Warning from my trip to a Seattle roastery last weekend

Went to this small roastery in Capitol Hill. Asked for a pour over. Barista handed me a cup and said 'try it black first'. I always dump sugar and cream in. Took one sip. Tasted actual blueberry notes for the first time. Changed how I drink coffee forever. Anyone else have a moment where someone forced you to taste coffee differently?

3 comments

3 Comments

michaeltorres1mo ago

Oh man, that's a great story but I gotta say one thing. It's not really accurate to say they 'forced' you to taste it differently. They just asked you to try it black first, which is super common at any decent shop. You still had the choice to add stuff after. The real trick is that you actually listened and gave it a fair chance. That's on you for being open minded, not on them for being pushy. Most people dump sugar in before even tasting what the beans actually have going on, so you did the right thing. Now you know why roasters spend so much time picking out single origin beans with specific flavor profiles.

grays131mo ago

Bringing up that the whole "force" vs "ask" debate is missing the real point here. The barista was probably just sick of people dumping half a pint of oat milk into a $28 bag of Ethiopian yirgacheffe before even smelling it lol. Like, yeah they could have been nicer about it, but can you blame them? They spend all day watching people ruin carefully roasted beans with sweeteners. The real issue is that most coffee drinkers have been trained by Starbucks to think coffee is just a vehicle for syrup and cream. Nobody talks about how the barista actually did you a favor by making you pause and taste something for what it was. That's rare these days.

knight.dylan1mo ago

Nah, refusing to add cream is kinda pushy though lol