Being a Bean Babe

By Jen Semanco
Sun contributor
Each morning around 400 million cups of coffee are consumed in the United States, making it the world’s largest consumer of coffee drinks. While many people still choose to fire up the “Mr. Coffee,” countless others seek out the gourmet coffee drinks offered by their local cafe. In Glen Arbor, the most popular place to get a fresh cup of java is the Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company. After opening its doors eleven years ago, the Arens Brothers, along with Michael Buhler have made LCRC a routine stop for coffee buffs—locals and visitors alike. While they keep themselves busy roasting numerous pounds of coffee imported from all over the world, they leave the coffee-making business to the knowledgeable and friendly retail staff of which I’ve been a part of for the past three summers.

Coffee Fact: Coffee is a world-wide multi-billion dollar business, second only to oil production as an export.
Our staff has been referred to by many different titles—“Baristas”, “Bean Grinders”, “The Counter Intelligence”, or as Norm likes to call us, “The Coffee Babes.” This summer’s counter staff is as diverse as our varieties of coffee. Some are students, while others are teachers. One is an environmental scientist, one is a new mother. Three employee weddings will be celebrated in the next month! The one thing we all have in common is the pleasure we take in selling and making the best coffee around.
Most of the time our work is fun—we all agree that there is not another job in town we would rather be doing—but there are some parts of our routine that really get under our skin, literally. Micah Manikas, a senior from East Lansing High School who is enjoying his first summer working at LCRC, says the worst part of the job is getting the oil used to flavor coffees like Leelanau Cherry, Dutch Bavarian Chocolate, Manitou Blueberry and many others all over his hands. We have to deal with persistently dirty fingernails and the smell of coffee stuck to everything from our clothes to our glasses. When a barista takes a shower after a long day of work, it often feels more like brewing than bathing.
Coffee Fact: In Italy, one spends four years learning how to become a barista–two years on coffee and machine maintenance (including grinder) and two years on milk.
Another challenge of the job is trying to figure out what a customer really wants. It seems simple enough—a customer orders a cappuccino, you give them a shot of espresso (not “expresso”), a little steamed milk, and top it off with thick, creamy frothed milk. Cappuccinos are strong drinks, if they are made properly. The “cappuccino” sold at many gas stations and convenient stores tastes like coffee-flavored sweetened milk and barely resembles the true drink. If the customer is expecting a GSC (Gas Station Coffee), they will not enjoy the drink you have just crafted for them and will leave unsatisfied. Along the same lines, many coffee shops have their own signature drinks (especially Starbucks) and they often have names that are confusing or downright misleading. For example, I have no idea what a “Fluffy-Snuggles Latte” might be so if a customer orders one and can’t tell me what’s in it, we’re both out of luck. Starbucks boasts a popular drink called a “Caramel Macchiato” which I always assumed was a caramel latte, but it’s actually made with mostly vanilla.
Coffee Fact: There are over 130 Starbucks in the greater Seattle area.
Of course there are the small nuisances of the daily work that can really grind on a barista after a long summer of slinging coffee. Empire’s Hadley Wilkerson, one of the most senior employees of LCRC who now works in production, says the worst part of the job is when we run out of supplies and have to explain this to customers. Our business can often be predicted by the weather, which unfortunately is unpredictable. An unexpected rush can leave us without enough skim milk and an unusually hot summer day can drain our supply of ice. Kristen Huber, a new employee from Traverse City, says that the monotony of doing the same thing over and over can wear you down. It isn’t uncommon to explain the difference between a latte and an au lait (the latte is made with espresso, the au lait with regular brewed coffee) more than twenty times in a six-hour shift. Melissa Irving, another long-time employee of LCRC, gets tired of answering the question, “Isn’t there any just regular coffee?”
Coffee Fact: In Indonesia and China Kopi Luwak, or Civet Coffee, is made from coffee beans eaten, partly digested and then excreted by the weasel-like civet cat. It’s “good to the last dropping!”
We all agree that one of the best parts of the job is—to be quite frank—us. We enjoy each others company and try our hardest to have fun while we work. The camaraderie is what makes it possible to not get overwhelmed by the Fourth of July rush, or to actually have a smile on your face while scrubbing down the espresso machine at the end of the day. Melissa Irving points out that, “even if you take a summer off, you can always come back to good people, good music, and good coffee.” Megan Umulis, another summer rookie, is just happy to not be working in Traverse City this summer, even if it means getting up early to make the drive from Lake Ann. Mark Rossman, one of the two male employees at LCRC, says the best part is “The jugs…of milk, that is.”
One reason I have chosen to work at LCRC for the past three summers is the simple fact that I love coffee and enjoy helping people pick out their beans and making them a great coffee drink. Jenny Evans, part-time barista, part-time art teacher at the Glen Arbor Art Association, agrees that our job is easy because we can be proud of the product we’re selling. All of our coffee is roasted on the premises, our espresso drinks are made on a top of the line machine and all of our brewed coffee is made in French presses which takes a little longer, but allows you to enjoy all of the unique qualities of the coffee that are lost when using a paper filter. Melissa Huron, a long-time veteran of LCRC who is also on the production staff, says that the best part of the job is “having unlimited access to fresh gourmet coffee and knowing how it’s been roasted, flavored, and packaged.”
Whether you need the jolt of a triple espresso or a pound of beans to enjoy at home, stop in to the Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company for great coffee and don’t forget to “support the counter intelligence!”