What is a Barista?
A barista is a professional who specializes in preparing and serving coffee-based beverages, often in a café or coffee shop setting. The role involves not only making coffee drinks like espresso, cappuccino, and lattes but also interacting with customers and creating an inviting experience.
Barista Definition and Role in Restaurants
Regardless of what kind of establishment a barista works in, if they’re posted up behind an espresso machine and pulling shots, they’re a barista. This role generally functions as a middle ground between the traditional Front of House (FOH) and Back of House (BOH).
While baristas generally don’t make food, they do craft coffee drinks in between taking orders and chatting with guests, filling out a role as something of a “morning bartender.” Guests can complain about long mornings, meetings, and how tired they are, and baristas nod along and provide the coffee that fuels so many.
Importance of a Barista
Baristas are a crucial part of coffee shops and cafes for one reason — coffee is actually pretty difficult to make without the proper knowledge. Espresso requires an understanding of grind consistency, pressure, heat, and the actual coffee beans themselves; and without that knowledge, you end up with brown water.
Beyond their technical skills, baristas serve a critical role in keeping restaurants and cafes moving. Without coffee, it’s not uncommon to wind up with cranky customers, cranky chefs, and cranky bartenders — and that’s the last thing that we want. Just like bartenders, baristas tend to be cherished by their coworkers and guests alike, leading to a very community-driven approach to their job.
Barista Job Description
General Overview of a Barista’s Role
Baristas generally tend to have rather simple roles in their cafes and restaurants. The three main pillars of every barista’s job are:
- Drinks
- Guests
- Maintenance
The first role tends to be broken up into coffee drinks and non-coffee drinks, becoming further divided by hot and cold variations. More often than not, though, the majority of their work involves pulling espresso shots and dealing with customers.
While dealing with guests can be rough no matter where you work, baristas often deal with some of the worst. Their guests are exhausted, often running late to work, and seem to think that means that the barista is there to fix that — spoiler, they’re not. What they are there to do is keep things moving by chatting up guests and ensuring they get what they need.
Key Traits and Qualifications Needed
Because of this multifaceted job description, baristas tend to have a wide range of skills and traits. Generally, a knowledge of coffee and tea is helpful (though that can be taught), as is at least a passing ability to work with the public. People skills and the ability to work under pressure tend to make the work of baristas far easier.
Beyond that, though, baristas need to be able to pick up skills and knowledge quickly. New techniques and styles of brewing coffee come about all the time, meaning that baristas who can adapt and learn will generally do better in the field than those who can’t.
Barista Duties and Responsibilities
Baristas rarely have a single set of responsibilities; rather, their job is multifaceted, consisting of a broad variety of tasks.
Preparing and Serving High-Quality Beverages
First and foremost, baristas need to understand how to brew a fantastic cup of coffee. More accurately, they’ll need to be familiar with multiple forms of brewing coffee — from a classic French press or Chemex to knowing how to operate a $10,000+ espresso machine, baristas need to know it all.
Beyond that, baristas need to understand how to work within the confines of peoples’ various dietary preferences while still making a delicious cup of coffee.
For example, a strong understanding of various dairy-based drinks, and good dairy-free alternatives, goes a long way for many baristas. Similarly, knowing to recommend green or white tea (rather than a more heavily-caffeinated black tea) to someone requesting a low-caffeine alternative can be a game-changer.
Delivering Excellent Customer Service
While chefs often have the luxury of avoiding guest interaction, most baristas don’t get that privilege. As such, the standard barista position description will involve someone with strong people skills and a talent for communication.
Sometimes, this just involves the act of taking an order and moving along; other times, though, baristas are expected to speak to guests and engage with them — which is where communication skills come in very handy.
Maintaining Cleanliness and Organization of the Coffee Station
Just like any position that involves food preparation, some of the most important barista duties and responsibilities revolve around cleanliness. Baristas should maintain a clean and well-organized work space. While messes may happen from time to time, a good barista knows to clean as they work and keep things well-stocked.
Managing Inventory and Supplies
While inventory management is often relegated to restaurant managers, baristas should still be aware of their supplies. Keeping their beans freshly ground and stocked, the milk fridge filled to the brim, and garnishes ready is a major part of any barista’s duties and responsibilities.
