So, what is a barista anyway? Should I salute?

Posted on: 2012-06-25 12:00 AM

A lot of coffee shops have employees called baristas, and someone with a fancy foreign-sounding name must be pretty important, right? Well, yes.

A barista is a skilled person who has gone through a lot of training and testing to do his or her job. A barista is kind of like a bartender who deals with high pressure scalding hot steam and a much more discerning (and sober) clientele. Like bartenders, baristas need to do their job right in front of you, work very quickly, and make your drink just exactly the way you want it. But making a good cappuccino is more complicated than even the fanciest martini.

First comes the grind. Wait, before we grind the beans, we need to roast them. So first comes the roast. Well, no, before the roast we need to buy the beans. Well actually, before we should consider the different variety of beans, which means thinking about the growers and suppliers. And don’t forget the water, because you don’t want your coffee tasting of the garden hose or the ditch out front.

Well, your barista doesn’t have to roast and grind the beans for you every time you order a coffee, so let’s set aside all that for another time. What else does a barista have to know about?

There’s the tamp, for starters. If you’ve watched closely as your espresso is being made, you’ve seen your barista pack the grounds into a metal basket and then tamp them down. Believe it, this is something that needs to be learned and practiced. If your barista messes up the tamping, you might end up with grounds in your coffee, or weak coffee, or whatever. Every machine will handle a little differently, so it’s not something you want to just guess at. There are filters and pucks that come into play, and single shots versus double shots… Let’s just say there are a lot of things to master before you get a decent shot of espresso.

And that’s even before your friendly neighbourhood barista gets to steaming up the milk and pouring the cappuccino. And those fancy pictures some baristas manage to draw while pouring your drink? Yep, that takes a lot of practice before it looks like something other than a big brown rain cloud.

Baristas are trained craftsfolk who put a lot of pride into their work. Well, at least the good ones are. The good ones can spend a long time telling you about all the different factors that went into making your coffee  the yummy treat that it is, at least before you dumped half the can of chocolate shavings into it. Don’t ask them to tell you all that, though. They’re very busy people.

So pay attention to your barista. Like a great chef, a barista puts their skill and passion into the things that make life worth living. And leave them a tip, for crying out loud!