Barista training-4 hour @ Limini Coffee 14 June 2014

Like a dream come true, I was making nespresso coffee using the professional coffee machine lwe always see in the cafes!!

Yes, dear and I finally put our "talk" to learn barista into action. Thank you my dear. We booked for the 4 hour barista training with Limini Coffee few months ago at GBP186 for two person. The seats for weekend session were always full. We traveled 100 miles, 1 1/2 hours to reach  Limini Coffee premise in Bradford.

Upon arrival, there were another two other coffee addicts ( father and son) joining the class, along with the instructor, Youri. The greeting was informal. We sat round the long table, engaged each other with brief conversation. The father and son pair-David and Ben look alot more interested. They had watched numbers of youtubes, made a lot research on coffee before the course. Well, no stress! This was just a workshop , no competition. So still a relaxed and friendly environment.

To kick off, Youri made each of us a cup of cappuccino using the La Spaziale expresso machine. Wow! it was the best coffee we ever had in Nottingham. It was comparable to the standard with London "Kaffeine" . The creme expresso topped with steam milk and completed with beautiful latte art. It smelt aromatic, flavourful coffee taste, and yet not as milky or much foam as we normally get from cafes here. Followed by this, we were served flat white. It was heavenly too. For a non-milk drinker, dear enjoyed the flat white and cappuccino as much as I did.

Youri then explained to us the important factors behind the working of a perfect cup of coffee.

The correct temperature to brew. Being too high, the coffee lose sweetness and smoothness, being too low, it turns out sour. The boiler temperature is recommended at 117-119C.

The Roasting-yes, we want fresh coffee, but freshly roast coffee need to rest for about a week for best taste. We tried two small cup of expresso, one being roasted 2 days ago, and another which had rested for a week. The taste made a difference.

The grinding - extraction time should be around 25 seconds, so if the grind is too fine, the extraction is too slow. On the contrary if the grind is too quick,means the grind is too coarse and so the extraction time is too short. The coffee once ground lose its flavour within 5 minutes, so it is the best to brew freshly ground coffee.

The Dosage- The coffee powder need to be measured the correct dosage using a weighing scale. The single shot we are looking for 10-11grams, whereas 15-16 grams for double shot.

First fill the porta filter with ground coffee, slightly above the top and level it out then tamp it. Once tamped, the coffee should be 1-2mm below the line .

Most expresso machine has the water setting function to control the ml required for different type of coffee. Example 20-30ml for crema per espresso, double expresso of 40-60ml.

The extraction time need to be around 25 seconds, the crema per expresso will flow like warm honey. Turn off the extraction button when the coffee goes a blondish colour.

The crema on top should be halzenut colour, and stay on top for minutes.

future baristas in action:

Leart the basic knowledge of good coffee. So now let's crack on. It was really not easy to be a full-fletched barista. Grinded the bean, filled up the porta filter and tamped it, pressed the single expresso button then we will have to work on the milk steaming.

Milk steaming did not look as easy it does. First, fill up cold whole milk into the jug max half full. The position of the tip of the steam wand is really important. First, place the tip of the steam wand between the side of the jug and the center of the jug, just under the milk surface. This will allow the steam to create bubble in the jug. If too deep, it will not create bubble, and the must turn to full power for it to spin.

Then move down the jug and will hear high chirping noise . This created foam in the beginning when the milk is cold. The colder the milk, the better the foam. The milk will rise whilst creating foam. Be really careful to create smooth foam and not bubbles.

Then move the steam tip deeper into the milk, once the foam has created. The milk should spin around deep in but no high chirping noise. The longer you spin the smoother the milk foam is.  Turn off the steam  once the themometer shows the temperature reaching 60C, it will slowly rise up to 70C. Which was the perfect temperature we were looking for. Wipe off the tip. Gentle tap the jug on the counter to burst any bubbles and pour a half of foam to a smaller jug. Swirl the jug for smoother foam (micro foam) and pour on the expresso to create a flower design.

My latte arts were terrible without Youri by the side. haha

After the busy hands on session, we then watched a short video on the harvesting, picking and drying of coffee beans process. It was so labour intensive.

After the video, we watched Youri demostrated how the beans were roasted. Then we tasted the filter coffee with beans just roasted and beans rosted and rested a week ago. Not a fan of filter coffee, but the beans which have just roasted tasted really awful compared to one rested a week old.

Oh, we tried the Limini hot chocolate using real chocolate instead of chocolate powder. The last drink was Latte Machiato. It was too milky, the layers with milk at the base, coffee, foam look pretty.

Last but not least, Youri ended the session showing us how to clean the coffee machine. This is important to do at end of everyday after use.

4 hours training. We are really excited to get a homestyle nepresso machine to apply all the brewing skill, milk steaming and latte art. But the La Spaziale small home used machine Limini is selling costs GBP1200. This definitely needs a lot of thinking before we hurry to get one. More googles to be done.  Happy that we went for this course.