Barista Tests

03 Apr 09

As some of you will know we are doing coffee the guest areas of a lot of festivals this summer.  We did five last year and they were really busy.  The coffee was good last year but we were short staffed on good baristas for a few of them which led to some of us doing insane hours!  Driving home was a danger, no amount of coffee would keep me awake.

So, this year we have more really good baristas and I want to do some intensive training with the other guys to make sure that the coffee is second to none.

I have been putting some tests and parameters together that the guys will have to hit to be incharge of the coffee.  I have been coffee training for some time, however much of the time it is in bars and restaurants where the training is basic and it is difficult to get the owners to really strive for a higher standard.  I think the standard customers expect and what they know about how good coffee can be is slowly improving but it has still got a long way to go.  We like to supprise people by making great coffee at events where the produce is usually poor.

I think the following are good starting points;

Get the grind right (23-25 seconds works well for our blend) in 3 goes.

2 caps and 2 espressos in 3 minutes 30, no ground coffee left in the grinder, minimum waste, all drinks consistant and tasty. Flushing etc as per competitions.

Make a cappuccino and a latte from one jug, poor the cap first.  I think this is a really useful one for busy real world situations.

Also knowing the blend so that they can talk to the customers with confidence, and being able to explain the joys and benefits of speciality coffee when people ask the question ”is it fair trade?”!

I will see how this goes, it will be fun to create some kind alternative barista comp for each event, we have 4-6 baristas at each event so competition should be good.  Also other factors such as best customer comment,  salesmanship and showmanship should be involved to make things more fun!

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