The Secret of Starbucks
October 7th, 2004 at 05:20pm Under General
Are you a professional barista? Do you get paid for making your creations?
Last week I entered the local Starbucks and ordered my Venti Soy Latte. Nothing too unusual about that. About a minute later I heard my name and went to retrieve my coffee from the circular landing spot they place your drinks. Then I returned to my seat to ponder how Starbucks makes it near perfect every time.
Down in Brazil it’s spring. Harvest has past and this month a lot of tender care is going out to the vast miles of coffee trees that dot the countryside. If you’ve ever been, Brazilians harvest coffee a little differently than most. They strip the berries (or cherries as they’re known) off the trees once they are about 75% ripe.
Pop one of ripe berries in your mouth and you’re in for a treat. The mucilage covering the bean is sweet. But covering that sucker is a tough skin. The bean at this stage is too hard to chew.
There’s a long road ahead to get to my Venti Latte, but that’s another story.
So how do they do it? Pull a consistent shot almost every time?
It’s all in Starbucks’ system which is highly duplicable. Take anyone with basic skills and train them for a few weeks. Keep training them. Give them the best equipment and make them follow a written plan - a step by step guide on how to make each drink.
Every Starbucks you stop in, you’ll find that they pull a pretty decent shot. The barista’s are following a system - one that guarantees them success. And I really enjoy that.
Well, time to go. The latte is still quite hot, so I caress it out the door to my beverage holder in the center console of the car. Waiting ten minutes for this thing to cool is worth it. Yes… that’s excellent.
Dave Jackson is a regular contributor to BaristaGuru.com and lives in sunny Naples, Florida.
By Dave and Dennis