How Does a Coffee Farm Shape the Final Espresso?

A cup of espresso reflects every step from the coffee farm to the brewing station. Lem Butler, the 2016 United States Barista Champion, built his career on that idea: origin, coffee-to-water ratio, and dose all decide whether the shot tastes sweet. A recipe is only coffee plus water, yet getting it right takes repeated testing.

Butler now trains baristas and teaches roasting at Counter Culture Coffee in Durham, North Carolina. The company runs 11 training centers across the United States, with 2 more under construction. He covers origin, ratio, and dosage with students, and many of them are opening their own cafes or refining skills for wholesale clients.

What exactly determines a perfect cup of coffee? Lem Butler, the 2016 United States Barista Champion, answered this question through his own journey: from the coffee farmer's plantation to the barista's brewing station, from the ratio of water to coffee grounds to the seasonal shifts of origin, every single step matters. This article takes you into the champion's classroom and travels, showing how he left behind his identity as a musicology graduate to become one of America's finest baristas, and how he passes his experience on to the next generation of coffee professionals. Whether you are a beginner just getting started or a professional seeking to refine your craft, this article will reveal the complete picture of specialty coffee from seed to cup.

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In Lem Butler's eyes, coffee is far more than just a beverage—a single small cup of espresso is enough to contain the whole wide world.

This 2016 United States Barista Champion traced the entire journey of his most beloved drink: from the farmers who grow the coffee, to the companies that roast the beans, to the students he has personally trained.

Butler often says that a coffee recipe is, at its core, nothing more than coffee plus water—extremely simple, yet incredibly difficult to truly get right, and easy to mess up if you're not careful. His mission is to teach people how to brew with proper technique, so they can improve while also enjoying the process. In a recent class, he told baristas who had come to learn the fundamentals of espresso that how long water and coffee grounds should interact to produce a cup that is both sweet and visually alluring requires repeated experimentation.

Passing It On

As one of America's top baristas, Butler currently works at the headquarters of Counter Culture Coffee, where he is responsible for training baristas at wholesale client accounts and teaching roasting in Durham, North Carolina. The company has 11 training centers across the United States, with 2 more under construction.

After tasting five cups of coffee, he began discussing with the students the various elements that make a perfect cup, covering coffee origin, coffee-to-water ratio, dosage, and other variables. He emphasized that details determine success or failure—as long as the recipe proportions are handled properly, the final product will be excellent. Among the baristas who came to learn, some were taking beginner and advanced courses before opening their own cafes, while others were sent by clients to deepen their new employees' skills.

Learning from an American barista champion naturally comes with considerable pressure, but Brett Smith, the company's co-founder and president, believes that Butler's approachable personality greatly eases that tension. Smith remarked that Butler has a certain charisma—his manner of dealing with people leaves no trace of arrogance; most importantly, despite his formidable competitive prowess, he never makes others feel threatened, but rather puts them at ease. Smith specifically added that although Butler knows full well that his product is excellent enough—which is of course necessary—he still maintains a relaxed and graceful demeanor.

A Barista Starting from Zero

Butler graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) with majors in musicology and political science, and he never imagined he would stay in the barista trade for more than a year. After years of band tours and DJ work, knowing nothing about coffee, he applied for a barista position at a cafe near UNC.

In 2004, a friend invited him to be part of the cheering squad for a regional barista competition, and he gladly agreed. He recalled that at the time he was obsessed with Iron Chef, and when he walked into that venue, he was greeted by three television stations and espresso machines.

He described it: there was an emcee, a huge crowd, people all enjoying coffee, and he had no choice but to immerse himself in that competitive atmosphere.

The following year he competed himself and finished nearly last. That experience made him realize that he didn't truly understand the role he was supposed to play as a coffee professional. He was eager to learn as much as possible about how to become a qualified barista, so he came to Counter Culture and began taking the very classes he now teaches.

He said that from this he learned an enormous amount about coffee.

By the next year, he won the regional competition outright. His boss gave him more opportunities to train staff, and eventually he landed a job at Counter Culture. Ten years ago, the company assigned him to handle wholesale client services.

Award-Winning Creation Pays Tribute to Outkast

Butler won the Southeast Regional Championship five times before finally claiming the national title in Atlanta in 2016 with his Southern-themed signature drink, "SouthernPlayalisticCadillacCoffee."

