I have come to a few conclusions and have figured out what my barista mission is and how I need to pull it off.
Lets call it Barista Mission: Possible! Because, I'm a nerd.
As you have read, and you better have read it, my road so far has been simple and yet rocky. However, I have been fortunate enough to train with great people and companies. Threw all my training, experiences with different customers, and my experience behind the bar as just a barista and not a store owner, I have realized what I believe to truly matter to me and my future in coffee.
In this day and age of coffee, everything has changed from authentic coffee and completely taken away from what the drink should be.
Thank you, Starbucks.
However, there remain some amazing places; small and beautiful shops, with the heart and passion that I really admire about a shop.
Those shops are authentic, hand build by the blood, sweat, and tears of the passionate owners who took their dream and made it a reality. Those shops are strong, maybe not making millions in coffee sales, maybe not making magazine headlines, but they are making real coffee and keeping real coffee alive in the United States.
To me, and this is just my personal opinion, there is no one perfect cup of coffee. Every single coffee drinker has a different pallet and all of them like different things. So, contrary to what I have said in the past, my goal is to no longer make the perfect cup of coffee, but to understand the way to make everyone THEIR OWN personal perfect cup of coffee.
It no longer matters to me if they like cream in their black coffee (Ok, it might matter a bit...), or if they like iced lattes with syrup, dark roasts, light roasts, any of it. I want to learn from the Countries best baristas, roasters, and brewers, how to make coffee the best I can so that I can give my customers the perfect cup for them.
My goal used to be to work in a shop, make enough money to be happy, perfect my methods, and hopefully open my own shop.
But, now I see that there is no way to grow and learn if I only perfect my methods and keep a small window of education. Now, I see that I need, and want, to go beyond that, I want to go and learn from the amazing people who have dedicated their life to coffee and who make wonderful cups every single day. Who have tried every brewing method they can, who have perfected their own methods, so that I can learn from them, so that I can better understand that being a Barista is not just sticking to one method, but expanding beyond that and growing with this beautiful coffee community that is hiding behind Starbucks and 7/11 coffee.
For the next three years I plan on visiting the best coffee shops, roasters, and suppliers in country. I plan on learning from them, everything they are willing to share, and helping you and all of my customers find these amazing shops.
I do not want to take shops secrets or use other shops ideas for my own gain. What I hope to achieve is a new type of education in being a barista, instead of attending a class and letting that be my whole education, I plan on letting the shops educate me.
When I walk into a shop and order a drink, I don't just stand there on my phone, I watch the barista from step one to the final product. I watch their methods of tamping, mixing my drink, steaming the milk, their pour. I watch how they communicate orders to each other and how they run the bar. There is so much to be learned from the smallest of things and that is what I hope to achieve.
Now that I have done my preaching on my new plan, here it is, written out, for the whole world to see! and I will be using this blog to keep track of all the amazing places I visit and all the amazing things I learn on the road to opening my own shop.
YEAR 1
- Visit Shops threw out Virginia
- Build relationships local shops, roasters, and baristas
- Write about every shop I try and compile the things I learn from them
- Research coffee in every way I can
- Perfect my basic espresso drink making skills
- Find new areas to improve on
YEAR 2
- Expand to coffee shops and roasters up and down the west coast
- Start learning more about roasting
- Find new drinks, beyond basic espresso drinks, to try and perfect
- Roasting my own beans and creating blends
- Start building relationships with shops and roasters across the Country in hopes to find the best for my own shop one day
YEAR 3
- Get my business plan out and start building my shop, brick by brick
- Finalize the amazing roasters that I have picked to create an amazing coffee shop experience
- Start to put all of my education to practice and teach others all I have learned
- Master all the brewing methods that I have practiced for the past two years
- Open the doors to my own shop and make the perfect cup for each individual customers tastes.
I do not wish to ever forget the shops I will visit on this journey and will always help promote my fellow baristas career and education. Everyone who contributes to my journey and education will know just how much their influence in my life and career mean to me, and that's a promise.
This is not a journey I can take alone, but, I have faith in my fellow coffee enthusiasts, baristas, and roasters. I have faith that in three years time I will achieve my goals and start work on my next set of goals.
If you have any shop or roasters that you think I should check out, or my readers should check out, please post them and I will look at every single one of them.
