61.5 The PROCESS, Rose Park Roasters and the Perfect Cup

October 20, 2016

At the end of a busy day of Los Angeles visits, I slipped into a quiet, suburban area of LA called Long Beach. At least the part I was in seemed quiet and suburban. I went there to find the Rose Park Cafe, a relatively new cafe on the LA scene, started by roaster Andrew Phillips. I was amazed as I walked in the front door with the proclamation, "WELCOME TO THE PROCESS" painted in 18 inch-high lettering, white on black, very bold, across the most prominent wall in the cafe. These guys were as committed to "Lean" as I was!

I stepped in and learned from barista Ronny that Andrew, the owner/roaster, believes a perfect cup of coffee is "a miracle", because so many things can go wrong at every point in the long coffee supply chain. So true! So Andrew is fanatic about following processes for roasting and brewing coffee. This is a great illustration of the principles of "Lean at Origin," Artisan Coffee Imports' new training program for washing stations. Every production process, whether it's brewing an espresso, roasting 60 Kg of beans or washing 9 metric tons of beans at night on top of a mountain -- all of these parts of producing great coffee are a process. Processes have variability, and unless we control the variability, we have problems.

Thank you, Andrew! For taking care of "the process" at this end of the value chain. At Artisan Coffee Imports we will continue to preach the importance of "process control" at the farm and washing station level.

Barista Ronny

"...a globally transpiring dialogue. One that connects farmers,
processors, roasters, baristas and you!"