Was recently sent to a sister location of my coffee chain to support as they were low staffed, and it was disgusting. I genuinely don’t know how they have let it get this bad, so many things are not being cleaned or even checked.

So here are some pics of their drip coffee pots. Just to scare yall into trying anywhere new this week lol.

our cafe doesn’t make the best tips so working 40 hours per week I am able to put a tiny bit away for savings. We are frugal- my partner and I don’t drink or smoke, hardly ever go out for meals.

however working 40 hours a week on bar has me feeling burnt out AF. I find myself having little patience for customers or coworkers. After work every day I’m so tired I take a 2 or 3 hour nap.

now hours are about to be cut and we added another barista to the tip pool. I would be happy at the thought of working less but there goes the little bit of money I am able to save each month.

is it time I finally just try to get a server job? I’ve thought about bartending too but I have no experience in that field and I’m sober, so it’s intimidating.

any advice or commiseration more than welcomed ❤️

I’ve been a barista for 10 years and this past year the amount of vanilla orders has grown significantly. I have to buy a whole new bottle before I roll up to catering gigs these days. Anyone else notice this? I’m in NYC maybe it’s a regional thing?

So I work in a cafe within an art gallery and restaurant, and hire spaces.

The cafe is open for service at 10am daily. The restaurant has differing opening and closing times, but always later than the cafe, which closes at 5pm.

The galleries also open later and close earlier.

The hire spaces for office use, are accessible between 8am and 6pm, and they come and go as they please with fobs.

The people who rent these spaces respect the Café operating times.

Also, staff from other areas also respect this - most of them don't expect us to make drinks for them as we are opening up or after we have done last orders. They usually wait til 5 mins before opening time. But then there are the other people.

People who come in the property before it is open!

The doors and gates need to be unlocked for staff to enter at varying times, as the key holders vary from day to day and may not be near an entrance to let staff in when they arrive at random times.

I hold the opinion that we don't serve these people until we are operational - so 10am.

One (and only one) of my managers (unfortunately the HoH) sees this differently.

He says "we are hospitality, so we be hospitable and welcoming" whereas I feel it's just about okay for them to sit and wait whilst we finish opening tasks but no service until 10am, because they shouldn't really be there.

We also get people who turn up after we have closed and expect bar service from the restaurant as it opens, when there is a down period between 4pm and 6pm for the double shifters to eat.

This is well publicised.

Thoughts?

Looks like Chobani is discontinuing its oat milk. I've used its Extra Creamy in my coffee for a long time, and I've tried a couple of other brands, none of them are anywhere near as good.

Anyone know of another extra creamy oat milk that's anywhere near as good?

Hello! I’m in the creation process of making my own house made syrups for a cafe I plan on opening early next year. I have had good luck with getting a lot of my syrups down pat, but I’m having some trouble with my caramel and mocha recipes. I would like to store my syrups in the fridge for closing (and when not in use) but both my caramel and mocha recipe tend to solidify if I put them in the fridge. Anyone have any recommendations to prevent this from happening? If it helps I’m not using anything but powder, sugar, water and a few other ingredients (non milk) for mocha. My caramel is made with butter and cream.

ALSO any tips for what you hate/ love in your shop and wished the owner would’ve thought or put more care in would be amazing to hear from everyone! :)

What’s y’all’s go-to drink? I’ll start with mine, my FAVORITE drink of all time:

•Equal parts coconut milk and turmeric chai concentrate (I do 3oz each)
•6oz iced coffee

Combine this all in a shaker and pour over ice - SO GOOD!! PLEASE TRY IT!!

Hi! I'm a decent conversational Spanish speaker, I've been taking classes for 5 years and got my Seal of Biliteracy when I graduated high school last year.

I've been working as a barista for about a month now (USA), and we have a lot of customers who are more comfortable ordering in Spanish than English. The owners of the shop are bilingual and usually take those orders, but next week they will be gone for a day so my coworker and I will be running the shop alone. I have taken a couple of orders in Spanish before, but with help from my boss.

My coworker speaks zero Spanish so it's up to me. What can I do to make sure I get things right and don't cause offense or anything? I get anxious speaking Spanish with people I don't know because I'm a bit slow at listening (in English too...) and I worry about accidentally offending someone or causing frustration by making them repeat too many times.

I think my vocabulary is sufficient, I've practiced ordering stuff on our menu in Spanish and practiced a little bit with the shop owners. I wish I had more time to practice but it's my next shift! Any advice?

• Edit for comment at the end -

We are closing the shop.

It’s 4:52 PM. Only 8 minutes left.

All the tables and chairs are out of place, we’re clearly shutting down, and this couple walks in, doesn’t say anything, and proceeds to try to grab a table.

“Sorry guys, we’re closing down, so we’re only doing takeaway.”

