2021-01-28

Meet Blue Mountains Chocolate Company’s Charlotte Galloway

Coffee and Chocolate.

If that doesn’t sound like a good enough reason to visit the Blue Mountains Chocolate Company, we don’t know what is!

To learn more about this must-visit spot, we spoke to the Blue Mountains Chocolate Company’s Charlotte Galloway, about all-things chocolate, coffee & art, and the industry today.

So to kick us off, what is your favourite thing about being a Barista?

Being the world that we live in today, coffee has become such a large part of our culture. Every day there are people who rely on it to get them through, to help them socialise and to keep them up with the fast pace of our modern world. So it brings us joy to be able to supply something so vital to our customers.

Though there are millions upon millions of coffee shops in the world, and we are a mere blimp, the love and care that we put into our coffees every day for our regulars and tourist customers, never ceases. A good coffee is everything, to be able to supply that promise is our favourite thing.

Working at The Blue Mountains Chocolate Company, how do you think creativity and art are part of the industry?

Creativity is, of course, an invaluable part of the Barista industry. Although it is never to be underestimated the importance of tradition, to be creative with making coffee, is a skill. To perfect a coffee as it is meant to be made should always be accomplished prior to creatively tampering with hundreds of years of tradition. Once the overall experience of the coffee compilation is achieved, the aesthetics may be enhanced.

Being a Chocolate Company, we make an exceptionally special hot chocolate, by combining Belgian milk and dark chocolate buds, with a 40% milk to 60% dark chocolate ratio, so as to not be too overpoweringly sweet. Incorporated and melted through steamed milk, using this for our mochas is a beautiful creative notion, it gives the coffee a full-bodied, luscious and creamy chocolate bed to lie on.

How do you think the coffee industry can become more eco-friendly?

Definitely an issue we face with the coffee industry is it being un environmentally friendly. People don’t always think about the millions upon billions of take away cups that are put into landfill, just to make their life a little bit more convenient. The unfortunate fact is that of course if nothing is done, coffee may become much less freely available to us with climate change impacting the world, and then a takeaway coffee won’t be all we have to worry about. So a discount for bringing your own keep cups should be put in every café, to encourage the use of reusable cups.

It saddens us each day when you have people who ask for take away cups and simply sit in the café, drinking them and never taking them away, having wasted the unnecessary unrecyclable products for no reason. There is a concern that we have that. Possibly it is widely thought that ‘take away cups are cardboard, sure they are recyclable, if I recycle them I am helping the planet’. Now despite a few brands with completely eco cups that ARE recyclable, a large percentage are not! Most take away cups are coated with a non-recyclable plastic coating on the inside. So, we think that we could definitely assist the eco-friendliness of the coffee industry by educating more people out there of their choices and whether they actually know what they are doing or not.

And finally, what is left to accomplish for you?

There is always something left to accomplish, we think what makes a good barista is someone who is able to put their confident opinions of their skills aside and is always open to learning something new. We teach our young staff when they initially start their barista trials, to not focus on latte art etc, as of course, the aesthetics of the coffee are important, although the composition is most important of all. Someone isn’t going to return specifically for a coffee if it didn’t taste good or satisfy them, even if it had a pretty pattern. So there are always things that are left to accomplish, even for us as a company, the adjusting of the coffee grind is a daily lesson.

Being so temperate weather here in the Blue Mountains, the coffee grind must be changed frequently, and the perfect grind is always an accomplishment waiting to be attempted. But overall what we aim every day to accomplish is that of good praise - if we as baristas are able to create something that people will come back again and again to drink, to tell their friends about and to remember, then we have accomplished all we can.

The one thing that helps us accomplish this ultimate goal is that of accomplishing consistency. It is hard with many staff, and that is why training is so important. To have the consistency of good coffee is an accomplishment we strive towards every day.

If you want to check out what The Library has to offer, head to 176 Lurline St, Katoomba NSW 2780. Or, hit up their Instagram for more info @bluemountainschocolatecompany