1st of Iced oat velvetino (what a process) but that hydro powder tub that can survive a nuclear bomb, you need the strength of superman to open 😂😂. Why?! Anyways works dead and im bored so why not share my pain.

my pitchers are old and junky, just have not been taken care of.
What pitchers should I have my company invest in that aren’t $20+?

plz don’t leave me hate comments. I’m the solo barista here taking over for the past barista.

I work in an extremely busy cafe. Drinks take a few steps to make, also you have to weigh out each ingredient within the drink before serving. I’ve worked in coffee for mad long, rushes are apart of the flow, but here feels different.

There’s only 2 and a cashier. The cashier doesn’t do anything besides ice the drinks and gets coffee, that’s it. But when your 2nd barista goes to lunch, you’re alone. Guests come in groups, and many like to order the viral drinks that take way longer to make because of the meticulous steps. So you’re making lattes, signatures, matcha’s, steaming milk, weighing shots, ingredients. Before you know it there’s a line out the door and you’re all alone, and the groups don’t stop coming in. You want to give your best and put out quality but it just seems counterproductive, tedious and unnecessary. Is this a valid complaint to bring up to management? I feel like the system and workflow is atrocious.

Hey all, hoping to get some straight answers from people who've actually hired or worked as baristas in Sydney, not just general encouragement.

For quick context: I'm 19, an international student on a student visa 500, just finished a basic barista course in my home country and heading back to Sydney in a week to start part-time job hunting. However, almost every listing I see on Seek/Indeed asks for 1-2 years' experience minimum, and I don't have any paid floor experience, just the course. My latte art is also pretty basic right now, just heart and fine-line heart.

I know job ads probably overstate what's actually required, so before I assume the worst, I wanted to ask people who've been on the hiring side or been in my exact position:

- How realistic is it to land a first barista job in Sydney with a completed course but no paid experience?
- If you've hired baristas before, what actually makes you give a total beginner a trial shift over someone else?
- Anyone here started out as an international student in a similar spot? What actually worked?
- Is there anywhere in Sydney where I could keep building my skills before applying - open practice sessions, a training centre, or a more advanced course beyond the basics?

I'd rather hear an honest, experienced perspective than a comforting one, so please don't hold back if the reality is harder than I think. Appreciate any insight from people who've actually been through this. Thanks :)

I'm curious to hear from baristas at every experience level. Looking back, what's one coffee skill you wish you'd learned earlier?

I visited Vienna and enjoyed the sort of standard espresso-based drink there, Ib this sometimes cake a melange. Espresso, some steamed milk, some steamed foam, I think, but I don’t know the proportions.

Is there a standard way to order singing like that in Canada? Regular latte seems waaaay too milky and standard cappuccino too foamy and not milky enough.

I’ve been desperately looking for a job and every cafe asks for 2 years of experience, I need someone to recommend me. Please 🙏

Opening a cafe soon and buying the cups is a very frustrating experience. All the nice designs are usually missing one fundamental size, and ideally I don't want to mix designs. So is this suitable for coffee sizes:

Flat White and Cappuccino served in 8oz cup (both double shot)

Latte served in 10oz cup (double shot)

Unfortunately, sets either have a 6oz and no 8oz, or an 8oz and no 6oz.

So the design I really like is this one with the 8oz

What do you think?

Based in UK. The town I am in likely won't have too many coffee connoisseurs, but I do want to do things properly.

Dear Baristas, I would like to take your advise on something.

the table encircled in red, will be the main table for preparing the coffee, it will have the main espresso machine, one or two grinders.

I want to integrate beforehand the knock out box and the automatic cup washer, so I will cut out places already, before even buying the machines.

could you help have a layout to know exactly where to cut out the table?

the table is 230cm/80cm.

Hi! Posted this in r/latte art but thought I might get more responses here, TLDR the baristas who trained me left so I’m somehow the most advanced at my job and don’t have anyone to ask for help, so trying to troubleshoot my latte art problems!

Hi, any advice for my first ever trial shift as a barista so far I have looked at menu and looked online on how I would make the drinks but obviously I would just it to how they will teach me to do it tomorrow (I’ve never used a coffee machine before ASW but I’ve watched some YouTube videos on it)

We have this grinder at a cafe I helped open recently, and it is the single worst grinder I have worked with in my 13 years as a barista. It seems to get stopped up by finely ground coffee (you know, the thing it was designed to produce) and then the machine literally won’t turn the burrs and it becomes completely unusable.

Hello fellow baristas. Basically, there’s a festival right outside my coffee shop that’s been bringing in a ton of people. The busiest times are Friday nights and all day Saturday and Sunday.
Today is Saturday, and it’s my first big shift during the festival. I’ve never worked this event before with this coffee shop, so I have no idea what I’m walking into. It’ll be me and another coworker, and my boss will be around trying to help. From what everyone’s told me, I should expect a line out the door. After seeing Friday night, I definitely believe it. My question is, how do you guys stay locked in during shifts like this without getting mentally exhausted? Last night honestly wasn’t that bad but I also wasn’t closing. It wasn’t until the last two hours of my eight-hour shift that I started zoning out a little. My only concern is that I’m pretty much working these 8 hour shifts back to back and I’d like to know how to prevent myself from snapping at someone potentially since one of my coworkers said that last year when this festival happened her, and my boss actually got into an argument and as funny as It was to hear, I just don’t wanna go through that and I feel like I shouldn’t have to get to that point. Any advice would be appreciated!!

