Are there any other baristas on the forums?

[Menzenski]

I've been working as a barista for almost a year now, and absolutely love it. Just curious if there were any other baristas here. (If you work behind the counter at a Starbucks, you don't count).

[Phager]

I used to be the general manager of a small (5 stores) chain in the bay area. It was the best job I ever had! You'd think with me living in the Pacific NW I wouldn't have a problem finding a similar position, but none of the local shops are ever hiring :(

Pat

[Geepfreak]

I've been working as a barista for almost a year now, and absolutely love it. Just curious if there were any other baristas here. (If you work behind the counter at a Starbucks, you don't count).


you betcha, just filled my machine with water, set the timer and placed two scoops of my favorite Folgers blend to be ready at 6:15 in the morning.

:D:D

[creeperjeep]

theres a machine here and I push a button, and i dont talk to anyone. then i drink

[5-90]

I've been working as a barista for almost a year now, and absolutely love it. Just curious if there were any other baristas here. (If you work behind the counter at a Starbucks, you don't count).

I'm so glad you qualified that! I'm sick to my teeth of seeing Starschmucks all over the place (there's even one in the parking lot of the Home Depot here. WTF, over?)

I do enjoy going in there every now and then and ordering a plain cup of black coffee, and watching the screen go blank...

When did coffee get so damn fancy, anyhow. And, could you edify me as to what, exactly, is a "barista?" I'd thought it was something Starschmucks came up with just to sound fancy, but I'm not entirely sure anymore...

5-90

[nhrocker]

No, barista isn't just a Starbucks thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barista

I consider myself lucky that I've never stepped foot into a Starbucks. I'd take a small rundown coffee shopped tucked away in a corner any day. There's just something about knowing (and tasting) when someone does there job not because it's "trendy" or they need to pay a bill, but because they like what they do and they can appreciate the quality of the product they produce.

[5-90]

Ah. I should have also figured the root was Italian - probably due to the popularity of espresso (? "Would you like a small cup of badly burnt coffee?")

At least it's not a "trendy" thing - I was starting to worry about that. At least it is, after all, something someone can be proud of doing...

There is some discernable difference to be noted when someone is doing something they enjoy, vice someone doing something just to keep the wheelbarrow full - you can usually tell. Don't even get me started on doing something "trendy" - I've never been a slave to fashion, and I see no reason to do something just because it's "cool." If you don't enjoy what you're doing, go do something else - as a favour to everyone!

That's why I'm going into engineering and mechanics - I enjoy the precision, and I honestly feel that most of what I find out there is poorly designed (although I think that's more to do with engineers and accountants than engineers. Those people need to be put into their places, I think, which is NOT in charge!)

5-90

[Roxtar]

Only at home.
Wega espresso machine and a Mazzer SJ grinder.
Also do my own roasting.

Friends don't let friends drink Charbucks.

[wall04]

Only at home.
Wega espresso machine and a Mazzer SJ grinder.
Also do my own roasting.

Friends don't let friends drink Charbucks.

Yea, I home roast too. I used a Westbend Poppery II for years until I got a Freshroast Plus a couple of months ago. I like the freshroast but it still can't hit the darker roasts like a modified air popper can. Where do you get your beans? I use:
http://www.sweetmarias.com

[BillR]

Count me as one of the few here that LIKES Starbucks coffee. I buy the beans and brew it at home, and usually stop at Starbucks for a cup in the afternoons.
My daughter is a barista at Starbucks, and she had some pretty extensive training to get the certification. Starbucks also has MUCH better service and friendlier workers that the local dives here in town.

[SCW]

I consider myself lucky that I've never stepped foot into a Starbucks. I'd take a small rundown coffee shopped tucked away in a corner any day.

I went into a Starbucks a few years ago and looked over the menu (coffee needs a menu??) with a look on my face like a deer in the headlights. I ended up picking something that sounded good and *safe*, a chocolate frapa-whatever. I had no clue what I ordered.

I waited at the counter and every drink that came out I asked if that was mine and they kept saying "no, you had the frapa-slapa", eventually they got irritated with my ignorance.

turned out I ordered some cold coffee drink, I was pretty dissapointed but I finished it anyway. I still have no idea how to order at a coffe house, I'm more comfortable at 7-11 where I make my own, lol.

