Printer pain …….

This is nothing to do with coffee. It’s about big companies, poor customer service and even worse training.

We have a printer produced by one of the World’s largest and most respected manufacturers of office equipment. It’s not a cheap one, because we wanted to avoid hassle and have really good on-site support in the event of a breakdown. This week our seven month old, lightly used colour laser printer broke down. To be exact, it started clicking and not printing properly. We called the UK warranty line which is manned, it turns out, by a third-party company entrusted by the manufacturer to look after its warranty business, and reported the fault. This was where the real problems began.

Rock Star Barista!

Well okay, but the title got your attention didn’t it? A while back, around the time of this year’s World Barista Championship, I was laying in bed unable to sleep after yet another late night watching the fun on www.zacharyzachary.com thinking about the differences between celebrity chefs and so called rock star baristi.

Years ago when becoming a chef wasn’t considered all that desirable by most and the likes of Gary Rhodes had not yet been invented, the world of cooking was probably not all that far from the place in which coffee finds itself now. People would compliment the chef, but no-one would recognise him/her and fame was not a part of the equation.

What then for coffee? The logical answer would seem to be that in twenty years the likes of James Hoffmann and Sé Gorman could expect to be attending book signings and giving public demonstrations of their artistry. Or is it?