Is there any prospect of being a barista? Let's take a look at the current situation of baristas in China.

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Barista: I earn three thousand a month, and I can't lose you a shot!

Becoming a barista is a dream that many people have had.

Fantasize about wearing an apron and making coffee and flowers meticulously in the bar filled with the aroma of coffee, the figure is handsome and charming.

The reality is that at present, the average age of Chinese baristas is low, the income is not high, and it is difficult to promote, but on the other hand, the coffee industry is also facing the dilemma of lack of baristas and comprehensive talents.

How can this career, this industry, not only put their dreams in place, but also take into account real life? We talked to some baristas--

Ka Men | Li Mu, from Shanghai

one

The story of two baristas

Li Tao, 32, now works in Mellon Coffee.

It took a long time to know that the tree in my hometown was a "coffee tree"

Li Tao was born in a small mountain village in Yuxi, Yunnan.

In his impression, when he was a child, there was a kind of tree in his hometown that could bear bean-like fruit. People in the village called it "add coffee", but no one could tell what kind of tree it was.

In 2003, 18-year-old Li Tao left his hometown for Kunming. He worked as a bartender in an international youth hostel and had a lot of opportunities to get in touch with foreigners.

Although he is a bartender, he is often asked about a drink called "coffee" by foreign friends.

In this way, when Li Tao knew about coffee for the first time, he realized that the "coffee" tree in his hometown was actually a coffee tree.

In 2008, Li Tao's Youth Travel Service did coffee-related training for them. Li Tao, who has a strong ability to control drinks, signed up and fell in love with coffee ever since.

In 2010, Li Tao signed up for the barista competition that year. Timeout, forgetting words. Was eliminated in the first round.

But it was also in this competition that the professionalism and creativity of the contestants made Li Tao feel more and more lack of knowledge and stimulated his thirst for knowledge. At the same time, his down-to-earth energy and strong interest in coffee attracted the attention of Malone coffee.

In 2016, Li Tao won the runner-up in the China finals of the World pull Flower Art Competition (WLAC). He also grew up to be the deputy general manager of the Mellon coffee chain, responsible for the quality control of Mellon coffee.

But more people, on the road to becoming baristas, are not plain sailing.

Xiao Meow, 28, is now a new media operator.

"take a step back, but it's closer to coffee."

For a long time, Xiao Meow always wanted to become a barista and open a cafe. For this reason, she had a small coffee shop in her hometown, but the landlord raised the rent before it opened, but had no choice but to close down.

In June 2016, Xiao Meow wanted to open a cafe in Tianjin in partnership with several college students. For this reason, she went to Beijing alone for three days to learn about the market.

In the end, Xiao Meow took a fancy to a coffee training college and decided to sign up for study later. Unfortunately, back in Tianjin, several people thought it was too risky and gave up.

At that time, Xiao Meow was so obsessed with coffee that he went to a cafe to apply for a barista apprentice.

Xiao Meow stayed in that store for a total of 45 days, but he didn't touch the coffee machine a few times and spent most of his time as a waiter and a kitchen helper.

No matter what I told the store manager, Xiao Meow was not at the front desk when the schedule came out.

"in the end, I chose to give up because of ultra-low wages and difficult accommodation (the old hutong is not so beautiful, damp and leaky, the upper and lower berths of the iron bed, chatting with the aunt in the dormitory, chopping leeks in the house, rat rotten eggs at the head of the bed)." Xiao Meow said that in the end, she chose to stay in Beijing and did another job.

But after taking a step back, there are new opportunities. With a stable income and a stable place to live, Xiao Meow is closer to coffee-he has more time and energy to go out and visit the store.

two

Demand situation: lack of baristas, even more lack of comprehensive talents

"urgent recruitment of baristas", "Welcome to introduce the manager and baristas".

Such words are very common at the door of the cafe and in the circle of friends of the cafe owner.

As a service-oriented enterprise, baristas can be said to be the core of the cafe. The ultimate goal of the spread of products, experience, brand spirit and coffee culture lies in baristas.

