0
What is the contribution of a good barista to a coffee shop?
Preparing coffee is something that everybody can do, but preparing a good coffee requires a set of skills, dedication and detail-attention, because these turns a good coffee into a great experience.
To have the best coffee beans is the first step, but then it is also important to have a good coffee maker under the suitable conditions and to know how to use it to make the best coffees.
And now, the question arises, what is the most important thing, coffee or the person who prepares coffee to make the best coffee?
Excellent coffee beans do not mean a thing if coffee maker has an incorrect temperature or pressure or it is not dully clean to avoid spoiling the final product.
But my dear friends, barista doesn’t perform miracles. If the product is poor, the resulting coffee will not be good.
Therefore, barista and coffee quality are the two necessary conditions to obtain a good coffee drink.
World-famous coffee production areas are located in America: Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil; in Asia big producer countries are Vietnam or India, as well as in Africa, Ethiopia and Uganda, which offer an excellent quality product.
Production locates in half world, but consumption locates in the whole world.
On average, one person consumes 1,3 kg of coffee in the world. Coffee is the most consumed drink in the developed countries, mainly in Europe and USA.
Finish are on the top of coffee drinkers (12 kg per person a year) followed by Norwegian (around 10 kg per person) and Swedish (8,4 kg).
Spanish are in the 19th position in the world ranking, and its consumption is over 4,5 kg of coffee per person a year. Not bad, right? This data has been got from the magazine Muy interesante.
Coffee is a very profitable product due to its high consumption at bars, however in order to cut down on expenditures, some owners have reduced the quality of the coffee bean and customers realise it.
To make a good coffee, you should follow the next steps:
1.- Ask your supplier for a good quality coffee.
2.- Grind coffee by yourself: For the very best results, grind coffee just before you are ready to brew. If you delay brewing for a long, aroma will be less intense and less fresh.
Grinding should be done according to each type of coffee, if done by a qualified barista, who will always get the best coffee after the right grind size.
This is learned through the experience. If ground coffee is too fine, water is not well filtered giving a strong coffee. But if coffee is too coarse, too much water will be filtered, which will block coffee brewing and the extraction of all of its properties.
When grinding coffee, we should analyse atmosphere conditions -this sounds like we have to look at the weather forecast – i.e we have to take into account the moisture or dryness of the ambient. Too much moisture demands a coarse grinding since coffee becomes compacted.
It is important to keep the coffee grinder clean to remove oils which may ruin the subsequent brewing.
3.- Keep the coffee grinder ready to be used. This means:
Cleaning the coffee grinder to remove oils.
t is not recommended to clean filters just at the end of the day, it should be done coffee by coffee, until no residues are left.
Temperature of water should be at 90 degrees.
Correct pressure: 9 bars, but it depends on the barista.
4.- Preparing coffee:
In order to prepare a coffee cup, it is necessary to use 7-8 g of well ground coffee.
Select the kind of coffee to be prepared.
The correct cup of coffee is prepared when 25 ml are poured in 25 seconds, ie the coffee cup gets half-full.
If coffee doesn’t reach 25 ml in that time, grinding is too fine and water blocks brewing giving dense and dark coffee.
On the contrary, if 25 ml are surpassed, grinding is too coarse giving a too weak coffee.
It is not recommended heating milk over 65 degrees since its properties alters.
Using cone-shaped cups favors creamy coffee.
If possible, use purified water to obtain a better coffee and the coffee maker get less damaged.
Different ways to prepare coffee.
After chosing a good coffee supplier – we hope Cafés Sabora for the hospitality industry – you have to select the way to prepare coffee.
In Spain, espresso is very popular, but in many other countries filtered coffee is the preferred one, they are just different.
To sum up the basic steps to prepare coffee, first quality beans, second an appropriate grinding, third cleaned and ready-to-use coffee grinder and finally, a qualified barista.
A coffee maker can be used by almost everybody, however a barista is the qualified one due to the fact of being a professional that may bring your business a high quality coffee that customers will thank.
If you liked this post do not hesitate to share it, and if you fancy posting a comment, a form below is at your disposal.