[Glenn B]

I will take a double tall no whip mocha. Thank you

I do not mind Starbucks at all.... I know what I like, I tell the person behind the counter, I pay for it, they make it then I drink it. Good stuff.

[ECKSJAY]

I will take a double tall no whip mocha. Thank you

I do not mind Starbucks at all.... I know what I like, I tell the person behind the counter, I pay for it, they make it then I drink it. Good stuff.

x2

Nonfat for me lately. :D You should see the looks on their faces though when I order a soy chai latte and pull up in teh XJ. "Umm, you didn't have the soy chai did you?" :clap:

[egon]

I have a 1,675 watt coffee/expresso maker, do I win a prize?

--Matt

[ladywolf]

starbucks is ok.

we have seattles best here on camp taji (BLECK!! the way they make it, not the coffee itself)

theres a lil place in yakima in the mall that has GREAT coffee. cant think of its name tho.

[Ralph]

I started drinking coffee during the 70's in Spain. Anywhere you ordered coffee, espesso is what you got. The coffee would come with a large cube of sugar and steamed milk (no foam) on the side. A shot of brandy was often ordered with the coffee. I still enjoy coffee served that way.

[cmotsvt]

Someone at starbucks asked me if I wanted my coffee with "room". I had no idea what she was talking about. Youd think she would have noticed I was wearing work boots, blue jeans, and a cap before trying to talk jive to me.

[Fergie]

Count me as one of the few here that LIKES Starbucks coffee. I buy the beans and brew it at home, and usually stop at Starbucks for a cup in the afternoons.
My daughter is a barista at Starbucks, and she had some pretty extensive training to get the certification. Starbucks also has MUCH better service and friendlier workers that the local dives here in town.


Although it is fun to roll through Wicked...:shhh:

Best coffee I have had was at some place in downtown Tacoma about a year ago. Had a really odd sounding dual name....something & something.

[Roxtar]

Yea, I home roast too. I used a Westbend Poppery II for years until I got a Freshroast Plus a couple of months ago. I like the freshroast but it still can't hit the darker roasts like a modified air popper can. Where do you get your beans? I use:
http://www.sweetmarias.com
Sweet Marias is very good.
Extremely informative though slightly pricy.
Here's another place I've used occasionally:
http://www.cmebrewcoffee.com/green_coffee_beans.html
A search under "green coffee beans" will turn up plenty of results.

A few years ago I came accross a brand new, in the box, orig West Bend Poppery at a thrift store for $5. The heavy 1500W one with the 110V motor.
I modified it to take a thermometer, larger capacity, and heat cut off switch and it works great.
I can get any degree of roast I want at will.

[acrid]

seattle's best is starbucks. btw.... if you're in the pacific NW, you should try to get a hold of stumptown coffee. i used to work right next door to the roasting facility, all the use is free trade organic at that plant. in se. pdx. seriously you've never had good coffee until you have the roaster bring you fresh beans straight from the oven...

good god, i'm salivating already....

on the starf#ck's topic, they are baristas they just push buttons, that's like saying the someone the works are Wendy's is a chef....

enjoy.

[Nevada City Sparky]

Yeah, I was sorta a "super barista" I owned j@ck's internet cafe in the 80's in Grass Valley. Never lost so much money so fast.....

But I did learn to make a mean espresso.

[Menzenski]

on the starf#ck's topic, [...] they just push buttons, that's like saying the someone the works are Wendy's is a chef....
I totally agree. I stopped into a Starbucks for the first time two weeks ago (I was passing by, and my passenger said that she'd pay, otherwise I wouldn't've). I was under the impression that Starbucks had automatic grinding, dosing, and tamping, and that the person behind the counter still had to put the portafilter into the espresso machine. Not so; everything is automated. To get a shot, all the employee does is push a button on a big silver box.

When I went to Starbucks, I asked for an eight-ounce dry cappucino, a straight-forward drink (to me at least). The PBTC (person behind the counter) didn't want to let me have an 'eight-ounce' drink. She wanted me to call it a 'short'. I had to insist, literally four or five times, that I didn't care what the Starbucks-ese name for it was, I just wanted an eight-ounce dry cappucino.

