[405 West 23rd Street, New York, London Terrace]
[coffee grinder flipper sounds]

>> A small
au lait.

[tapping milk pitcher]

>> Small
soy latte. Thank you.

>> My name is Jonathan Rubenstein, I own
Joe in New York City.
[flipper, steaming]
Joe
has five locations in Manhattan and our primary
focus is to treat coffee as a culinary art.

>> Will Gross, barista: The first step in
the process is dosing which is actually getting
the coffee into the portafilter….

>> When we opened our first location in 2003
New York didn’t really have an artisan coffee
bar, they had Starbucks, they had deli coffee,
they had a few people that were really trying
it, but no one had really treated coffee as
a culinary art….

>> …tamping is a two-part process. There’s
a ten pound and a little knock to get the
coffee off the sides and then a thirty pound…
>> Espresso is a very tricky thing to make
correctly and there’s a lot of theory and
lot of science behind it…there are a whole
set of variables, there are steps that have
to be followed very exactly.

>> This is the espresso.

[141 Waverly Place, New York, 10014, Greenwich
Village café]
>> Gabrielle Rubenstein: The
important thing as far as the beans is concerned
is the freshness of the beans so we get our
beans two or three beans a week and when we
call and make an order they don’t just take
the bag that’s already been roasted that’s
been sitting on the shelf they take the green
beans, they roast them in small, small batches,
they bag them, they send them the same day.

>> …and there’s certain things you want
to look for when you’re pulling a shot of
espresso…flow rate, which is the speed at
which the espresso is flowing. The time at
which it drops…it should drop at around
six seconds and then it should run (Espresso
to go!) then it should run to about 22 to
26 or 27 seconds.

>> Our baristas will go through about a month
of training just pulling espresso shots before
they even touch or talk about milk.
>> When you’re steaming the milk it’s
important to focus on the consistency for
the drink you’re making depending on whether
it’s a cappuccino or a latte so for the
latte it’s going to be more wet in consistency
and for a cappuccino it’s going to be more
dry….
>> This is a small double cappuccino.
>> For someone to be a great barista they
really have to understand food and coffee
and wine – they really have to be excited
about taste because if they’re not someone
who really understands and enjoys and is passionate
about food and taste they’re never going
to really understand why it’s important
and how it’s so important to make great
espresso.

>> Non-fat cappuccino.
>> So with a latte you’re not going to get
too much air at the surface but you want this
whirlpool effect to start pretty much immediately.

>> You can get an espresso, or a latte, or
a cappuccino almost anywhere but that’s
a very different product than we think we’re
serving. Ours is all about the quality of
the coffee beans, the quality of the milk,
the training of the baristas and obviously
great equipment.
>> You wanna get all the bubbles out from
the espresso and the milk so you have a smooth
consistency in both. The most important thing
to do when pouring a latte is to really tip
the pitcher…
>> Unless you have all those elements together
it’s not really possible to get what we
call a beautiful, artisan, hand-crafted espresso
drink.
>> That’s a large latte.
