WE WON'T EVER SERVE A PERFECT COFFEE...

The perfect is the enemy of the good

Voltaire - who clearly knew a thing or two about coffee 

When you visit us you won’t ever get a ‘perfect’ coffee. *Mic Drop, exit stage left*… Now, before you arrange some kind of intervention or consider taking your valued custom elsewhere, let’s take a step back and unpack that.

Picture this: You walk into a nameless, generic café. You order a flat white. The barista makes it – for the sake of argument, let’s be generous and assume they do this quickly and reasonably well - and puts it in front of you. You find a seat. You consume it. You leave.  

Was that a perfect coffee or coffee experience? To us, no. 

Let's try that again: This time, you visit Bean Shot in Sherborne to order your flat white. Having already welcomed you with a friendly smile, the barista chats openly, taking an interest in you and your day whilst meticulously weighing coffee, carefully controlling the distribution of the grinds and tamping with practiced precision. The shot released with a thick and luxurious crema demonstrates the delicately balanced and finely tuned recipe. The fresh, locally sourced, unhomogenised milk (Bruton Dairy) is then poured into precision made steaming jug as temperature, volume, texture and proportion of foam are closely monitored. The resulting pour is a thing of luxurious beauty and is effortlessly presented to you with an exquisitely crafted latte art swan. You enjoy it. Savour it, and enjoy the chilled vibe, relaxing beats and overhearing the friendly barista banter happening around you. You get up to leave. The Barista wishes you well on your way and thanks you for coming in. You leave extremely happy, feel valued having had a wonderful experience with a view to visit again. 

So, was this perfect? 

In our eyes, again, no.  

But why?  

Something we pride ourselves on at Bean Shot is our commitment to ongoing learning and the persistent pursuit of excellence. Sounds fancy... but rather than congratulating ourselves every time we release an amazing new coffee (You mean this one?) or patting ourselves on the back after every cup well-poured, we prefer to strive for continual improvement in every step of the coffee-making process. We’re careful not to use the word perfect as in our view ‘perfection’ isn’t something that can ever really be achieved. More often than not, if a product is considered to be perfect by its creator the incentive to learn, improve or develop it in any way is lost in a world of self-satisfaction, complacency and mind-numbing repetition.  

To us, there’s always room for improvement and that’s what keeps the environment of the coffee shop and the wider world of coffee so exciting. It doesn’t matter how precise we’re trying to be, how meticulous our measurements, how intricately we’re working, there is always something that could have been pushed further or made better: Could we have been faster with the preparation? Can we find a better milk to use?  Is the existing recipe suitable for the new coffee? Is the water composition exactly right for brewing espresso? Was the barista chat appropriate? Is the Instagram whiteboard banter becoming a bit basic? (Clearly not!) This list is clearly endless…

The point I’m trying to make is that perfection in coffee, as in anything in life, should be seen and even embraced as an unreachable destination. It’s the commitment to the journey of continual improvement that offers so much reward. I see far too many coffee shops who are quick to label themselves as being at ‘the top of their game’, and because of that attitude, they simply aren’t. Even if they do manage to nail a great recipe or pull-off a really satisfying pour, from the moment they become content with their product the coffee experience starts its inevitable downhill trajectory to mediocrity. It becomes stale, boring, just another coffee shop. There isn’t excitement amongst employees, no incentive to be better and no innovation.  

Part of this process is our genuine desire to engage in conversation and receive feedback about our range of products. We love it when our customers, followers and friends tell us what they think about new releases, ask us questions about our process or make suggestions to help us improve. So next time you drop in to Sherborne, log on or scroll through, perhaps consider leaving us a comment to let us know how we’re doing, what we can improve upon and help us to get closer to that wonderfully unreachable target.  

So, I say again, when you visit us you won’t get a perfect coffee. But you will absolutely get Bloody Good Coffee and the reassurance that we won't ever settle for perfect!  

Next Post will be in a couple of weeks, until then…