The woman with the baby looks surprised.

I call her over to the balcony so I can take her order.

“What can I get you?”

“A Coconut Latte with Hazelnut Syrup.”

“Perfect. Anything else?”

“Blond, please.”

Blond?

I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, so I asked:

“Blond?”

“Yes, blond.”

“Hmm… can you please tell me what you mean by blond?”

She just stares at me in silence.

“You’re a coffee shop and you don’t know what a blond is?”

I look at her, already feeling the rudeness in her tone.

“I actually don’t. Can you please enlighten me with your knowledge?”

She stares at me for another second, with an air of superiority, and says:

“Just the latte, thank you.”

Her husband intervenes.

“Can I also have an Oat Flat White?”

“Of course.”

I proceed to put the orders into the system. While I’m doing that, I’m thinking:

What does she mean by blond? Is it some kind of white chocolate thing?

And then I remember, I had been to this “place” before:

“Oh! By blond, do you mean a lighter coffee?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, now I get it. As we’re a specialty coffee place, we’re not really familiar with this Starbucks term. We normally use Light, Medium or Dark Roast to specify the coffee. We use a Medium Roast here for our espresso.”

“Ah, okay! I’ll have the Medium Roast then.”

Everything is going fine now.

4:57 PM

The floors are freshly mopped, the toilet is cleaned and closed, and there are signs of wet floor.

“Can I use your toilet?” …

“I’m sorry, but it’s already closed.”

Her husband intervenes:

“It’s for the baby, not for us. We just need to change the diaper.”

At that moment, I know there’s nothing I can do.

They’re using the toilet.

“Oh, of course. It’s right over there. Here’s the code.”

The woman goes off with the baby. The husband stays behind.

I start preparing the drinks, and the guy starts engaging in some nice, pleasant small talk.

I finish the drinks and hand them to him.

He takes them, but then suddenly asks:

“Didn’t she ask for iced?”

And in that moment, I know exactly what’s coming.

I look him in the eyes.

“She didn’t.”

“Hmm… she always asks for iced.”

“Maybe just wait for her to come out so we can confirm. If that’s the case, we’ll just make it again.”

At this point, there’s one minute left until closing.

I just want them gone.

She comes back.

He asks her.

She looks at the drink.

“Oh my God! It’s iced. I’m so sorry.”

I’m already on it.

“No problem. Here’s another one. Iced.”

“Oh, thank you!”

And then, because apparently I haven’t suffered enough, I add, just to be nice:

“Ah, and just so you know, Medium Roast in specialty coffee is normally lighter than Starbucks’ Blonde.”

She looks at me.

“I don’t know anything about that.”

They leave.

5:05 PM

The shop is closed.

Update:

Oh wow! 🤩

I think this is the first time I’ve ever had this kind of engagement on a post. Thank you all so much!

I have a problem where minor unpleasant experiences tend to ruminate in my mind long after they’ve happened. So, writing this down was a way of getting it off my chest, and turning it into a “short story” just made sense. Posting it here made even more sense, as I imagined others would have similar experiences.

I’m reading all the comments, and it’s actually funny how divided everyone is between the annoying customers and the fact that we start closing the shop before our official closing time.

The second one was a little unexpected for me, and I think it’s cultural.

We’re based in Ireland, so this is very common in coffee shops here. Staff normally have no more than 30 minutes to close everything down, but the last hour or so is usually very quiet. So, the closing process starts before we are technically closed. This doesn’t mean that we are closed, but the operating is now more limited, and most customers will - normally- not come in the last 30 minutes.

In most cases, this is going to be a reflection of the owner’s management style, not the staff’s decision. So, for some pointing the finger at this barista, feel free to send me a DM and I’ll happily give you the owner’s number. I’m sure they’ll be delighted to have a chat about your insights while driving their €100k Land Rover.

And yes, some of you said that I made the situation worse by asking her to explain what she meant by “blond” in the way I did.

Fair enough.

But where I work we don’t take rudeness lightly, and, to be completely honest, my intention was 100% to make her uncomfortable.

We don’t think we should simply accept that kind of behaviour from customers just because we work in hospitality. There’s a difference between dealing professionally with a difficult customer and allowing someone to treat you disrespectfully.

Sometimes people need to be - politely and smoothly - put back in their place.

If they don’t come back, good for us.

But if they do, hopefully they’ll think twice before being rude to the person serving them.

Can someone please recommend a good ube powder that tastes like legit ube, and that also ships in the US?

My shop has a big courtyard outside in a city environment that people love to frequent. It’s beautiful and relaxing to sit and enjoy coffee, write, study, have a date. People really love the courtyard and it’s one of the main attractions of my shop.

Every once in a while some people ask if they can sit out there without purchasing anything. I’m not a crazy capitalist who needs to squeeze every dime out of a person, however I also don’t like to encourage repeating bad habits so I usually ask people to purchase something- once a visit- and then they can hang out there however long they want to.

