Essays: Success Vs. The Work Vs. The Weight
I recently wrote a piece for Fresh Cup Magazine about the role of the modern barista, with a bit more attention paid to the business side of things. And while I’m of course proud to have another piece of writing published, I can’t help but feel that it doesn’t exactly address everything I had on my mind.
One piece of the article was about finding personal fulfillment working in the coffee industry as well as being able to support yourself financially. And it’s that personal fulfillment clause that brings up two concepts that I abstractly refer to as “Success” and “The Work.”
Namely, what qualifies as a Success in the day to day operations of a cafe? We’ll get to The Work in a moment.
I’ve received my fair share of criticisms for my full embrace of the refractometer and the Extract MoJo or MoJoToGo software, as has anybody who’s come out either for it or against it. But my use of the equipment and software comes from two separate places: my own want, desire, and need to brew myself the best cup of coffee I can every morning, and my own want, desire, and need to be able to understand what happens when we brew coffee to the best of our ability so I’m able to teach people to the best of my ability how to brew a good cup.
In a cafe or coffee bar situation, however, does a 19% extraction yield at 1.45% TDS automatically be declared a success? Well no, but this isn’t news. We’ve talked about how it’s a road map, not a treasure map. It’ll help you find where you want to go, but there’s no giant X with a dotted line leading you to it.
Success, for me, is defined as serving or being served a really, really tasty cup of coffee every time one is brewed. Success is impossible by that definition, so I suppose we could stretch it to Success as being defined as being served a really, really tasty cup of coffee most of the time one is brewed. And to me, understanding how to get to that point really involves learning everything you can about how to brew coffee, even if it isn’t your natural approach and goes against your coffee philosophy. It means doing The Work.
Now, The Work to me is the big one. Success is what we’re striving for, but I think that Success is unattainable without doing The Work. What is The Work? Eh, that’s sort of a gray area. The Work is a concept I sort of borrowed from the lyrics of the Sweeney Todd musical. I’ve never seen the show, but I heard Terry Gross interviewing Stephen Sondheim about it, and they commented on a song in which Todd is singing about his plotted revenge, he finishes the song “Epiphany” by saying “But the work awaits! I’m alive at last! And I’m full of joy!”
Macabre, for sure. But the concept he speaks of: I know it. He’s referring to the fact that he plans to murder just about anybody so that he can practice his skills at throat cutting, so when the opportunity to exact revenge arises, he’ll be ready. That’s The Work.
I don’t advocate killing anybody, for realsies, but The Work is real, and it exists for all of us. If you want Success in the financial industry, you do The Work. I don’t know what qualifies as Success in the financial industry, and I wouldn’t know what The Work is, but I know it exists.
For us humble coffee folk, doing The Work means exploring all possibilities, putting in the time and effort to brew coffee at any given chance, and to always be expanding on the knowledge base you draw from so that you’re ready when you’re attempting to achieve Success.
Recently, I’ve been trying to figure out how to brew with a lever espresso machine. I’ve been pulling some nice tasting shots from it, and asked a co-worker for her opinion. She didn’t like the aftertaste the coffee was getting, and told me I should probably just pull the cup sooner as the shots were running long. I insisted that any sort of aftertaste was the product of the machine running hot and the water boiling from the groupheads (heat exchanger, what’re you gonna do?), and that cutting the shot short would only create underextraction. I soon realized, however, that I was being foolish. I was searching for Success, but I wasn’t willing to do The Work.
To sum it up, I found a better espresso—pulling the cup helped get away from some last second blonding, and a slightly shorter brew time put the coffee in less contact with the overly hot water, toned down some of the aftertaste that was coming out. And I wasn’t sacrificing much brew volume, either. In fact, when I brought my scale out, my espresso volume was much more on target anyway.
This is The Work. It requires staying open to any and all suggestions, and putting them into play to achieve better brewing. I recently changed my Aeropress method, as well, after having great coffee at Tim Wendelboe’s shop in Oslo. I had been doing inverted only, on a firm stance that you lost too much coffee through the filter if you brewed right side up. But the Aeropress I saw at Tim Wendelboe’s brewed a really great cup, and at home I’ve been brewing the best Aeropress I ever have using a similar method to his.
Doing the Work means, from time to time, setting aside my established preference for knowing the extraction data behind a cup of coffee, and seeing how that stacks up to other coffees I’ve brewed or tasted. It’s almost, in a way, an active form of trying to humble yourself.
So if The Work is practice to achieve Success, then what’s The Weight?
Ah, The Weight. Not only is it a great song by The Band, but it’s something I see come out in some of the finest coffee brewers I’ve ever met. The Weight is the nervous tic, the creeping guilt, the dread of knowing that you’ve not been doing The Work. The Weight is what you feel when you sit down for your morning coffee, and you’ve somehow botched your brew. Even thought it’s just coffee you made for yourself, you’re almost ashamed. It haunts you for the rest of the day.
It’s The Weight.
These are just abstract terms I’ve applied to feelings and sensations I’ve experienced when it comes to coffee, but I’m fairly certain they’re fairly universal for most coffee professionals. It’s the kind of thing I identify in most people who’ve ever served me a great cup of coffee. Basically, it’s the drive to succeed that anyone in any industry needs to pursue their own Success. I’m not sure what to do with it, but I guess like therapy, talking about things helps push towards breakthroughs, and maybe I’ve just been feeling The Weight a bit more lately.
I suppose that just means one thing: time to do The Work.
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