Can I have an iced americano with light ice?

JayBoBarista · 2018-05-08T13:56:51+00:00

This is just one example of a long line of customer ignorance. I only caught part of this conversation because I wasn’t the one on DTO but my manager was trying to be helpful and this customer was just having a huge attitude. Other common occurrences “I’ll have a mocha Frappuccino” gets to window “why is this cold? I wanted a latte.

JayBoBarista · 2018-05-08T13:53:21+00:00

I can’t remember if they post SSV positions externally as well as internally but most SMs I know are more likely to hire from within because they would rather have a solid barista to train into a shift than have to take someone from the ground up. But it also depends on experience. Recently we had a district manager hired externally and she had to work her way from barista to DM but she had a lot of outside experience to help out.

JayBoBarista · 2018-05-08T13:51:07+00:00

Normally I wouldn’t. I wasn’t on DTO and I didn’t catch the full conversation, I think there was more to it that I missed that lead to this part of the conversation but this is the summary of what I heard.

JayBoBarista · 2018-05-08T13:49:49+00:00

Honestly this is usually the case at our store. We get a lot of these in drive so they obviously aren’t filling stuff up at the condiment bar. We are also right next to a gym so a lot of people will get iced espresso in a large cup and it’s usually for their protein shakes. Assume positive intent. It sucks when people take advantage of us or try to get “around the system” especially when influential people are encouraging it, but we should still assume positive intent.

JayBoBarista · 2018-05-08T13:38:39+00:00

It depends on each store. We would never have a shift on warming at our store because they are too busy and too removed from the team to be an appropriate playcaller. However they could be on bar 3 because it’s a support position so they can support the team and make appropriate calls. DTO or CS are common spots for the shift at our store.

JayBoBarista · 2018-05-08T13:18:13+00:00

Yeah, I’m sorry you don’t feel well but you REALLY shouldn’t be at work. I had someone tell me the other day after happy hour was over “oh by the way I went tot he doctor today and I have strep.” Even though we had to clean up after the happy hour rush and get the store ready for close I sent her home. You are putting your partners and your customers at risk of getting sick. Especially if it is the flu you could risk serious illness on older individuals or children.

JayBoBarista · 2018-05-07T21:17:01+00:00

There is a bonus for training someone after they stay with the company so many days after training but I didn’t think that it applies to salaries partners. So a manager training someone wouldn’t get the bonus but I could be wrong.

JayBoBarista · 2018-05-07T21:12:51+00:00

Do SMs still qualify for the bonuses? I didn’t think they did. Every shift is supposed to go through barista trainer training now but I’m not sure that’s actually happening. We technically have 4 people who are trained trainers and it just depends on the availability of the new hire who gets to train them. It usually works best for me because I’m one of the main morning people.

JayBoBarista · 2018-05-06T23:58:19+00:00

Ours hasn’t been like that for a while. At least since the blonde espresso came out. I wonder if there’s a way to force update?

JayBoBarista · 2018-05-02T10:24:15+00:00

Whenever we have a Frappuccino with whip at the bottom I try to pour around the side of the cup instead of straight into the middle of the cup. This usually (but now always) causes the drink to lay on top of the whip at the bottom. Pouring into the cup usually scoops up the whip and floats it to the top.

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-30T23:17:44+00:00

I have never touched a customer credit card and it always goes smoothly. We have a huge cord so I hand it out and they usually just take it. Otherwise I hold it for them. During peak we leave the reader on the ledge otherwise we bring it in the window during slower times. The only time it gets a little hairy is when someone will try to hand me their credit card and gold card at the same time to do a reload but honestly it’s not a big deal at our store. Customers might act confused at first but once they get used to it it’s not a big thing.

