If you are working as a professional barista and find yourself struggling during times of peak service then this video is for you. Jimmy explains a few simple things that you and your team can think about and do to make your service times faster and more efficient.
Video Transcript
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Hey, guys. Today, I am focusing on how to be a faster barista.
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Now, we all hate that scenario where you're put under the
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pump, you're under pressure, there's customers lining up and
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it's just stressful and it's not comfortable for anyone. You
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don't want the customers to see you react like that. You don't
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want to be stressed at work. So, there's a few things that I
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like to implement with our cafe partners and just with myself
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learning over time of being on the machine and how to reduce
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that stress by getting smarter not harder. Can't get harder.
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So what is it that you as the barista can do to get faster
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and because you don't have all the money to spend on all the
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bells and whistles, the faster equipment obviously automation,
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speed of equipment does play into it but I want to talk to
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you because you potentially go to work tomorrow and get even
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faster at your job and that's exactly what we do when we do
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cafe assessments. We look at the whole space as far as the
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workflow but we also focus on the barista and the staff. Now,
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staff is one of the biggest challenges between businesses
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and switching between staff, getting on and off the machine,
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different people on different rosters, everyone having a
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different way of doing things is probably the biggest issue
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that we see in cafes. Now, I would focus on straight away
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having systems and good processes in place so that when
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you get on the machine, you know exactly what you're doing
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for each coffee and you also know that the other staff
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members that are going to potentially jump on the machine
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and help you aren't going to be surprised by the things that
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you do and you won't be surprised by what they do. Now
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that can be as important as just understanding the menu
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that you're making every drink. You need to understand your
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recipes and everyone needs to be on the same page. So firstly
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I'd focus on yourself as a roaster and your processes and
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procedures. Making sure that if you're a cafe owner you
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implement good processes and procedures. And this might be
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something that you might need to talk to your roaster with. I
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know that when we do our coffee training and our services with
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our cafe partners we're big on this because it's the variable
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between staff members that have the biggest impact on the end
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result of the cup and I did want to bring it back to the
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end result of the cup being highly produce good quality
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coffee now being fast isn't always the best thing you don't
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always want to get it out the door and not get that extra
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love in there to make sure that it is consistently tasting
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great and consistent is the keyword if you can replicate
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what you do day in day out with those processes and procedures
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that you put in place you be able to produce the same coffee
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daily and produce a far higher quality coffee that goes out
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the door in a faster sense. Now you do need to remember that
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all staff have to start at a point and they're learning how
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to make coffee and then they get faster. So if you pull it
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back get everyone on the same page. Make sure everyone is
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doing the same processes. Then you can build on that and get
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faster. So don't expect yourself or any new staff
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members to be fast. It is something that you learn over
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time. As you learn where all the equipment is and to make
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the different drinks that increases your speed so don't
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be put off if you're not actually physically fast at
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getting the coffees out it is something that you do learn
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over time but you will increase your speed as you become more
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productive in the space so most barista's have bad habits bad
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habits are what create inconsistencies between staff
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people come from different cafes and they bring their bad
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habits wipe it clean come back in and do what the cafe does
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you've got to understand that when you start a new job you
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need to take on what they do so that your the one doing the
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different things. Stop the chatter. The chatter of talking
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to other staff just generally chatting to customers outside
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of being hospitable. You need to actually remember that in
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service you need to pump them out and you need to focus on
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what you're doing. It is quite hard to think about the full
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order process when you are busy chatting to people. So it's
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just it's something I say all the time and I have to mention
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it mention it that you just have to stop chatting and
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sometimes you just have to move a little bit faster. So you
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watch a barista they're kind of floating around. You just
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physically move faster. If you've run out of milk you
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gotta go at the back you might need a run and that's going to
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speed up you as a barista. Now with staff it's not just the
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barista that's going to increase your speed. Let's take
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it all the way back to the ordering process whether we're
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writing on cups, dockets or anything that person is also
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helping the speed and the workflow. So watch our other
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video on short hand language and improving your takeaway
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offering but there's a big role that that person plays in
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taking an order well especially things like the short language
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of how they write the order on the cup so that when the
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barista gets it there's no questioning what that order is.