Adhering to Health and Safety Standards
Health and safety standards are a major part of normal barista job responsibilities. More often than not, this boils down to ensuring that hot drinks remain at a drinkable temperature and that perishables like milk and cream are properly refrigerated. Past that, baristas simply need to keep their workspace clean and maintain their espresso machines with regular cleanings.
Skills and Qualifications of a Barista
Despite the common perception of baristas, the job requires a good bit of knowledge and mechanical skill. Beyond that, baristas are required to be skilled at communication and, at times, deescalation.
Hard Skills: Beverage Preparation and Equipment Knowledge
While brewing coffee with a French press or drip coffee maker isn’t necessarily complicated, there is a degree of science that goes into making coffee in just about every form. Everything from the pressure used during brewing to the grind consistency and pull time can impact the quality of most forms of coffee — though none more than espresso.
The simple truth is that coffee is getting more expensive, and that espresso machines are incredibly expensive. As such, it’s crucial that baristas are able to effectively use the tools at their disposal to make excellent coffee the first time. That right there is a trademark difference between experienced and inexperienced baristas.
Soft Skills: Communication and Customer Interaction
Communication is an essential part of any barista’s daily work. Whether their position involves communicating with coworkers or greeting guests and taking their order, the ability to remain friendly and welcoming goes very far for most baristas.
Certifications and Training Requirements
Baristas are required to have a food handler’s card in the U.S. and many other countries. Beyond that, though, there are no hard-and-fast requirements for baristas. With that said, the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) offers several certification courses for those who want to learn more about the finer points of a barista’s duties and responsibilities.
Tips for Hiring the Perfect Barista
With all of that out of the way, let’s talk about hiring. While no two interviews will ever be identical, there are a few things to consider when interviewing.
What to Look for During the Interview Process
First and foremost, baristas (experienced or not) need to understand the fundamentals of coffee. While they don’t need to like coffee, understanding how to tell if a shot is burnt is incredibly important to the job. Beyond that, they’ll need to understand the basics of several types of brewing methods (or be able to learn them), including:
- Espresso
- French press
- Chemex
- Pourover
- Cold brew
Depending on the type of business you’re running, some more in-depth knowledge may be useful. If, for example, you roast your coffee beans in-house, a barista with even surface-level knowledge of the roasting process could be incredibly valuable. If, however, you don’t roast your beans in house, that knowledge does very little beyond being able to answer questions for guests.
Similarly, knowledge about sustainability can be incredibly handy for some baristas. While guests at a corporate coffee shop may not care about the specific growing conditions and farming location of a coffee, guests at an upscale cafe likely will.
The last thing to look for in baristas isn’t really something that can be taught — it’s passion and a willingness to learn. Some people simply don’t care about coffee enough to learn its intricacies, and that’s okay, unless they want to be a barista. Being able and willing to learn about coffee, communication, organization, and cleanliness goes much farther than you might think.
Assessing Experience Versus Trainability
It’s important to understand that the most experienced barista isn’t always the most fit for the job. Experienced people tend to have their own way of doing things. While that’s great for some cafes and coffee shops, it’s not always best. Shops that either do things out of the ordinary or who have a concrete way of doing things may be better served by hiring someone who’s ready and willing to learn than someone who thinks (or knows) that they know it all.
Frequently Asked Questions About Barista Job Descriptions
Below you can find answers to some of the most commonly-asked questions surrounding barista job responsibilities and barista position descriptions.
How Detailed Should a Barista Job Description Be?
Job descriptions, no matter the field or position, should detail as much about the position as possible — and a barista job description is no different. Employers should detail the following for barista job descriptions:
- Pay
- Hours
- Benefits
- Expectations
- What will they be expected to make?
- What equipment will they use?
- Will they be making food and coffee? Just coffee?
- Will they need to know how to make tea or other drinks?
- Will the barista be customer-facing or exclusively making drinks and/or food?
In other words, the more specifics you can give, the better.
Can Baristas Be Trained Without Prior Experience?
Of course! Baristas need to know quite a bit, but many of the skills are teachable. This is where the question of experience vs. trainability comes into play. If you’re confident that they have strong people skills and are willing to learn, then they can be trained.
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