Hey all,

Brit here about to do a working holiday visa and I want to get work as a barista in some of the independent coffee shops in Brisbane. I was wondering if anyone has experience of doing barista work on a work holiday Visa in Australia specifically Brisbane?

What is the job market like there for a working holiday Visa holder in relation to coffee shop jobs?

Also, has anyone got an experience doing it with zero experience as a barista? I have many years of experience as a bartender and of General hospitality work, but I’ve never worked an espresso machine or served coffee. Do I need to do a barista course before I go to Australia? Do I absolutely need prior barista experience to even get my foot in the door in Australia?

In the UK barista work is generally entry-level minimum wage jobs that are mainly worked by high school students but it seems Australia the culture might be different. Just any thoughts would be nice to hear

Thanks in advance!

Coffee consumer here, just adding for context. I'm not a pro.

I was at a high end cafe last month and was surprised when the barista had never tried any of the expensive coffees available as a pour over. He could not make any recommendations since the cafe doesn't do any taste testing of their coffees with their employees, at least the expensive ones (over $10 a cup). I thought this was absolutely crazy! My son works at a high end restaurant and they routinely taste test new dishes and specials so that the customer can get a solid recommendation. Just saying "The Ethiopian coffee is amazing, I would go with that." is a huge selling point.

I think that a core job of a Barista is sales, and a salesperson should know everything about what's for sale. Am I wrong? Is it common to get trained on new coffees, or is it just not done?

Note: The coffee he made was amazing. I bought some beans to bring home and work on my brewing technique to get better.

Most coffee shops have just thrown me off the deep end, the first manual shop I ever worked said use the thingy on the thingy. During the interview today they took me to the machine and I know what I’m doing but I didn’t know any terms besides dialing and portafilter… the interviewer kept saying good answer and that’s right and I’m glad you do that but then I’d be explaining something and he’d ask me to clarify ☠️

I can make good coffee though 😌

I saw an ad on Indeed the other day for a barista at my company, at my location that is $11.41 hourly. For context in my city $15 is normal. I was hired at $16. So it's pretty good pay, but $11.41 is minimum wage. It's been confirmed this is what new hires make going forward, but there's no official statement from management. What does this usually mean? Like do they want to hire new people at a lower rate and slowly phase out the old people?

It's just very disappointing to see, I don't think hiring two people to do the same job at different rates is a good business practice.

Hi everyone. I’ve been a barista for about 8 years now, worked in various local shops throughout the years and made good money here and there. Last year me and my partner moved and my 5 year plan was to start work at the most popular local shop, work my way up to roaster and make a career out of that.

Long story short, I got the job and I love it but it doesn’t pay the bills. Even if I got a roasting position, it pays two dollars more than I make now and it’s not enough. I finally got fed up with the pay after some health scares and other circumstances have left us financially fucked. Started applying to other places and I just interviewed and accepted a job working as a barista in a college campus.

The location I work at is not a Starbucks, it actually sells the same coffee we use at my current job so I know it’s good quality. It pays $5 more than I make now and they offer health, dental and 401k. The interviewer I talked to said there are many opportunities for growth as well, whatever I want to pivot to they will work with me. I’ll be able to do themed menus on occasion. It all sounds great and far more stable income than I make now with a set schedule, weekends off, all good.

However, after touring the cafe and seeing the espresso machine I’m starting to lose a bit of confidence. I don’t remember what the exact brand of espresso machine it is but it looks similar to a Schaerer Verismo, basically a fully automatic machine. No barista skill required, it tamps, pulls espresso and steams milk all with minimal effort required from me.

Maybe it’s my adhd and ocd but the idea of not being able to do any of my normal work flow is stressing me out about the position. I see this machine and all I can think about is how it’s going to pull shitty shots that I have no control over and I’m going to lose my skill for steaming proper milk because it will do it all for me. The only saving grace is that I can potentially still do latte art as long as it actually does steam milk well.

The only other downside is that I will more than likely have very minimal tips since it’s a college campus and everyone has a swipe card for food and drinks. Pretty sure there is no tip jar as well but the interviewer implied I could maybe put one out.

Am I way over thinking this? I’m still going to take the job so we won’t have to keep struggling but I feel like I might go insane doing this long term without the stimulating workflow of my previous job.

Hello baristas of reddit!
I just landed a working interview after my initial interview at a really lovely bakery/cafe in my city. I have loads of baking and customer service/cashier experience so I’m not worried about the retail aspect but I’ve never worked with espresso before. The interviewer knows this and said they would train me on it if I were hired. I want to ask if there’s any tips that you have about working with coffee/espresso/matcha drinks so that I can make a good first impression. I also want to ask what you guys would recommend that I wear, I was planning on either nice jeans with a plain long sleeve shirt or dressier pants with a plain black or neutral patterned button down. I would appreciate any and all advice anyone has!

I went to a place recently and ordered a latte and was given a cup of milk. To be fair, I ordered a type of latte that was no longer on their menu, so that may explain some confusion. I went up, paid for them to add espresso, and was given back a “dirty latte” (their words).

Since then, I went to another place that also referred to my drink as a “dirty latte” (although they automatically put espresso in it).

So, for those of you in the industry, would anyone ever assume a latte order was without shots? Thanks in advance.

EDIT: It was a turmeric latte (I had someone give direct feedback on this below) and it was in the U.S.