What coffee techniques do baristas need? What are the technical habits behind coffee making?

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Many people think that the coffee skill of baristas is to pull flowers to look good, while others think that coffee skills are good to cook and drink, and that proficiency in movement and fluency means good skill.

To be honest, I don't have much say about technology, but for a long time I have asked our baristas to grind as much powder as possible when extracting coffee, keep the bar clean and tidy after making coffee, and basically require our baristas to operate the bar according to WBC's technical score. Over time, they consciously did this, whether it was produced at the bar or in the barista competition.

So I began to wonder, is coffee technology just a personal habit?

We often see baristas play abnormally in competitions, such as improper grinding, nervous hand shaking, unstable powder control, and milk spilling all over the bar. Is this really an aberration? I personally don't think so. This is the disorder caused by the instability of coffee technology, because these technologies have not yet become their own personal habits.

We can see the champions of the World Barista Competition every year. Are there any advantages in their cloth powder, powder control, powder pressing, and the control of the whole extraction process? Not according to my observation, their excellence lies in the understanding of coffee beans, the understanding of extraction, the understanding of flavor. Technically, they only rely on the habit they have developed over time to control the extraction process, the whole cloth powder, powder control, powder pressing, and can ensure that the error of each hand is minimized.

Many people will think that this seems to be a very simple thing, they can certainly do it.

Only people who have played the game know that there will be some unexpected variables in many things when it comes to the match. At this time, if you don't have your own technical habits to support it, you can't finish the game just by shaking your hands.

Everyone can be nervous, but in such a stressful field, you need to rely on your usual technical habits. When your head goes blank, your explanation depends on your usual understanding of coffee. Your operation depends on the usual production process. Therefore, don't blame yourself for forgetting to clean up the coffee powder during the game, and don't complain that pressing the powder during the game is not the same as usual, which reflects your most real habits.

In other words, to see whether a person's skill is good or bad, do not look at his flower pull, do not look at his cooking, and do not see whether his movements are proficient and fluent. Personally, I think, to see whether his usual operating habits make you feel comfortable, whether he is accustomed to good bar management, whether he has seen his own bar dry with water stains and milk stains, and whether he can make the flavor of each cup of coffee the most stable.

Instead of judging a barista's skills by his appearance, look more at the technical habits behind baristas making a cup of coffee.

Article Source: Gao Feishi Coffee Culture

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