Woods Coffee

This place is lovely and the workers so very nice to two old folks and we appreciate going to Woods two or three times a day. Yesterday I asked the woman if my wife could apply for a job due to the coffee bill being a car note. When she answered sir a happy wife, is a happy wife. I immediately questioned the lady if she has been reading my Facebook or blog page The local spots cause I had just wrote a piece on the happy wife happy life syndrome, or was it the jelly back syndrome. The clerk and my wife just burst out laughing. I asked the clerk did she think we were two old crazy f___s. She stopped laughing and said sir I truly enjoyed seeing such a lovely couple your age happy. I give them a 5 out of 5.

What a clean and cozy coffee shop. It manages to keep a cozy atmosphere while simultaneously being constructed mainly of glass and so offering a fresh, open feeling to the space The Americanos were first class, and the greeting from the staff when I entered were very welcoming. I wish I could have stayed longer.

I don't like to leave negative reviews without constructive feedback so here goes. Woods is good. They fit a niche in the Coffee Industry that is somewhere between fast food and specialty coffee and I love that. in my opinion, Woods has always struggled with quality control. I can get a 10/10 latte one day from a location and a 0/10 the next. From my perspective, a lot of this comes down to how Barista's are held accountable (or not held) to their bar habits. I used to work at Woods several years ago and while I'm certain I was never the best barista I'm at least familiar with the guidelines they have for their Q10 quality. Here are the things I regularly see done wrong according to Woods Bar training for baristas. 1. Not wiping the portafilter after knocking espresso pucks out. This is the easiest fix in my opinion. It takes 1 second to take a designated clean towel and wipe out the inside of a portafilter. I would be shocked to see any Barista at Woods do this between every shot. I'm not trying to be overdramatic but I have honestly never seen it happen on more than several occasions at any Woods location. 2. Not rinsing shot glasses between shots. I understand this takes precious time when there are a dozen drinks in line and there's pressure to go as fast as possible but this is probably the biggest impact on espresso flavor that I see baristas at Woods have direct control over that they don't act upon. It's incredibly common for me to watch a barista pull a dozen shots into the same glasses without rinsing them. This impacts flavor and shot quality exponentially with each shot. 3. Improper milk/foam ratio. Most baristas at woods free pour all their lattes. This is fine if you are steaming for one drink and you steam the perfect amount of foam but unfortunately that is not the case most of the time. To my recollection, Woods standard is 1/4 in of foam for a latte. While I personally enjoy more than that, I will sometimes receive a latte that is considerably under weight. Like 4 oz of milk is missing. This is probably 1 out of every 10 lattes I get from Woods. I honestly don't think this is the Barista's fault most of the time. The milk pitchers Woods provides their baristas are extremely varied in the measurements they show inside. Sometimes there is a line for 12oz and no 16oz line so you have to eyeball it. Some have actual oz measurements and some have just unlabeled lines. Woods needs to pick a set of pitchers that are consistent at all locations that provide labeled oz of liquid inside and throw away the rest. This will help drastically with their milk waste as well. Many times, baristas are dumping out steamed milk because they overestimated. 4. Using counter towels to clean the steam wand. This is what prompted me to write my review today. Yesterday, 12/27 at Front St Woods, I had to ask my barista to swap out their bar towels because I saw them use the same bar towel they cleaned their steam wand with to then wipe the counter. I felt awful and like a huge jerk to have to ask but it's pretty gross. If I recall correctly, Woods teaches that you should have a designated counter and steam wand towel and never mix the two. They seemed to get mixed up sometimes because most baristas leave both of them on the counter. I always found it helpful to keep my steam wand towel on top of the machine to make sure I didn't accidentally use it for my bar or counter. My solution would be to have a secret shopper program for bar habits. Woods has plenty of ex-barista's in Whatcom County that had bar training. Give a handful of them a refresher on Q10 and a checklist for bar habits to inspect. This will help keep Baristas accountable and circumvent the "do it right only when my boss is looking" problem that exists. If a barista fails a secret shopper inspection have them have a constructive and kind coaching conversation with their manager on the right way to do it and give consequences to repeat offenders. If a barista can't consistently execute on Q10 bar habits then they shouldn't be making drinks for customers.