Owners and Managers, In the previous post I mentioned that of course, to achieve a culture wherin’ staff are truly excited about your business, it is necessary to remain fairly small and tightly focused. In an artisan business it is the passion of the owner that is the seed that can grow into a true […]

Owners and Managers, Of course, any business striving to hire and motivate employees to take pride and become personally involved in the company charter, has to be fairly small. The seed of the culture must be the passion of the owner. An authentic passion for coffee that stands the test of time, and the rigors […]

Owners and managers, In the second installment of this series I mentioned that our interview process includes an hour of training on the espresso machine with myself. I can learn a lot more about an applicant going through the espresso training process than I can by sitting and chatting. I’m looking for attitude expressed by […]

Hello Owners, I’m taking a forensic dive into an existing culture of excellence at Vivace over several posts. During this series of posts we can look at all the components of our successful model. Although it works-Vivace staff are thrilled to make our customers happy with our coffee, it is infinitely complex. I’m intuitively able […]

Hello Shop Owners, When I was on the circuit lecturing at every Coffee Fest in the mid ’90’s one of my most popular seminar topics was how we hired, trained, and inspired baristi to make artisan espresso. Broadly, creating a Culture of Excellence is an infinitely complex affair, but it starts with a resume. In […]

Hello Espresso Geeks, By far the most common misconception I see with folks making espresso outside of Italy is passing too much water, too quickly, through the packed coffee. It seems to be a cultural phenomenon where the people are used to drip coffee or French press, they want to reproduce that with an espresso […]

Hello Espresso Lovers During the covid era we have had lots of requests for espresso training, both from pros and home baristi. Due to our desire not to be a super spreader we have discontinued this service. I have recorded a solution on Vimeo. My online seminar is entitled “Espresso Perfection Online Seminar”. It is […]

Hello Espresso Geeks, During Covid restrictions we have suspended hands-on espresso training at Vivace. To keep my staff sharp I have made several DIY videos on technique. I would like to share a few of these with you. First up dosing and distribution, updated Second up let’s look at a Vivace extraction using the Niche […]

Hello Espresso Geeks, During ‘corona daze” we have been refining our espresso techniques. Earlier this year, in the Before Time we added the settling technique to our classical dosing and distribution techniques. It is as simple as tapping the side of the PF (porta filter) to arrange the powder before distribution and dosing using our […]

The staff has immediately dubbed this little grinder “The Droid”. However, it is a lot more than super cute… Crowd funded, built in England, and marketed in the US at SlowPoursupply.com, this little grinder is a dream come true. And it sells at a very affordable price. First, the cut…turning a 40mm conical burr at […]