I stepped out of that cafe four years ago and I know more now than I did back then. With hindsight and the benefit of further exposure to increasingly better coffee and techniques I can understand the point made by James in regard to ‘tiers of tastiness’. It takes a long staircase of gradual step ups (in most things) before you can look back and understand where you came from and what good/right means to you.

Quality and customer service require equal footing, for sure.

I’m going to bow out of this entire thread now, although I’m enjoying the discussion, I feel like I’m defending something and I’m not sure what that is as I don’t have anything to defend; so I’ll step out of the way and let others continue to discuss. I’ll leave by saying this…

In the OP, James asks:

“…Having tasted coffee that had been aerated, as well as coffee brewed with aerated water, against a standard brew there had been a noticeable difference: an improvement. Surely, then, this would be something to do in a cafe setting? If it is going to improve the experience for the consumer, then one would be foolish not to, right?

What my brains keeps asking is whether or not they’d notice?…”

I believe the man on the street will notice the difference if given the opportunity. I just don’t believe there are enough cafes out there providing a large enough delta to reinforce the potential for a noticed difference. When good cafes gain enough critical mass to create a trend of ‘noticeable difference’ the tide may change, till then I think the man on the street will spend his coffee money on the most convenient and least costly sources for his cup o’ joe. As for me, I’ll continue to rely on my own fumbling kitchen experiments, both in coffee and Blumenthal pizza. ;-)

When the Sbux apologists explain their stance, it’s usually the approachable, friendly customer service that brings them back every time. Their next statement usually has to do with bad attitudes and hygiene, along with the name of the independent they just won’t ever visit again. Not a single word about coffee quality.

Quality definitely has its place (on my taste buds, to be exact), but the customer service has to be there to vault it into its proper place, to make me want to place an order – before even trying the product. It’s not that we’re missing this piece, it’s just that it doesn’t get the attention that passionate coffee obsessives and all their antics get. We have to always keep both quality AND service in mind. That’s our competitive advantage.

By now, after several posts, it probably sounds like I’m a pessimist and down on coffee. It’s not true. I have much regard for the cafes that execute at high levels. I understand there are coffee people who are doing everything in their capacity to grow and improve the industry. I happily pay for a cafe experience that delivers on their promise.

A key point for me… if I want gas station coffee I’ll go to a gas station, when I walk into a chrome and mahogany cafe with promises of god shots and clover magic I expect them to walk their talk. If they can’t deliver on their promise they should start focusing on their message and maybe re-write it.

I too have heard the same thing and I completely understand your point, and general thrust. Atmosphere counts, community counts, service counts. But does it count more than the reason I walked into the coffee shop for… a coffee.

When I visit a new city and wander around looking for a good coffee shop a lot of places represent themselves as having this or that, doing this or that, being this or that, from the outside things might seem appealing but it’s common to be disappointed with the cup in my hand.

If I walked into the cafe in Reykjavik as a one time customer and got a mediocre cup of coffee, should I be pleased to drink it, the answer is obviously ‘no’. But if I could wander into a small hole in the wall in Reykjavik which had no art hanging on the wall, no charm, but served a great cup of coffee I would be pleased as punch. I’m wandering the streets looking for good coffee (fortunately charm and atmosphere usually comes along with that good coffee) and I’m entering into an agreement when I purchase a product being represented as good coffee, I’m exceedingly happy when the representation meets the execution.

The quick and easy shortcut to success.

It is hard.

It’s hard to raise interesting, compelling and open-ended ideas on a frequent basis because it’s not uncommon for opinionated ‘professionals’ in the coffee industry to quickly discount new approaches or fresh ideas – at least that’s my feeling. And it’s for that very reason that I was hesitant (as a ‘non-professional’) to contact any ‘professional’ and explain my experimentation regarding the Vinturi. Rightly or wrongly I nearly kept the idea to myself.

James was my first choice as a consummate professional while I contemplated who to quietly discuss my Vinturi-madness with because I believe he can see beyond his own pre-conceived notions of what’s right and wrong, and I trusted he would give my goofy idea a fair shake. True to his nature, James kicked the idea around and reported fairly, a pattern I’ve seen him repeat over several years and I expect the pattern will continue for many years to come.

Actually, I’ve heard many people, being loyal customers of one particular place, admitting that they’ve never liked the coffee they get.
I’m talking about one of the oldest café in Reykjavik, Iceland, the first one serving espresso. After more than fifty years, the café is still crowded and it serves also as a cultural medium and a miniature gallery. Still, many of them don’t like the coffee. But they’re no longer surprised by that.
The strength of the café is it’s always been the same, so to speak. It’s still moslty as it was half a century before. In downtown Reykjavik alone, I’ll find so many types of cafés, each of them attracting different costumers.

Loyal costumers are happy as long as the main concept behind the café isn’t drastically changed. They sense pretty quickly if something isn’t right, if the café isn’t true to it’s concept.

Maybe it’s not realistic trying to design a café focusing on so many factors, so that the customer, whoever it could be, will be satisfied. Maybe the best thing one could do is appealing to the types you like best making coffee for. As we’re all so different, that way everybody wins.

It would be a big mistake underestimating atmosphere.

I’m being a tad naïve now. I know.

I suppose with the Trifecta looming we should evaluate exactly what we expect from it – because I don’t think it is designed (from my very, very limited understanding) to create better tasting coffee any more than the Clover was designed to make better tasting coffee.

Zander stated repeatedly when the Clover launched that he didn’t want people talking about “Clover coffee,” but instead have the opportunity to talk about the coffees themselves. The interest and hype around the Clover brewer, however, spiraled out of Zander’s control, and folks all around were indeed talking about “Clover-brewed” all over. In other words, whether it was designed to or not, the marketplace will decide how retailers, baristas, and therefore consumers, respond to the Trifecta.

Aeration aside, I’m still fascinated by the potential of controlled, consistent agitation/turbulence for filter brewed coffee.

On a side note, I’m still constantly amazed by a great deal of the punditry from the coffee blogosphere; so eager to extol or tear-down certain technologies, tools, concepts, companies, or sometimes individuals, in what ultimately seems to be a desperate attempt to distract the world from their own insecurities and shortcomings. It’s easy to feel like a keyboard-hero from the comfort of your parents’ basement, lobbing insults in between the name-dropping. What’s hard is raising interesting, compelling, but generally open-ended ideas the way jimseven.com does, that inspires others to explore ideas and revisit their prior assumptions.