Coffee Barista Training

Coffee is something that i enjoy drinking from young. Just that when i was studying in Australia, Clayton exposed to me the real gourmet coffee that i yearned so much since i returned home. Therefore i decided to take up barista classes so i could understand more on coffee and its technical preparation.

My baby that accompanied me for 2 hours

The classes are held in a cafe near Outram Park MRT station. Class start at 1pm i reach there at 11am. Madness. so what do i do to kill time ? Lucky me that i brought my M&F along, therefore i spent some quality time at the bus stop reading my bodybuilding magazine LOL.

Looks good, taste so-so, price is god-tier.

Around 12pm, went to a small cafe beside the National Cancer Center, wtf right. Ordered nasi briyani, kangkong belachan, ayam goreng, beef rendang and a bottle of mineral water. They charged me $8.20. THIS IS MADNESS. This is not sparta !!! If it is and you charge 8.20 you get speared to death LOL.This is the most ridiculously priced nasi briyani meal i have ever had. Imbalanced exploitation of unfixed random prices. Doh. I was fucking starved so i couldn't be bothered. Whack it down like a beast. Taste wise it's pretty generic. Nothing special to rave about. Oh wait ! There is something to rave about ! The price !!! zzzzzzzzzz

Need one of these at home !

I arrived on time and the classes went underway. Fancy place man. All the espresso machines i saw are the ones i saw in Australia during my university studies. Awesome. Nothing beats real espresso being extracted out of a fine espresso machine. I need one of these babies. There were 2 trainers to train a class of 6 people. Study materials were give out and the class went underway ! 5 hours of learning on that day.

The place where battles are won and lost.

The main counter table where we have our hands on practical. They have grinders, new tampers, the standard metal milk jug, thermo etc. Not forgetting their own blend of coffee beans and other beans from places such as Brazil, Ethiopia, Sumatra etc. It's not as easy as it looks when the baristas in cafes does your coffee as i learnt during the class. Scalded my knuckles a few times, but it was worth it. We were thought the basic procedure to go about grinding and extracting the espresso using the machine. Timings for amount of espresso was 1ml/s. Steaming and foaming the milk the right way was critical as well, micro foams are what we want on the milk with a velvety wet look. The 3 major base component of coffee beverages were Espresso, Cappuccino and Cafe Latte. The rest are just variations. So once we perfect these 3, the rest are a breeze.

My first very own cappuccino ! Heart shape design.

Well that my first cappuccino i made during the class. The heart shape design was the easiest as recommended by the trainers, therefore i gave it a shot with their assistance. Pretty cool looking. Not easy, you have been warned. If you make a slight mistake, it WILL look shitty but still drinkable la LOL.

Floral pattern.

I tried doing a floral pattern with the foam and chocolate sauce using etching. I managed to get it, but due to the screwup i made when steaming and foaming the milk, the bubbles was not small enough, therefore large bubbles started to fuck up my art. Fack.

Left is latte(leaf design), right is cappuccino(dunno what shit is that lol).

For the latte, i tried a leaf shape, 2nd easiest after the heart shape. This one requires some strict hand control to get the shape out when poring the foam and milk into the cup of espresso. My 2nd cappuccino on the right, dunno what shape is that loh. Simply one, HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Left latte(alien shape ?), right cappuccino(leaf).

The alien shape one was really really random. I was messing around with the trainer when i was poring the foam and milk. In the end it ended up like this. The trainer thinks it looks like that octopus fool in Spongebob squarepants. I think it looks like that alien from Metal Slug LOL. The leaf design on the right was my 2nd attempt. Getting there i hope.

Latte separation.

Chocolate sauce one pump, then espresso, then finally 1cm or less of foam. I messed the composition for this cup of latte. I had 2 pumps of the chocolate sauce. GG. SUGAR RUSHHHHHHHHHHH.

Cool etching

This design was done by one of the students there. Pretty interesting design she came up with.

Simple yet nice.

This one was done by her as well. If you notice, the foam is a heart shape. The trainer said it looks like the UOB logo. LOL.

Well overall it was really fun. I took the test that they had the next day and scored 17/18. Damnit la LOL. It is a really rewarding experience for me as a coffee lover. I would really enjoy continuing making coffee the professional and gormet way with the machines they have. One day, just one day i will have one of those babies. I never started with kopi-tiam coffee. I started with Nescafe, then gormet cafe coffee. That is where it stops. Gormet cafe coffee for life.