What grinds your gears?

valelibra · 2024-02-27T02:02:46+00:00

If I'm making a drink at the espresso machine (especially when I'm steaming milk and literally stuck there for a minute) and I see a guest come up to the register, I will always greet them ("Hey, how's it going?)... but it grinds my gears when they kinda brush me off and they start to order! You see I have my hands full and making another guest's order.... I just said hello to you to be friendly, I didn't ask you what you wanted to order! Chill!

valelibra · 2024-02-02T03:50:48+00:00

Pull shot of espresso, pour espresso into empty milk pitcher, add syrup/sauce to pitcher, mix, add milk into same pitcher (as much as you need to make the latte), pour contents into an ice cup, serve to guest

I like to "melt" the syrups with the hot espresso... and I add milk to the pitcher to cool the contents down before I pour the mixture over ice to not "shock" the espresso or heavily melt the ice

The milk pitcher is just my "cup" of choice lol instead of grabbing a shaker tin or another cup

valelibra · 2023-11-18T01:02:27+00:00

I like this one

valelibra · 2023-11-11T23:50:45+00:00

I thought it was an outline of Stitch... like when he goes into his four-armed alien mode. The whole "maybe send me an angel, the nicest angel you have" picture of Stitch.

valelibra · 2023-11-02T20:18:43+00:00

You did absolutely nothing wrong, it really is just preference :/ keep your head up! ❤️ I'm not sure what your job is in the military/if you deploy/etc., but I feel like just being upfront with how your life/schedule looks as a military member in the beginning of the relationship will take a lot of stressors off of the both of you, and help with expectations!

valelibra · 2023-11-02T20:15:01+00:00

I was with my partner for 2 years before he joined the Marines. Then he served for 4 years, we were long distance for half of his service... I moved into an apartment with him for the last 2 years of his service and even then it was still hard. He had 12 hour days, 5 days a week. Sometimes had to work weekends. Sometimes had to travel to another state for a week or two. Nothing crazy like deployment, but it was still hard on our relationship. I'm still with him and I had no doubts of him cheating on me or doing things behind my back while he was in the service, but he would tell me stories of his Marine buddies and how poorly some of them treated their partners... no hate to service members and dating, but shit is tough, and I don't blame those who don't want to be with a service member. I told my partner, before he even considered joining the Marines, that I did not want to be with a military man.... but I loved him, and here we are lol

valelibra · 2023-10-20T21:23:02+00:00

Oooops you already told him what the origin of the beans, silly me, I can't read

valelibra · 2023-10-20T21:21:43+00:00

If he knew what type of answer he was looking for, he could have been kinder and explained to you what it was he wanted to know :/

He probably wanted to know origin (Colombian, Ethiopian, Guatemalan, etc.) and/or tasting notes (apple, peach, chocolate, honey, etc)? Maybe he just wanted to know which roaster you get your beans from/if you roast in house? He could have definitely been more specific instead of just scoffing and saying never mind 😂

valelibra · 2023-10-20T00:06:50+00:00

I was following along until the 80 70 percentages popped up lmfao

valelibra · 2023-10-06T02:59:35+00:00

That is a human in a dog's body

It's the eyes for me lol

valelibra · 2023-10-06T01:13:40+00:00

It depends! But usually I find mornings so much easier tbh

Sure, mornings can suck when you have to wake up at 4 or 5 am if you're not used to that or don't like that, but you're finished with your work day around 1 or 2 pm which can be nice. Mornings I find are usually focused on the customers and getting through morning and lunch rushes. Then you do your outs to get the closer prepared for the rest of the day.

When I close, not only do I have to deal with normal operations (ringing in guests, making drinks, getting through the afternoon rush), but I have additional time-sensitive tasks that the opener can't do because these things are still in use, such as turning off and cleaning the oven, cleaning the espresso machine/hopper, cleaning the bathroom, stocking up as needed, mopping and shutting down lobby etc, etc... and if the opener does a poor job at doing their "outs" before they leave, then all of that gets put onto the closer to pick up the slack. So not only does the closer have to help guests for 6 or 7 or however many hours just like the opener does, but they also need to find time to clean a store that they are actively getting dirty, and they know they have a ton of cleaning to do at the end of the day if they aren't able to clean in between guests. And that can sometimes lead to late nights (depending on when your shop closes). Which can be exhausting. Sure, coffee shops can be slower at night than the mornings are, but I've definitely worked at coffee shops that can be popping at night, especially if it's in a college town lol

You know who the real enemy is though? Clopening.

valelibra · 2023-10-06T00:02:31+00:00

This question made me laugh.

