We proceed our dialog from the ‘One on One’ characteristic in Barista Mag’s present factor with veteran espresso professional Selina Viguera, café chief at Blue Bottle Espresso’s Abbot Kinney location in Los Angeles.
BY CHRIS RYAN
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Footage courtesy of Selina Viguera
Within the present factor of Barista Mag, we sit down down with Selina Viguera, café chief at Blue Bottle Espresso’s Abbot Kinney café in Los Angeles. Selina is an excellent espresso skilled, with a management genre within the café devoted to lifting up her co-workers, and an extended resume of volunteer stories that incorporates nearly a decade operating the Barista Guild’s annual pop-up espresso store on the Distinctiveness Espresso Expo.
Take a look at the present interview with Selina, then revel in somewhat extra from our interview that we didn’t have house for within the print article, together with Selina’s fresh revel in with Blue Bottle Studio, her ideas at the barista career, and extra.
Barista Mag: Are you able to communicate somewhat about why you’re keen on being a barista?
Selina Viguera: I’ve numerous pleasure and in finding numerous pleasure in operating on bar; I feel what assists in keeping me within the café house is understanding the accountability we need to proceed to glue other folks with espresso, and training/position modeling that with my staff. All through my occupation I’ve met numerous espresso manufacturers, and so they frequently pressure how necessary the barista’s position is within the trade. Even supposing the barista position could be very a lot observed as an entry-level activity, it’s much more than giving alternate and making beverages. I feel that a part of my unconscious project is to get other folks to revel in being a barista, show pride of their craft, percentage the enjoyment of connecting with visitors thru hospitality, and attach other folks with specialty-coffee stories.
As a café chief, the primary focal point of my position is on other folks/building, and I in finding numerous objective in what I do—I make an affect on everybody round me, on a daily basis. I’ve this neighborhood that I’ve been construction for the previous 9 and a part years at Abbot Kinney, and on a regular basis I are available to paintings, my staff and visitors are all the time excited to peer me, and it’s this type of beautiful approach to get started my day. There’s numerous selection in my day by day: a pair hours on bar, taking good care of trade, one-on-ones, schooling, or post-shift conferences. This isn’t an place of job activity the place I dread coming in to paintings, sitting by myself in a stall, typing away on a keyboard, and no longer interacting with any one. I’m the most productive model of myself when I’m at paintings. <3
Within the fall of 2023, Blue Bottle introduced Blue Bottle Studio, an omakase-style espresso tasting from founder James Freeman to creatively show off coffees. Are you able to speak about your involvement in that have?
I used to be picked to be the café chief for Blue Bottle Studio LA, and what was once particular concerning the Studio revel in for me was once being tasked with bringing James’ concept of a “pinnacle Blue Bottle revel in“ to existence—which was once each an honor but in addition a terrifying accountability :). We auditioned inner staff contributors and decided on six baristas for Studio, part of whom I used to be assembly for the primary time. We had every week of coaching and a 2d week for mock carrier. Studio was once designed to be the complete opposite of a café revel in, the place individuals are out and in. We did 3 seatings of 8 in step with day, and 60-90 mins to percentage coffees in a different manner, connecting visitors to an revel in slightly than simply quite a lot of espresso arrangements.
With the function of ”discovering the easy fact at the back of espresso, water, and filtration,” James and Ben (Ben Brewer, our head of innovation) put in combination a drink menu following this idea. For the primary route we served 3 teas created from the portions of the espresso plant that in most cases get discarded—two teas created from the espresso leaf and the espresso flower, and a different espresso cherry ferment we did with a proprietary herbal espresso yeast (from Nestle). The second one route was once a soluble espresso from Yemen, the place we had been in a position to spotlight the sentiment that simply because one thing is “rapid“ doesn’t imply it will possibly’t be “area of expertise.“ The 3rd route was once a espresso flight that instructed a tale: a espresso from Yemen, the oldest coffee-growing area, and a espresso from California, one of the most latest; we additionally had a different espresso from Panama—recognized for popularizing the Gesha selection—that was once processed in a novel manner (a proprietary processing approach referred to as “interstellar”). It was once in reality amusing to speak about the tale at the back of the collection of those 3 coffees, whilst serving them in a novel, nearly meditative manner. For the Brief Cup and Au Lait classes, we brewed a extremely concentrated espresso the usage of a Nel Drip, historically observed in kissaten tradition in Japan and in most cases with darker-roasted coffees; at Studio we needed to spotlight a small lot, lighter roasted Colombia Wush Wush—intense, however interesting!
You grew up in part within the Philippines and feature spoken about how significant it’s to you that Blue Bottle now gives espresso from the rustic. There also are extra Asian flavors appearing up within the U.S. meals and occasional scenes; what do you call to mind that pattern, and do you practice it in L.A.?
It’s been amusing to peer the ingenious tactics other folks were fusing espresso flavors in conjunction with those components to make in reality amusing, attention-grabbing drinks. I’m no longer a large cold-brew drinker, however Kindness & Mischief a pair years in the past made a chilly brew with pandan whipped cream, and I used to be so obsessive about it. That was once the primary time I most probably ever drank a complete bloodless brew all of the manner all the way down to the final drop, and it was once on account of how scrumptious the pandan was once within the whipped cream! There’s a nostalgia that includes seeing those flavors change into extra popularized—coconut, ube, pandan, and so on. For my part, I revel in ingesting natural espresso—pourovers are my beverage of selection—as a result of my delight in espresso has to do with the exploration of all of the other flavors espresso has to provide. With that mentioned, espresso is this type of private revel in and is loved via many in such a lot of alternative ways, so it’s nice that those flavors are turning into extra mainstream and will make espresso extra approachable to everybody.
After all, such a lot of your identification is focused round management in espresso, however what do you love to do outdoor of labor?
To be truthful, because the pandemic I’ve been very work- and home-focused, and feature been seeking to escape of that cycle. I really like basketball and I really like tennis, and so despite the fact that I’m seeking to get a hold of a exercise regimen and concentrate on my well being, I’m in reality spotting that one of the simplest ways for me to do it’s to head out and play. The older I’m getting, the extra I’m spotting the wish to unplug and revel in quiet time, or pay attention to podcasts and concentrate on self-improvement.
I’m additionally seeking to be higher about spending time with my 11-year-old mini schnauzer, Rocky. I’d love to get my passport renewed so I will get started touring once more—I really like Japan!—and omit my mother and the Philippines. So lately my way of thinking is simply in reality seeking to admire existence.
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