I walked around to a position where I could watch her make the drink, since I'm a barista myself and was curious. For those of you not in the know, if you foam milk (like for a cappucino), and you do it properly, you'll end up with roughly twice the volume of milk you started with. So for an eight-ounce drink, you don't need very much milk. The PBTC must have put about twenty ounces of milk in the pitcher (way, way, way too much milk. That's just a waste). The way she foamed it was the way that every real barista is taught not to do it. Ideally, you get the milk swirling in a vortex in the pitcher, which keeps the bubbles down, and the result is a nice, glossy 'microfoam'. The Starbucks employee didn't swirl the milk in the pitcher at all, which not only leads to an unequal heat distribution in the cup, it creates huge 'soap bubbles' of milk, which is exactly what you don't want in a cappucino.

She then pushed a button on the machine and some espresso poured out (very quickly, I might add: a perfect shot takes ~27 seconds to pull, about half that for a ristretto and twice that for a lungo. The Starbucks espresso took about three seconds) into a shot glass. Why she didn't put it right into the cup, I don't know. She poured it into the cup, glopped some milk foam onto it, and then committed the most egregious error of the night, which proved beyond a doubt that she was no barista: she stirred the cappucino before pouring in some of the steamed milk. I asked for a dry cappucino, which means 'lots of milk foam, very little steamed (liquid) milk. Stirring milk foam turns it back into a liquid. If you stir a cappucino, you turn it into a latte. In retrospect, I should have made her make me another one, but it was late and I just wanted to go home.

After the PBTC had finished making my 'cappucino', I decided to ask her a few questions about the machine. I asked if the machine adjusted itself for humidity, or if it had to be adjusted manually by a human being. "We check it every hour", she replied. I told her that that didn't answer my question, and repeated it. Again, "We check it every hour" was her reply. "Will that machine make a ristretto shot?" I asked. "A what?". That did it for me. She clearly knew nowhere near enough to be considered a barista.

Wow, that turned into a long post.

[Beej]

A wise-ass family member gave me a hundred dollar Starbucks card which I will probably not ever be able to use up. I really enjoy going in there and ordering either a "small double-double" or a "small coffee".

For those not in the know, a double-double is an expression for a Tim Horton's (http://www.timhortons.com/) two cream and two sugar coffee. This frustrates the hell out of them since "real" coffee drinkers (like the half-wit desperate housewives that frequent most Starbucks) usually pooh-pooh Timmy Ho's.

The "small coffee" gets under their skin quickly when its all I repeat amongst their questions of "do you want a tall or a short?", "dark roast or light roast?" or "room for cream?".

Starfux can lick my little barista; their beans are burnt and they can't make a half decent espresso with their autocoffeeboxes to save their lives...

[Fergie]

Elitist snobs talking about elitist snobs on an elitist circlejerk forum...

[Menzenski]

Elitist snobs talking about elitist snobs on an elitist circlejerk forum...
Hey, if expecting the person serving me coffee to be knowledgeable about coffee makes me an elitist snob, then so be it. :D

[Sniggs]

Elitist snobs talking about elitist snobs on an elitist circlejerk forum...HAH!!! Dibs on the signature!!! :)

[ECKSJAY]

seattle's best is starbucks. btw....

Only owned by SBUX. Nothing has changed.

[creeperjeep]

I dunno about the USA but in Kuwait (the land of 10,000 Starbucks) they push those additives such as carmel and other flavors and then everything they offer is 300fils (1.something USD) more to your order, so by the time the mumbling Filipino is done, your bill is like 2.450KD or $8.45 and I still have no idea what I ordered.

I like the warm stuff that comes in a little mug for 1.050KD

[Sniggs]

Dammit!! All this talk about coffee! Now I gotta go take a leak! :shiver:

Dad always said, "Never pass the bathroom and NEVER trust a fart!"
:passgas: :(

[Ralph]

Dad always said, "Never pass the bathroom and NEVER trust a fart!"
:passgas: :(
A very wise man, your father.