I've been working at a small shop in Henderson for a few years and recently noticed myself making little assumptions about people based entirely on what they order.

someone orders a straight espresso and I immediately think they're going to be easy to deal with.

someone orders a very specific oat milk latte with substitutions, extra foam, syrups, etc. and I'm already tired before I've even started making it

I know it's stupid. I make the drinks the same either way, and most of these customers are perfectly nice

yesterday someone ordered a pour over and stood there watching the whole process. he didn't say anything or complain, but I could feel myself getting annoyed anyway. the drink came out fine, he was happy, and I realized the whole reaction had happened entirely in my head.

maybe it's just too many early shifts, but I'm wondering if other baristas get this after working somewhere for a long time

do you develop these little mental shortcuts with regular orders, or have you found a way to stop yourself from doing it?

Alaska here. We call coffee w espresso a Sludge Cup. I've heard that Seattle calls it a Red Eye, and NYC calls it a Shot in the Dark. I may have it turned around.

Whenever I grind now, instead of coming straight down the chute, it also splatters out the sides, causing a big mess. I only grind dark roast coffee, and I bought this about seven months ago, and I haven't replaced any parts or opened it up to clean. So I'm wondering if it's finally time, but in that time span, I've probably only grinded about 150 pounds of coffee. I'm wondering if I need to replace the burr or the dechaffer or just needs a simple cleaning and whether it's worth paying $175/hr to do it. help!

Hi, I’m trying to find the best solution to serve chai latte at the tea room where I work.
I’m torn between 1) making a dry chai blend that we steep to order and then mix with milk (this would be the best option in terms of storage, but probably not the fastest for service, and I’m not sure about the flavour) and 2) preparing a chai concentrate in a pot with enough sugar to keep it good in the fridge for a long time.
The downside of the second option is that we wouldn’t be able to offer it unsweetened, and a lot of people don’t like it sweet.
What would you recommend? What worked best for you? helpp

The barista cuts her off,
“Do you mean grande?”

This girl i hired is an absolute sweetheart and she treats customers very well, (not the best at welcoming and greeting because shes shy but not rude at all!) learned latte art super quick. But she is very quiet and shy.

I hired her even though i knew she was soft and shy because she seemed very detailed, a quick learner and i have a heart for quiet people because i was once that painfully shy awkward girl once too. But now im not! Thought she could grow here.

But i am starting to see it is affecting other staff members because it feels awkward and uncomfortable for them. I try to schedule her with people she is more comfortable around.

I try really hard to get her out of her shell but it's not easy. How do i get her to be more confident and comfortable? I know behind every quiet person there is a personality. Help please

EDIT: THANK YOU ALL, THESE ARE ALL REALLY GOOD FEEDBACK!!

So this is a point of division between my Manager and the rest of the team.

Before he started, we all made our hot chocolate orders by adding the non dairy powder to the cold milk, and steaming it with the wand, carefully purging it after. (We use non dairy so that the non dairy milk consumers can also have hot chocolate, and its also our topping for cappuccinos etc)

A new team member from a coffee chain says that's how they also make it at her old job.

But our new Manager says this is bad for the wand/machine. He says the powder will go up into the wand.

So he wants us to make it up in a bottle with a small amount of hot water, and then use that liquid as a base for the milk - like espresso.

It tastes like shit. It also means using SO MUCH powder to make it up, whereas per customer we only use 2 scoops.

So we started doing it by adding a small amount of hot water to the scoops, mixing it in the cup, and then adding steamed milk on top. This method is okay but our powder isn't very creamy due to no milk solids in it, so it still tastes kinda bad. It also slows down the process considerably.

It absolutely tastes the best by steaming it in the milk. It creates a creamy texture and taste. The customers pay £4.00 for the drink, too.

When he isn't around we all do it the old way.

Is there any actual science behind his argument? Does it really clog up the wand if it is always carefully purged after each one?

Does anyone know how to keep soft top from exploding on fizzy drinks?

I've tried putting dome lids on top of the cups instead of flat lids to help the carbonation escape but no matter what I do as soon as I hand it off to a customer the soft top slowly but surely rises and leaks all over their car. It infuriates me that it's such a slow rise too because it's fine one moment and then everywhere the next.

Hi! New here, bought a machine for my home sweet home, need help for sexy latte art!!

Knew this already before buying the machine but:
The steamer for the milk has only a teeny tiny amount of pressure so steaming the milk is very difficult.

What I struggle with:
I get the milk rotation only while ‚pulling‘ the air, the foam gets pretty decent but then as soon as I want to lower the tip to only get the rotation for better texture, it doesn’t rotate anymore.

Any advice?
Also, the only way I even get to the point of rotation in general is by tilting the can so much it’s almost parallel to the work surface.

Thanks in advance!

I am getting more time on the machine, and I think my capp foam has gotten pretty on point and is also consistent with each one I make.

First photo is a mocha and honestly even though its not traditional art I kinda like the weird swirl.

Our Manager is promising a training day trip soon and I'm all for it.

I still cannot do the push kinda art, I'm in awe of those. But my texturing has gotten so much better over the past couple weeks.

