Today guys, I want to talk about what it’s like to be a commercial barista. I know a lot of my readers are purely home-baristas, enthusiasts, hobbyists etc. and whilst I don’t by any means want to question your skills, but with the luxury of time you guys have to pull shots, its a totally different art to working a busy shift in a coffee bar.

So what I want to do, is a four part insight into what a saturday at work would consist of for me, a professional barista in a busy coffee bar.

Pt 1. Opening…

At seven in the morning my alarm clock goes off. With the promise of an 8am open to catch all the business men and women drinking their skinny, one-shot lattes; I get up, shower, dress in my jeans and black shirt, get a quick breakfast, and head out into the day. I get to work at about twenty minutes to eight, and start the morning ritual.

I head into the shop, open the steam arms on the espresso machine to release any false pressure. Pull a shots worth of water through each group to get them heated up, start the coffee grinder to flush through yesterdays beans, and start putting the tables and chairs into the street. Invariably, its raining, the canopy has to stay in until 10am to allow for lorries, so I start my day getting soaked. I then head back in, shut off the grinder, and start the morning sink shots.

Two double espressos get pulled through each of the four groups to wash out any of last nights espresso detergent. The last four shots through are done with a fresh bag of beans so I can start working dialling in the coffee for the morning. With the sudden change of humidity in the shop, and the heating up of the grinder burrs and casing, the shots tend to be up and down for the first half hour or so.

Once all this is done, the fridge lights are switched on, everything that should’ve been done the night before is checked off, and everything is in place, its time for action, the yale lock is withdrawn, shop lights switched on, and then it tends to hit me how repetitive life can be as a barista. It’s weird, no matter what the weather is like, what time of year it is, how cold or hot, once those lights go on in the morning, it becomes like a film set, the same piercing lights everyday.

Now the doors are open, the slow trickle of morning customers starts. It’s always the business type in first, the bankers, the solicitors, and the estate agents. It’s a shame, they are always in a hurry, never seem to have time to sit down for a coffee. Sometimes it really makes me think about how they must live their lives, maybe they’ll sit down for a coffee when they retire. It’s also intruiging how many of them drink skinny single shot lattes. Very few of them are overweight, infact, most of them seem to wear suits too big for them, like they are hiding behind their pinstripes. On my worst days, I want to shout at them, ask them why they chose to suffer through a substandard drink, for fear of tasting something, or having to work a little harder with their gym memberships, but then again, I’m sure they have their reasons.

As we start hitting the ten’o'clock mark, we start getting busier, I no longer have time to muse and judge, I get my working hat on, and start banging out the drinks, serving customers, helping out with paninis and food orders, and generally being a jack of all trades. Slowly we work our way towards the lunch time rush, the atmosphere in the shop thickens, both with the humidity and the anticipation of what we are working towards, at 11 I get a brief chance to sit down, have a coffee, and mentally prepare for the storm coming our way…

continued tomorrow.

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