SOCIAL: best baristas in the damn nation!

[Gretchen Larsen]

... and they work in our backyard...er, I mean the heart of Deepistan!
   
  I am not sure if it is their attention to details or just that their coffee is so good that makes me love these guys so much, but I may have found nirvana at this place, since being away from spots like it in Seattle for so long.  As much as I love San Francisco, I have to say I really miss baristas that KICK ASS, and now I don't have too!
   
  Go Ritual, GO!
  G
   
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This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate.
The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/04/06/BAG1BI4C291.DTL
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Thursday, April 6, 2006 (SF Chronicle)
SAN FRANCISCO/Pouring in the rain, they are the hot shop/Regional 
finalists in barista contest head to national championships for $1,000 prize
Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer


   The champions of San Francisco don't need a thermometer to know what 
150
degrees feels like.
   "When it's 150, it starts to get uncomfortable to hold it," Ryan 
Brown
said. "You can't leave your hand on the milk pitcher for too long."
   Brown and his friend and co-worker, Gabe Boscana, also know what 21 
grams
of ground coffee feels like, and it does not feel like 22 grams of 
ground
coffee. The two of them are mainstays behind the espresso machine at
Ritual Coffee in the Mission District, where coffee is a serious thing,
where there are no blenders making frozen concoctions with sprinkles 
and
where nobody sells mints, candy bars or CDs.
   It's just coffee, and the occasional croissant or slab of zucchini 
bread.
The coffee is a sufficiently sacred fluid that those customers who 
deign
to buy baked goods seem to know, without being told, that the dunking 
of
them is simply not done.
   Boscana and Brown, both finalists in a regional contest, will depart 
today
for Charlotte, N.C., and the four-day U.S. Barista Championships. Such 
a
competition not only exists, even though it is sponsored by a coffeepot
company, it is the real thing where 43 baristas from around the country
compete for a $1,000 prize -- and where speed, grace, precision, 
texture
and the proper wiggle of the milk-pouring wrist all have their place on
the judges' clipboards.
   On Wednesday, the two friends were getting in a final shift of wrist
wiggling at the coffeehouse before departing for the contest and the
possibility of glory. The wiggle as one is pouring the 150-degree 
steamed
milk keeps the stuff light and foamy atop a caffe latte, and also 
enables
the baristas to etch a leaflike pattern of brown coffee and white milk,
called a rosetta, into the top layer of the beverage. It's the sort of
thing that every customer appreciates, even the ones who immediately 
cover
their cups with black plastic lids.
   "These fellows pay attention to details," said regular customer C.K. 
Teo,
a graphic designer who appreciates a graphic design wherever it may be.
"It's a small thing, but life is a collection of small things."
   Larry Badiner, the city's No. 2 planning official and another 
regular,
said the pattern atop his $2.25 double macchiato "makes it a slightly
nicer experience and gets the day started well."
   Both champions are devoted to the art of preparing a proper shot of
espresso and the long line of customers that stretches out the front 
door
onto rain-splattered Valencia Street, while nearby coffeehouses go
wanting, is soggy testament that not all coffee is created equal, even 
for
those who desecrate it with Equal.
   A shot of espresso is made from 21 grams of finely ground coffee. It
should take 27 seconds to force the steamed water through the coffee.
Boscana times each one. If it's more than a couple of seconds off, the
champions of San Francisco throw the shot away and adjust the grinder.
Rainy or humid weather requires a finer grind, and the current Old
Testament-style onslaught of rain interspersed with bursts of sunshine 
is
playing havoc with the coffee mill settings.
   Boscana also takes little sips every so often, to make sure all is 
well.
Both baristas load the ground coffee into the espresso baskets and tamp
them down by hand, even though newer generations of machines do it
automatically.
   "You need to do it by hand," Boscana said. "It gives you control. 
Espresso
and warm milk change so quickly. Seconds count."
   Boscana, a 27-year-old photography student from Brooklyn, and Brown, 
a
25-year-old literature student from Walnut Creek, say they are not 
going
to let this competition thing go to their heads and they will be back
behind the giant red, two-nozzle, three-plunger La Marzocco espresso
machine at Ritual Coffee next week, win or lose.
   Brown says he has given up on franchised coffee bar chains, 
especially the
one that starts with an S. The S-word does not easily pass through his
lips.
   "Starbucks," he said at last, "is OK. But it's silly to compare. I 
don't
think their goal is about coffee. They're trying to be something else.
They sell things to take home. They have blenders and syrups. There's 
no
reason to despise them, but we're after something else."

   E-mail Steve Rubenstein at srubenstein at sfchronicle.com. 
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Copyright 2006 SF Chronicle



Gretchen Larsen
Senior Project Manager
Gargani + Company, Inc.
510-291-4226 office
415-425-2985 cell
		
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