Australian Barista School — Local services in Sydney

BARISTA COURSE

So, I went to the barista course Saturday morning, at Haymarket, in the city. I've never driven there before, so I went in a bit early, to make sure I could find a parking spot. I had excellent luck because there were plenty of paid parking spots, in the street, just outside the barista school.

Best of all, there was a single, free, disabled car spot, and I am, and it was, and I was there early enough that the spot was empty. Wasn't that great?

There were about about 30 of us, and we broke up into half a dozen groups. Each group had their own teacher, and we each had our own professional coffee machine. The teachers were all very friendly and entertaining and very knowledgeable. They told us the agenda for the morning. First, they told us some basics, like the temperatures and concentrations of the different coffees. They explained some terms, like the thing that you put the ground coffee into, that locks up into the machine, is called the handle. The extracted coffee has a foamy layer on top that is called the crema, and so on.

During the course of the morning we would each make about 30 coffees. Among those coffees we would cover about a dozen different varieties, like cappuccino and latte and flat white and mocha and ristretto. The teacher said we could drink as many as we liked, but jokingly suggested that we avoid drinking all 30 of them.

So we started with cappuccino and ristretto, and they were so nice that I drank them. And then we made long black, and a latte and I had not had a latte in so long, I thought I would drink that as well. And then we did a double ristretto and a macchiato and the dirty cups and glasses started piling up and the assistants to the teachers were beginning to have trouble keeping up but that didn't stop us we just kept making more and more coffees it didn't even slow us down it's just remarkable how many coffees you can make when you get better and better at doing it so then we were making coffee quickly and banging the handles to empty them to make more coffee and we each had a grinder and we kept running the grinder so we had more nice fresh ground coffee that we could use to make yet another coffee and we started banging and refilling the handles and we had the steam thing that we used to froth the milk going almost non-stop and making more coffees faster and faster andeverybodywasdrinkingcoffeeandtheirfacesstartedtogoredandpeoplewerebreakingoutintoasweatwithallthiscoffeethatwasbeingmadeandconsumedandthepeoplewhoweredoingtheteachingandthecleaningwererunningaroundwithtrolleysfullofcupsandglassesclankingandjanglinganditgotreallynoisybutthatdidn'tmatteranywaybecauseeverybodywasinsuchafrenzymakingcoffeethattherewasnostoppingusaaaghh!!

And then we had to slow down because of the number of students lying on the floor with chest pains and badly stained teeth and burned fingers, all foaming at the mouth, filling the room with the satisfying aroma of...

Went for a Basics course here and loved it What it offers .. an introduction to pulling espressos the correct way, and how to mix milk based espresso beverages, also the important and relevant points to be aware of, especially on safety, hygiene and avoiding acquiring wrong approaches. As they clearly state, one cannot expect to become a professional with just a few hours of attending this course, but it certainly helps put one on a right track with a correct approach to a defined goal, if that is what one seeks This is a hands on opportunity to make a lot of coffees with professional tools and professional advice. My reason for attending was, as an aspiring coffee roaster, I wanted to have correct information about how to pull shots, steam milk and pour drinks. I believe I got my moneys worth. Do remember, when they say Barista Basics, that’s exactly what they offer. The instructors were wonderful, thanks to Ms Amelia and her colleagues

Update March 7th 2025: along with the review I had attempted to share a few photos as well, but I’m seeing a note that the uploads are pending 😊 So making an attempt again.

Did l practice after? Sadly no! So when you exit after the course, you should plan on continuing to hone up on what you learnt.

It’s your own road and personal journey after all, these folks can only open a few windows to show us how things, and then show us the doors to take to go out into the world. But...

The course is fairly good. I will rate it 4.5 to 5.0. But I will definately not recommend to anyone with bad knees or ankles. I am not crazy, I will explain why.

The class room was located on the top floor of the building, which was level 10. So I took an elevator, and I guess it was a normal thing. The abnormal part was that the elevator went to level 10 with a vigorous shake like an magnitude 6.0 earthquake and the door didn't open, followed by a quick drop to level 6 without door opening either! So I was trapped in the elevator! I thought I would die, leaving my two lovely kids in this world. I didn't buy any life insurance, and it would be a catastrophic disaster for my family.

After a few second, the elevator went up to level 10 again, and this time, the door finally opened.

The lunch break saw me using the stairs instead of the elevator. Ironically, another male classmate was using the stairs too. It looked like he had similar experience.

So if you really want to take this course, you have to be fit enough to walk up 10 floors. Most importantly, you don't have any medical condition like knee or ankle infection.

By finishing this course, you will not only learn basic technique of coffee making, but also be...