Training Philosophy
Where Art and Science meet.
Delicious coffee doesn’t happen by accident. There are layers of intent all the way through the supply chain that shape the final result in the cup. The Barista is the last gatekeeper on this multifaceted journey and our mission is to arm all those who would craft specialty coffee with the knowledge and tools to make the best darn cup they can!
It’s Not A Toaster
Take bread, put in toaster, hit go – get toast. Heads up: coffee is more complicated. We believe that a thorough understanding of the techniques and theory behind coffee prep is integral to running a successful cafe in the Australian coffee scene. Competition is fierce and consumers are becoming more and more educated about the coffee being served up. Pure entry level into this game is being able to consistently serve out well prepared coffee and, with the likelihood of multiple people with varied experiences on the tools, getting everyone on the same, quality page is a must do. You shouldn’t stop there though – great customer experiences are where the future of coffee is at and they’re only going to be able to add value if their knowledge is broader than good milk texturing. Obviously we believe in this training, so we’ve invested in three Academies, kitted them out with world leading gear and put coffee brainiacs in charge.
Accessible Excellence
One of the most exciting thing about specialty coffee is that there’s always more to learn. For the uninitiated this may initially seem like a daunting mountain to scale but we believe in giving you a fast-tracked leg up. Specialty coffee requires some minimum standards and while we won’t compromise on those, we also want to help you get on top of these concepts quickly and efficiently. We don’t dress up coffee knowledge in pseudoscience or mystique and we ran right out of smoke and mirrors. Our trainers break down the concepts and help you build up your knowledge & technique one block at a time.
Evolving Knowledge
Our course content has been ‘in the making’ since 2006. The curriculum is iterative and responsive to the rapidly changing global understanding of specialty coffee. We pull knowledge and techniques from a wide variety of sources – the deep well of our staff, the experiences of our cafe family, international publications, barista championships and beyond. All of these concepts get laid out under the microscope to see if they can walk their talk before we integrate them into our courses. No knee-jerk fads here thanks. But if it makes my coffee more delicious, then hell yes!
Leave the ‘tude at the door
Take a moment to reflect on what we do here… we’re helping craft a delicious, interesting, unique and invigorating beverage. Generally, making this tasty drink for people tends to make them happy. How Awesome is that?! We believe that delicious coffee should be fun and approacheable, and that means you (and we) need to leave our attitude at the door. People involved in specialty coffee have had a wide variety of experiences and we’re interested to hear about them but just don’t let them blinker you. At our Academies we’ve created an open, inclusive environment that’s all about upping our collective coffee game without the ego.
Practice, Practice, Practise!
People learn in all kinds of different ways – hearing, watching, reading – but for many of the skills around coffee preparation, ‘doing’ trumps them all. We keep our class sizes small and our equipment plentiful so students get serious practical time to hone their skills by actually making coffees under the guidance of their instructor.
