Final Job Memo- Starbucks Barista

Starbucks Barista

People love drinking coffee nowadays. The barista at your favorite coffee shop is probably the person you will meet the most often beside your friends and family. During the summer of my freshman year, I worked at a Starbuck in my hometown in China. Although tasks like taking orders and preparing drinks might appear as simple and basic, being a good barista in a country where drinking coffee has not become a popular culture actually requires a lot more efforts than you would imagine. 

The word “barista” originally means “bartender” in Italian. Now we commonly use the word to describe those who specialize in serving coffee drinks. However, in Italy, a barista serves all kinds of drinks, not just coffee. It is both a technical and creative job that needs a lot of attention and care for other people. To make sure every customer leaves my store with a delicious beverage and a satisfied smile on their face, I have to learn how to tell the need of different clienteles, become an expert of the complicate product catalog and even have some knowledge in indoor decorations and design.

There are three descriptions that help you to redefine the duties of a Starbuck Barista in China:

• Personal Stylist

• Scientist 

• Indoor Designer

I’ll describe these using examples of what I do on a typical day.

Personal Stylist

The work of the personal stylist occurs in these three ways:

• Introducing different type of beverages to a new customer

• Becoming familiar with the latest seasonal drink menu 

• Finding the perfect drink for each customer according to their need

A majority part of my job is answering questions such as “I want to drink something sweet today” or “what’s new on the menu”. The process of finding people the right drink is a personal stylist doing makeovers. You have to be familiar with customer’s taste to make them the suitable recommendations.  A personal stylist would never ask you to a wear swimming suit to a formal meeting. Similarly, I would never convince the first-time coffee drinker to order a double espresso on ice because I want to save the customer from insomnia and bitterness. Aa good personal stylist should immediately understand customer’s style and taste, a good barista also knows what to expect and how to serve different people in the shop. Trust me, properly understand your clientele allows you to find the perfect timing to sell your product. 

Scientist 

In this role, the barista serves as the same role as the Walter White from Breaking Bad. Just like conducting chemical experiments, making a perfect Starbucks drink also involve rigorous procedures and proficient skills. We do this the sacred job of preparing your drinks by doing these three things:

• Measuring different ingredients by the exact amount

• Mixing ingredients under required temperatures

• Operating machinery such as the blender and the steamer

To save my customer, the time of waiting, the manager requires me to remember all 36 kinds of drink’s recipe by heart. Sometimes, I also have to make drinks according to people’s customized recipe. Customers with requests like “Grande hot green tea latte with no ice, no sweetener and soy milk” can be a barista’s nightmare because it significantly increases the difficulty of the task. And most importantly, you do not want your barista to make mistakes in preparing your food when you have allergies to some specific ingredients. Whenever my customers tell me that they are allergic to nuts, I will stay away from the cashew milk shelf and double check with all the commitments in the recipe. 

Indoor Designer

Starbuck in China is not only the place around the corner where you get your coffee every day but a high-ended beverage shop where a lot of young people choose to go on a date. Thus, as a barista part of our responsibilities is to be an indoor designer: 

• Designing our product display and draw the menu board

• Preparing seasonal decorations for the store 

• Changing the furniture layout and space arrangement

Although the decoration style of all Starbucks coffee shops looks quite similar, you will discover that each different shop actually has their own customized touch on the indoor design if you pay attention to details. Whenever we promote new drinks, instead of putting up a new poster, a barista often has to draw the menu board. I was also in charge of displaying our limited summer edition mug cups. I ended up spending hours on figuring out the best angles for every mug cup to make it desirable to customers.