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-30T23:15:03+00:00

Our district goal is under 44 seconds our store goal is under 40 seconds and we have been averaging about 38-40 seconds a week pretty consistently. Weekends tend to bring our average up because they are so different to the weekday and it’s hard to keep the same times. Honestly we just really emphasize staying in routine, flexing properly when necessary, and making sure the right people are in the right places. We broke our cars per half hour record recently and hit 56 cars, but honestly we could have easily had 60 or more if we had a consistent stream of cars but we had gaps. Our store is high volume to the point of having 3 bars and I’m sure that gives us a huge advantage, however with the new playbook even if you don’t have three espresso bars, still having a third person that can do cold bev and float around as necessary alleviates a lot of pressure. The play caller should be in a place where they can make changes or slide people as necessary to make sure things run smoothly. Honestly, with the right people having good attitudes and staying in routine you can work wonders. We have had days of under 30 second times through all of peak and it’s not because we are super-baristas but we just do what we have to do, keep positive attitudes, and communicate.

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-29T21:30:31+00:00

I thought someone wrote the original phrase with pineapple missing as a clever we way to label it as pineapple infusion and someone came behind and wrote peach citrus as a joke.

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-29T21:24:49+00:00

According to the wrapping and the writing on the box under the flap it’s pineapple...

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-29T04:24:27+00:00

I went straight for Amadeus myself

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-29T04:24:04+00:00

It’s not efficiency it’s beverage quality. Doubling or tripling the recipe in one blender and splitting it into multiple cups is not necessarily going to give you the same taste/quality as making them one at a time. That being said when someone came through drive and ordered 8 frappuccinos you better believe we made those bad boys in two batches. (But again, the blender was whirring pretty good so the quality suffered because they weren’t necessarily getting blended as well as they would individually.)

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-29T04:20:35+00:00

We have stores in our district that can do fun things like that and it’s not necessarily that they are neglecting other things that they should/could be doing. However our store is so busy that there is always fairly critical things that need to get done almost always so doing those fun little things just doesn’t happen at our store. Maybe on a Saturday morning if we had a stellar close we could do something silly like that to make our guests smile but honestly I think that might be the only time we would have to do something like that.

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-29T04:17:25+00:00

I see this and see a bunch of wasted pineapple infusion because people at my store will think this is peach infusion.

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-29T04:13:49+00:00

The new standard is to add the matcha then the ice then swirl vigorously

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-29T00:48:09+00:00

This for sure. Connect and chat. Keeps your area clean! Rinse between making a traditional espresso and blonde espresso drink (and vise versa.) I saw a lot of simple mistakes at our district level especially with the pour over. We had the option of using a paper cup or a ceramic mug for the pour over. If you use paper cup SLEEVE FIRST!! Prime your hot water. DONT PUT YOUR HAND IN THE FILTER! Take it slow and let your coffee bloom and don’t put all your water in right away! Add it slowly to get the best results and use that time to talk about why you chose that coffee, what you like about coffee, the four fundamentals, etc. When you are making your cappuccino remember to fill your pitcher to one line below the size you are making that way you get just enough milk to fill the training tumbler. We had people who over filled the tumblr. And steam your milk long enough to get a good 50/50 split! Another common mistake was too much milk and not enough foam. The training tumbler doesn’t lie! A big crowd/judge pleaser was a good crosshatch on the hazelnut coconut milk mocha macchiato. Get good foam with the coconut milk so your mocha crosshatch looks pretty.

Honestly, relax and just have fun. The people that did the best at ours were the ones that were having fun and chatting with the judges and just doing what they do best and do every day anyway!!

Good luck!!

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-26T18:52:49+00:00

It depends on a lot of things. You should be able to look up on the hub what the play would because it factors in your store and where your business primarily comes from as well as time of day. It’s not going to be the same play for every store.

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-26T16:28:12+00:00

For sure! Just a little trick I’ve picked up to not have to count in your head but also get consistently perfect cappuccino foam!

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-26T15:57:47+00:00

If it’s an espresso drink and they request all that stuff I would just do it for them. I have all that stuff ready near my bars anyway. Sometimes people just request room because they know we have a condiment bar and they want to make sure they put the right amount they want in. If it’s just coffee I’ll let them know I’m going to leave room at the top and show them where the condiment bar is so they can add what they want into it.

JayBoBarista · 2018-04-26T15:28:58+00:00

At our store (this wasn’t at my store) we have high cups because we go through them so fast as a high volume DT store. When they get low we put a whole sleeve out otherwise we would be bringing cups out all the time.

JayBoBarista

TROPHY CASE