Pour Over

pour over speciality coffee magazine

Interview with Eileen Hassi

The Reasons You Buy Overpriced Lattes

Spending the extra buck.

Truth Behind Speciality Coffee Is it worth it?

table of contents

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Letter from the Editor Editorial Staff Editor’s Inbox What’s the Buzz?

The Reason You Buy Overpriced Lattees

Feature Article Continued

Eileen Hassi Spills the Beans

Interview with Eileen Hassi Continued

Words from the Editor

Contributors, Thank You.

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offee is universally the most popular beverage in the world. With the increase in the phenomenon of coffee culture, Pour Over addresses the different types of speciality coffees around the world. In each issue our magazine would showcase a new city and it’s coffee culture. Specifically in this issue, we will be in the Golden City, San Francisco. Inside there are articles addressing the importance of speciality coffee and all its perks (besides the price). We want you to learn about the process of how certain owners roast their beans and express themselves through coffee art, our audience is broad. Eileen Hassi gives our readers an inside scoop on what it’s like to own coffee shops in the city and how rewarding it is.

Each issue has facts about coffee and local spots to try in the city. Our mission is to share coffee culture through this magazine to people all around the world.

Designer Stefanie Pillert Photography Nathan Dumlao Tyler Nix Alexandra

Enjoy, Stefanie Pillert 4

Contributor Eileen Hassi 5

Editor’s Inbox

What’s the Buzz?

Fair Trade Coffee May Not be Great

BodyBrew.

Buy it.

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n “Seva gives free fair trade coffee” in the Oct. 28 issue of The Daily Toreador, the author promotes “fair trade” coffee as being better than free trade coffee. I would have to disagree with this assessment. Fair trade sounds positive, but it perhaps has unintended consequences. If I had to pick a name for the program, it would be charity coffee. Fair trade coffee costs more than an average cup of coffee. Fair trade costs more than regular coffee because the program buys from farmers who pay fair wages. As a result, the cost is passed along to the consumer. People claim that it makes sense to pay a fair wage. The question is, what is a fair wage? A CEO could claim he is being exploited because he is not being paid $20 million instead of $10 million.

Let’s say the fair wage pays $6 per hour compared to only $1 per hour. Why not pay $100 per hour? If farmers have to pay higher wages, they can’t employ as many people, which decreases the number of people who are able to work.

More people will be in poverty because there are fewer jobs.

People are paid based on productivity and value creation, not based on what people believe is fair. The marketplace signals prices to buyers and sellers. A large reason people in third-world countries are poor is because of government corruption. The problems in these countries are because of a lack of property rights, bribery and lack of democracy.

Unless countries have these basic ingredients, the people within the countries will continue to suffer. I am in favor of more choices, though. If people want to buy fair trade coffee, that is fine. Consumers vote with their dollars. However, I think people should consider some of the unintended consequences of fair trade.

Above: Student writing in Blue Bottle Cafe, San Francisco.

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- Peter Parlapiano graduate student from Houston

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Above: BodyBrew, a new and improved coffee machine.

old brew coffee is not only delicious, but also gives you the caffeine you need. French Press, Nespresso Machine and Keurig’s are so last year. Invest in a BodyBrew and you won’t regret it. Not only does this machine provide you with a perfect cold brew coffee, but it also regulates the amount of acidity while keeping the coffee concentrated with good taste. Plus, it can make drinks for any mood, hot or cold. With the personalized coffee strength application and the fact the brewed coffee can stay fresh in the fridge for up to 2 weeks makes this product undeniable! Considering BodyBrew is $80 with a lifetime warranty and dishwasher safe, who wouldn’t want it? Pick your BodyBrew up on their website, bodybrew.com and you won’t regret it.

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The Reason You Buy Overpriced Lattes

Above: The process before the latte; beans, grounds and final product.

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n a recent fall morning, I spent $6.15 on a vanilla soy latte. It’s a staggering number, especially when you consider that there was nothing particularly special about this latte.

It did not contain premium ingredients, nor did it hail from a trendy coffee shop. It was not artfully crafted by a stylish barista with an enviable Instagram following. It was from Starbucks. It was just a latte, with some vanilla flavoring and soy milk. And I spent $6.15 on it. This is a lot of money to spend on a coffee beverage and yet, some do it regularly.

Alongside $20 salads and $10 pre-packaged sandwiches, coffee drinks that inexplicably hover in the $7 range have become commonplace. You might even be drinking one right now.

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Below: Barista at Ritual Coffee Roasters, Mission District San Francisco

“ That’s

because the cost of a latte — much like that of a cocktail or a meal at a restaurant — is about more than just the sum of its ingredients.”

