Page 49 - #57 English
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Getting physical:
              practical barista knowledge

                  One more way of entering the in-
              dustry and becoming a barista is getting a
              job in a coffee shop, where you will also gain
              practical knowledge and some salary as a bonus.
              Unfortunately, now less and less coffee shops hire
              inexperienced baristas, so they need to have basic cof-
              fee knowledge, understand café operations and have related
              working experience. On the other hand, big café chains have
              lower requirements and can provide a newcomer a great training.
                  Big brand’s training approximately takes about one month
              (depending on student’s learning time and store operations, of course)
              and includes next steps:



                            Orientation  Welcoming of a new                 Practice Let’s take Starbucks as an ex-
                            barista and introducing him/her to the          ample – learning theory and practicing
                            whole coffee shop team. Being a barista         time for Starbucks newcomers is only
              requires you to be independent but at the same time a   1 month, which includes several modules to introduce
              team player, so it is important to make newcomers feel   a person to coffee step by step; the training is provided
              like a part of the team so they feel much more comfort-  one-on-one with a highly experienced and certified by
              able in a new company.                          the company trainer-barista.  After each step of training,
                                                              this barista will give a feedback according to newcomer’s
                                                              results in theory and practice. Training includes:
                            Ground Rule  Almost every coffee
                            shop has its own basic operating stan-
                            dards and drinks recipes, and every
              each of them sets their own style and pace of work.
              Even though coffee shops usually give costumers a very     Basic knowledge (coffee history, production
              personal experience, but they are more focused on      areas, processing types, flavor description etc.);
              sustainability of their service and coffee brand quality.
              That is why, no matter if a new barista has a related work   Espresso machine know-how, it includes a
              experience, big chain companies will still train him/her   manual on how to daily maintain and operate the ma-
              according to the company’s standards                   chine and how to make a good espresso or any other
                                                                     drink from a menu.

                            Service training  Barista is a service       In addition to coffee-based drinks, the
                            sector job; every day they contact with   barista will also learn to make other types of
                            all kinds of people and guests, that is   drinks, e.g. ice drinks.
                            why being a barista in any coffee shop
              will do a great job and prepare you for being great at     Most coffee shops now offer filter coffee so it is
              your job, it is just a matter of time and practice.    also important for a barista to know how to use differ-
                                                                     ent coffee equipment and brew differently.

                                                                         The most important part of training is how
                            Selling skills  In most of the coffee
                            shops (especially in chains) barista also   to keep a bar clean, the barista has to know how
                            takes care of selling a coffee to a cus-  to maintain a bar clean and pay high attention
              tomer, therefore except for knowing how to make a cup   to hygene.
              of coffee, baristas should gain basic selling and marketing
              knowledge to be able to sell it.



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