The people behind the coffee machine are trying to go as fast as they can. It is in no-ones interest to go slowly especially when it involves a necessary part of the morning routine i.e. your coffee hit. It takes about thirty seconds for a shot to be extracted and about the same to spin the milk. Making one coffee at a time is easy and should not take too long. When you start getting multiple orders the time differential becomes apparent.
1 x coffee = 30 seconds
2 x coffee = 60 seconds (assuming they are the same milk & size) and so on.
So if you have a line of up to 10 people out the door the time for a coffee becomes 6 minutes. Now say 5 out of the 10 people at the door have orders consisting of more than one coffee then the figure rises.
There are also other variables involved. Variable One is the size of the milk jugs. Our small jugs do two small coffees or one large one, our medium jugs do three small coffees or two large coffees and our big jug can do five small coffees or four large. If everyone ordered the same milk it would be a dream for any barista however this is not the case.
Variable Two, most cafes in Sydney will have the option of regular milk, skim/lite milk and soy milk. At peak times there will be several orders to do in quick succession with a number of potential milk combinations. A good fast barista will be able to look at the list of orders and do a number of coffees at once by marrying the orders by milk. Hence, if someone has received their coffee before you but ordered after you it is likely due to the barista getting as many like milk coffees out of a jug, not a matter of playing favourites.
There are other variables including Decaf, hot coffees and of course human error.
It is really important as a customer to realize that nobody is perfect, not even your favourite barista. Every now and then a mistake can happen.There is nothing worse than when you are under pressure and a customer reacts poorly. As a customer it must be remembered that it is never personal, it is just a mistake and bad luck.
Will my coffee be long? I have a meeting/I have to get to work/My bus is coming. A lot of people transfer their stress onto café workers. If you are late for work, need to catch a bus or just having a bad day, maybe you should get to work, catch your bus and get a coffee at your destination rather than getting upset, missing out on your coffee and getting on the bus stressed. That should not be my problem as a barista.
So if you walk into a café and there are already a number of people ahead of you please be patient.
A few things that will not endear you to your barista are:
- Constantly checking your watch.
- Moving closer to the barista in anticipation of your coffee being ready.
- Not moving away from the barista or standing over them once the order has been placed.
- (Would you like some one standing over you while you work?)
- Changing your order late.
- Talking on the phone while ordering. (It’s just common courtesy)
Thanks for reading this brief and hopefully enlightening article. Unfortunately the people who should be reading this are probably checking their watch by now.
Regards
Detour Espresso Bar
