Cake and Commerce

I had to see it for myself: The $20,000 siphon bar at Blue Bottle Cafe

The coffee world is abuzz with news of the latest coffee import: the $20,000 siphon system Blue Bottle Cafe imported from Japan. The above photo shows part of the large Siphon, which has two large bulbs:

Yes, it is most certainly a spectacle, thanks to the New York Times:

The day we visited Blue Bottle's newly opened Mint Street location, three different single-plantation Ethiopian coffees were on the siphon menu at $10 to $12 a pop. We ordered a siphon of the Golocha Cooperative. The coffee is as good as you'd expect - strong, smooth, with a fantastic finish. This is not the sort of coffee you'd even think of adding cream or sugar to - what a waste that would be.

Since there's a ton of information out on the web about Blue Bottle and siphon systems, I'll avoid the recap and just share some photos from my visit to the cafe.

The water is heated while the coffee is prepared:

The last trickle of water is sucked up into the coffee chamber (somehow I managed to miss getting a photo of the siphonator stirring the grounds as the water makes contact with the coffee):

And then the coffee starts flowing back into the bulb:

The coffee chamber is removed, and the bulb is served at the table. They pour into glass cups that sit on glass saucers, along with a small plate of salty toffee:

I really enjoyed the experience of watching the coffee made and drinking it in a half-empty cafe. If you have time to spare during a visit to San Francisco, and it is an off-peak time, this is a cup of coffee that needs to be included in your list of things that should be experienced. At least once.

Why I hate most Gelato in the US

So today I was flipping through the July/August issue of Frozen Desserts, an offshoot of Pastry Art & Design. Hardly one page in was a spread for Simple, the "gelato system" manufactured by Fabbri, an Italian producer of gelato and beverage bases and flavors.

The ad features a luscious-looking photo of strawberry gelato and a jar of Simple - and a handy diagram showing the four step process in making flawless gelato.

1. Pour Simple into your container

2. pour Milk or Water into your container

3. Stir

4. Freeze

The copy reads, in part: "It is so easy, anyone in your establishment can make it. Imagine rich, flavorful gelatos that no longer require long hours of training to create."

I work in foodservice. I understand that labor is an issue. But why oh why must we breed gelato shops that use shortcuts without attention paid to seasonality, sustainability, locality? Why must small business owners behave like mega restaurants like McDonald's with easy product and labor solutions, as if the only way to make money on gelato is to sell some dumbed-down product that tastes good (like a Big Mac) but is absolute crap?

Chicago, where I live, is becoming overrun by sub-standard gelaterias. Most people here love the stuff - and I'll admit that the crap tastes good, if a little too sweet. But there's a tremendous difference between the corn syrup/other additive-laced frozen treats dispensed in these joints and the stuff coming out of places like Grom, Capogiro, and Bent Spoon (not technically gelato, though). Even Istria Cafe, a south side gelateria near the University of Chicago with good word-of-mouth, uses bases from Montebianco and PreGel.

While it is important that gelato is made fresh daily (the usual claim to fame) it is also important that gelato is made with real ingredients - not bases and flavor powders and pastes. What a disappointment that most people in the US who have traveled to Italy associate the crap they purchased outside some tourist destination with what gelato 'should' taste like.

Please...someone else open up a real gelato stand, and do for gelato what Steve's and then Ben & Jerry's did for ice cream.

12/06/07 -- Post Script: Gelateria Naia

So yesterday I received an email that the writer, Trevor Morris, has given me permission to post here. Trevor is the general manager of Gelateria Naia.

Dear Miss Cake and Commerce,

I love you.  I don't even know you and I love you for this post: http://cakeandcommerce.typepad.com/cake_and_commerce/2007/09/why-i-hate-most.html

I run Gelateria Naia, a gelato shop in the San Francisco Bay Area.  We post our website in blog format and we almost used that very ad from Frozen Desserts magazine to continue our campaign against bad gelato.  I can tell you exactly why American gelato producers use those products and could tell you about the whole pyramid scheme behind many gelaterias.  It is a pretty funny story.  It is also a long story so I will spare you. 

I will tell you that there are a few of us who are doing things the right way.  One of the funny things is that many customers prefer the off the shelf gelato.  Guests will taste our gelato and say, "This is nothing like the stuff I had in Italy."  I want to ask them, "Did you buy your gelato 20 feet from a big tourist attraction?"  Another vocal person claims to be an expert in eating gelato and insists that gelato be "taffy-like."  We call that way too much corn syrup.  He hates our stuff by the way. 

Our close competitors claim up and down that they are making "authentic" Italian gelato.   Honestly, they are.  So many gelaterias in Italy are using these very products.  I think people tend to over-romanticize their trips.  If they ate it in Italy it was good. 

I found your website by doing my routine search of the web for people commenting on us.  It was so nice to see that one of your readers mentioned our name.  We are not as famous as Capogiro even though we have five stores.  We are working hard to get our message out.  If you have any questions about gelato, now or in the future, please feel free to email me.

--
Trevor Morris
General Manager
Gelateria Naia
www.gelaterianaia.com

I emailed back with a request for the story. I love stories! So here's one of the stories - he refers to it as a pyramid scheme, but it is just more of a scam - pyramid schemes involve layers of profit flow. The story below is more about misrepresentation than actual recruitment and profit flow (hallmarks of pyramid schemes):

Here is one of the schemes that I refer to as the gelato pyramid scheme.

Several gelato makers in Italy (both high profile, quality makers and common, touristy gelato makers) will offer a gelato package deal to people who want to make gelato.  The package deal includes recipes, equipment, store layout and ingredients.  Sounds good, right? 

Well, the store layout is worthless because they are not architectural drawings.  The equipment is purchased in Italy (in Euros) and shipped to the U.S. ($$$) and the wiring is not 110v or 220v.  (most of this equipment is available readily now so this doesn't happen as much any longer).

The ingredients are where the pyramid scheme comes in.  The ingredients are off-the-shelf cans of goo and bags of powder but they are sold to the buyer in plain white cans (it's crazy but many ingredient manufacturers will ship unlabeled cans.)  You order it through him, he adds a little to the price and the buyer is none the wiser.   

The recipes are also funny because they all say pretty much the same thing, "Use 10% of the goo mixed in 5 liters of the powder."  The buyer just paid a gelato "expert" to tell them what is written on the side of the cans.  Oh wait, there are no labels on the cans!

The good news is the new gelato shop owner in the U.S. can say, "Authentic, Italian gelato made with recipes from Master Gelato Maker SoandSo who is a real Sicilian."

Here is our take:
Let's say we find the best gelato maker in Italy, Luigi for example.  We kidnap Luigi and bring him to San Francisco and tell him to make his gelato  for us.  Well, if he really is the best gelato maker in Italy he is not going to  telephone Italy and have somebody send him a bunch of cans.  He is going to look around and see Scharffen Berger Chocolates, Marshall Honey Farms, B&B farms and he would make his gelato from that.  And, that is what we are doing.

Thank you Trevor!

I'm still trying to figure out what was going on here

Driving down a country road outside of Boston last week, I drove by this guy.  Did I mention that it was over 90 degrees farenheit that day? And that he wasn't hitchhiking?