Basic Barista Training

Basic Barista Training

Mastering the Barista Basics

Working with Gloria Gloria

This manual will help you master the Barista Basics
with Gloria - the Storehouse Espresso machine, not
the 70’s/ 80’s disco singer, Ms Gaynor

Espresso is not the best way to brew coffee, it’s just the
quickest. Espresso is made using a machine that pushes hot

water at high pressure through a puck of finely ground coffee,
in a fraction of the time it takes to brew a coffee using other methods. With a little

bit of work though, you can get it tasting VERY good! Like many things made
quickly, under high-pressure, when things go wrong it can go really wrong.

Thankfully we have some very good coffee from Shilo Coffee Roasters.

Factors that affect the “Starbucks says they are
taste of the espresso
going to start
There are many factors that can all
affect the espresso taste in a big way. putting
Thankfully there are only THREE that
you need to worry about: Christian

SHOT-TIME quotes on

TAMPA STRENGTH cups. The

GRIND-SIZE very first one

will say,

‘Jesus! This Basic Espresso:

cup is How to brew an
espresso
expensive!’”

S TG

SHOT-TIME TAMPA STRENGTH GRIND-SIZE Basic Milk:
How to steam milk
We expect our shots to Give it a consistently This is the only
lie within 25-30 firm tamp every time parameter that we want
seconds
you to alter

1

Tamping with Gloria

The aim of tamping is to spread coffee
evenly throughout the inside of the
portafilter basket so that all water
passes through an equal amount of
coffee in order to maximise flavour.

HOLD THE TAMPER LIKE YOU WOULD A DOOR-HANDLE, THEN PRESSING YOUR
FINGERS AGAINST THE BOTTOM OF THE TAMPER.
HOLDING THE PORTAFILTER OVER THE EDGE OF THE BAR/ COUNTERTOP, PRESS
THE TAMPER ONTO THE COFFEE COMPACTING THE COFFEE EVENLY THROUGHOUT THE BASKET.
RAISING YOUR ELBOW UP HELPS AS YOU PUSH YOUR BODY-WEIGHT ONTO THE
COFFEE. GENTLY TWIST TO POLISH THE TOP SURFACE OF THE COFFEE.

“Once you wake up and
smell the coffee, it’s
hard to go back to
sleep.”

2

Brewing with Gloria Follow these brewing
instructions and
To ensure our espresso consistently
tastes great we all follow the same “[you] will survive”
brewing process. With practice this
process will become second nature.

12

REMOVE PORTAFILTER FLUSH THE
FROM GROUPHEAD ESPRESSO MACHINE

Twist to the left to Gently pull the level for
release 2-3 seconds to clean
out any residue of the
(6 o’clock to 8 o’clock) previous shot

34

CLEAN PORTAFILTER GRIND COFFEE AND
ADD FULL DOSE
Use a cloth to clean any
grains left - these grains Fill the portafiller
have no good flavours basket with ground
coffee so it is heaped
to offer our next then push a flat finger
espresso. across the top to level.

5678

TAMP IT REAL GOOD WIPE BASKET RIM INSERT PORTAFILTER PULL THE LEVER
AND FLANGES INTO GROUPHEAD DOWN
See previous ‘tamping’
instructions. This will prevent the Twist left to right Pull the lever down,
coffee from gumming wait 3-4 seconds and
up the grouped seals. (8 o’clock to 6 o’clock) release allowing it to
raise independently.

3

Basic Milk Technique

There are two components of heating
milk, stretching and texturing.
Stretching is the adding of air, texturing
involves turning the milk into a silky,
glossy, ice-cream-like, paint-like
substance.