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It should be out of going to autopilot and just know
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straight away yes that's cappuccino. I know how much
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milk to fill up. I know how much what shots I need to put
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on. There's no question there. Everything's it's it's the
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stressful ones that get you that are the the half strength
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long black on 65degree temperature and all of the
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individual coffees that might take your bit more brain space
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and you need to give them time but you need be able to lock in
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the autopilot and just pump out those flat whites, those caps
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and make sure that you're able to do that comfortably and
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easily and really quickly. So, we're big on workflow too. So,
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positioning of everything in your bar is very important and
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I wanted to be in here to highlight that point of focus
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on the different things that you touch throughout service
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you grind like having everything from the process of
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ordering, to grinding, to tamping, to extractions, to
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milk throughout your workflow and the way that you've set up
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your coffee bench makes a huge difference and it's something
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that you need to be continually assessing if you can get
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someone else like myself to have a look at the space and
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watch you in the space and you might not realize but a lot of
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barista especially new baristas do what we call
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double handling and it's just when they're constantly moving
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things around and they don't need to be. So, watch yourself.
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If you get a coffee and the order comes in, you grab the
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cup and you put the cup on the bench and you pull your shot
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and you put it up there when the shot's done you put it back
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down and then you spin your milk and you grab it and you
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pick it up again you've just double handle that cup so many
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times by moving it from here to there from there to there and
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they're the little nuances that you as a barista if you start
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to catch yourself on those things reduce the amount of
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time that you double handle touch everything and you will
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straight away save yourself a couple of seconds on every
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coffee and that's where really good barista really fast
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barista start to really gain those extra seconds and they're
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quite little things like as soon as you've poured your
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coffee don't put the jug back down to the bench rinse it
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straight away so that when you need it next you can grab it
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straight away and it's clean I often see people finish their
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pour and put their jug back down to the bench and then they
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have to come back and take a moment to rinse it it's just
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one more movement that you're having to do and it's actually
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slowing down your coffee making process now when you're busy
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when you're in service treat it like you're in service whether
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you're even busy enough right now isn't the point. I like to
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set up my customers so that they have all the everything in
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place. All the procedures as if they're going to get busy. So
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that you can grow into it. Now one of the things that we like
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to do is stand in the space. Reduce the amount of time that
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you leave the bar. So come around here and have a quick
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look. So we've got access to quick access to things like our
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our spoons and our sauces, our takeaways. We'll always have
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our sugars and few things available here. Some tasting
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cards. And if I I was in service, I wouldn't have lids
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on everything. I want to take lids off. I want to have all of
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my alternative milks. I'll be taking them out and putting
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them on the bench. You want to have access to things and
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notice how I've got free access to all of this and I shouldn't
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have to ever really leave the coffee setup especially once
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you do get to that busy point. You don't want to be leaving
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your coffee set up. So, the end of every day, take the time,
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assess your space, think about and count potentially how many
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times you had to leave leave your station to go get
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something and remember that. That's something that you
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want to bring back into your area so that you're not having
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to leave the coffee machine so many times during service.
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Guys, invest in yourself and to be honest, you're already doing
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it. If you're watching this video, it means that you're
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learning, you're already investing in yourself and
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you're wanting to be better and that's amazing. I applaud you
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for that and it's really what we, you know, want you to do
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and that's why we create this content and we want you to
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continue to learn. If you're Coffee Roasters does free
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coffee training or you can actually team up with someone.
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You can go to courses you can learn about coffee making
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because it's your techniques that are also going to speed
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you up. If you've got bad techniques or you are doing
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them in an awkward way and there's someone that could
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watch you and assess you that will have a huge impact on the
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speed of you as a barista. So I would highly recommend going to
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a coffee training centre going to your roaster finding some
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support and learning how to make coffee better because that
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will in turn improve your speed and will also maintain the
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quality of coffee that you're making. So in summary,
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consistency and standardizing your processes and procedures.
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It's the first step to being a faster barista. It's not all
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about technical skill. It's just about you as the barista
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improving your ability to do repeatable process. Stop the
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double handling. Be able to have someone jump on the
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machine with you. You're both on the same page and we're not
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having the variations between barista's and that is going to
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have the best impact on your customers. They're going to get
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the same coffee day in, day out. They're not going to wait
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for that guy to be on the machine to make their coffee if
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you're a cafe owner and you're getting different people
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walking the door and wanting certain barista on the machine.
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That's because you haven't implemented good systems to
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standardize between your barista. So guys, if I can help
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you and I can come to, if you're in Australia and I can
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help you do a cafe assessment, I'd love to do that for you
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just for reach out in our contact details on our website.
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If you have any questions, put them in the comments below. We
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love to answer them. The community will help you as well
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and if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the
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channel because we're doing lots more content just like
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this. Hit the bell icon and the like button and I will see you
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next time. Thanks very much.
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