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Barista: (n.) the keeper of the crucial morning nectar.

You probably already know this one, but baristas are the folks that prepare and serve coffee and espresso. It’s Italian and simply means “bartender,” but the coffee world has laid a solid, irreversible claim to the word. Baristas get a bad rap for being coffee snobs, but they’re actually just coffee nerds – they really, really, really love coffee. And they know a lot about it. They go through months, sometimes years of training to learn how to expertly caffeinate the crowds every morning. Did you know that we dial in our espresso every single day? Espresso is such a fine-tuned art that a humid day can really throw off your brewing settings, so baristas have to know how to taste espresso every morning and make minute adjustments to get perfectly balanced flavors. It’s a tough job, requiring careful attention to detail, and baristas have to HUSTLE – our NYC cafes make over 1,000 drinks a day!

3 comments

  1. I visited the Noho and Soho NYC La Colombe cafes recently from out of town and it was the highlight of my trip. Thanks to the baristas there and the LC team for all you do, you are the best!

  2. We love the baristas,too; seriously enjoy coffee in our day. Does anyone know the official National Barista Day, not sure, seemed liked it was more geared for a National Coffee Day, more general. Baristas, as a group, are really aprreciated and, once in a blue moon we are in that coffee vending machine scenario or office ‘coffee area’ and that’s when we are most thankful for true coffee houses and baristas.

    1. Just as a follow-up, maybe those (really delicious) latte cans could be kept cold in vending machine areas and then more people could be enjoying excellent coffee while in school or, unfortunately, in a hospital situation or at work. I thought I even heard coffee talk online that said some products that people think of as coffee related might actually be something else (chemicals, chicory, ?, not sure).

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