We generally get two types of customer at 3FE and we value both equally, but we found there were certain occassions where we weren’t fulfilling what the customers were looking for.
Some customers want to hear all about the coffee and really experience something. They’re there to taste and want to leave having enjoyed their coffee and hopefully learned something. We love these customers.
Other customers just want a cup of coffee. They’re aware that we’re quite into what we do but they dont want to hear any shpeel, they just want a tasty cup of coffee. We love these customers.
A huge part of your job as a barista is to gauge exactly what your customer wants, in both the product and service.
With this in mind we have decided to divide our menu into two sections, namely a “Drinking Menu” and “Tasting Menu”.
What this does is help us to identify what each customer is after and also enable the customers experience a broader spectrum of tasting at 3FE.
Here’s how it works;
drinking menu
filter coffee
guest filter
cappuccino
flat white
espresso
guest espresso
long black
Tasting Menu
filter tasting (minimum 2 people)
we pick two very different filter coffees and serve them to you side by side.
coffee trio (minimum 2 people)
we take the same coffee and serve it three different ways to you; as an espresso, a cappuccino and as a filter.
espresso duo
(minimum 2 people)
an opportunity to taste our house espresso against our guest espresso.
espresso set
a single espresso and a cappuccino.
What we hope to acheive with this new menu is a way to ensure that each and every customer that visits 3FE gets the experience that they want and not the one that we feel they should get. It also enables us to present our coffees in a manner that allows people to taste different cups side-by-side which is the best way to grow your understanding of coffee and develop your own preferences and opinions on what tastes good.
This menu is up and running and has been wonderfully received by customers last week. Pop down, have a look and taste/drink as you see fit. We’ll be happy to see you, either way 😉
Dublin Barista 
This is a great idea. I particularly like the espresso duo concept.
This post reminds me of something I once heard at a party, “There are two kinds of whiskey, drinkin’ whiskey and sippin’ whiskey”.
Nice. I like it.
Fantastic. I need to take a weekend trip to Dublin from Belfast very soon indeed! Any events or something interesting soon to make a proper holiday besides just coffee?
Great stuff, I think there is a task for the barista to actively engage our guests in tasting coffees and help them to create a palate. Sometimes you need to convince them a bit, but my experience is that in the end people really appreciate it and start giving you useful feedback.
Keep up the good work!
Love it! A great way to get people thinking. Will be interesting to see how many “Drinkers” beome “Tasters” over time. Also a great way to utilize the 100 trays accumulated from WBC’s!
[…] the original here: Are you tasting or drinking? « Dublin Barista Share and […]
Nice idea and menu.
Genious! I’ll be down on Saturday so.
Nice one Mr Harmon!
I like the Tasting menu, no need to use the Single portafilter 🙂
Still waiting for your thought’s about the R2mini and ExtractMojo usability in your bar….. before “the famous one” post it at his blog 🙂
have a nice one!
Love your work and concepts …. so lucky to be able to do this – or rather, well done for making it happen … and why not ?
…. flat whites / long blacks … acknowledging WBC best country overall ?
Great idea, Colin! Can’t wait to hear how it works.
Those menus are a great idea, thanks!
Just love your idea and presentation. Very best of luck on this, Collin. I will be very interested to know how it works out!
[…] Genius. Absolute genius. […]
we came to Dublin for a few days as my husband was running the marathon. We stumbled across your establishment. We hate places like Costa ….. We just wanted to tell you that you served us the best coffee we have EVER tasted. How would we try to get someone to do the same thing in our area?
[…] on my way out of town. I think that Colin Harmon and 3FE do a great job with this, with the Tasting v. Drinking menus. Even coffee pros just want a hot cup of coffee they don’t have to think about – at […]