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| The author with her favorite drink: a grande nonfat latte. Photo by Nick Epperson |
After spending most of my professional working career behind a desk as a journalist, which later involved sitting in front of and typing on a computer, I decided a few years ago to try being a barista at Starbucks. Following our move to Hawaii, I was hired as part of the opening crew for the Hawaii Kai Towne Center store in 2005. This required a new work mentality and new skill sets. Now I was standing all day, meeting people constantly and handling money at the register. I was no longer anonymous with just a byline to identify me.
Why would I do that? I like coffee and the perks are great. Then, I came to know the customers and I would see them all over town, even at formal balls. I watched babies grow from car seats and strollers to walking, talking toddlers and preschoolers.
Most people think being a barista is easy, just pour coffee. Not so. As a barista you are charged with making sure customers get the drink they want the way they want it - extra hot, add an extra shot or two of espresso, with whipped cream or without, fewer or more pumps of the flavored syrup. No matter how complex, your goal is to give the customer exactly what they request, and in a timely manner with a smile.
It's learning that to make enough really good foam for a soy cappuccino, you have to ice the pitcher first to get it really cold so the soy milk will foam when steamed. It's learning the order in which to call out drinks. This is not a random thing. It’s calculated and mandated - iced comes first if it's a cold drink, then decaf if it applies, then size (tall, grande, venti), then number of shots if fewer or more than standard, then flavor, i.e. vanilla, mocha or sugar-free syrup, then milk if different from the standard 2 percent, i.e. soy, nonfat, whole, breve (half and half), then any custom requests and finally the drink itself, i.e. latte, cappuccino, tea latte, frappuccino.
When you get to know regular customers, you can have their drink ready by the time they get to the register. This is fun to do. Unless they change to a different drink that day!
Most of my co-workers are younger than I am, a lot younger. I qualify as "Grandma Di." My first manager was young enough to be my son. But, we work together as a team with the goal of pleasing our customers.
Being a barista is a lot more complex than just making the perfect drink, although that's very important. I know because once while on the bar, a regular customer came in and I prepared his venti extra hot with whipped mocha, except I forgot to put the espresso shots in so he got a hot chocolate! He, of course, didn't realize it until he'd gotten to his car and then couldn't figure out right away why it tasted different. But, he was understanding and, of course, we remade his drink correctly with a sincere "mea culpa" from me.
Being a barista is about chatting with customers, being knowledgeable about coffee and the various drinks, even making suggestions when they're not sure what they might like to drink. Do they want a hot drink, a cold drink, a caffeine-free drink; do they like it sweet? Sometimes they want you to recreate what someone in another store made for them without really knowing what it was. This is kind of like doing a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces.
All in all, this has been a challenging, sometimes frustrating and mostly fun experience and I've met some really interesting people both as co-workers and as customers. We have some celebrity customers such as Gary Sprinkle, KITV news co-anchor, chef Roy Yamaguchi of Roy's Restaurant, Alan Pflueger of Pflueger Honda and entertainer Henry Kapono. But, all of our customers are special. Without them, there would be no Starbucks. I know. Before I was a barista I was a loyal customer for years both in California and here.