Three years
ago, when travelling for work, I dropped into a café for a dose of morning
caffeine. But when I asked for a bit of sugar, the barista flatly refused,
telling me they didn’t offer it. Irritated, I had no choice but to drink it
unsweetened.
Actually,
it was pretty good. Turns out I had stumbled upon Oddly Correct Coffee Bar, a
cafe in Kansas City, Missouri. A café which I later found out is one of
the top coffee spots in the US.
Part of its
charm is its enforcement of strict coffee culture rules. Oddly Correct is part
of a new breed of high-end coffee shops that have zero tolerance policies on
sugar, milk and cream to preserve what they feel is coffee quality. Others
simply don’t sell smaller espresso-based drinks ‘to go’ because they feel the
taste suffers if not enjoyed right away.
Often
called Third Wave coffee shops, these aficionados use high-quality roasted
beans that they feel should be consumed unadulterated by additional flavors
(even ones their customers might wish to add). Many of these zero-tolerance
coffee shops feel that they are simply re-educating consumers by implementing
these rules.
The idea is
to let customers taste the quality of beans from places such as Colombia and
Ethiopia, and detect different notes similar to tasting a glass of wine.
But the
number of zero-tolerance coffee shops remains a tiny fraction of the more than
32,150 coffee shops across the US.
So-called
zero tolerance policies aren’t unique to coffee and are expanding throughout
the food service sector. These days, more restaurants refuse to serve steak
well done or even serve the condiments that some customers may request.
At Oddly
Correct, where I first encountered this trend, the rules are relaxing slightly.
Last month, the shop started stocking milk and cream behind the bar to be more
inclusive, says Mike Schroeder, roaster and co-owner.
Sugar is
still a no-no, but relaxing the policy around adding milk to brewed coffee has
already led to an uptick in business, he says. Even though few people actually
ask for the cream, knowing it’s available has helped change the shop’s image to
be more accepting of different choices around coffee, he adds.
Oddly
Correct has also added some sweeter drinks: a vanilla latte is sweetened with a
locally made bourbon syrup, for instance. Baristas have softened the way they
discuss the policies. “We’ve learned how to refine our language and our
approach in ways that are still welcoming and accommodating, but not yielding
to every single request,” he adds.
Some coffee
drinkers say the shops have helped them learn about coffee – and they
eventually change their preferences.
Black
Black owner Josh McNeilly concedes that his policy isn’t always good for
business and the shop sometimes struggles to turn a monthly profit. “It could
easily be twice as profitable if I served cream and sugar and bigger lattes,
but it’s my passion to try to educate people on what coffee could possibly
taste like,” he says.
To mitigate
negative comments, McNeilly trains his team in how to explain the shop’s
philosophy to first-time customers. Baristas focus on helping customers
understand why milk and sugar aren’t served rather than simply telling them
it’s not available.
From BBC (edited)
