No Sugar Tonight In My Coffee

This is me, steaming milk for a latte.

Saturday, July 25

Yesterday was my last day working as a barista at Colectivo Coffee. I've got really mixed feelings about this, mostly because I don't really know what's coming next...but also partly because we made damn good coffee, and after working there for a year, I'm not sure I want to quit the caffeine.

My first day on the job, in August of last year, I started off learning to make basic drip coffee. People like drip coffee; it's fairly inexpensive,
and hot, and full of caffeine. It's especially popular on business mornings, probably for the obvious reason.

And then I learned how to make other basic drinks, like smoothies and teas* and iced chai. I learned how to use the register and how to make and serve a sandwich. I woke up at quarter after four in the a.m., so I could open the store at 5.

And then I started working on on bar, first learning espresso, then milk steaming. In between other duties, I practiced.

I practiced more.

Colectivo's process of training baristas is, I'm told, a rigorous one in the world of coffee shops. I had to learn how to talk about espresso—to describe it as, “cherry with a hint of cola,” or, “grapefruit and pine notes with a buttery finish,” rather than the words most people come up with when they first describe espresso: bitter. Caffeinated. Coffee. Acidic. Gross. I learned how to change the flavors from acrid to drinkable**, in a process called 'dialing in'.

Latte art--this is why we don't add whipped cream!

I learned how to steam different types of milk, in different quantities, with different textures and temperatures.

I practiced.

It took a long time to be a 'certified' barista, and it felt even longer than it actually took. And it wasn't until I was making drinks for eight hours a day for three weeks straight that I felt remotely in control of what I was doing. For something as simple as putting together espresso and milk, it was insanely complex.

I liked my job. Coffee was fascinating. Espresso gained complexity as I tasted it, and built a mental catalog of what to expect from our regular espresso blend. I tried the blends and single-origin coffees Colectivo offered, and discovered different pour-over methods***.  Oddly enough, even after a year with excellent coffee, there are a million things I still don't know.

As much as I'd be happy to continue exploring coffee, though, the schedule started wearing on me. Some days I worked at 5am. Some days I worked at 10. Some days I worked a full shift starting at 2 in the afternoon. I'd get homesick, and work for ten days straight so I could fit in a four-day visit home. On top of that, I wasn't exactly eating regularly. Or taking medications regularly. Or sleeping normal hours.

This isn't atypical of most service industry jobs, but it was quite distressing when I figured out that I was working as much as I had my fifth year in college...and yet somehow doing a worse job of self-care than when I was also taking eight classes.

So when it comes down to it, I needed to leave, at least for a little while. Right now I'm on a train traveling across Michigan in the dark. It'll be pulling into the Ann Arbor station close to midnight, and from there...well, I'm still working on it, but I'll figure it out.


*Don't order tea at a coffee shop, or if you do, stick to herbals. Otherwise, you're getting the burnt tea that you deserve.

**Drinkable espresso is almost purely a matter of opinion. Kindof. Maybe. For a little while I was super into espresso that had notes of citrus and pine and tart apples, but caramel and chocolate is probably more common at my cafe...however, since each barista is going to produce a different shot, depending on a host of factors, a lot of it comes down to who is on bar.

***If you're looking for a place to start with pour-overs, try an Aeropress. They're inexpensive, easy to clean, lightweight, hard to break, take up barely any space, and (best of all) make a great cup of coffee.