I Received 21[0] Seconds to Spro

For those who compete within the World Barista Championship, you’ve gotta make twelve drinks in fifteen minutes, proper? That’s seventy 5 seconds per beverage. Straightforward sufficient, eh? However there’s numerous chatting, hospitality, farm to cup explanations. It’s extraordinary what number of first-time opponents are DQ’d for going extra time. We debated this subject within the BH workplace: We estimate, primarily based on all of the competitions we’ve collectively judged or participated in over time, at the very least one in 4 first-time contestants we’ve witnessed go over sixteen minutes and are thus disqualified. 

Barista Hustle has a sensible evaluation for baristas, loosely primarily based on a contest setting — it’s known as the Barista Baseline — and also you’d be stunned what number of baristas AND barista trainers we’ve assessed who can’t move it. You’d even be stunned what number of baristas do not know how lengthy it takes them to make a beverage. It’s like being an athlete and never figuring out your PB. 

For those who discuss to a boomer, they’ll let you know “two minutes for 4 milk drinks was all the time the required normal”: That’s one cappuccino every thirty seconds. (They couldn’t get lattes or piccolos in the ’80s). In the ’80s, you just donked out the puck, plopped in the pre-ground coffee, slammed the portafilter (PF) into the group, steamed enough milk for 4 drinks all at once in that spoutless jug that looked like an ’80s McDonald’s visor, then trowelled on the foam. Well, boomers… That wouldn’t pass our test. The Barista Baseline is designed to test speed and precision, requiring you to weigh your shots, distribute your grinds, tamp flat, and monitor your beverage weight. And at the end of it all, we measure the temperature of each drink and check if there’s the same amount of foam on each beverage. (Head here to learn how to do that).

Lloyd Meadows vs the Barista Baseline

To prove to you this test is not only relevant, but hard to pass, we asked our local barista superstar, Lloyd Meadows, to give it a crack. And there’s quite a few tricks of the trade we think you’ll find useful in this routine. 

Here’s Lloyd Meadows passing the test. It’s 39 seconds for the shots and 209 seconds for the milk drinks. He made the milk drinks with one second to spare. 

The Rubber Bands

There are a few things you’ll notice about how Lloyd approaches the Barista Baseline that improve his workflow and which allow him to hustle — of course — but not stress out. One of these things is, surprisingly, the use of rubber bands wrapped around the handle of one of the two portafilters. It’s not pretty, but it’s highly functional.

The rubber bands work like lead weights in horseracing — to make each PF weigh the same. The build quality of moulded parts like these is pretty good but there’s always a gram or two difference between a pair of portafilters. Making them weigh exactly the same allows Lloyd to visit the scale half as many times each day. Without the rubber bands, he would need to tare the PF before ever shot, then grind, then weigh the dose. With the rubber band, he just tares the scale once at the start of the day and that’s it — after that you can go straight to the grinder. 

Grind to Weight Grinders

Do you notice in the video that Lloyd has a grind-by-weight grinder, so he has no particular need to use his scale except for the occasional calibration check? So he could have easily gone 6–7 seconds faster, but he was being nice and didactic in order to show baristas how it’s done when they don’t have a fancy grind-by-weight grinder in their cafe. You know, if I was starting a café today on a strict budget and I was worried about the price of a grind-by-weight grinder, which is rather exorbitant, I would just buy a cheaper espresso machine in order to purchase the more expensive grinder. The accurate dose and the speed it offers make an incredible difference to the speed of service. Plus, don’t underestimate the happiness factor for your baristas who will be saved from having to hit the scale hundreds of times per day. 

The Importance of Preheating

True fact — Lloyd Meadows is one of Australia’s best baristas, hands down. But he failed the Barista Baseline on the first attempt. It’s a test that requires a 100-percent score to pass. And he got one cross on his first attempt because the temperature of his beverages were slightly out. The test requires each beverage to be within 55–60°C. Some of you might prefer a slightly cooler serving temperature, especially if you’re in a competition setting and your judges are required to taste their beverages immediately after they’re served, but for industry purposes, 55–60°C is ideal for avoiding complaints about insufficient temp (which are all too common in cafés — especially English ones). The reason the first test was out was because the machine was only switched on for a few minutes before he attempted the test and the ceramic cups on top of the machine were not preheated. This makes a big difference. As we predict in the model below, a cool cup will drop 4–5°C out of a beverage in 60 seconds. So even if you steam your milk to exactly 55°C — our preferred serving temperature — a room temp cup will drop 4–5 degrees out of a flat white in the first minute.

Four degrees might not seem like much, but at 55°C most customers are pretty happy. At 51°C, you’re guaranteed that a certain fraction of your customers will complain.

Room Temp Ceramic Cup. Each line charts the temperature profile of each element of the drink (espresso, milk, ceramic cup at room temperature). Even when you’ve hit 55°C with your milk temp, and your espresso is at around 85°C at the moment it drops into the cup, the equilibrium temperature in this model for the beverage is 51°C. 

Preheated Ceramic Cup. On the other hand, if the cup and the milk are heated to 55°C, the temperature of the espresso comes into play and raises the temp to 59°C. 

Does Your Grinder Have a Latch?

You are going to be strongly disadvantaged in the Barista Baseline if you have an older grinder which requires you to hold your portafilter while the coffee is being ground. If you dose anywhere between 16–20 grams for each PF, that’s going to require 8–12 seconds of grinding time.

But if your PF is happily latched in and you are busy multitasking while the grinder does its thing, then you’ll complete the espresso component of the test about twenty-five percent quicker. 

Take a look at what Lloyd does in the video above. Once the first portafilter is latched, he’s immediately refocussed his attention on cleaning PF#2. Once PF#2 is cleaned and dried and the group is purged, the dose has been dropped into PF#1. So he just swaps them over and gets busy weighing, distributing and tamping PF#1. 

Train for the Barista Baseline and Find a Coach

Can you pass this test? Here’s a scoresheet so you can get some practice in. And when you think you can get the job done in under 210s, head here to find a BH Coach near you. If the travel requirement is too great, ask your nearest coach about video testing too. It’s also a mighty useful way to help you prepare for some Barista Competition action too. Oh, and if you’re wondering what the reference is to in this post’s title, here’s a tune that’ll help you get motivated to put on some speed.