more about “UKBC South East Heat“, posted with vodpod

Little Time Lapse Video

mentness — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:59:00 +0000

Thought you coffee guys might like this as I made myself titter when I added the music. It’s me a the Pumphreys Coffee Centre in Newcastle on Monday serving our great customers. The Coffee I’m drinking is Guatemala Huehuetenango. Enjoy

The Chap Magazine

mentness — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:45:21 +0000

Many of you may have noticed the penchant I have acquired over recent years for wearing flat caps, ‘decorative’ but distinguished shoes and increasingly lighter and ornamental scarfs. This, rightly or not, you may be thinking to yourself is no doubt down to some sort of early ‘mid life crisis’ caused by the early retirement of one’s hairline. Although there will undoubtedly be an element of truth in that theory, albeit unconsciously on my behalf, I would like to place some of the blame squarely on the editorial staff at fantastic ‘The Chap’ magazine.

At this time I hear you all shouting in unison What is the chap? I shall let a quote from the ever witty The Chap website explain all.

‘The Chap takes a wry look at the modern world through the steamed-up monocle of a more refined age, occasionally getting its sock suspenders into a twist at the unspeakable vulgarity of the twenty-first century.

Since 1999, the Chap has been championing the rights of that increasingly marginalised and discredited species of Englishman – the gentleman. The Chap believes that a society without courteous behaviour and proper headwear is a society on the brink of moral and sartorial collapse, and it seeks to reinstate such outmoded but indispensable gestures as hat doffing, giving up one’s seat to a lady and regularly using a trouser press.’

If you have become disillusioned with the popularity of such text speak terms as ‘lol’ and the emergence into mainstream diction of the term ‘off of’ then this publication is for you.

Please visit ‘The Chap’ online bellow for it’s manifesto.

http://thechap.net/content/section_manifesto/index.html

If this piece of anarcho dandyist writing doesn’t turn the corners of your stiff upper lip then there is no hope for you and you wil be ’4eva’ doomed to ‘were’ hoodies and live your life from one ASBO to the next.

So there you have it. I am not losing my hair I am becoming more of a gent!

I leave you with a quote:

“All men are equal. All men, that is, who possess umbrellas.”
E.M. Forster

New Monthly Latte Art Throwdown in Newcastle

mentness — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:06:29 +0000

I’d like to keep everyone abreast of whats going on up here in the ‘toon’ and introduce this new event which Alex Forsyth and I are organising! Last Wednesday of the month each month with any luck!

First of hopefully monthly Latte Art Throwdowns in the mighty town of Newcastle upon Tyne. Bring your jug, cup and etching tools and have a crack at Newcastle’s best baristi.

We’ll have a load of single origin coffees to try through the pour over and hopefully some beers too.

Are you interested in seeing what this Latte art thing is all about? Come along and watch!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=239307260213

Please feel free to invite people who you think might be interested!

This is designed to be a fun event for watchers and partisipants alike. The aim is to increase awarness of quality service skills and to learn new skills too.

Don’t worry if you can’t pour anything, by the end of the night you should be able to or at least know how it works.

We’re not afilliated to any supplier or cafe and we would like to take this to different locations each month. It’s just about creating a communty of quality focused coffee nuts.

Plans are on the way to have a plaque that we can compete for each month, have an open air event in the town centre, take the throwdown to Pumphreys and loads more!

If you are interested in hosting an event in the future please give us a shout!

First event!
Type: Music/arts – Jam Session
Price: Free admission.
Date: Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Time: 18:30 – 21:30

Central Bean Cafe,
32 Gallowgate Rd,
Newcastle upon Tyne,
United Kingdom.
http://tinyurl.com/nlxggh

Alex’s Contact info
Email: talkingschmak@gmail.com

Stu’s Contact info
Email: mentness@hotmail.com

Me, Blogs and Twitter

mentness — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:00:05 +0000

First of all a little hello to everyone!

I’m fully aware of my absence on this blog and for once I’m not going to appologize but I am going to explain why! I have found the micro blogging site Twitter which seems to take up my time but in smaller more managable chunks than blogging. After using the service for a while now I seem to be more in the loop on coffee related subjects than if I were just reading blogs! I have made more friends in the coffee industry through this and tracked their everyday musings. I seem to have gained a greater insight into people I thought I knew and connected with them more frequently and honestly. Things can be quickly organized and announced too. This is what really excites me about Twitter, the viral nature of the information released by twitterers means information correct or otherwise can be known by a vast amount of people very quickly!

One example of how this has enhanced my coffee geekery is one of a month ago. I was in London to see my girlfriend and I added a tweet to Twitter saying that I was in town and searching for a coffee. Within about 10 minutes I was invited to have a coffee with Hasbean Steve (twittering and drinking coffee in london) and also to pop in to an open house happening at Square Mile coffee roasters! In years, if not months gone by this sort of meet up would have taken weeks of planning (I’m specifically thinking of the TMC meet last year with tens of emails flying around before hand)

So for me Twitter is a great little tool, long live Twitter!

Don’t worry the blog will stay but for bigger musings like events, training for comps, theories on coffee and annoucements!

You can follow me by here @mentness

Yesterdays Capp!

Cleaning, Cleaning, Cleaning

mentness — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:00:54 +0000

I was somewhat disappointed with a visit I made to a new account of ours. It seems that a vast amount of people do not clean their machines. Look at this grim picture, I’d scoured the bottom one for about 5 minutes (that one was the dirty one)

Why? Why do people do this?

Go Gwilym…..WBC starts tomorrow!

mentness — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:52:51 +0000

As some of you are aware the World Barista Championship starts tomorrow in Atlanta Georgia!

I’m going to wear my Flat cap solidly for the next 5 days! Gwilym Davies from London is representing us (the UK) this year. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish our wonderful ‘bearded house boat dweller’ the best of luck. Having met Gwilym on a couple of occasion when down visiting Mr Hoffmann at Square Mile and most recently competing against him down in Lewis I can tell you that he ‘is’ the one of the nicest guys in coffee.

Bring the World Barista Championship back with you Gwilym!

Who does everyone think will win? Is it Sammy’s year, can Mr Sara do it , will Gwilym come from nowhere or will the Scandinavians drag the championship back kicking and screaming?

Keep up to date with everything from the championships with these links:

Click here for the Official 2009 WBC Blog, brought to you by Barista Magazine!
Click here for the 2009 WBC UStream LIVE video feed, where you can chat with other WBC fans as you watch live!
Click here to follow the 2009 WBC on Twitter!