Lattes are, according to data shared with Refinery29 by the app Square, the most popular coffee drink in the US. Last year alone, we drank more than 67 million of them, at an average price of $4.16. Coffee companies may want you to think this number signifies what it actually costs to make one, but there’s a lot more to it. “The price of coffee [beans] has not changed in 30 years,” says Erin Meister, coffee professional, and the author of New York City Coffee: A Caffeinated History. “There have been fluctuations, like at one point in the 2000s, it hit $3 a pound for green coffee and then, you know, a couple of weeks ago it dipped below a dollar a pound. But it’s really been relatively stable.” That’s because the cost of a latte — much like that of a cocktail or a meal at a restaurant — is about more than just the sum of its ingredients. While add-ons like flavored syrups and non-dairy milks tend to jack up the cost of a drink because they’re expensive, as a customer, what you’re really paying for are things like rent, utilities, employee wages, and insurance for the business. Hence why coffee, like so many other things, tends to cost more in big cities and swanky suburbs.

And it’s not just Starbucks. You can easily find yourself paying $5+ for lattes with add-ons at places like Panera Bread, Pret-a-Manger, Peet’s, or Caribou Coffee.

Earlier this year, for example, Starbucks quietly raised its prices at over 8,000 of its US locations by anywhere from 10 to 20 cents per drink. The coffee behemoth cited inflation as the primary reason for the hike. While it made headlines — and the rounds on Twitter — the company’s profits have still surged in the third quarter of 2018.

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ccording to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for coffee were 26.95% higher in 2018 versus 2000, which means a $5.39 difference in value. As the Official Data Foundation notes, this means that between 2000 and 2018, coffee experienced an average inflation of 1.33 percentper year. The overall inflation rate during this same period was 2.11 percent, meaning coffee has actually been affected less by inflation than other goods. “If prices for lattes and coffee beverage have changed dramatically, then there is probably some other explanation besides the rising price of coffee,” says a spokesperson for ODF. “You might not even realize what you’re paying,” says Kara Nielsen, vice president of trends and marketing at food and beverage marketing firm CCD Innovation, who says it’s possible that thanks to innovations like Apple Pay, in-app ordering systems, and credit cards an often masks costs. “There have been articles written about how, when you’re paying in cash, things seem more expensive,” she explains. “I think part of it is an invisibility of the cost.”

In its most basic form, coffee mixed with milk has been a thing in both European and Asian cuisine as far back as the 17th century, and the term ‘caffe latte’ was, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, first used in English in 1867 by the writer William Dean Howells. It is widely thought to have first been introduced to the United States in 1957 by Lino Meiorin, a Italian emigrant and the proprietor of Caffe Mediterraneum, a popular bohemian hangout in Berkeley. “Americans were not used to the strong flavor of Italian espresso, so Lino would keep saying, ‘more latte’,” Craig Becker, who owned the cafe before its closure, told the Daily Californian in 2009. “Finally, he decided to put a latte, a bigger drink, on the menu.” According to the menu site Zomato, before Caffe Med closed in 2016, it was charging $3.75 for one of its lattes. While the drink made its stateside debut in California, it gained widespread popularity thanks to coffee culture in Seattle in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Meister credits David Schomer, co-founder of Espresso Vivace, for popularizing the latte (and also latte art) among coffee cognoscenti in the Pacific Northwest. But, of course, it was Starbucks, founded in Seattle in 1971, that is chiefly responsible for popularizing lattes and other “fancy” coffee drinks around the country. By the end of the ‘90s, lattes were an integral part of the pop cultural lexicon.

The Friends gang sipped them at Central Perk. In Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, a simultaneous parody of both ‘60s and ‘90s culture, the character Dr. Evil hides his “evil lair” inside the Starbucks tower and gets foam on his face while sipping a latte sans plastic lid. A 2004 article by CNN Money bemoans the company’s decision to raise their prices for the first time in four years, noting that they’re banking on “loyal customers already willing to pay more than $3 for a tall latte will stick around.”

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Above: Empty coffee cups at The Mill, San Francisco

Above: Students crowded in San Francisco, The Mill Cafe located on Divisadero Street

Bryant Simon, a professor of history and director of the American Studies program at Temple University, began doing research for his 2009 book Everything but the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks in the early aughts. He spent time in Starbucks locations across the country, hoping to gain insight into just what it was that had become so relevant about this place and the milky, flavored concoctions it sold. “It was basically an affordable status symbol,” he says. “You’d walk down the street with a cup of coffee from Starbucks in 1998 or so and people thought you were discerning and sophisticated and had money and maybe even a BMW parked out back.”

