The Importance of Balance - An Explanation
This is what I remember. It was perhaps early 2009 (but I cannot be sure), it was at Gwilym Davies’ coffee cart at Columbia Road Flower Market and one of the baristas was making coffee, again my memory fades on who it was, but they were talking about coffee to a customer and the importance of flavours and extractions and the palette and Gwilym over heard and said in a loud, happy voice ‘but does it have balance!? It must have balance!’.
That is all I remember, that little snippet of information for the person who went onto become, or perhaps already was, the World Barista Champion, in the setting of an outdoor coffee cart in East London.
Then I read the Coffee Boys book ’52 guaranteed ways to make a profit’. One of the stand out items in there for me was outline of the five senses; touch, hearing, taste, sound and feel and how this affects, or disaffects, your business. Because if all the five senses are stimulated in the same way, evenly, with balance, then the experience of the guest will be perfect. That is the music is just right for the time of day, the food looks great, the decor is pleasing to the eye, the smells from the kitchen and the coffee machine are stimulating and delicious, the feel of the tables, chairs, the counter top brings pleasure. Everything is balanced.
Then we also talk about the staff who work there, but do not forget the employer or owner too, and having a balanced work/personal lifestyle. Too much work is too much, too little and you go crazy, having some home time, some escape time, but also being stimulated and challenged in the workplace, but not challenged too much. Quite simply having a balanced working environment that fits in with their (your) balanced lifestyle.
I don’t think I need to further talk about a balanced diet, but as we all know, a balanced diet is a balanced lifestyle.
It was also the realisation at that moment, that all we are looking for in a cup of coffee (and therefore life in general), the most simple and perfect description of all when you are trying to describe the way a coffee tastes, or makes you feel is- ‘but does it have balance?!”
Incredible really isn’t it?
Peter Dore-Smith
Director
Kaffeine Ltd
66 Great Titchfield st.
15 Eastcastle st.