▲ can say that baristas are responsible for a very important part of a store.

Let coffee founder Liu Rang said that the shortage of baristas has always existed in the coffee industry, so that coffee learning and training of baristas has been in short supply.

When it comes to the root cause of the shortage of baristas, there are two main aspects:

1. The overall salary is not high, the salary of baristas in first-tier cities in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou is 4000-8000 yuan / month, and that in second-and third-tier cities is 3500-5000 yuan / month, which is not enough to support a barista to live a decent life.

two。 Baristas don't have a complete promotion path. If there is no good promotion channel, baristas reach a certain stage, usually only two ways out, either start their own business or change careers.

This is also an important reason why the average age of baristas in China is between 18 and 25. In Europe and the United States, the average age of baristas is 10 years older than that in China.

Wang Juntao, founder of Eagle set Coffee, believes that China's coffee market has been growing in recent years, and with the gradual increase of boutique cafes, higher requirements have been put forward for barists. for example, to understand chemistry, physics, operation management, technology and so on, there is a large shortage of comprehensive talents.

"the industrial chain is going up, and there is a bigger gap for baristas with comprehensive talents."

At present, the barista industry is standing at a new starting point, from recruiting baristas according to the standard of one waiter to recruiting baristas according to the Barista (ingenious baristas) of a job, and paying more attention to the technical value, commercial value and management value of baristas.

▲, the standard of a good barista is not just to make coffee.

On the other hand, compared with the development of the whole coffee industry, the education and training of baristas are lagging behind. Knowledge, product content, service content and other aspects also need to be updated in a timely manner.

In this regard, Ouyang Qi, dean of Mellon Coffee Institute, analyzed that it is very important to have a good platform. "how much room for baristas to grow and rise is very important."

three

The characteristics of a good barista: good at learning and service spirit

1. What is more important than education is learning ability.

According to the survey data of baristas released in 2017, baristas with high school, college and bachelor's degrees accounted for 89.81%, of which college education accounted for 35.71%, while high school education also accounted for as much as 28%, which also shows that the employment threshold of the coffee industry is low.

Ouyangqi said that if you want to be a good barista, in fact, education is not important, the important thing is to have the desire for self-growth.

Self-motivation, self-learning, and career planning at the same time, what goals to achieve in two years and what goals to achieve in five years are very important.

As for the issue of academic qualifications, it can not be ignored that there is such a phenomenon in the barista industry: baristas with lower academic qualifications will encounter certain bottlenecks during their employment, and it is difficult to have a higher level of development, while baristas with higher academic qualifications will walk more smoothly and enter the management stage.

The essence behind this is that, to a certain extent, educational background is a reflection of learning ability, and people with high academic qualifications are more likely to have good learning habits and learning ability, which is also more conducive to the development of their career.

2. Extroverted personality and sense of service

In addition, as a barista, you should be enthusiastic and sincere, especially those with little conceit.

▲ 's extroverted personality and sense of service are very important.

"people with these traits are more likely to succeed in the coffee industry." Ouyang Qi analyzes that if you are a scientist or a poet, it doesn't matter to be conceited at all, but whether a barista in the service industry can take care of other people's emotions and whether he can do a good service is crucial.

Many people will say that the coffee brewed by a barista has something to do with mood. "when you face guests, there is no reason to make a bad cup of coffee in a bad mood." Ouyang Qi said.

3. Self-cultivation is an additional item.

When it comes to the self-cultivation of baristas, some people in the industry believe that adequate knowledge of coffee, absolute concentration when making coffee, good language expression, creative thinking, and even good taste in taking pictures and clothes are all very important.

The personal charm and self-cultivation of ▲ baristas are very important.

Xiao Meow believes that in addition, baristas also need the quality of being a teacher. A good barista should have inheritance. For coffee, baristas should not only have the measure of tolerance, but also have the courage to pass on.

"in the future, there will be more and more baristas with excellent overall quality." Wang Juntao said that the income is getting better and better, and various types of coffee innovation will continue to emerge, showing the form of a hundred flowers blooming.

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