LONDON (Reuters)
Monday 5th January 2004
The art of the barista from coffee beans to cappuccino
By Begoņa Quesada
LONDON, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Tovah Reed-Jenkins puts milk in the pitcher and steams it with precision up to a certain temperature as soon as she sees clients walking through the door, even if she doesn't know if they are ordering any coffee.
She is a barista, the equivalent of a barman in a coffee bar, and her goal is to combine the individual preferences of each customer with strict rules that cut through every single shot of coffee.
"There is nothing worse than a 35 seconds shot," said Reed-Jenkins, who has been a barista for Starbucks in the northern British city of Leeds for more than a year. She was referring to the time water takes to go through the coffee screw-in filter of the espresso machine.
An ideal shot should take between 18 and 23 seconds in a manual espresso machine and between 15 and 19 seconds in an automatic one. Longer times might mean the beans were ground too finely for an espresso and the coffee will taste bitter.
There are three basic components that baristas measure with precision in the preparation of a coffee, the grind of the beans -- which ranges from the fine Turkish style to the coarse of the French espresso -- the water temperature and the proportion of coffee to water.
Once the shot of coffee is perfect, milk comes into play and personal recipes for dry cappuccinos with lots of foam and less milk and macchiatos fly across the bar as the baristas juggle with thermometers, clocks and spoons.
While many producers around the world struggle to make a living out of coffee because of low global prices, pricey bars where tired shoppers enjoy a latte proliferate in city centres around the world.
Baristas relate stories of customers who can tell lattes from cappuccinos by the weight -- lattes should be heavier because they have more milk and less foam -- or who want their drinks at an exact temperature.
PROPORTION AND TIMING
Reed-Jenkins, 21, has been named top barista of the year from the around 5,000 staff who work for the U.S. coffee shop chain Starbucks in Britain.
"One of the main things is to have enough steam milk going. It's not only about the right proportion, it's also about getting things in the right order at the right time," she said.
Almost everyone can be trained to be a barista. It is a matter of basic knowledge and skills.
"But the key is in the attitude. Knowledge will come with work, skills will come with time but I need to see the right attitude in order to know if this person can be a good barista," said Hugh Gilmartin, coffee service industry trainer.
Gilmartin, who sees around 1,000 baristas a year go through his coffee school in Northern Ireland, said it is difficult to get companies to pay for the proper training of their baristas.
Some of the best baristas are in Scandinavia, the region with the world's greatest coffee consumption per capita.
"What we are trying to achieve is that this is regarded as a profession and that people aspire to be baristas, which means they have to be paid more. That's the key," Gilmartin said.
FACING THE CUSTOMER
Working at a coffee bar is usually regarded as a temporary job for students or foreigners but companies know that a lot of their reputation is based on the barista facing the customer.
Most of the chains like Starbucks, Costa Coffee or Coffee Republic train their own people in the store or at special centres.
Paul Meikle-Janney, who coordinates one of the four training centres of the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe, said a barista should have similar skills to those of a good chef and able to coordinate long lists of orders to get them out swiftly.
A latte in a fashionable coffee bar can be twice or three times the price of cup of coffee in a high street store. You can pay up to three pounds ($5.3) for a drink the basic component of which, coffee, is at historical low prices. Customers expect more and baristas are trained accordingly.
"Our training goes through the history of the company, basis of making a great espresso and fabulous drinks. Then we have different sessions to talk about service and about food," said Jeremy Colman, head of human resources for Coffee Republic.
But it is mainly manners and etiquette what makes the difference.
"So much time and effort goes into producing and then selecting this coffee that you don't want all that to be wasted just because you make a bad cappuccino," Reed-Jenkins said.
"Everyone can be trained to be a barista but you really have to want to be up there to make a difference."
($1=0.5663 British Pounds)
((Editing by Victoria Barrett; begona.quesada@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: begona.quesada.reuters.com@reuters.net; +44 (0)207 542 8058))
Wednesday, 31 December 2003 06:00:05
RTRS [nL30510445] {C}
ENDS
|