While Starbucks and its imitators even at the outset charged more than most Americans had ever paid for a cup of coffee, people were willing to get on board because, well, it looked cool and it seemed like everyone else was. “I think that there’s also something about the solidarity of participating in something, even when maybe it doesn’t meet your expectations,” Meister says. “You know, how many people pay $100 for a gym membership and then just phone it in?.”

By 2005 or so, as celebrity tabloid culture reached a fever pitch, we were bombarded by paparazzi pictures of stars drinking an enormous cups of coffee, usually from Starbucks. But once the economic recession hit in 2008, the days of thoughtlessly plunking down what was then about $3.55 for an oversized coffee drink came to a screeching halt as consumers cut back.

In 2009, Starbucks closed more than 300 stores, citing direct impact from the recession, which was also felt by other chains and by the owners of independent coffee shops and stands. Starbucks did several things to win back customers, including selling prepaid gift cards at a twenty percent discount at Costco. They introduced breakfast meals and grab-and-go lunch options, and perhaps most successfully, deployed limited-edition and seasonal drinks — things like Unicorn Frappuccinos and Peppermint Mochas and, famously, the Pumpkin Spice Latte, which dropped in 2003. Simon also credits the comeback to a kind of inadvertent rebranding on the part of Starbucks: While it’s no longer seen as particularly sophisticated, it has other sources of appeal. It’s familiar, it’s comfortable, it’s default.

It’s a safe space of sorts. Just like a classic vanilla latte.

Since you’re going to be parting with a decent chunk of change regardless, it’s worth remembering that you have options. After all, if you’re willing to pay $6 for Starbucks, why not set aside a few dollars more for coffee that supports a local business, or at the very least has more enticing ingredients? “One of the things that consumers can do is [recognize that] money is of kind of political and you’re sort of voting with your dollar to a certain extent,” Meister says.

“Do you have a bad experience somewhere? It’s really easy to support another business that is doing authentic work that you actually appreciate and enjoy. If you’re going to make a latte a part of your [everyday] ritual, then I think that everybody deserves a good latte.”

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Eileen Hassi Spills the Beans

Is it easier or harder for you to accomplish what you want as a company with other coffee roasters popping up in San Francisco?

I think that it’s easier to be part of a community that’s all working toward the same thing. Maybe not exactly the same thing, but we’re all working to push the coffee industry forward. [points to bags of coffee] Right here I’ve got some Sightglass and Handsome sitting on my desk. Somebody might stumble upon Sightglass and be introduced to a great coffee through them and think, oh, “This is the first time I’ve had really great coffee.” And they could certainly say we’re not alone. We’re part of a community that’s doing this. There’s just awareness and customer knowledge.

When we first opened in 2005, we did have people who had never had good coffee before. There’s less of that happening, which means that customers are more educated.

“ We’re part of a

community that’s doing this. There’s just awareness and customer knowledge.”

How do you feel like your company has evolved since 2005?

It’s changed a ton, in a really natural fashion. I think in 2005, the focus was the neighborhood around Valencia Street, sharing great cups of coffee with people and really focusing on preparation. Now our view is just so much bigger. There are definitely still baristas at Valencia Street obsessing over how the baskets that we have are affecting our extractions, but we also are focusing on our sourcing, so the ability to connect those baristas with our coffee producers is pretty phenomenal, and I feel like our worldview has just gotten a lot bigger, which is exciting.

Above: Eileen Hassi in her main Ritual Coffee Shop in the Mission District, San Francisco

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pecialty coffee roasters continue to proliferate, and thanks to companies like Ritual Coffee Roasters, which Eileen Hassi co-founded in 2005, it’s never been a better time to drink coffee in San Francisco. Her company now has three retail locations in the city and an outlying operation in Napa’s Oxbow Public Market. On July 5, we met in SoMa at Ritual’s roasting facility, and Hassi better explained her background and vision for Ritual.

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What prompted your initial interest in coffee?

It’s funny because I got into the coffee world, not as much through coffee as through a coffee shop. My first job in coffee was managing a coffee shop, and when I took that job, I’d never managed anyone, or anything, and I didn’t know anything about coffee. Coffee was something that I’d have after dinner in a nice restaurant, which meant that I’d never had really good coffee. But I immediately fell in love with the business, as far as interacting with people and being part of their day, and then seeing it all as a math problem to make it work, and figuring out what customers wanted, and how to manage staff and all of those things. That first job sent me to the SCAA here in San Francisco in April of 2000.

