This was published 3 months ago
They help kickstart our days, but what does it take to be a top barista?
Three masters of the espresso machine explain why it takes more than an excellent brew to make the perfect coffee shop experience.
Rachel at LeisureFit Recreation in Booragoon.Credit: Mark Naglazas
Rachel: ‘It’s the perfect job for someone who is sociable’
I was an interior designer for many years, but always spending all day working in front of a screen. So nine years ago I decided I needed a change and bought a coffee van. Best decision I ever made.
When I started I’d do a school one day, another one the next, and then a business. I was hopping all over the place. And I tended to say “yes” to everything. I would travel a long way just to make 10 coffees. I soon figured out that was not the way to do things.
So when the guy who used to have this spot retired, the City of Melville asked me if I wanted to take it over. While I was looking for something more permanent I still enjoyed working in different locations. I bit the bullet and two years later I’m still enjoying it.
You’re meeting people every day and getting to know them. I’m not just serving coffee; I’ve become part of a community. Many of my customers have become my friends.
I even get people opening up to me, like a bartender. I get into all kinds of conversations in which I recommend this doctor or that garden centre. It’s the perfect job for someone who is sociable.
I’ve always been a coffee drinker, but had no idea how to use an espresso machine. So I went to classes run by one of the coffee suppliers. You don’t realise how complex it is until you are taught by the experts.
The best thing about owning and operating a coffee van is that you are your own boss. If I’m not feeling in the mood to make coffee or there is somewhere else I have to be, I can shut up shop early.
It’s wonderful to work outdoors, but the weather can be challenging. One day a storm came up out of nowhere and the boys in the gym had to come racing out to help put away the canopy, otherwise it would have been in Garden City.
But this year the biggest problem hasn’t been the wind or the rain. It’s the heat. Several times I’ve had to close early because it’s been so hot.
I’ve never seriously considered branching out into a cafe. You have all the responsibilities of running a business with employees. I occasionally bring someone else in to help when I do an agricultural show — usually my son — but all the things I do in the van I can do on my own. You can’t beat the independence.
Dylan at Modus in Victoria Park.Credit: Mark Naglazas
Dylan: ‘The only way to learn to make a good coffee is by doing it over and over’
I moved in and out of barista and bar work since I was 19. I always preferred working in cafes because of the hours. And you get more time to engage with people in the mornings. And you get more regular customers in a cafe than a bar, so you get to know your customers and build relationships.
I completed a degree in business management, but I couldn’t see myself working in an office. I prefer to be involved in the day-to-day running of a business, so I would have been better off going to TAFE and doing entrepreneurship.
In the nine years since leaving school I have worked at five or six different cafes. I gained a lot of experience. So when the guys who started Modus asked me to manage their Victoria Park location I was ready to take on the responsibility.
As a manager I like to lift people up and upskill them in ways you don’t expect in this industry. It is an industry that many people pass through on the way to other careers and lives, so it’s a privilege to get to know them.
Many people enter the industry by doing a barista course, which is fine to pick up the basics. The only way to learn to make a good coffee is by doing it over and over until you build up muscle memory.
The product is very important in a cafe, but we’re fundamentally a service industry. So the most important thing is to engage with people. You need to make it a good experience or they won’t come back.
You can put all the emphasis you want on the building and the decor and the procedures, but in the end it’s all about the personal experience — being able to read the customer and giving them what they want.
I like working for Modus because of its business ethos. The owners bypass the big coffee distributors and seek out farmers in places like Ethiopia, Colombia and Nicaragua who pay a liveable wage. It means that we can be transparent about how we produce and sell our coffee.
One of the great things about working in Victoria Park is the incredible food and beverage culture that has emerged in the past few years. It is a wonderfully vibrant place, with so many different food and drink offerings and such a diverse clientele. It’s a pleasure to come to work every day.
Europeans would probably think the way we do coffee here in Australia is a little too new-age. But I think we have some of the best coffee in the world. They prefer their espresso, which is what I prefer. Coffee purists like it without milk.
When I open my own cafe, I want it to be embedded in a community. I think this is the key to the success of any coffee shop. You are not just serving coffee; you are building relationships with your customers. They don’t just want a great coffee: they want to be comfortable in the environment you create.
Ruth at Pound Coffee Roastery in O’Connor.Credit: Mark Naglazas
Ruth: ‘A coffee shop is all about community’
I come from a big foodie family and I grew up in Adelaide, which has a great food culture. So food was very important when we gathered on the weekends. I’ve spent time in kitchens ever since I was a child.
Initially, I did a commercial cookery course at TAFE and worked in kitchens. One day I got talking to people who worked front-of-house and transitioned from the kitchen to making coffee. I’ve now been doing it for two decades.
Over the years I have worked with many great people who showed me there was more to coffee than just pumping out cappuccinos and flat whites. They taught me the nuances of roasting and brewing coffee.
While the quality of coffee is important, what really interests me about working in this industry is the community that has grown around it. I love how coffee brings people together and the relationships that are forged with the customers. A coffee shop is all about community.
I’ve been very fortunate to work in a number of businesses who really care about their staff. If they care about you, you care in return, which ensures that a business will be successful.
But I do also enjoy the technical side of making coffee – weighing the coffee and understanding how extraction works and the different brewing methods and how the age of the coffee makes a difference.
Coffee-making courses are a great place to start if you have no idea and want to get into the industry. But you don’t learn properly until you get a job. You get shoved into the deep end. You make lots of bad coffee and mistakes but that’s how you learn.
As you can see this is not a cafe. It is a roastery. The guys who own the business decided they didn’t want to run a roastery and a cafe. So we condensed the two into one. It gives us a chance to showcase our product and show people what we do.
It has also put the cafe part of the business in an interesting environment. This is an industrial area, so we get people from all the surrounding businesses as well as regular customers who drive here because of the quality of the coffee. They all come for the beans and a bit of a bit of a chinwag and a therapy session.
When I closed my previous cafe to come here several of my customers followed me because they like my coffee so much. That is such a beautiful thing, and it makes me feel really special.
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