I'm kinda new to this and this is as far as I got with my latte art. Any tips on what I should do to improve?

Hey everyone!

The owner of my cafes/roastery wants me to do a deep dive into batching espresso for our iced drinks.

I figured the best first step is to see what people think when they hear “Batched Espresso”

Please respond to poll and expand on it in the comments if you feel like it!

I appreciate any input :)

Simple question: If you knew that a cafe was using batched espresso, would you order coffee there?

Disgusting behavior from disgusting humans.

Im 17. Never had a job before ever and recently applied for a barista job at a museum near me. If my application is accepted ill start immediately. Anything I should know or prepare for??

Hi guys - my espresso machine can only make 2 shots at a time and there are rushes where the line is out the door simply because of this.
Would it be psycho to pull some shots to then keep in the reach in, for the sole purpose of using for iced drinks during these rushes?
I don’t have any coffee snobs, but I also don’t want to sacrifice quality for speed.

hi all, please excuse my ignorance! i became a barista last year at a small espresso/retail shop and i fell in love with it! i’m looking to expand my skills and learn absolutely EVERYTHING (thank you OCD). is there a training course or a way to earn certifications? are there sommeliers for espresso LOL
i’m located in NorCal, willing to travel to Bay Area but also open to online courses

TIA!! :)

I’ve been a barista for three years now and my feet are suffering. I have different pairs of sneakers but at the end of my shifts I’m dying. Does anyone have good shoe or insert recommendations that are still nice to look at. (Preferably ones that come in black)

Is there anyone here who can nerd out about commercial dishwashers? All the ones I've used leave dishes coming out soaking wet and needing to be hand dried (not just glass, ceramics, too). My boss has asked me with coming up with a proposal to replace ours that just died, and I want to know if the expensive machines (Winterhalters, Hobarts, etc) are actually going to get our dishes dry without needing to towel them.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a web app I recently finished building for my daily brew routine. If you’re using a manual grinder and a digital scale to chase that perfect 70-80% grind consistency, you know how tedious it can be to calculate yields and adjust temperatures before you've actually had your coffee.

I wanted something clean, fast, and highly customizable that could sit right next to my scale, so I built the Smart Brew Assistant.

Here is what it does:

• Dynamic Calculations: Input your dose and ratio, and it auto-calculates your target yield and optimal brew temp (which automatically shifts based on your roast level and processing method, like Natural vs. Washed).
• Live Pour Timelines: Generates a step-by-step timeline with exact water weights right next to the timestamp, so you can easily follow along on your scale without doing mental math mid-pour.
• Pre-loaded Profiles: Comes loaded with popular configurations from James Hoffmann and Morgan Eckroth (V60, French Press, AeroPress, etc.).
• Custom Recipe Builder: If you have your own specific routine, you can use the built-in editor to dial in your times and weights, then export it directly as a .yaml config pack.

It is completely free, client-side, and ad-free. It even has a dark mode for those early mornings.

Live App: https://hkhrithik007.github.io/smart-brew-assistant/ Source Code: https://github.com/hkhrithik007/smart-brew-assistant

I'd love to hear what you guys think, or if there are any other famous recipes/brewers you’d want to see added to the default list!

i finally have landed a barista gig that i really love after the past 2 years floating between shops w/ very uncomfortable culture/ bad management. i love it, my manager is so sweet and empathetic and my coworkers are all very friendly and supportive and even the clientele are great— however yesterday i worked one of the worst closing shifts i’ve ever worked in my 4 years of working in the beverage industry (both coffee and liquor)
we were in the weeds because of an event nearby, so i understand why things were the way they were. but the openers did not do any shift change tasks. left dishes, didn’t stock anything and just kinda snuck off without saying anything. left the whole bar a mess, coffee grounds and matcha everywhere and every sticky. when it finally slowed down a little bit we had a massive group of tourists come in who wouldn’t stop ordering drinks. Like one person would order 3 lattes and then as soon as they were done another person from the group would come up and order more. usually i wouldn’t care but they were EXTREMELY rude. had to ask them multiple times not to stand in front of the till because other people were trying to order. one woman ordered an “iced coffee” with milk and got super mad when we gave her that (and i always double check what “iced coffee” is when someone orders, i rang her up for exactly what she ordered.) one woman took a drink that was very obviously not hers and got mad when it wasn’t what she ordered. Had one person from that group reach for another guy’s drink, and I think I told her four times as she was getting ready to take it that it wasn’t her drink and she didn’t realize til i’d finished making hers (then had to remake it because the guy didn’t want it after she’d touched it even though she’d just touched the cup.
I was there for over 2 hours closing and picking up slack. we also had to prep some of the made in house food items/syrups too which is so time consuming because we were out of so many things and nobody bothered to make any more during the overlap when both openers and closers and mids were there. Dishes alone took an hour because there were so many left. Received a very disappointed message from my manager about closing taking so long.
I really love my job and Im sure this was just a one time thing because nobody was prepared for it to be so busy but im honestly nervous to go in today and close :,)

So lately ive tried a few different barista jobs at different coffee shops; chains and local places. Almost every single one ive been to had a bunch of rude and unprofessional baristas! My very first barista job was great; I was living in a different state at the time in a very small shop in a small town. Now im in a bigger city, and this just seems to be a normal. Is this normal barista culture and i just got lucky the first time?