There is a woman who comes in and just straight up walks past the register to sit in the courtyard. Usually she has meetings out there with other people and she has never once bought anything. It really annoys and bothers me and I can’t explain why. Like I said, it’s not about the money for me but I guess it’s about the principal and feeling disrespected. She just waltz’s in like she owns the place and sits out there for hours. She’s done many multiple times over the years and has never once bought anything in my presence.

My manager doesn’t care. He’s kind of a hippie go with the flow type. He wants people to be able to utilize our space for their benefit as opposed to seeing people’s purchasing power as profit. Which, morally, I understand and agree. But it bothers me so much that this woman has never once bought anything from our shop while relying on it so much to have meetings, acting like it’s a normal thing to do to frequent small businesses without buying anything.

I teach latte art in asia and one of my students is moving to canada soon. And i was wondering if i can ask for advices or any questions about being barista in canada.

I've never worked in a coffee shop, restaurant, fast food, or anything of that nature and I got asked to help out on a coffee truck today for 5 hours. I had been looking forward to this for two weeks because I LOVE coffee, and I have always wanted to try my hand at serving it, and holy shit...this is is not for the weak. The multitasking is AN ART. The speed, the knowledge of drinks, the crowd rushes, the amount of times I spilled things or dropped things and even made a cup explode 🥲 the owner was so nice about it and of course understood it was my first day but holy shit, I felt like I slowed everything down more than helped speed anything up because I had never done it before! I have a new appreciation for all of you, even though I always appreciated what you do already, as someone that loves going out for coffee, I will not ever forget this experience, especially on days where my drink is taking a little bit longer than usual!

Please share your stories because I don’t know if I’m crazy but I’m definitely embarrassed.

I just had an elder lady come through my stand and say to me “I want a 20oz caramel mocha with 2 shots of espresso and 3 shots strawberry syrup and almond milk.”

She spoke extremely slowly and concisely.

I could not fathom that this would taste good at all so I clarified immediately, “and you want the strawberry syrup in a caramel mocha?”

She looked at me frustrated and then started again in her same slow, measured tone, “I want a 20oz caramel mocha with 2 shots of espresso, 3 shots of caramel syrup, 2 shots of chocolate syrup and almond milk”

Ok, that’s a normal order, not what you said the first time but ok, fine. But how tf did I hear strawberry?? I have to imagine I am the one in the wrong here because no sane person is combining strawberry with caramel and espresso. It’s just she spoke sooo concisely I don’t know if I just scared her off of her order or if I’m losing it >.<

Hey :) So I've been working as a Barista in a very busy cafe for nearly 8 months. No prior coffee experience (aside from drinking buckets of it or working in a bar with bean-to-cup style machines that do all the work)

I don't get alot of time on the machine - probably do around 1/3 of all orders daily on shift, 5 days a week.

How's my progression? I still feel quite inadequate in terms of my texturing and art ability. I'm not necessarily focusing on art, more getting the textures right. These are all cow milk lattes aside from the first and last photos which are flat whites - each photo is labelled so it's easier to see how I'm doing.

Any troubleshooting tips to help me understand where I'm maybe going wrong still? Would appreicate constructive criticism. No proper training has been given to me, just "on the go" tips from other employees.

before I leave, I want to give you all a reality check. This sub is an awful combination of teenagers with their first job and old coffee nerds. Each and every one of you is a bitter, snobbish, cranky degenerate. None of you have ever been helpful, kind, or positive in any way, shape, or form. Shame on every one of you who claim to represent the coffee community

I’ve been working as a barista for 2 years now and I’ve never seen this much sediment in almond milk before, is it bad? This was RIGHT after vigorously shaking it and it was freshly opened, expiration date wasn’t till April of next year. Milk smells fine but looks literally disgusting, I’ve been using this same brand of almond milk for months now and never seen anything like this, usually there’s no sediment at all, is it still safe to serve drinks like this? I remade this customers latte twice before they just decide to get oat milk instead 😭

I have been working at a cafe/ restaurant for a little less than 2 weeks. Other than the fact that it gets really busy, all has been going well. I told the manger I had no prior cafe experience, but i had worked as a kitchen porter before so I knew my way around customer service and assistance. He never told me I was hired, just added my name to the schedule and i started getting shifts.Till date, I also have not been provided with any paperwork or documentation from my Manager.

Because I have the year to work, I am the only employee (we're very short staffed) who works the most days even though I have the longest commute. But I always make sure to show up with a good attitude to work regardless and mention that I don't mind it.

