Ritual San Francisco

We've been drinking Ritual before as you can read here.
And liked it a lot.

But the fame of Ritual goes back to the days Ritual Barista's Drew Catlin and Chris Baca showed some of their magic at the USBC two years ago.

Finally we had the opportunity to visit the bar ourselves.

We just had to follow the cycling bikes to end up at their bar on Valencia street.


At first we were disappointed.
The space looks a bit like a big company cafeteria. Big, cold, strangely decorated and no atmosphere.
We fell for the equipment though. Big Mazzers, coupled with a big 3-group Synesso. Besides the 'iepe iepe' sound the moving steam wand made, nothing but good about this monster. It seems to be an ideal milk texturing machine. I saw some great Latte art!

We tasted a Brazil sweet tooth espresso. Good strenght. Nice extraction. Pleasant acidity and fruit balance (cherry-prune), but bad mouthfeel ; very dry. Bizarre.

We tasted a Colombia El Alcazar V 60 brew from their beautiful pour over bar.

Together with a self made Aeropress at Willem Boot's training center (Geisha Panama La Esmeralda - yes!) this was the best brewed coffee we tasted on our trip.
Superb Balance, texture. Perfect full flavor roast. Lingering after taste and super duper clean. This was a Clover level drip.

Can I propose some adjustments?
Oil the steam wand. Buy a new Hifi. Group the laptop boys and girls in a back room. Buy extra seats. Buy some warm wall paper. Turn the Cynesso a bit so we can see the shots run (difficult one this one I know) and make some fun behind the bar.