WHEN WE STEAM MILK WE ARE HEATING THE
MILK BY PUSHING HOT STEAM THROUGH IT.
WHEN AIR GETS TRAPPED INSIDE THE MILK
THIS CAUSES FOAM. WE CAN DELIBERATELY
ALTER THE AMOUNT AND QUALITY OF FOAM BY
THE WAY WE STEAM. THERE ARE TWO COMPONENTS OF HEATING MILK, STRETCHING AND
TEXTURING. STRETCHING IS THE ADDING OF AIR, TEXTURING INVOLVES TURNING THE MILK INTO
A SILKY, GLOSSY, ICE-CREAM-LIKE, PAINT-LIKE SUBSTANCE.

cappuccino stretch STRETCHING:
latte stretch
We stretch milk first while milk is cold (if the
Steamwand start milk is warm to touch chuck it and start again).
position We add foam by very slightly lifting the tip of

the steam-wand out of the milk so that the
steam is whisking the top of the milk, trapping
air within. While lifting the steam-wand out of

the milk, we don’t want to be hearing loud
spluttering noises, causing large bubbles - but
a quiet gentle chirping, causing little bubbles.

For a cappuccino this should last around 3
seconds, resulting in just over 1cm of foam in
the cup. For a latte this should last 1 second,
resulting in ideally about 0.5cm of foam. This

stage is called “stretching because you will
notice the milk expanding in the jug, keep the
steam-wand following the top of the milk by

lowering the jug as the milk level rises

silver milk jug

It is important only to stretch (add bubbles) at the start of WARM no bubbles added here,
steaming while the milk is still cold. Any bubbles formed it’s cooking
stretch here
while the milk is warm to touch will not disappear with COLD HOT
texturing as the milk now is ‘cooking’.
4

TEXTURING: THE STEAMING PROCESS

After stretching, immediately drop the tip of
the steam-wand just below the milk surface,
not too far because we want to be spinning

the whole of the milk. If the steam-wand
touches the bottom it will create more bubbles
(which we don’t want). While texturing we want

the chirping sound to stop and a violent
movement happening in the milk. This means
that the air-bubbles in the milk will be colliding

with each other causing them to get
increasingly smaller. This is how we create
micro-foam resulting in a shiny, creamy, glossy-

paint like milk.

1 234

POUR IN COLD MILK PURGE STEAM-WAND PLACE WAND IN MILK LIFT STEAM-WAND
TURN STEAM ON FULL AND STRETCH
For best results aim for This removes old milk
50% & no less than 30% in the wand. Just give It may help placing the See the previous
steam-wand at the far diagram about how to
of the jugs total the steam handle a side of the jug so that
capacity. Never steam quick turn to flush the you can see the steam stretch the milk.
milk for anything over 2
wand out. wand in the milk.
drinks at one time.

567 TAPPING & SWIRLING

TEXTURE THE MILK STOP STEAMING PURGE AND CLEAN Before pouring the
STEAM-WAND milk, bang the jug on
See previous ‘texturing’ Stop steaming 2-3 the work surface to pop
instructions. seconds after the jug This is basic barista any remaining bubbles.
discipline, do it! Thew longer the time
become too hot to between the steaming
touch. and pouring the more
milk will have split. So it
We’re aiming for 64*C is important to swirl the
milk before pouring in
POURING: WE NOT ONLY WANT OUR COFFEE TO TASTE CONSISTENTLY GREAT BUT order to mix the foam
and milk back together.
WE ALSO WANT IT TO LOOK CONSISTENTLY GREAT. SO WHEN WE POUR THE MILK ONTO This is especially the
THE ESPRESSO, WE POUR INTO THE CENTRE, THE DEEPEST PART OF THE ESPRESSO. THIS case for skimmed milk
CAUSES THE MILK TO SINK BELOW THE ESPRESSO AND THE BROWN DARK COLOUR as it separates quicker.
REMAINS AT THE TOP (IN THE CASE OF A LATTE) - FOR A CAPPUCCINO, POUR THE MILK
FROM THE SIDE OF THE JUG AS CLOSE TO THE CUP AS POSSIBLE. As you swirl you
should discover your
5 milk becomes shiny.