I hope I’m not taking it for granted. I don’t see myself as javaricious.

I find it almost ironic that yesterday’s post centred around sleep habits, considering my new job has almost certainly ensured I’ll never sleep again. Today alone I may have had 3-4 coffees, testing various brews I’d made and tasting samples of how they should’ve come out. I can’t even tell if I’m wired right now, or if I’ve just ascended to another plane of existence. Furthermore, none of them were mochas. Maybe I’m drifting towards the hipster coffee snob Mt Olympus after all.

I start my job next week, but they sent me in for a training program at their coffee roasters (Pilot Roasters. A New Zealand owned/operated roastery). Checking up online it looks like the course I took gratis usually costs $150 to enrol. It’s always nice to see that your company is investing in you as an employee. That’s the kind of stuff that helps build loyalty. It was an excellent course too. Focusing not only on the what of coffee, but the why, they taught us the different steps coffee takes to get to the customer. From its inception as the seed of a coffee cherry, to picking, processing, dry milling, shipping, roasting and so on. The comprehensive overview helped build an appreciation of the product we’ll be putting into each cup. They were also intent on driving home the theory behind getting a good, consistent blend, resulting in a high quality of espresso. Watching a tasting occur in the “lab” next to us, it’s evident these guys take their coffee seriously. Our teacher prepared a bunch of different shots to taste, harnessing the start and end points of the extraction. It really showcased the sour tastes inherent at the start of an extraction, while bitter notes crash in towards the end. Sampling the full shot in comparison really helped gauge how the flavours balance each other out, finding a sort of sweetness in their unity.

We were taught technique on how to accurately tamp coffee, plus theory on the correct ratios of dry to wet dose and the coarseness of the grind. We were shown how to effectively steam and pour milk to get the perfect cloudy or light consistency and sculpt an attractive beverage. A tip I didn’t know, if you want to practice your steam technique without wasting milk, you can just fill the metal jug with water and a squirt of dishwashing liquid and it’ll come out looking almost identical. Doesn’t taste half as sweet as it looks. If this all sounds like it was totally insipid, it wasn’t. I know working as a barista sounds like something I should’ve been doing 5 years ago while looking for a real job, but it’s actually pretty engaging (he says before actually starting the job. Let’s see how you’re feeling in a month). I’m getting paid a decent wage (which they say they’ll review after 3 months), I could basically choose my hours and the owners seem like really awesome people (a former firefighter and commercial airline pilot?). I feel like they’re actually sending respect my way, which I appreciate after having been doing a motley collection of odd jobs for the past year.

After my course they asked me to come in and get a feel for the work environment. They showed me around a little then unshackled and set me loose on the coffee machine. I was instructed to go nuts, making whatever kind of brews I wanted without worrying about wastage. If I wanted to drink the coffees, that was fine. Alternatively I could give them away or throw them out. The idea is that they want me to find my own style that works and they know it takes time. I’ve always been fond of getting hooked into a consistent workflow. It’s always a blast mastering a new skill and right now I’m getting much more excited than I thought to hone my talents. I’m gonna be the prime barista and I’ve got a large professional pride when I’m outputting any kind of product. Like one of my former bosses told me, whenever you start in a new job, become the person people go to with their questions. Make yourself indispensable and there’s nowhere to go but up. It seems I’ve once again found myself on a different path than I would’ve ever expected, but that’s done little to temper my enthusiasm at hiking up it vigorously. It just so happens that the beans I’ll be filled with have an addictive caffeine kick.