Barista?
Image via WikipediaEmily is really into coffee. She haunts all the top spots. Gimme Coffee, Joe's and 9th Street Espresso. I am sure there are others but those 3 come to mind. For her friends bday, she signed up for the 2 of them to take a class to learn how to be a barista at Joe's. Last minute, for family reasons, her friend couldn't make it. I was the back-up.
Last night, at 7pm, we went up to Grand Central to take a class at Joe, The Art of Coffee. We had fun. Learned a little bit about the process and then got to try out our skills. We made espresso which is the heart and soul of coffee making. It is definitely an art. From the grind to the finishing off the beans evenly to patting it down properly to the final drip. I think the real key is the pressure of patting down the ground beans. So that is the human touch part.
No pictures, alas, but Emily might go back for the steamed milk class.
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Comments (Archived):
The milk steaming classes are a lot of fun, especially when you get into making the foam art on top!
i think i recall that you purchased a very high end automatic coffee maker, yes? how’s it working for you. i have the capresso f9. purchased it remanufactured and got a deal. love it. love the customer service even more. only complaint, is that the coffee is not hot enough. peet’s is best for that.
I did get a high end coffee maker and it is literally changed my life. Loveit. The people at the class had make a few purchases on ebay where coffeeshops had gone out of business. The manual machines like the ones in mostcoffee shops are really expensive.
being a Barista is the easy part. I have worked the job for years off and on. The hard part for me was always remembering the contents of the shakes… which by the way are basically dehydrated ice cream and syrup in most places. It is managers that are the problem. Politics are a hard thing to avoid and if you aren’t a left winger they will fire you. Yes… I have been fired from just about every coffee place in NYC