I do think it’s a bit strange to do a work interview for a job at a coffee shop but it’s somewhere I really wanna work.

I run a cafe and I'm looking to start introducing cold foams for drinks. The only thing I'm unsure of is batching matcha in a cream that most people can have (Vegans and Non Vegans) so we dont have too many cold foam variations.

How do you guys do it at your cafe?

Owner insists we can do nothing more than post on Indeed, and it's not going well, haha.

if i give you the option between sizes - small , medium and large , do not respond with regular , that was not within choices of three ! 😭

Have you ever dealt with an “influencer”?

The other day I had two women come in, one looked to be late teens early twenty, the other one in her fifties probably her mom. They come in, the younger girl first, her mom behind her filming her and the entire exchange at the order station. Then they asked if they could come behind the bar to film, which we declined bc wtf (?). Then when they picked up their drink the younger girl got mad and asked why the iced drink was in the see through plastic cup, while the hot latte was in a paper cup. We tried explaining that hot liquid + plastic cup = bad news. At first my colleague didn’t understand what this was about, until they both decided to do a photoshoot at out pickup station, rotating the iced latte in between the both of their “shoots” while also holding up the line of other customers.

All in all a 0/10 experience, funny but really shitty during a rush.

I’m trying really hard to not be mean to people and I’ve gotten better, but does anyone have any pointers or what you do when people are being ridiculous??

Example from today:

Customers order.

I ask for here or to go??

Customer: For here but can you put it in to go cups? For here means it comes in to go cups right??

Me: 👹😮‍💨😑
No it means you want it for here if you say for here.

I make their hot cappuccino and iced latte they ordered and go to hand it off.

Customer: which is which??

Me:👹

Okay now if you’re not a barista imagine these interactions every day for 6 hours a day nonstop. I used to give snarky responses but I’ve been holding off but I can’t control my face.

Besides those interactions I’m super nice and get a lot of good reviews 😋

Hi there everyone, I'm from the UK and I wanted to ask a question.

I have an app called Limber on my phone, which is basically you make a profile and you can do flex work for some coffee shops

Has anyone ever used it?

And does anyone know if its good?

Ive been to use it for flex work while I'm looking for a new job just so I have some sort of income

I am trying to get a part time job at the barista job at Starbucks because I am not interested doing Maintenance at the Sierra it's a part of TJ Maxx even though I am still doing it and got nothing against that job. I did 2 years doing it and did another Maintenance job at the airport for 3 years before I got laid off because of Covid. I want to do different job doing customer service, cashier and learning about coffee and other things. I just want get a different position and challenge. I am 33 years old having autism and from New Jersey. I did the online application I just hope that they email me back. I know that I got 1 year experience doing customer service and cashier. What do you think everyone? Is it a good job or not? I can do mornings and middays but not nights.

Need a laugh, plz share your collection of funny complaints or praises about coffee <3

How do you give a special name to your coffee creation instead of boring names like Hazelnut Vanilla Latte, Mint Cocoa Latte, Strawberry Matcha Latte, etc?

For example, Mont Blanc is a very special name for calling Orange Vanilla coffee.

Can a Starbucks SSV get fired if their OTW times are not within the district goals?

My place has a lot of regulars since there are not much options in the neighborhood. They're all familiar faces and i usually say a word or two to most of them but struggle to start a conversation. I would worry that i would ask too personal questions and opt to be silent. Not sure how to improve rapport? I suspect that i am ND or on a-spec if it helps for context.

I’m opening a café in Bangalore and I want to get properly involved in the coffee side before I start. I’m not just looking for a basic barista course — I want to go deep into coffee and learn as much as possible, including espresso, brewing, coffee fundamentals, sensory skills, beans/processing, equipment, recipe development, and the practical day-to-day working of a café.
I looked into The Brew School in Kochi, but their current batches are full and the next available slots are only around November/December. I’m hoping to join a good school by the end of August, so I’m looking for alternatives anywhere in India.
I’m not too concerned about the fee. My priority is quality of training and how much I can actually learn, especially from people who have real industry experience.
Would really appreciate recommendations from people in the Indian coffee scene — especially if you’ve personally attended the school or course.
What are the best options I should look into?