It’s Halloween and you still don’t have a costume?!? Look to some of our favorite coffee pros for ideas inspired by our most beloved brewers.
It happened. It’s Halloween and you don’t have a costume. Perhaps you were uninspired. Perhaps you were distracted by the storm that is the 2016 election or the accompanying news cycle. Or, more realistically, perhaps you are just a busy and tired barista who didn’t have enough time to come up with the most clever, poignant, and socially relevant costume of the year (you’ve probably seen a dozen people dressed as ‘Eleven’ from Stranger Things just today).
You still have time to run to your local convenience store and try to put something together. Maybe you can still buy a pre-made costume in a bag and be on your way. Or, you can say, “Dammit! I’m a coffee pro and I can figure out a clever costume to make on my own!” But what to make?
Well, take a look around you. Maybe your costume could come in the form of your favorite, reliable coffee brewer. But which coffee brewer to pick? Obviously, the brewer you pick will speak to the person you are. So maybe it’s the brewer that would win ‘Best Looking’ in a beauty contest. The one you know many baristas have in their homes. The classic, timeless piece, like a little black dress that never goes out of style. The reliable, the understated: Chemex. Katie Cargulio, the 2012 USBC champ and overall coffee guru from Counter Culture, demonstrates just how classy our forever favorite glassblown coffee brewer is.
But perhaps Halloween is a time to recall a simpler time. One without TDS readings or scales or any fancy bells and whistles. I just want my coffee, darn it! And I want it rich, full of oils, and foreign. The French Press may seem like it’s out of style, but it’s always fashion forward in your book, as modeled by Emma Stratigos, also of Gregorys Coffee.
You might be reading these descriptions and thing, ‘Psh! These childish brewing methods are beneath me!’ You, sir or madam, are of a class beyond most brew methods. You enjoy the finer things, the sophistication of worldly items such as cigarette holders and bidets. To you, brewed coffee is weak and flavorless. Perhaps you should channel your preferred coffee brewer: the espresso machine.
Now, to be a whole espresso machine is just ridiculous, obviously. So where do you draw inspiration? Do you dress as a steamwand, dreaming of recreating your favorite microfoam from an Italian gas station that makes the best cappuccinos you’ve ever had? Or do you go all-in and replicate a boiler, the true heart and soul of the espresso machine. No. You are more than any silly piece of an espresso machine. You are the messenger of espresso: the grouphead. Let Chad Bledsoe show you how to deliver the good word of espresso to the masses.
