Category: barista

"Specialty Coffee +", barista, coffee recipes, Roasting

Modulating the flavour profile of filter coffee with the recipes. Brewing not developed roast.

Sometimes it happens, and you discover that you are brewing coffee that has some roasting issues, and is not developed properly. Of course, before blaming the roaster, make sure that you are doing everything right in your department. Sensory memory and experience helps – if you tasted many coffees and discussed them with other people, you have a clear understanding of what underdeveloped roast tastes like.

What can you do if you get one? How can you modulate the brewing profile to mitigate the roasting problems?  Continue reading Modulating the flavour profile of filter coffee with the recipes. Brewing not developed roast.

liza maksimovaLeave a comment
barista, latte art

Learning the Latte Art – how much time you really need

Milk. An ingredient so common, so usual, so simple (or at least it seems to be). A perfect match for coffee, the best possible companion. Just hear me whispering to you ear “cappuccino”, “flat white” – and you are already imagining you morning treat. Silky shiny foam, undisturbed surface, rosetta on top. Something so simple – and so hard to achieve. Let’s talk milk? Continue reading Learning the Latte Art – how much time you really need

liza maksimovaLeave a comment
barista

Quality in a specialty coffee shop depends on baristas motivation

Henry Ford said “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking”.
Assuming that the coffee is high quality and roasted to perfection, assuming that all of the processes before that moment when a client has a drink in front of him went smoothly and coffee has not lost anything that makes it Specialty – is there any way to guarantee that the cup made transmits all of these?

In other words, everything can be messed up if a person that makes coffee has no knowledge about what he is doing, has no skills of dealing with the product – OR if his knowledge is INCOMPLETE, which is even more dangerous – there will be no quality in the cup.
Continue reading Quality in a specialty coffee shop depends on baristas motivation

liza maksimovaLeave a comment
barista

Cappuccino 101

1. First rule of the cappuccino in the specialty café – decent сoffee beans. The barista can tell you the origin of the beans, the processing, you can find the information like the date of roast, the elevation the coffee was cultivated at…
2. Superb espresso. Fresh roasted beans, ground right before making the drink. Balanced espresso by itself, with the traces of sweetness. No capsules, no commercial blends, no robusta.
3. Fresh milk, stored in the refrigerator. No UHT milk used.
4. Cream-like sweet textured milk.
5. The balance between the espresso, milk and milk foam. In other words, the drink shouldn’t taste like milk, there should be a harmony between steamed milk and espresso. Continue reading Cappuccino 101

liza maksimova1 Comment
barista, competitions

Barista Completitions: reasons to compete / and reasons not to

eople who compete have one big thing in common. And it does not have to do with them being objectivily the best in the industry. They all have the desire to win, to prove, to measure who is the best – to compete, in other words. The thing that I want to say is that not ALL qualified professionals compete. The sample is not representative, if you understand what I am talking about. Continue reading Barista Completitions: reasons to compete / and reasons not to

liza maksimovaLeave a comment