Tamper Tantrum

Last, but most decidedly not least, to the stage in New York was our guest host, long-time twitter friend (/adversary), and fellow podcaster, Nick Cho of Wrecking Ball Coffee. With near-trademark provocativeness, Nick tackles what he feels is “the biggest problem in specialty coffee today”—and no, it’s not actually climate change. Our biggest problem, according to Nick, is that we’re simply not very good at what we do. As he breaks this idea down in order to build a solution, Nick makes some astute observations about the current state of our industry and asks some big questions about what we need to do (and whether or not it’s even possible) for us to move forwards from our current position.

Nick has served as a director on the Barista Guild of America’s Executive Council, on the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Board of Directors, on the World Barista Championship Board of Directors, and as the chairman of the United States Barista Championship. He was also the 2006 South East Regional Barista Champion and has served on the SCAA Standards Committee. He also created the World Brewers Cup competition in 2011.

Nick has been a guest lecturer at the University of California Berkeley, Dartmouth College, University of California Davis, and a speaker at various events around the world including SCAA/Re:co Symposium. He started the Portafilter Podcast in 2005, and is proudly Tamper Tantrum Podcast's 42nd biggest fan.

Last, but most decidedly not least, to the stage in New York was our guest host, long-time twitter friend (/adversary), and fellow podcaster, Nick Cho of Wrecking Ball Coffee. With near-trademark provocativeness, Nick tackles what he feels is “the biggest problem in specialty coffee today”—and no, it’s not actually climate change. Our biggest problem, according to Nick, is that we’re simply not very good at what we do. As he breaks this idea down in order to build a solution, Nick makes some astute observations about the current state of our industry and asks some big questions about what we need to do (and whether or not it’s even possible) for us to move forwards from our current position.

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Nick founded murky coffee in Washington DC in 2002, which emerged as one of the pioneering third-wave cafes on the east coast, winning barista competitions and recognition around the specialty coffee industry. In 2011, he and his wife Trish Rothgeb co-founded Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters in San Francisco, where they work and reside.

Nick has served as a director on the Barista Guild of America’s Executive Council, on the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Board of Directors, on the World Barista Championship Board of Directors, and as the chairman of the United States Barista Championship. He was also the 2006 South East Regional Barista Champion and has served on the SCAA Standards Committee. He also created the World Brewers Cup competition in 2011.

Nick has been a guest lecturer at the University of California Berkeley, Dartmouth College, University of California Davis, and a speaker at various events around the world including SCAA/Re:co Symposium. He started the Portafilter Podcast in 2005, and is proudly Tamper Tantrum Podcast's 42nd biggest fan.

We’re kicking off this year’s podcast series with a monologue: Kenya believe it? Recorded from a balcony overlooking the Aberdare national park on the last day of a week-long, Steve recounts what he and his traveling companions—roasters Roland (HasBean) and Simon (3FE)—have seen during their visits to eight co-ops, dry mills, and washing stations. Despite witnessing some exciting ingenuity and inspiring farming techniques, there’s still a disheartening and all-too-familiar downward trend when it comes to overall yields.

In “Beyond Quality”, Colleen Anunu asks us to rethink what matters to the future of specialty coffee and shares her personal answer: ensuring coffee is profitable in the long run, reducing the negative social and environmental impacts, and engaging with other actors in the coffee value chain. Whilst these may sound fairly straightforward, Colleen explains how our current mythologizing of the industry—amongst other things—is getting in the way of us having a real conversation about what it means for coffee producers to profit and sustain. Colleen’s talk ends with some positive steps we can take to not only facilitate these conversations, but build a better, stronger industry together—a perfect way to kick off 2017.

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In “Beyond Quality”, Colleen Anunu asks us to rethink what matters to the future of specialty coffee and shares her personal answer: ensuring coffee is profitable in the long run, reducing the negative social and environmental impacts, and engaging with other actors in the coffee value chain. Whilst these may sound fairly straightforward, Colleen explains how our current mythologizing of the industry—amongst other things—is getting in the way of us having a real conversation about what it means for coffee producers to profit and sustain. Colleen’s talk ends with some positive steps we can take to not only facilitate these conversations, but build a better, stronger industry together—a perfect way to kick off 2017.

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Colleen Anunu specializes in market access strategies for coffee producers and roasters, emphasizing shared value, gender equity and farmer-first community development. As the Sr. Manager of Coffee Supply for Fair Trade USA Colleen focuses on strategic initiatives related to Fair Trade social premium investments and impact evaluation. Colleen has a masters degree in International Development from Cornell University, where her research focused on gender-inclusive smallholder participation in high-value coffee markets. Colleen has a professional background in coffee procurement, roasting and quality control, and is an Assistant Q Grader Instructor and is on the SCAA Board of Directors. She lives in Montréal, QC.

