Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/55324
New Hampshire barista Amber Chesbrough says putting together all the steps for a good espresso drink was the most challenging part of her training. milk texturing as fast, and vice versa." But on the whole, learning these basic steps shouldn't be that hard, Langmaid says: "Th e mechanics of it don't take all that long. So if someone's practicing the mechanics of pulling shots or steaming milk, that's a few weeks, if that." Terika Raak, an experienced barista who has competed in high- level latte art contests and worked as a trainer, says that when she was learning barista skills at a Nordstrom's espresso bar about eight years ago, "I probably felt comfortable making drinks within a month or so, even though I would probably be embarrassed [now] at the quality of drinks that I was making at the time." PUTTING IT TOGETHER Th e next step, and the biggest challenge for budding baristas from a technical standpoint, is in combining the individual skills to produce good drinks consistently, on demand. When is it a good idea to get schooled in specialty coff ee? Schools for baristas abound throughout the United States. A Google search for "barista training" yields more than 2 million hits. But paradoxically, at most of these schools, actual or potential baristas employed by someone else are a minority. Most of the students are actual or potential coff eehouse owners. Ideally, in such cases, a barista school would "train the trainer," imparting a thorough understanding of specialty coff ee mechanics and principles that an owner could then impart to his or her employees. "First of all, you have to really be able to do it yourself and have a thorough understanding of the entire process, so that you set up brewing standards and train consistently on them," says Bob Burgess, owner of Seatt le Barista Academy. Most of the students at Burgess's school go for a fi ve-day program. Th ey start with the basics of brewing coff ee drinks: grind adjustment, dosing techniques, milk steaming, etc. Th ey train their palates to recognize variations in fl avor. And they also learn practical considerations like customer service. "Making drinks is very important, but customer service is equally important," Burgess says. "Everything from engaging the customer to making sure the drinks are served right and that they're happy with them in the end, or remaking those drinks if they're not." Students regularly take fi eld trips to some of Seatt le's best coff eehouses to observe how staff interacts with customers. For Tom Vincent, owner of Texas Coff ee School, Arlington, A student gets individual attention at Texas Coffee School. Texas, instruction is a way to ultimately make specialty coff ee more accessible. "For us, we want to make specialty coff ee approachable to the Everyman," Vincent says. "It's not just something that should be reserved for coff ee elitists." When evaluating a school, look for small class sizes and a focus on specialty coff ee. A school should be att uned to the trend changes that seem to take place every few years in specialty coff ee. A major source of training is the Specialty Coff ee Association of America (SCAA), which off ers courses to both baristas and café owners through its Barista Guild of America (BGA). Coursework is geared toward helping students pass tests for Level 1 or Level 2 BGA certifi cation. Th e SCAA also has an Instructor Development Program to train barista teachers. February 2012 • www.specialty-coffee.com | 11