Barista is a craft profession with the artistry of a fine pastry chef, the skill of a short order cook in a busy restaurant, and the pleasantry of a flight attendant. Every drink that you serve is singularly a creation to the finest of your ability. You are the end of the line in the life of the coffee bean. After growing on heirloom plants high in the mountains across the world, the beans are painstakingly harvested by skilled coffee farmers, processed carefully to remove the cherry, transported thousands of miles over treacherous seas, trucked across the country, and roasted in small batches by yours truely. As the last set of hands to touch the beans before they are slurped by your customer, to put forth anything but your best effort is a disservice to all the people that put their heart and soul into the coffee before you.
Baristi in Italy apprentice for years before they are considered to be skillful enough to work ‘the machine’. We don’t yet have quite that sort of tradition built into coffee houses in the US, but we most certainly could get there someday. Stand up as a barista and realize that your job is an artisan craft and not just some lazy part-time summer job. There are many organizations for coffee professionals in the U.S., but perhaps the best is The Barista Guild. Membership to the guild costs money, but the chatroom is free. The chatroom is a great online resource to share experiences, observations, tips, and annoyances with your cohorts.
WHAT IS ESPRESSO?
Espresso is a carefully chosen bean or blend (usually a blend) brewed in a short period of time under high-pressure thermal water extraction in an espresso machine. It is the job of the roaster to carefully choose and precisely roast the beans. It is the craft of the barista to finesse, nuance and otherwise eek out the flavor of the beans through careful brewing.
Philosophically, espresso is all about resistance and balance. The espresso machine exerts water pressure over the espresso grounds, and the espresso resists the pressure of the water. The job of the barista is to determine what needs to be done to challenge the espresso just enough to resist the water just enough to bring forth the most delicious qualities.
The barista provides resistance by packing the portafilter basket with properly ground espresso, just full enough, just firm enough, and just evenly distributed enough such that he or she brews a great tasting shot with proper time, volume, and visual attributes. Our standards at Metropolis are .75 oz-1oz per shot in 25-30 seconds with dark reddish brown crema making up 75% of the volume of the shot. The flavor attributes that we look for in Redline are citrus, blueberry, honey, and cocoa.
If the barista doesn’t get what he or she is looking for, then something went wrong in the preparaton of the shot – the balance between pressure of the machine and the resistance of the espresso was not struck. When balanced, nothing could be sweeter. OK, maybe a box full of kittens of perhaps your grandmother attending your elementary school graduation is a little sweeter : ). Theologically, the difference between a well brewed shot of espresso and a poorly brewed shot is the difference between heaven and hell, and riding that fine line is the harmony between grower, roaster, barista, and machine.