The perfect cup: coffee makers vs. Baristas
Ah, there’s nothing like a cup of coffee in the morning. The aroma in itself seems to wake you up and fill you with energy.
How do you want your coffee?
There are so many varieties nowadays that it’s so hard to choose.
It may even take a lifetime to taste all the kinds of coffee present today.
However, where do you think the perfect cup would come from: a coffee maker or a human being?
People use coffee makers for the convenience offered by these machines. Some critics, however, say that the appliances sacrifice some of the taste.
Latest innovations in coffee maker technology, however try to prove the critics wrong.
Coffee makers now prepare each cup with painstaking accuracy, getting the temperature right, the timing down to a split-second and the ingredients measured to near-perfection.
Made to make the best possible cup of coffee, these smart coffee makers make each cup as delicious as possible.
However, coffee makers are still machines.
And machines can only do so much.
Coffee makers are limited by their functions. Beyond that, they can do nothing else.
They can’t customize each cup of coffee to fit your personality; they make each cup the same.
Some people are comforted by the fact that each cup the coffee maker brews will turn out the same.
Are you?
Isn’t being unique a part of living?
And don’t our little idiosyncrasies determine who we are?
Do we not all have a perfect blend of coffee in our minds?
Coffee makers do not really take that into account. They just make a cup of coffee considered by their developers to be “perfect”.
They are just tools, needing human guidance and input.
And machines also have the tendency to break down.
A coffee maker will, sooner or later, stop making that “perfect” cup of coffee.
What about a barista?
What is a barista, anyway?
A barista is a person dedicated to creating the perfect cup of coffee for the right person. They blend, brew, taste, test and make sure that your coffee is just right.
They innovate, constantly thinking of new ways to delight you with that ever-flavorful coffee bean.
They are also human, so every cup would be unique – a flavor infused with the humanity of the barista.
However, their humanity also limits them. Unlike a coffee maker, a barista can’t just start making coffee whenever you want him to.
You can’t just turn on a barista at any time of the day and tell him to make you coffee.
Could you?
Also, being human makes the barista fallible. Unlike coffee makers, baristas are not programmed to make the same cup of coffee every time.
Sometimes, the quirks of a barista make the coffee taste terrible. But sometimes, the barista includes just enough of his quirks to make the cup just…perfect.
Ah, but what is a carpenter without his tools, eh?
When you think about it, the coffee maker is essential to the modern barista. He needs all the help he can get, if he wants to succeed.
Don’t we all?
Coffee makers and baristas work together. The barista chooses the ingredients, finds the right flavors for the right people and makes sure that the coffee will turn out with the quirks and personality of each person. The coffee maker takes that input and transforms it into what the barista envisions –the right cup for the right person.
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