Sunday, October 22, 2006

Hallmarks of quality?

I would tend to think that most people would favourably regard a shop that: 1) grinds and tamps each shot individually; 2) uses espresso within 10 days of roasting; 3) rotates through a few different espresso blends and bases this to some degree on the crop calendar, 4) can differentiate between short and normal/long pulls, and; 5) brews drip coffee every 30 minutes.

So why is it that so many people dislike Peet's? While I will agree that they certainly aren't what I would call top-tier, I do think that they're of an acceptable level of quality. Give me your thoughts on this.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

While Peet's is certainly better than most chains, and certainly paved the way for Specialty coffee in the west, they just simply aren't that good anymore. The biggest reason IMO is that the old guard has left. Jerry Baldwin checked out. So has Jim Reynolds, arguably the real force behind Peet's great coffee. The new guys have mostly been recuited from major chain brands. So while these standards may still be on the books, from what I've seen over the last 2 years, there are fewer and fewer qualified people making sure they are being implemented. And it shows.

Anonymous said...

i don't know much about coffee.. but i do enjoy drinking them! and i sometimes depend on it, haha.