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written by: Stevyn Pivalsky
Calling all baristas! Aspiring and seasoned baristas alike, if you’re looking for a “barista training near me” the RNY Lab has you covered! Join us this August as Thomas Ameloot of CoLabOps teaches SCA Barista Skills Foundation & Intermediate!
Unsure if you or your staff would benefit from the SCA Barista courses at the RNY Lab? To set your café experience apart from the rest, having properly trained SCA baristas can prove to be a huge advantage. More often than we would like, the importance of the barista role is downplayed, underestimated, or in the worst cases, downright ignored. The Barista is the spokesperson for all the work that has gone into a coffee. They are responsible for the finishing touch that will decide what impact all this hard work is going to have. Baristas are responsible for customer satisfaction. This customer satisfaction can’t be beat when baristas are armed with the skills to create a consistent coffee and the product knowledge to talk about that coffee with customers.
One of the key components of customer satisfaction is consistency.
How would you feel if you always ordered a mocha from your corner coffee shop and one day it was too sweet, the next day it wasn’t sweet at all, and the next day the coffee flavor was too strong? You might feel annoyed and walk another block to the next coffee shop.
Serving a consistent product builds brand trust between your café and the customer. This helps to build a loyal customer base, but this type of consistency doesn’t just happen. Coffee is a complex and dynamic product. Anyone looking to obtain consistency in coffee will need to dedicate a substantial amount of time to be successful.
Another important variable that can set apart an okay coffee experience from a great one is product knowledge.
There are many coffee shops that have all the shiny new gear they could afford. They are meticulously curated with the most modern of décor. Maybe they even have baristas who delicately pour fancy shapes upon every oat cortado.
Have you been to this shop? Follow up question. Have you tasted their espresso without the benefit of an oat rosetta served in a fancy glass? Have you asked the staff for tips on how to brew a better coffee at home? Or have you asked for more info about where the coffee comes from?
If the espresso doesn’t taste good on its own, or if the barista doesn’t seem to have answers for these questions, there will be many missed opportunities to bring people along with us on this journey, we call specialty coffee.
Now that you know how having SCA trained baristas can make all the difference, are you ready to sign up for a class at the RNY Lab? We offer a foundation level and an intermediate level course to help create a framework for this (lifelong) journey.
The foundation level focuses on the basics of making a consistent beverage in your café. Namely espresso. We will build upon knowledge of varieties of coffee and various processes to help guide informed menu development and recipe creation to make consistent quality beverages. We also learn a classic cappuccino and an americano.
In intermediate we go more in depth with the focus on grind size, dosing, tamping, brew ratio and how to taste and respond to these variables to optimize the coffees flavor (often referred to as dialing in). We work on delivering multiple beverage orders and establish best practices and orders of operation to serve the coffee at peak quality. We also practice making orders with two baristas on one machine, known as double-barring.
Of course, once you or your Barista all stars are consistently constructing deliciously complex and alluring espresso, there will inevitably be more questions to ask (there always are if coffee is your true calling). A question that every throw-down-thirsty barista will start to ask probably before they even consider the oh so important calibration of the shots is latte art. The technique in which they pour magical hearts, clovers, and maybe even Swans! Proper steaming optimizes the milk’s flavor, sweetness, and texture, while proper pouring skills will create a visually striking drink with excellent composition that will make your customer feel special and excited to share with all their friends, maybe even on the GRAM.
In addition to teaching these skills these classes allow for all levels of coffee people to experiment and ask questions in a judgment-free environment, surrounded by peers who also thirst for more knowledge and SCA instructors who have dedicated their careers to learning and helping others pursue a vibrant coffee community across the world. Lastly, but not least, in these classes we will set aside time to go over some fundamentals of café health and food safety, customer service, and basic business practices to help put these skills together in a real-world café setting.
Use the links below to sign up for our SCA Barista Skills foundation & intermediate classes. Or better yet, explore all upcoming classes at the RNY Lab!
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