From Apprentice to Barista - Beginner Coffee Bean Recommendations _ Coffee Bean Knowledge Guide

Starting with Coffee Beans

Many people believe that making coffee simply involves putting coffee powder into a cup and mixing it with water and milk. This is actually a common misconception that leads people to think becoming a barista is an easy profession. In reality, a barista must have a fundamental understanding of coffee, as well as knowledge of brewing techniques, equipment, and coffee beans to be considered a professional.

Observing the Beans in Detail

To understand coffee, one must start with the raw material: green coffee beans. Coffee beans come from different countries, and coffee trees grown in various regions produce beans with different qualities. Coffee beans are mainly divided into two categories: Arabica and Robusta. High-quality Arabica is mostly grown at altitudes above 1,000 meters, while the more adaptable Robusta is typically grown below 1,000 meters. Each type of coffee bean has different acidity and bitterness characteristics, and understanding these properties is essential to brewing a cup of coffee that suits the customer's taste.

Coffee beans change state due to factors such as humidity, light, air, and temperature, so baristas must know how to "observe the beans in detail." Baristas must use coffee machines and grinders according to the daily state of the beans, making appropriate adjustments to the coarseness of the grind and the amount of coffee powder.

Knowledge + Technique

In fact, besides brewing coffee, baristas have other responsibilities. When starting in the profession, they begin with basic food and beverage operations, such as cleaning, service skills, communication, daily operations, and essential coffee brewing techniques.

Additionally, they must handle all work within the coffee bar, including cleaning and purchasing. Knowledge is important, technique is important, responsibility is important, and another crucial aspect of the job is communicating with customers, using professional knowledge to prepare coffee that best suits their preferences.

International Qualifications Pave the Way for Entry

With the popularization of coffee culture, drinking coffee is no longer just for staying awake but has become a pursuit of taste. Besides chain coffee shops, specialty coffee shops have also become widespread, striving to win with quality and attract discerning coffee enthusiasts. In fact, customers now pay more attention to quality than ever before, so baristas must possess professional knowledge and skills to satisfy customers' "discriminating" tastes. As this industry becomes increasingly professional, baristas who obtain internationally recognized qualifications will have greater development opportunities.

The Specialty Coffee Market

In chain coffee shops, customers can only choose from specified flavors on the menu. The selling point of specialty coffee shops lies in their greater emphasis on coffee bean varieties, freshness, and roasting methods, as well as the barista's expertise, which is highly sought after by coffee enthusiasts. Many people visit specialty coffee shops specifically to taste a cup of coffee that suits their personal preferences. Currently, most specialty coffee shops are small-scale operations, and even baristas from chain stores are willing to switch to smaller shops to increase their understanding of specialty coffee. However, large coffee shops now also show a trend toward "specialization," so employees have more opportunities to encounter specialty coffee than before.

International Qualifications Gain Recognition

The popularity of specialty coffee has undoubtedly made the coffee industry more diverse, and baristas must continuously improve themselves to meet the preferences of different customers. Many baristas start from entry-level positions, but their knowledge may be limited to their work scope, and they may not have opportunities to gain comprehensive coffee knowledge.

To become a professional barista, besides learning on the job, one can also pursue further education to pave the way for entry. Currently, various coffee certificate courses are available, but only those internationally recognized include SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America), SCAE (Specialty Coffee Association of Europe), and City and Guilds.

City and Guilds offers an "International Barista Skills Qualification" course. Through 20 hours of training, students learn about coffee knowledge, coffee machine operation, beverage preparation skills (including coffee, chocolate, tea, and smoothies), and customer service techniques. After completing the course and assessment, they can obtain a barista qualification.

Entry Begins with Coffee Beans

I. Raw Bean Processing:

1. Harvesting

Harvesting is divided into mechanical and manual methods. Mechanical harvesting is suitable for coffee plantations with flat terrain and large-scale cultivation. Brazil is the world's largest user of mechanical coffee harvesting. This method is characterized by low cost and high efficiency, but the harvested coffee beans vary in quality. For higher quality coffee beans, manual harvesting is generally still used. This method ensures that harvested coffee cherries are uniform in size, have similar ripeness, contain no other impurities, and facilitates subsequent processing of coffee beans.

2. From Cherry to Bean:

The processing methods from coffee cherry to coffee bean can be roughly categorized as dry processing, wet processing, and honey processing.

Dry Processing (Natural): This method uses natural conditions such as sunlight and ventilation to dry and dehydrate coffee cherries, then places the dried cherries through hulling to remove the pulp, skin, and silver skin. This is the most economical and traditional processing method. Coffee beans processed this way can maintain their aroma for a long time but may also carry certain environmental odors. Currently, many regions in Africa and Asian countries use this method, though with technological advances, many places have started using dryers to dry coffee cherries.

Wet Processing (Washed): Also called washed processing, this method uses soaking to screen coffee cherries, then removes the skin, pulp, and slippery mucilage on the silver skin surface through fermentation and squeezing. The processed coffee beans retain the silver skin for storage. In this state, the coffee beans are called "parchment coffee" and are not dehulled until just before export using a dehulling machine. The biggest advantage of wet processing is the excellent appearance quality of coffee beans and good retention of original flavor. The disadvantage is higher processing costs and the need for large amounts of water. It is generally used for processing high-quality coffee beans.

Honey Processing: Called Honey Process or Miel Process, honey processing involves removing the pulp and then drying the beans with the parchment layer intact.

Transportation

Before Roasting

First, before we begin roasting, we must select green beans—the selection of green beans is also very important, as defective beans will affect the flavor of the final coffee product.

We must pick out fully black beans/partially black beans, sour beans/partially sour beans, mold-damaged beans, insect-damaged beans, unripe beans, withered beans, beans with husks, shell beans, broken beans, and other foreign objects (non-coffee impurities, including branches, stones, copper plates, etc.).

Coffee roasting is a science. The year, density, hardness, and moisture content of green beans all affect the quality of roasted coffee. Even the relative humidity and temperature on the roasting day cannot be ignored. Roasting involves direct heating of the beans without oil, water, salt, or sugar.

●Recommended Entry-Level Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted entry-level coffee beans: Yirgacheffe coffee, Panama Geisha coffee, Indonesian Mandheling coffee, and others all have full guarantees in terms of brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high value-for-money. A half-pound (227 grams) package costs only about 80-90 yuan. Calculating at 15 grams per pour-over coffee, one package can make 15 cups, with each single-origin coffee costing only about 6 yuan. Compared to cafe prices that often reach dozens of yuan per cup, this represents exceptional value.

FrontStreet Coffee: A Guangzhou-based roastery with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online store services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473