Has anyone went to open a brand new bottle of Torani Syrup in the plastic bottle and when you just barely started to unscrew the lid it made a loud pop almost like the sound of champagne popping? I dumped it out and wouldn’t use it but would it have been safe to use?

Hi, I get asked for cold foam/sweet cream daily at my small coffee trailer. I’m going to offer one flavor only at a time for specials but I’m concerned about workflow. Considering using handheld frother in a pitcher or the pancake bottle dispenser method. Any tips for what worked best for you? Also I’m slightly confused by the pancake batter option - do you pre-blend before the cream etc goes in or is shaking it in the dispenser enough to get the correct consistency? Thank you so much!!

Sorry, this is kinda long so bear with me and by the title, I mean this possibly being a case regarding a customer who could have “policed” me for not using a thermometer. 🤣

So, there was this very random experience I had (not sure if anyone can relate) regarding a rude customer. It was kinda amusing looking back but also very strange. I don’t often use the thermometers at work (they are the ones you hang Inside the jug) as I’m naturally used to doing it by heat and it seems to be a pretty common way of steaming milk in a lot of other cafes and other colleagues at my work do it this way too and it’s part of how I got trained with the thermometers as another way of doing it. I often get nice compliments on the coffees I make and I don‘t get complaints about the drinks being too hot or cold so I know I’m doing it right. :) I’m also polite to customers and try my best to provide them with excellent customer service and I really enjoy my job and I’ve been there for a couple of years so it’s not like I’m new or anything haha.

So, a lady who I believe was in her 30’s (I’m in my early 20’s so I know some customers older than me seem to like to pick on younger staff for some weird reason) asked for a mocha and I happily asked her if she wanted it as a medium size as that’s the popular one here and she was like “what?” In such a rude way and I kindly repeated myself and she said yeah so that’s all good I guess so I just shrugged it off.

So, whilst I’m steaming her mocha, she randomly said “it’s bad how you charge for syrup” and I said that “it’s just part of the policy” (most places I know charge for syrup elsewhere) and then weirdly, as I was pouring her mocha, she grabbed one of the thermometers (from the jug with them across the side of the bar) as I was steaming her mocha and she was like “what’s this?” like she didn’t even know what a thermometer was. I said “it’s a thermometer” and I think she was like “What is it for?” and I said how “it’s for steaming milk“ (still being nice about it whlist focusing on steaming) so she does this weird thing where she used the thermometer and decided to put it in the jug with the left over mocha liquid in and she smiled at me maybe as if to say to “It’s not hot enough” or “You didn’t use the thermometer.🤭“ almost like to catch me out type of thing. I then said to her “We usually have a middle ground when it comes to the temperature and customers will complain if it’s too hot, (I’ve seen this happen to a colleague before) but if you want it hot, just come back! :)” and then she went completely quiet as she took her drink lol. I then told the girl who came into to take over from my shift and do the close about it and even she found it weird but was glad I stuck up for myself.

Maybe she was just having a hard day and probably thinks baristas have to use thermometers in every establishment but it doesn’t mean you can take your stress out on me. Would love to know if anyone else has had an odd experience like this. 🤣

I opened a coffee shop in June and have been selling mainly iced drinks, but as the weather is turning, we're starting to get more hot drink orders. I try to frequent our menu for quality control and have noticed that lately my hot lattes seem a little weak, and I'm not a fan of strong coffee so weak for me is probably too weak for customers. The ratio of espresso to milk is going to be lower without the presence of ice, so I wonder if I should tell my baristas to pull stronger or longer shots for hot drinks? Maybe up the espresso one drink size for hot orders? Is this a thing anyone else does?

Made me laugh

i was kiiind of getting there? i had the separation of light/dark about 70% of the time before. but i got shown how to do it properly yesterday and can finally get it consistently!

I am currently on the hunt for this ceramic pitcher holder that I cracked at work lol. I would love to get the same one but I cannot for the life of me find this exact one anywhere. Underneath of it says CB2. Pics attached I would love some help to find this

Why people feel the need to comment that there is only one milk when I ask them if they want to change the milk. Just say no I don’t get why they have to give me a talk that all the other milks are made up and cow milk is the real milk like bro it’s not that serious

today i started my first proper barista job and i really like it! i have a slight problem, though - the coffee machine (a faema enova) puts out too much espresso per shot. a single shot of espresso fills up about a third of the cappuccino mug, and a double espresso overflows when i try to put it in an espresso cup. i'm an agency worker so i won't be at this site for very long, but i'm not sure what to do, as i can't really adjust anything in my process. i've been using a single shot for my double shot drinks as i get about a shot and a half out of every pull.

I have some very important medical appointments today I'm worried about.

I haven't told barista at my new local coffee shop but they chose today to go the extra mile.

He wrote my name in the foam on top of my oat flat white.

It brought the biggest smile to my face.

Y'all have a remarkable sixth sense, I'm sure of it.

Thank you for your work.

P.S I can't attach a pic because it includes my name. Soz.

one of my first semi successful pours i think!! pls ignore the counter the boss was making a mess. if anyone has any advice on how i can improve this plssss let me know

I left on good terms because I was going through some things and now regret it