Wednesday, April 29th, 2009...2:15 pm
It’s ZOKA Coffee Not ZOCA Coffee
Yesterday I was reminded of something I read 10 years ago. From the INeedCoffee article Coffee House Sterotyping by Rachel Elliot:
My Espresso Golden Rule is “If you can’t spell it, you can’t make it!”
The article was referring to spelling espresso with an X, but I think it extends further. Making excellent espresso requires attention to detail. Having a spelling error displayed in front of your customer is just sloppy. I’m not buying espresso from a place that can’t spell.
Seattle based Zoka Coffee was the 2008 Macro Coffee Roaster of the Year. Zoka is spelled with K. This Cafe & Bistro at Pike Market has a spelling error on their sidewalk sandwich board. If you can’t even spell the name of your 4-letter coffee roaster, you probably can’t pull a good a shot of espresso. Fail.
Source:
Zoka Coffee – Article on the 2008 Roaster of the Year Award
8 Comments
April 29th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
MAS, IMO this seems like over-reaction since sign-makers do make mistakes and it does not necessarily reflect on the quality of the product being sold.
BTW, check out espresso on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espresso#cite_note-0
April 29th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
This is Seattle. If you want to play in the coffee big leagues, you need to bring your A- game. This is my town and espresso is my passion.
FWIW, Expresso is a word I define as “awful espresso”.
April 30th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Funny how we’ve both had recent experiences that reminded us of Rachel’s article.
A classic is timeless because it is always timely.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Read something interesting in a Time Magazine article a couple of days ago of another person for whom this was an issue. Eric Harris (of Columbine fame) wanted to kill people who used “expresso” for espresso. Thoughts?
May 2nd, 2009 at 6:55 am
A broken clock is still right twice a day.
Seriously, I had not heard that story before. Sounds a new post idea. Thanks.
May 3rd, 2009 at 10:57 am
It’s true. And a few of my friends had a similar reaction to his annoyance at people saying acrost or driving slow in the fast line–they would give him that one. But Michael is exactly right. He was a smart kid, and smart things came out of his mouth quite frequently. But also vile things. And instead of brushing these petty annoyances off and accepting that we’re all imperfect, he saw only his own superiority.
May 29th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I agree. But I find it quite charming whenever wholesale accounts misspell their coffee producers. Especially if the owners of the business are not from here. Like there is this new Russian cafe that just opend and their sign said “Coffee Vita”
May 29th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Carrollann,
Where is that sign at? I’ll take a photo of it on my next urban espresso hike.
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