r/barista

I work in a small cafe just on the edge of the capitals Old Town, which is the tourist area. It's fairly normal that in a full cafe, each of the tables is a different nationality (maybe a few locals). I love it, I love seeing different people enjoying my city, country and culture, I love helping people figure out what they want. There is one thing that sometimes grinds my gears.

The ammount of people that try to order "normal" or "regular" coffee is truly baffling. Most of the time, it means either americano, espresso or batch brew, but it has also turned out to mean lungo, iced americano, Hario V60, instant coffe, cappuccino and gods know what else.

By now, I have figured out what a normal coffee means in some of the countries, but having to guess where a person is from is silly. I have started saying "if normal was the same everywhere, people wouldn't be traveling", but I keep thinking that one crappy day, I will just snap and give someone a 5 minute espresso shot and go "this is normal here".

[Not quite an edit] While I was writing this, I had an interaction that went something like -"Black coffee" -"Americano?" -"No, black coffee" and the person couldn't explain what coffee they want then, even when prompted with explanations.

Hey!

Just a super quick question - I have a connection (through family) at a cafe near me, and I’m currently hunting for a casual/part-time job. Always loved coffee + some casual barista stuff at home, and would love the chance to do it for work, and apparently this place is looking for a ‘reliable’ barista.

Aside from asking the connection directly, which I’ll likely do regardless, can anyone here speak to what sort of qualifications are necessary to put me in a good spot? I’ve got some distant past experience in hospitality with a very likely expired RSA, but otherwise, I imagine a barista course/certification would be helpful? In my city (Melbourne, AUS) there seems to be a bunch of day courses, but there are many varying levels, from a beginner course around $100, a latte art course for $120 by itself, all the way up to a ‘ready to work’ level for $1000+, which is obviously out of my range for a casual job but seems excessive regardless!

Any advice from those in the industry would be much appreciated 🙏

I started working 4 days ago for a cafe that just opened with no barista/restauration experience. Yesterday, I had to do a closing shift while training another employee alone, the shop closes at 7pm and I stayed till 8 to make sure everything was done and I didn’t forget anything. I came back from work exhausted and slept in this morning because I didn’t have a shift this morning.

I woke up with 5 missed calls from my manager asking why did I take the keys with me after I closed the shop… (she gave me a copy of the keys) I straight up told her I had no idea I shouldn’t of had did that and she said we’ll talk about it tomorrow. I know I’m probably not going to get fired but it still sucks

I was working at a local Cafe I've really enjoyed as a customer after moving back from out of state. I probably won't get coffee there again tbh.

I worked there 3 days, I was excited to start, but holy crap I was over it by today (my third day).

I have worked on and off as a barista for the past 3.5 years, with one of my gigs even requiring a whole week of classes before ever even touching the barista bar; just sitting in the classroom taking notes about grind dosing, milk temps, frothing, shot times, everythingggg. And not just a class on how they do it, but just these things in general so we (employees) could understand why they did it like that at the shop.

I wouldn't say I'm a complete master-level barista, but I'm definitely not a novice. In fact, besides this job I quit today,I have another barista gig at an incredibly busy spot where I am the only barista on shift all day and run not only walk up/to go orders, but also do orders for the entire restaurant. I know what I'm doing with espresso drinks.

Well, today was my first real day at this place, where I wasn't mainly shadowing/touring the spot and got to work through rushes, and there was just more and more I couldn't stand about working there.

First thing was the fruit flies. There were fruit flies literally everywhere to the point it was triggering to my OCD because I was flinching at everything thinking it was a bug and that I was inhaling them even. Couldn't stop thinking about them. Ew.

Then, there was a rotting smell coming from under one of the sinks. Don't know what that was about, but ew. Gross. Literally thought one of my coworkers was passing gas constantly or something but nope- it was under the sink (where the over stock of syrups and chai teas was kept.)

Coffee grounds also were everywhere on every single milk canister, caked onto the walls and shelves of the fridge, sludged behind the syrups. I know coffee grounds are messy like glitter but this was obscene on a level I had never seen before. Everything was contaminated by coffee grounds.

They would also leave the ice scoop IN THE ICE with the HANDLE TOUCHING THE ICE TOO! That's a health code violation that is so simple to avoid and I even know when I was 16 working as a host/busser at a restaurant.

On top of cleanliness issues, my lead was a teenager who micromanaged my every move and didn't know how to work 2 on a bar. Instead of one of us doing shots and the other doing milks like at any of the 5 other places I've worked, she would make individual drinks one by one and just constantly be in the way. She even took a portafilter off right when I started pouring my shot.

She disappeared for 20+ minutes during a rush without saying anything, only to come back frantic about a drink needing to be made that i had already made, and sent it out without whip because she was saying we were out even though I had the canister in my hand actively cracking the nitrous into it.

Meanwhile she mentioned several times that I need to use my shots sooner because I was taking 2 seconds wrapping up steaming my milk and didn't pull the shot off the instant it finished. Yes, I know shots go sour. Yes, I know to use shots when you pour them and don't "save" shots. However, it just stopped pouring less than 5 seconds beforehand and still had a thick crema fully intact, it wasn't even close to souring yet.

I'm really bummed out because this job pays pretty decent and the manager who hired me is a cool dude, and I really liked the café. But my 3 days there were a total let down and I just needed to get it all out of my system.

TLDR: Quit due to sanitary conditions and micromanaging from leads at a café that paid well and I enjoyed as a customer before being hired

R baristas servers or anyone not allowed to make mistakes?!? Like i genuinely don’t get it how some people can be so freaking rude… had an “influencer” who apparently got annoyed about how we served his table “slow” and how we mistaked his drink where my coworker accidentally made an iced matcha instead of hot btw we immediately remade the correct drink and served it fast…. Person started to threaten us about how they have this many followers and will post a bad review about it and blah blah … it’s insane how people think having many followers have the right for u to be rude… if u think u being served slow or whatever problem u have flag the server or something dont come barging into the front counter and make a scene…. Genuinely not my first rodeo with these kind of people but i don’t know im like just so icked by that “ i have many followers on Instagram”… like the attitude people have to service people… well ty for coming to my ted talk :)

Hey guys, so I‘m a speciality coffee barista in Portugal, for 2 years now, and I really want to step up the game. I was thinking of getting certifications… I know there are some but don‘t know if any could really be an asset.

What certifications exist that could really be an asset for me? That could get me higher salaries/positions… so yeah… good market wise.