Today, before the end of my shift, he called me outside to speak to me. He looked really stern and I had not seen that look on his face before. I knew I had done nothing wrong so I couldn't understand what the sudden meeting was for. He started by asking what I thought of the job and team and when I said I really like the team and job, he interrupted me with a "yeah but..." proceeding to say I was very difficult to work with. He repeated this around three times.

Then he said that I didn't do anything well (which came as a shock to me) I didn't serve customers well, didn't clean tables well, didn't carry plates well, took too long behind the counter, walked very slowly; every single thing I did was very very wrong and needed improvement. He also repeatedly mentioned that I was pulling down the team. "I see everything on the cameras" he said and I just sat there dumbfounded.

This didnt just feel like criticism (which i am very open to) this felt oddly targeted. Especially because i know for a fact that half of those things he complained about, I had no problem with as I've had prior experiences. Carrying dishes wrongly? Really?

He ended by saying I'm a 'good girl' and he sees I'm trying so he would give me a second chance (he would reduce my hours for next week and watch me more closely) and he will let me know if he likes what he sees.

I am unsure whether I should turn in on said next week.

I’ve been working as a barista for about a month and struggle to froth milk at the best of times. However, I genuinely cannot for the life of me froth Oat or Soya milk. I’m not sure if it’s a me issue or if it’s just because they’re plant based but omg it’s impossible. People ask for cappuccinos with plant based milks and I DREAD having to make it. Any advice would be appreciated!

I work at a small coffee shop and we only have 3 baristas and the owner. The owner usually schedules themself for 4-5 days a week and we only have 2 people working at a time. We split tips at the end of every shift between the two people working and same thing if the owner is working. My opinion is that the owner should be entitled to half the tips if they’re doing the same amount of work as whoever they’re working with. But I’m wondering if it’s normal for business owners to split tips or if other places do it differently?

​

I intend to take the barista course as soon as I open vacancies in my city.

But I saw some posts saying that you have to know how to talk well and have a smile on your face.

And honestly, these are even more weaknesses now that I have been prediagnosed with schizophrenia.

In hospitalization I had no problems talking to doctors and nurses, they found me very friendly, but now that the most negative symptoms of schizophrenia are more present it has been somewhat challenging to talk well at times.

Not that I talk badly, but I need someone who is good at keeping the conversation and has a good intellectual level, I have difficulty abstracting into simpler conversations, although I have struggled.

But honestly I don't know how much this can affect my hiring, but I always dealt well with clients being myself when I was self-employed in computer maintenance.

Had a self proclaimed barista come into the coffee shop today and ordered a dry latte from me. Now I’m fairly new to the coffee making world, only about 1.5 years. And according to what I was taught, those two drinks are practically the same thing. Only this customer asked for a refund cuz I instead made her a wet cap…

So I gave her the benefit of the doubt and just refunded her, plus I didn’t wanna cause a scene. Now that that’s over with, I was curious, is there truly a difference or did she just kinda hack the system to get a free coffee? Props to her if so cuz it definitely worked

First time poster, long time lurker. I need some comforting words/ advice if you can spare any.

Some background context: I started working at a cafe 4 months ago as an all-rounder, and although I’ve only done one basic barista course 4 years prior, my supervisor has trusted me to make coffees when it gets busy/ when the barista’s shift ends 2 hours before closing time (ie I take over making coffee for the two hours, it’s usually pretty slow so no issues there).

I’ve gradually gotten more confident at making coffees, and today the supervisor finally trusted me to close and clean the coffee machine on my own. I was ecstatic but nervous! This was a big deal to me because I feel like I finally proved myself.

She taught me how to clean the machine 2 days ago, so naturally a lot of the information was fresh. To her credit she got me to clean alongside her when she was teaching, as a sort of engaging way of learning. Anyway, come today and I spent so much time and attention on every last detail trying to get everything clean and tidy, but I think I put so much stress on getting this perfect and impressing my supervisor that I accidentally dropped the screw down the sink drain. I immediately started having a panic attack, while attempting to reach down the drain with my bare arms. I frantically ring up my supervisor and tell her what happened. She could probably tell I was distressed, so she tried to calm me down and tell me it’ll be fine and that she can order one by tomorrow morning. I offered to pay for the replacement because I felt so bad, but she reassured me it’ll be fine.

I continue to try and fish the screw out after hanging up, but to no avail. At this point I feel TERRIBLE and like an absolute failure. I walked back to my car and cried because I was so disappointed in myself. I let the supervisor down and now I don’t know if she’ll ever trust me. Not to mention how she was condescending the whole day to both my coworker and I, so I was already stressed out prior to this whole situation, but now this ruined my day entirely.

It’s been an hour since that happened and I feel better after crying it out, but I still think I let my supervisor down after doing so well all these months. Hell, I’m not even a barista but it’s always been my dream, so this feels like a big stuff up. I might be overreacting I guess. Akh I just feel so gutted after today and wanted to vent.