It’s time for the second annual Tampies! In an all-time first, the Tamper Tantrum Trio appear on the podcast all together to review the outgoing year and hand out some prestigious awards, including the much coveted “James Hoffmann of the Year” award.

We could give you a preview of things to come in this space like we usually do, but let’s be honest—it’s Boxing Day over here and we’d much rather be watching the football. Besides—it’d ruin all of the delightful quirky surprises that occur when you put Colin, Jenn, and Steve all together to try and have an organsied chat. Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah!

After a quick detour into the business of brewing, we’re diving back into bias—but from a completely different perspective. The morning presentations by Meister, Michelle Johnson, and Jenn Chen in New York introduced us to the effect of bias on the industry as people, influencing our career paths, who we hire as employees, how we treat our customers (and how they treat us), the places in which we choose to operate, and the impact on all of the communities we touch as an industry. This week’s video, presented by none-other than Tamper Tantrum Live veteran Matt Perger, examines how bias affects the other primary part of the coffee industry: our product.

“Lemon Juice”, in true Perger fashion, doles out some much-needed tough love in an incredibly approachable way, all whilst looking at how cognitive bias affects everything from our equipment choice to our roasting style. This is, as Matt suggested, truly a look at “five ways to push past your inner Dunning-Kruger”—and a great impetus to think about what we can do to improve coffee quality in the coming years. New Year’s resolution, anyone?

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He's the World Brewers Cup Champion for 2012, and has placed 2nd (2013) and 3rd (2011) in the World Barista Championships. In 2014, he was the Coffee in Good Spirits World Champion.

Matt is a partner at Sensory Lab in Melbourne Australia where he come up with new and exciting ideas to make coffee better. Barista Hustle is where he shares everything he's learnt so far, interacting with the Barista community and exploring the cutting edge of our craft.

After a quick detour into the business of brewing, we’re diving back into bias—but from a completely different perspective. The morning presentations by Meister, Michelle Johnson, and Jenn Chen in New York introduced us to the effect of bias on the industry as people, influencing our career paths, who we hire as employees, how we treat our customers (and how they treat us), the places in which we choose to operate, and the impact on all of the communities we touch as an industry. This week’s video, presented by none-other than Tamper Tantrum Live veteran Matt Perger, examines how bias affects the other primary part of the coffee industry: our product.

“Lemon Juice”, in true Perger fashion, doles out some much-needed tough love in an incredibly approachable way, all whilst looking at how cognitive bias affects everything from our equipment choice to our roasting style. This is, as Matt suggested, truly a look at “five ways to push past your inner Dunning-Kruger”—and a great impetus to think about what we can do to improve coffee quality in the coming years. New Year’s resolution, anyone?

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Everything Matt does is focused on consistency, accuracy and deliciousness. People around the world know him as the Barista who popularised using the EK43 grinder for espresso, sieved coffee grinds for uniform particle size in the WBrC and designed his own tamper (amongst other things).

He's the World Brewers Cup Champion for 2012, and has placed 2nd (2013) and 3rd (2011) in the World Barista Championships. In 2014, he was the Coffee in Good Spirits World Champion.

Matt is a partner at Sensory Lab in Melbourne Australia where he come up with new and exciting ideas to make coffee better. Barista Hustle is where he shares everything he's learnt so far, interacting with the Barista community and exploring the cutting edge of our craft.

We guess you could say we’re on a bit of a story-telling kick--this week’s podcast was recorded live as a panel discussion at the release of “This Beautiful Addiction”, documentary series by Jason Breckenridge, at Prufrock Coffee in London. Edited into twelve ten-minute episodes, “This Beautiful Addiction” documents national and world level competition baristas, judges, and coaches across four competition seasons, providing a truly fascinating look back at what has (and hasn’t) changed since filming first began.

Here, Steve chats with filmmaker Jason and two familiar faces on the UKBC competition scene: many-times UKBC finalist Dale Harris, and former coach (/current judge) Jeremy Challender, both of whom were involved in the filming of “This Beautiful Addiction” over the years. Together, they consider both how the story has been told, how it might be received, and how it could have been told differently to achieve different ends.

It’s been an incredibly busy autumn here at TT HQ and, as we’re wrapping up all of our 2016 events, it’s been exciting to get all of the video footage back and revisit some of the new things we did this year. This week, we’re taking quick detour and jumping about a month ahead (and about 3334 miles east) to Steve & Colin’s introduction of our program at the Manchester Coffee Festival, “The Business of Brewing”—a program built both on a little bit of nostalgia for old-school Tamper Tantrum live videocasts and a desire to dig into the business of running a specialty coffee shop. Featuring a rather handy introduction to the business model map, this little intro introduces a great tool to assess a current business or design a new one.