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!