Becoming a barista is a gratifying job, but it is also very challenging and can be a highly sought-after position in a café. As it is a competitive field with a steep learning curve for beginners, it can be intimidating when starting.
In other words, a barista is a front and back-of-the-house hybrid who must be skilled in customer service and coffee making.
Whether you want to make a career out of serving coffee or need a job to pay bills, you’d still need a solid understanding of barista tips and basics to excel at the job and gain some new tips along the way.
Tips and Tricks for Improving Barista Skills
1. Heating the Cups
Before making a hot expresso, the best thing you can do is warm up the cups, as it helps improve the flavor of the coffee. You can then fill them with hot water or heat them with a steam wand. It is essential to have hot cups when making expresso as without warming up the cup, the drink will get cold quickly.
2. Learning How to Make Micro-foam
Micro-foam is a frothed milk foam made by frothing icy milk with the steam wand’s tip close to but still beneath the surface of the milk. After making the foam, dip the steam wand into the milk to heat it further.
Micro-foaming gives the smooth feel that customers appreciate, and it also produces better latte art. For frothing the milk, you need cold milk and a cold pitcher. Then fill it a third of the way with cold milk as the frothing process increases the volume. But before starting, you need to drain any water from the steam wand.
3. Grinding the Coffee Beans Properly
You need a professional grinder to grind coffee beans into universal and fine particles, as it is essential to make a tasty cup of coffee and get the most flavor out of each cup. To get a good grind, we need to use a professional-grade grinder, pulse the grinder for three to five seconds simultaneously on a medium to high setting and continue pulsing until the ground is fine.
4. Learning How to Tamp
As a barista, you need to improve your coffee-making skills by tamping correctly with a firm wrist and arm. You can brew coffee with more flavor by tamping the ground coffee into the portafilter, creating a uniform density and surface.
Okay, start with light pressure until a puck with an even surface forms, and then dig up with some elbow grease to push it into a firm, solid puck. You need to keep forming the puck with a twisting motion as you pull away from the tamp to continue developing the puck.
5. Practicing Latte Art
Latte art is a skill that requires some time to learn. When starting your career as a barista, you should find the latte art design that works best for you and improve it before expanding your skillset. You can start with a heart as it is a common choice for a first latte art piece.
Even though the latte art is impressive, no one expects perfection on the first try. You need to learn and practice as much as possible because practice makes everyone perfect.
6. Knowing When to Change the Coffee Grind
If something is wrong with the coffee grind, you should wait until you have made at least one, preferably two, cups of coffee before changing it. This will tell you what is and isn’t working about the grind to correct it the next time you grind.
Making a cup of coffee first can allow you to pinpoint the problem and fix it precisely, rather than just guessing.
7. Keeping the Tools Close
The tools you use to make coffee should be kept close to your machines, including the tamper, cups, scales, grinder, pitcher, towel, and any other items that you use regularly. Furthermore, you can improve the efficiency of your coffee by keeping your tools close to where you work.
You can make your coffee more efficient by setting up a coffee station where these supplies are easily accessible or two ways from the top coffee machine.
8. Paying Special Attention to Cleanliness
It is essential to keep the coffee-making machine clean every day, multiple times a day. Even if you make one or two shots of coffee per day, you must clean the area daily as the mess can accumulate over time, and you will end up with even more work.
For example, cleaning the espresso machine should be done every day. Do it multiple times per day if you have more work; this will give the machines a thorough cleaning after the morning rush and before the after-work rush.
9. Organizing The Towels
Towels are essential in the professional barista’s toolbox, so they must be arranged properly. You should use a different towel for each task, as a dry towel to wipe the portafilter and a damp towel to wipe the steam wand.
Using a different color or texture for each task can help you keep the towel separate. This way, you will know which one to use when having a busy morning with customers.
10. Keeping The Hopper Full
The hopper on the grinder should always be full. Most new baristas get surprised when the coffee speeds up or slows down as the hopper starts to empty. This happens because the burrs in the grinders do not have an even weight distribution. The grind consistency improves with consistent weight distribution. As a result, the flavor consistency improves.
Barista Tips – Learning New Skills Everyday
Being a barista is a job where you can constantly learn new skills, recipes, and techniques. Baristas can improve their skills by brewing a shot of espresso or creating a macchiato long enough.
However, every barista has to start somewhere, and some start at home. Even the home baristas can benefit from additional training, and with the help of these barista tips and tricks, there’s no doubt you could end up making a delicious cup of art coffee for everyone.