This creation was inspired by his Southern identity and Outkast's 1994 album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik—the very album that made him fall in love with Southern hip-hop. His recipe was stunning: frozen Finca Nuguo (a coffee estate in Panama) espresso, combined with magnolia simple syrup and hibiscus, thoroughly mixed with nitrous oxide in a cream whipper, and finally served in a beer glass brushed with lemongrass.

He explained that lemongrass doesn't make the drink sour, but it increases its acidity, giving your palate the sensation that a wonderful lemon is hidden inside.

Butler does not become complacent because of his champion status. Today he works hard to use his experience to teach baristas who show promise of becoming the next champion. In this competition, Butler was the mentor for Shane Hess, helping him refine his creation. Hess is the general manager of Jubala Coffee, a cafe located in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, and also a wholesale client of Counter Culture.

Just as Butler did before him, Hess created his own signature drink as part of his 15-minute public presentation at the competition in Seattle. Each contestant must create three beverages for four judges to taste: an espresso drink, a milk drink, and a freestyle signature creation.

Judges evaluate contestants based on taste, technique, presentation, and even the degree of food waste. Hess successfully advanced to the semifinals. Hess said that what allowed him to stand out was not just Butler's kindness and teaching skills, but more so his palate. Hess said that every time they made coffee together, after tasting it, Butler would describe what the coffee tasted like; being able to accurately describe to the judges the drink you are serving accounts for a large proportion of the score.

Coffee Trends

In cafes, customers drink the same coffee day after day, and most espresso is mixed with milk, which masks the original aromas of the roasted coffee beans. But gradually, customers began wanting to know more information. Butler believes this is thanks to a series of initiatives undertaken by Starbucks.

Butler said that many people think Starbucks is bad, but all of this was actually started by Starbucks. They began to demystify coffee, disclosing coffee origins, publishing roasting methods, and providing customers with quality service and experiences. Today customers seem to care more about where coffee comes from, and Butler is happy to provide information about coffee origins around the world.

Butler explained that the coffee we drink at this time of year comes from the Southern Hemisphere, such as South America, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and Papua New Guinea.

He further explained that when spring arrives, these coffees disappear, and coffees from the Northern Hemisphere begin to appear on the market, such as those from Central America and Ethiopia. These coffees are available from spring through early autumn, after which Southern Hemisphere coffees reign until winter.

Customers are no longer concerned only with origin. Today they care about single-origin coffees and trade practices that benefit farmers—farmers who don't even drink the coffee produced on their own farms.

He said that both cafes and customers want to know what farmers have done and how they did it. Butler said: is the price we pay these farmers sustainable? They want to know that. In fact, this is exactly the direction we strive for—the price we pay coffee farmers is remarkably sustainable, ensuring they can continue producing top-quality coffee.

A Journey to Coffee Origins

After winning the national championship and placing fourth at the World Barista Championship in June (last year), Butler had more opportunities to visit coffee origins. Last July, he traveled with other top American baristas, brewers, and roasters from the national championship to Brazil for a coffee origin trip, making coffee for local farmers who had never tasted the finished product.

They set up a table in the coffee plantation and brought along a roaster and an espresso machine. He said: we roasted coffee beans and made coffee for the coffee pickers and farmers. We also held a latte art competition, with these Brazilian farmers serving as the judges.

When farmers and coffee professionals increase their exchanges, even though the farmers rarely go to the United States, they come to understand how Butler and other coffee professionals treat coffee. He said that many coffee farmers don't drink their own coffee; to them, it is an export cash crop. Once all the coffee beans are exported, they start replanting and harvesting again, cycle after cycle, but they have never tried the coffee made from the beans they export. This means they don't always know the difference between picking fully ripe beans and beans that haven't fully ripened.

He said that being able to discover this and build one-on-one relationships with coffee farmers is truly wonderful. Ethiopia has more than two thousand varieties of coffee and is a pilgrimage site for coffee professionals. In February, when the coffee flowers were in full bloom, Butler traveled there. The coffee flowers bloomed like cherry blossoms rather than peas, and they didn't ripen all at once. Butler said: when I came to Ethiopia, I felt as if I were in a forest—a natural forest—with coffee growing wild in the open. It was the season when coffee blooms, the fragrance of the flowers filling the air, bending the branches low. It was simply beautiful.

Coffee itself and the sense of community it creates deeply attract Butler, making him willing to teach.

Butler concluded by saying: I don't think a perfect barista exists, but as long as we work hard, set goals, and pursue perfection, every little detail along the way is fascinating.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.