Why Great Coffee Starts With the Basics
A great cup of coffee is not about the machine you use or the type of cups you serve your coffee in. It’s not about the recipes you know or the latte art you can create. Great coffee is about the basics. It’s about the little details that make or break a shot of espresso, and in turn, a cup of coffee. As an aspiring barista, it’s easy to get caught up in learning about flavor profiles and roast levels, recipes and presentation. But as a working barista, you need to know about the nuts and bolts of your craft, and how to control them.
The first thing you need to understand to make great coffee is the coffee beans themselves. The origin, the processing method, and of course the roast level of the beans all have a dramatic impact on the flavor of the shot. Lighter roasts bring out the fruit and floral notes in a coffee, while darker roasts accentuate the bold and chocolaty flavors. When you know how to identify these characteristics and how to use them to your advantage, you will be able to make intentional cups of coffee rather than accidentally good cups.
The next two pieces of the puzzle are the grind of your coffee and the extraction of your shot. These two components are all about nuance. The way you grind your coffee, the coarseness of the grind, the tamping of your grounds, and the length of time you run your shot all have an impact on the flavor of your coffee. Even a small change, like a few seconds of brewing time, can shift coffee from balanced to bitter or sour. This is why baristas spend so much time “dialing in” their espresso prior to service each day.
If you are working with milk-based drinks, you will also need to understand the fundamentals of steaming. Steaming is not just about making hot milk. It’s about creating a certain consistency and temperature that will allow the milk and espresso to integrate successfully. If you don’t understand the basics of steaming, no amount of latte art or knowledge of recipes is going to save you.
Finally, one of the most important basics of all is consistency. It’s easy to make a single great shot of espresso. What’s much harder is making every shot of espresso great, especially during the rush of morning service. To accomplish this, you need discipline, attention to detail, and a thorough understanding of the fundamentals.
At BrewSkillArt, we teach our students the basics first. Students don’t jump straight into complex drinks or advanced techniques. Our students learn about each component individually, and then how they fit together to make a great cup of coffee. This enables them to not only follow a set of rules, but to truly understand what is happening in each and every cup.
Once you master the basics of coffee, everything else becomes easier. But not just easier. It also becomes more creative, more consistent, and more fun.
