The CRS - Cafe Rating System: Explained
As you ventured into our world of Cafe exploration you may be wondering: how the heck are you folks determining what to rate these places?
Great question and youre in the right place. Over the years, Katrina and I have developed a robust, but adaptable rating system that we feel helps give a fair baseline to cafes. The system has been developed with rigorous thought and took almost 6 minutes to discuss before we locked it in for good (so you know its well designed). Lets jump in:
1) Ambience - 10 points: A critical part of any cafe experiance - am I enjoying the space. Some examples of what drives a good score:
Ease of Parking
Warm and Friendly Enviroment
Funk-Factor (Is it interesting?)
2) The Coffee - 10 points: Some argue this is the most important part of any cafe experiance and should be first. However, this is as they say “Our Rodeo” so we decided to put it second…and its probably because Simons too lazy to rewrite our first few posts. Some things that drive the score.
Quality - does the roast come from quality sources?
Flavor - is this middle of the pack light/medium or is it complex, smooth and dark?
For non-coffee options decisions go to Katrina.
Acidity - Is the roast/drink balanced
Temperature - too hot, too cold?
3) The Cups - 5 points: Perhaps the most wild-card and non-scientifically based section of our rating the cup is rated as follows:
How Katrina feels on any given day…also, is it glass.
4) Latte Art - 2 points: This is where we allow baristas to shine, latte art - while not critical - is a fun factor when visiting any joint. As such, its only rated to 2 points being:
Was there an attempt? +1
Was it a good attempt? +2
5) Accoutrements - 10 points: Lets be honest, we ususally want something to nibble on when we visit a joint. We rate as follows:
Is there a good selection of options?
Are there both savory AND sweet options?
Is the food actually good?
Is the selection inclusive of people with different dietary needs?
6) Eco-Friendly Rating - 10 points: In our opinion this is an important feature in any coffee operation in the 2020’s. Given coffees past as a relatively harmful industry to the enviroment we suspect our audience will prefer places that try to lower their impact on the planet. We rate Eco-friendlyness as such:
Is packaging enviromentaly friendly and recycleable?
Are dine in options using dishes instead of disposable media?
Is the location “right sized” for the operation or is it too big?
Is the location utilizing fair-trade coffee?
Are they composting?
Are there plants incorporated into the space?
7) Value Rating - 3 points: A newer addition we want locations to be reasonably accessible to all folks who want to go for a fun coffee date. To that end we think value is important and rate it as follows:
Price point was lower than what one would expect for what we got? +3
Price was fair for what we got.+2
Price was a fair bit higher than ideal but it was quality food. +1
Price was too high, wouldnt go again for the quality/quantity recieved. 0
Max possible score? 50 points. Now you know.