Barista courses

[Jusnel]

I'm thinking of taking a course on barista and appreciating coffee

 

Any one can recommend a training school or centre? 

 

I know there are some WSQ programme on this with subsidy.  Cheaper to pay for the course.

 

I have search through Google and came up with few training centres:

 

http://www.bettrbarista.com/skillsfuture-courses

Eduquest

https://papapalheta.com/products/wsq-provide-specialty-coffee-service

 

 

Any feedback on these?

 

 

[serenade]

Here is another one run by Singapore Polytechnic. Can use Skills Future. Classes are run twice a week at night, for 4 weeks. Ends with a written test, and practical test. I signed up out of interest. I benefited and think it is good value. However, every class night I suffered from caffeine overdose. I had to pull multiple cups and taste the differences. Although only a sip, the sips added up.

 

https://www.sp.edu.sg/pace/courses/course-type/short-modular/business-and-science-of-coffee

[13177]

Now then i know poly conducted such course? Even there is a school of coffee in SP? Lol.

[serenade]

Just to clarify. Course graduates are not ready to work as baristas. To be a professional barista, need to go through another 1-day advanced course where the emphasis is on grinding calibration. The basic course gives you an appreciation of barista skills and what affects the taste of coffee. 

 

Warning is that after you attend this course, 90% of the cafes out there will fail the taste test. I now very selectively spend my $6 for espresso based coffee at cafes. Even at so called specialty joints. Most of time I spend $1.20 for kopi-c. 

[serenade]

Now then i know poly conducted such course? Even there is a school of coffee in SP? Lol.

 

SP old boys get 10% discount on course fees. If you can still remember your admission number. In my case, I graduated decades ago. Until the Registrar had to go into paper archives to search for my admission number. LOL. Kudos that they actually bothered to do so.

[Jusnel]

Here is another one run by Singapore Polytechnic. Can use Skills Future. Classes are run twice a week at night, for 4 weeks. Ends with a written test, and practical test. I signed up out of interest. I benefited and think it is good value. However, every class night I suffered from caffeine overdose. I had to pull multiple cups and taste the differences. Although only a sip, the sips added up.

 

https://www.sp.edu.sg/pace/courses/course-type/short-modular/business-and-science-of-coffee

 

I went in to take a look.

 

It doesn't offer much subsidy besides the National Sliver Academy Funding?

 

For my case, this will cost more compared to the 3 training centres that i listed. 

[Nostalgia]

Just to clarify. Course graduates are not ready to work as baristas. To be a professional barista, need to go through another 1-day advanced course where the emphasis is on grinding calibration. The basic course gives you an appreciation of barista skills and what affects the taste of coffee. 

 

Warning is that after you attend this course, 90% of the cafes out there will fail the taste test. I now very selectively spend my $6 for espresso based coffee at cafes. Even at so called specialty joints. Most of time I spend $1.20 for kopi-c. 

 

You're better off buying your own machine and beans.  Wish I could find a decent source of fresh roast espresso beans.  So many of the 'specialty' places sell obviously bulk roasted beans repackaged in expensive paper.  With double or more mark up.

 

You're right about most joints failing the taste test.  I even had a 'barista' tell me they couldn't control the temp on their expensive machine (only technicians can touch it!) when she pulled a particularly sour, too-low-temp shot.

Edited February 22, 2019 by Nostalgia

[Neutrino]

I'm no coffee expert but a Bialetti and some Coffee Direct from NTUC makes a great cup of coffee.

 

Takes three minutes and costs 60 cents all in.

[serenade]

You're better off buying your own machine and beans.  Wish I could find a decent source of fresh roast espresso beans.  So many of the 'specialty' places sell obviously bulk roasted beans repackaged in expensive paper.  With double or more mark up.

 

You're right about most joints failing the taste test.  I even had a 'barista' tell me they couldn't control the temp on their expensive machine (only technicians can touch it!) when she pulled a particularly sour, too-low-temp shot.

 

Even the freshest beans have at best a 14 day life-span. And the cleaning of an espresso machine is a pain, not to mention taking up counter space in short supply at my home. Any bean I buy will turn stale quickly. I will just pay my $6 and enjoy a good cup from a barista who knows what he/she is doing. Fortunately, there is a very very good coffee joint near me. And they also happen to be wholesale roasters. They are the only joint I know who took 20 mins to serve me my coffee because the barista threw away 5 cups of brew. The calibration of the grinder for the new batch of beans was off, and he took that many cups to get the extract right.

 

Most places I order coffee from fail in the following ways even when beans are fresh and boiler temp is optimum: 1. Do not heat the cups up with hot water first before fill with extract. 2. Do not steam the milk to a temperature that is hot to the touch. 3. Not swirling the frothed milk long enough to create right milk consistency for pouring, 4. Pouring too slowly that milk and extract do not mix uniformly bottom to top. 

 

I always ask the barista to heat milk hot and do not give me latte art. Latte art means the pouring has to slow and that affects the mixing. I have rejected cups because I was served with milk that was not sufficiently heated, and the coffee was just warm. When I asked the barista why?, he said because most customers want to gulp their coffee down and cannot wait for the coffee to cool. I went ??? Pay $6 for barista coffee and want to gulp down.