333: Bridging the Professional and Home Barista Gap w/ Lance Hedrick of Onyx Coffee Lab

We are living in a time where the average consumer is both spoiled for choice and simultaneously vexed at the sheer number of options available for great coffee and brewing equipment. What used to be a need for more and better green and gear has shifted to a need for how to choose and then use it all to get the best results for you. At the same time professionals, who represent coffee to the consumer, are increasingly hungry for reliable knowledge beyond their shops but lack the time that home enthusiasts tend to have more of. In the field of resources for making sense of coffee, today's guest, Lance Hedrick, stands out for his friendly, accessible, and well reasoned and researched approach to demystifying brewing for both pros and the average consumer. Lance Hedrick is a PHD student truanted coffee student who gave up his path in academia and pursuing a professorship in philosophy and linguistics to pursue coffee science and equipment. In Lance's time working in coffee, he has worked bar, in a kitchen, bagging coffee, making deliveries, roasting, quality control, managing, opening a shop, consulting, designing bars, servicing equipment, training, and is currently overseeing wholesale for the west coast and international accounts for Onyx Coffee Labs. As an accomplished competitor Lance has won somewhere over 30 latte art throw downs, is a 2 time CoffeeFest Latte Art World Champion, and has won 3rd and 2nd, respectively, in the US Brewers Cup Championship. Finally, he has been a coach to Andrea Allen in the Barista Championship since joining in 2018. Lance has taken his passion for academia and coffee and combined them to create his popular Youtube channel where he breaks down the complex world of coffee and coffee equipment to make enjoying the best coffee accessible to all. In our conversation today we are going to hear a bit of Lances story and dive deep into the subject of how he approaches research, coffee education, and the importance of creating in roads for consumers to more fully enjoy specialty coffee. We cover: Abandoning academia for coffee Discovering specialty Becoming latte art famous Developing skills for training and teaching Starting to develop online material Making coffee education accessible The education gap between consumers and professionals Equipping our customers well Methodology for what is right vs what is best The importance of investing training and education Barista education as the key equipping and embracing consumers Links: Lance Hedrick YouTube Lance on Instagram Related Episodes: 188 : Founder Friday w/ Jon Allen of Onyx Coffee Lab 024 : Chermelle D. Edwards, The Coffeetographer : Documenting Art and Culture Through the Lens of Specialty Coffee : Barista Culture, Consumer Experience, Movements in coffee culture 321 : Marketing and Moral Injury w/ Josh Tarlo of Kiss the Hippo 282 : How to Listen to your Customers 297 : Making Coffee Education Fun w/ Suneal Pabari of Leaderboard Coffee 312 : How to Choose the Right Machine for Your Shop w/ Chad little of La Marzocco 197 : Getting the most from your Equipment w/ Melissa Vaiden of Counter Culture Coffee 035 : The Consumer Revolution w/ Kevin Sinnott 069: Hosting Consumer Coffee Classes : 7 Guidelines Visit our amazing Sponsors! www.prima-coffee.com/keys www.pacficfoodservice.com www.coffeefest.com