A typical demo setup.
The last two months have been filled with demos upon demos. When late August and early September hit it means that our school partners are up and running. This means preparing equipment for the fall semester, tasting coffee with food service employees, checking on marketing and getting baristas trained for the crazy rush of students ahead.
With the flood of new students we like to make sure they know about our presence on the college campus. We like to welcome new and returning students to the fall semester with a dash of caffeine to keep them excited and ready for classes. What this means is that a whirlwind of demos ensue.
The beginning of the month started out with a sampling at Reed College and then down to Corvallis for a demo at Dixon Cafe on the OSU campus. Next I did a whirlwind one day trip to Idaho to sample coffee for students at College of Idaho. Then it was on to PSU to help attract the evening late night coffee drinkers at Meetro, a cafe on campus. Coming up this next week we have a demo at Western Oregon University for Food Day, followed by a morning demo at PSU and then a demo at a remodeled cafe on the OSU campus, Java II.
Our assistant trainer Ethan helps Michelle at a recent demo
One of my favorite demos is one where we explain different brewing methods to students. We take one kind of coffee and brew it multiple different ways. This demonstrates how the coffee will change depending on how you brew it. Do you not like coffee from Papua New Guinea? Have you tried it brewed through a Chemex? Or perhaps as cold brew? Or through an Aeropress?
Tasting these three brewing methods (or any brewing method for that matter) side by side is very eye opening for a lot of our customers. What better way to educate people about coffee then to have them taste a coffee while explaining what they are tasting. A lot of times people think a coffee might have too much acidity but perhaps it is just a light bodied bright coffee. One might think they like dark roasts, but really they want a heavy bodied coffee.
Helping coffee drinkers understand the different nuances in coffee makes this job worth it. When you see someone start to understand what they are drinking and get really excited about it you know–as someone working in the coffee industry–that you have done your job.
So three cheers for college and university campuses and the great job they do brewing our coffee!