Not every cafe can afford to send their team on a formal barista course. And not every cafe needs to. There are things you can do right now - today - that will make a noticeable difference to the coffee you're serving.
Here are the quick wins that matter most.
Dial in the grinder every morning
This is the single most impactful thing anyone in your cafe can learn. Coffee changes overnight as it degasses, and the grind that was perfect yesterday might be slightly off today.
Make it a ritual: first person in pulls a test shot, checks the timing and taste, and adjusts the grinder if needed. It takes two minutes and it sets the quality for the rest of the day.
Teach everyone what a good shot looks like - honey-like flow, roughly 25–30 seconds for a double, balanced taste. If someone can recognise when it's wrong, they can fix it.
Get milk steaming right
More coffee drinks are ruined by bad milk than by bad espresso. Burnt milk, big bubbles, or lukewarm foam will let down even the best coffee.
The basics every team member should know: start with cold milk, introduce air for 2–3 seconds (the gentle hissing sound), then submerge and swirl until the jug is too hot to hold comfortably. Tap, swirl, pour. That's it.
Have your best barista demonstrate this to new staff on their first shift. Then watch them do it five times. Most people get the hang of it quickly - they just need someone to show them once.
Taste the coffee yourselves
It sounds obvious, but how often does your team actually drink what they're serving? If the coffee tastes off, you want your staff to notice before a customer does.
Pull a shot first thing in the morning and taste it. Is it sour? Bitter? Balanced? If your team can recognise these three things, they can troubleshoot most problems. Sour usually means too coarse or too fast. Bitter usually means too fine or too slow.
Keep the machine clean
A dirty machine makes bad coffee. There's no way around it. But "clean the machine" is vague - people need to know exactly what to do and when.
Print out a simple cleaning checklist and stick it next to the machine. Daily tasks: backflush group heads, clean steam wands, wipe down surfaces, clean the knock box. Weekly tasks: soak portafilter baskets and shower screens, deep clean steam wands, clean the grinder. Make it part of opening and closing routines, not an afterthought.
Use scales (at least sometimes)
Weighing your dose in and your shot out takes the guesswork away. 18g in, 36g out, 25–30 seconds - that's a reliable starting point for most espresso blends. Once your staff understand the relationship between dose, yield, and time, they can adjust by feel. But start with the numbers.
You don't need every barista weighing every shot during a busy service. But training new staff with scales builds good habits, and it's useful for dialling in each morning.
Purge the group head
Before every shot, run a quick burst of water through the group head. This flushes out any old coffee residue and stabilises the temperature. It takes three seconds and it makes a difference. Make it muscle memory.
When a proper training session is worth it
The tips above will get you a long way. But there are times when investing in proper training makes sense:
- When you're opening a new cafe and nobody on the team has barista experience
- When you've changed your coffee or equipment and need to recalibrate
- When you've got a new team member who needs to get up to speed quickly
- When the coffee quality has drifted and you need a reset
A good training session covers extraction theory, milk technique, machine maintenance, drink recipes, and troubleshooting. It's usually a half-day and the improvement is immediate.
We offer on-site barista training as part of our service. David or one of the team will come to your cafe, work with your machine and your coffee, and get your staff sorted. It's practical, hands-on, and tailored to your setup. Give us a call if you're interested.