David Schomer had a booth selling tampers and his books and his videos and he had an espresso machine. He was making epresso and macchiatos and I was just totally blown away. I was like, “What are you doing?!” Cause at that point I’d been a barista for six months – not even – and I’d never made a drink that looked anything like that or tasted anything like that. So I was totally blown away.

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So that was an epiphany moment?

That was a huge epiphany moment, and I just stood there asking questions and trying to learn as much as I could, and I went home to, at that time, D.C. What was the “it” moment?

My first job – again – I had a cappuccino and I was like, “This is so good. How do they make this?” So I asked for a job, and that was at Torrefazione Italia. It’s funny now because I couldn’t get a job at any of the independent places.

I’d bug Vida, Vivace and Victrola every week for a job and nobody hired me, because I didn’t know anybody. It was a great learning experience, because I learned a ton about how to be a barista. I’m not going to lie, they didn’t have the best coffee in Seattle, but they did really good coffee considering it was a 22-location chain. I still have yet to see a company get that big and maintain the type of quality that they did. But it was a great experience as far as understanding how a company like that was run.

Could you imagine having 22 locations?

No. At this point I have four coffee bars plus the roastery, so I have five places that I need to go and see. I guess I like the fact that each of my stores is different, which means it requires personal attention. Even the way problems are handled, or even the way things are, it’s different in every store, which I think is good cause it means it’s worth going to each of the stores. You get a different experience. And I think when you have 22 stores you have to make things so uniform, so you make rules and protocol and standardization and all of that, and that just doesn’t seem appealing to me. And there’s no way to physically manage and be able to visit 22 stores and have relationships with 22 managers.

That seems like it wouldn’t be very fun.

Are there any more plans for growth in San Francisco or beyond?

The only plan right now is that – this building was originally the Egyptian Hardware Manufacturing Company – and so the main space is where the hardware was manufactured, up here was the office, and there’s the showroom downstairs, and I think that showroom would make a really nice little coffee bar. That wouldn’t require another place for me to go. At some point, I think it would be really fun to have a coffee bar, because people show up here all the time. Like right now, I’d love to be able to offer you a coffee, but there aren’t ways to make – well, we have ways of making coffee – but it’s not efficient.

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“I think we have the best coffee scene of any city.”

What’s a typical coffee consumption day like for you?

I typically have some kind of a double espresso beverage, either an espresso, cappuccino or macchiato, before I come to work. Then after lunch I have either coffee or an espresso. Then hopefully there’s a cupping mixed in there at some point. Lately, I’ve been visiting a lot of wholesale accounts, and my standard method of evaluation is typically an espresso.

What continues to inspire you about coffee?

It really comes down to the coffee itself and every time that I have coffee I am excited about the flavors that are in it and continually excited about the producers that we’re working with, and all the work they’re putting in to give the coffees such extraordinary flavors. I’m just always excited the next cup of coffee.

What do you think makes the San Francisco coffee scene unique?

I think we have the best coffee scene of any city. I think what makes us unique – I think the number of quality of coffee roasters here is pretty astounding considering we’re not a city as big as New York or L.A. or Chicago. We like to think we are. Then we remember in population that we’re not even a million people. I think it’s a really coffee community, and I think that’s a number of us in the community made sure it stays that way, because we certainly I heard nightmare stories from Seattle being really competitive and not in a fun way. I think this town has been really cooperative. The boys from Sightglass used our sample roaster. De La Paz was working on our sample roaster too. It’s a good community feeling, so hopefully it will continue that way as we grow and as there continue to be more roasters on the scene.

Do you feel like you have any mentors?

My first coffee mentor was Lindsey Bolger, who’s the coffee buyer for Green Mountain. Partly because she was the first female coffee buyer that I met. She has an incredible palate and she did an incredible job at balancing her position – meaning buying coffee for Green Mountain, which I’m sure is challenging – and creating some interesting social projects, and using her buying power, which is huge, to impact communities in Rwanda and Tanzania. Especially with those countries, because I met her when she was talking about those countries. That was long before we were in a position to be buying coffee direct, so she was hugely influential. If I get to that point, it’s really exciting to think about having influence in that way. Not that I ever think we’ll have the kind of buying influence that Green Mountain does, but on a much smaller scale.

Do you have a preferred brewing method at home?

I really very rarely brew coffee at home, but when I do, it’s V60, and I’m still geeking out about technique.

Above: The process before the latte; beans, grounds and final product.

Next Page Bottom Left: Latte art at Ritual Coffee, Mission District, San Francisco.

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