Pu’er Coffee

 Four years is long enough for a young barista to grow from awkwardly identifying flavors on a coffee tasting wheel to being able to sense—eyes closed—the subtle pull that water temperature and grind size have on extraction. Four years is also long enough for me to witness how the gap called “understanding” between baristas and customers deepens quietly, tugged back and forth by “educating” and “being educated.” The first time a customer, with a hint of impatience, told me, “I don’t like being educated,” I was stunned—and then uncomfortably silent. And so I, along with many peers, slowly chose to “give up.” But what exactly did we give up? At first, we gave up those instinctive “knowledge points.” When a guest pointed at “Yirgacheffe” on the menu and asked, “Is it bitter?” I swallowed the familiar explanation—“It has charming citrus and jasmine notes, very clean and bright”—and simply said, “Not bitter, more on the acidic side.” When guests asked to add sugar and milk to a s...