A Cappuccino Is Not A Flat White With Chocolate

A Note To The Hipster Baristas

In another life time not too long ago I was a hospitality person. I spent many years across all areas of the industry. From cleaning dishes as my very first job, to studying commercial cookery with dreams of being a chef, to standing behind a coffee machine all day and training staff, to waiting tables in cafés and fine dining restaurants, to working in luxury hotels and even studying my under-grad at university in the field. You name it, I did it.

Further Reading: The Essential Coffee Ratio For the Perfect Coffee

What’s more, I tried my hand at managing restaurants – in where I took on the arduous and rather dubious tasks of all things associated with a) managing staff and directing traffic – my gosh, the pain of working with those who don’t care about doing a good job and who don’t appreciate the necessity for exceptional service, and b) wrestling every single day with the finances. Which was a nightmare in itself!

It was at this point that I left my career in hospitality, much to the surprise of those around me, and began my little foray into all things kid related. Although, to be brutally honest, the two are very similar. Both have me working with those whom I need to repeat instructions to, again and again and again and again until I think that I must surely be talking to the brick walls! Both need me to walk around and pick up after everyone and do a fair amount of “hand holding”. And lastly, both have me tearing my hair out at the end of some (most) days.

The advantage of my earlier career is that I’m left with just a tiny bit of knowledge under my belt. Knowledge and experience that I like to draw upon from time to time. So with that in mind, here is a little something that I feel like sharing today. It may be somewhat useful to those struggling in this particular area. To all the baristas out there, whether self-proclaimed or legit:

[tooltip text=”TooltipText”]A cappuccino is not a latté with chocolate on top. It’s also not a flat white with chocolate on top. Nor is a latté anything like a flat white.[/tooltip]

Yes Hipster Baristas, I’m talking to you. All you beard sporting, beanie wearing, checked shirt modelling guys (and girls) out there having a little boogie to the likes of Fat Freddy’s behind your shiny new La Marzocco machines. Listen up and listen good. You need to get you notes together and fix this. You’ve got unhappy customers everywhere!

On another note, just because you give marshmallows to my kids and call them cute, I am not going to forgive you for your lack of coffee skills. You’ve been warned.