The Exciting Life of A Barista

I got interested in Barista since I watched their performance in Barista Competition in Jakarta Indonesia. They're very skillful and as coffee lover I really enjoyed their performances. Barista is a person who has a skill in coffee making. Barista is a professional career with very high skill in coffee making technical. Usually Barista has been working in a coffee shop or coffeehouse and very good in making espresso-based coffee drink.

Becoming Barista is not an instant process. Before a person become a Barista he/she usually work in a coffeeshop and start to serve  and learn about coffee drink. There are two ways to get a Barista skill, you could get a job as a professional Barista in a big or famous coffeeshop that offers Barista training. They usually train their employees to become professional Barista and they may send their Barista to many International Barista Competition for experience.

Second way, you could attend to Barista School or Barista Course. Usually the program is about 6 months or less to 1 year.
In a.Barista  Course you will learn A to Z about coffee making. You will learn how to prepare the service, learn to prepare espresso coffee, preparing espresso requires skill, taste, artistry, and plenty of practice. You have to control the water temperature to have a perfect crema.  Learn to prepare cappucino, cafe latte, macchiato,etc I can imagine the taste just for writing them. You will also learn to texturing the milk, how to present a cup of coffee, how to work flow for many multiple orders from customers, sometime the customer is so hard to handle, it's very important since coffee shop is always busy during rush hour time (morning and afternoon after work). In some courses you will be trained how to do the cleaning for the cafe, the espresso machine, etc. Also learn how to do the daily maintenance and use of the espresso machine. There are many Barista School and Courses around the world. You will find great courses in Italy (of course), London, United States, Australia, and many more. Now since Barista career is more and more famous, the Barista Course and training is starting in some Asia country like India and Indonesia. Although not as intensive as in Western countries.

Become a good Barista should understand with the market development. It will always be a new equipment (coffee machine and coffee grinder ), new techniques, new kind of coffee bean, new way to roast the coffee, and even new innovation in coffee world. Good Barista always like to learn and fast learner about the coffee trend and technology. Traveling in many countries to taste the different kind of coffee is an advantage too. Taste of coffee is different when you roast it in a different way. Italian Barista will find some new taste when they taste the Indonesian coffee for instance. Indonesia has many types of good quality Arabican coffee beans. Good Barista also learn how to operate their own coffee shop and expand the business. How to match the coffee drink with the menu, like what to serve as side menu ? What to choose among cheese cake, brownies, pasta, pie, croissant,  or some pancakes  to serve with the coffee and pay attention to the most ordered items by the customer. 

There is a Barista Championship every year. As a Barista you should get involved with such competition to scale up your skill. Join the competition in order to learn and not just for winning. If you win the competition that would be and advantage :)
Usually in this competition each Barista has to serve 4 espresso, 4 cappucino, and 4 original signature drinks based on espresso and alcohol free in 15 minutes. They will judged by their speed, taste, making process, creativity, art, and cleanness. Good Barista will be increase his/her skill so that he/she could become a better Barista.

This year champion is Mr. Gwilym Davies from United Kingdom. Congratulations.
I hope Indonesian Barista will have the chance to join this kind of competition. There is only one Asian Barista who enter the final round in this year competition. That is Mr Lee Jong Hoon from South Korea - Congratulations.

Can you make a living of becoming a Barista ? Well the answer is absolutely yes. Average Barista salary in United States is range from $ 18,000 to $ 23,000 depend on the skill, job, and the company. Many coffee shops need a good Barista and coffee shops are developing very fast. Like in Asian countries you will find many kinds of coffee shop in India, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, China and etc. As a Barista you could build your own coffee shop and give a tutorial for people who'd like to be a Barista. If you do that the revenue is unlimited. Life as a Barista is really exciting I think. Specially if you love coffee.