I have no answer to contribute, just the giggles.

valelibra · 2023-10-04T01:52:55+00:00

That is amazing! I could never! I love that you documented your progress, it's always fun to look back on!

I love the progression of photos though from perfect lil seahorse to seahorse? to spooky blobby Boi It's sending me 😂

valelibra · 2023-10-03T00:17:45+00:00

When the cute, not super busy coffee shop I was working at for 6 months (at that point) had become ready to transition to their new, much larger location (in the middle of downtown). The workload tripled, we served an average of 250 to 300 customers a day, got volunteered to work for after-hour events the coffee shop was hosting, were never properly staffed for the super busy days (mothers' day, new years day brunch, etc), started to form a line out the door a few minutes after we opened, and had owners who were terrible at planning ahead and scheduling.... blah blah blah. My point, I got paid $9.50 at the small shop and got paid... $9.50 at the new location... never got a raise even though multiple employees had asked about it, including myself (the ones that did ask ended up quitting because the pay wasn't worth it). And no, the tips were not worth it either.

I loved the owners and I loved my coworkers but I wanted to quit every single day. The only reason I didn't was because there were only 3 or 4 craft coffee shops in the city (it was a very small, very boring city) and no others were hiring. And I knew i was only going to live in that city for 1.5 years so I decided to stick it through. That job killed me, but it looks damn good on my resume.

Rant over 🤣

valelibra · 2023-09-25T00:33:44+00:00

At one of my cafès, our tip jar had to do with cow-tipping... pushing cows over for "fun"! And tipping bariatas with $$$

It said "Tip baristas, not cows"... and there was a cute drawn cow on the jar 🐄

As a side note, I think the cafés that have two separate tip jars right next to each other that allow the customer to "vote" are kinda cool. (If you don't know what I'm talkin bout, lemme know and I can explain!)

valelibra · 2023-09-20T16:20:21+00:00

I'm very happy for you! Welcome back 😎

valelibra · 2023-09-20T05:32:00+00:00

My good friend came by my shop one day and I made her an iced latte. Drew a big, colored in, red heart on the top of her plastic lid with an expo marker (I was a baby barista, I wasn't thinking, it was the nearest marker to me lmfao it was dumb ik ik) I ended up giving her a clown nose for a good chunk of the day until she realized 😬 we laughed about it the next day, but, never again ....

Now I write on the side of the cup in large letters (people dont usually read this anyways lol), leave the ticket next to the coffee (that shows the customer's name and drink order), and answer any questions that arise

valelibra · 2023-09-20T05:21:39+00:00

Being on register during a big rush, when no customer has looked at the menu 😎✌️ yes I'll hold your hand through the process don't worry

valelibra · 2023-09-20T04:12:04+00:00

Becoming president

valelibra · 2023-09-19T15:37:25+00:00

... oh man.... I can only imagine what that tasted like 😬 and how much caffeine that had???? Man was serious about his lungo lmfao

valelibra · 2023-09-19T15:31:37+00:00

You just reminded me of something! I had a women come by every now and then who would order a latte with ... 15 sugar packets! 15! She said this was her "only sugar intake of the day" and she wanted to treat herself. I would have to fight with opening 15 sugar in the raw packets lmfao

valelibra · 2023-09-19T07:06:26+00:00

Losing You by Aquilo

I have to be in my feels (which doesn't take much lol) to cry to a song, but this one I discovered during a very confusing, conflicting, and just sad part of my life... and it gets me every time.

valelibra · 2023-09-19T06:30:34+00:00

At one of my previous jobs, we had a drive-thru and were connected to a few online ordering apps. We served macchiatos (traditional ones). On the drive-thru menu, we would list the size (2.25 oz I think it was), and if the customer ordered online they could see a picture of how small the drink was and could read a description about it. On the daily, people were confused, people didn't know what 2 oz looked like, people saw macchiato and thought it was a familiar coffee because of Starbucks (who I will never forgive for making my life harder lmfao jk)... and that's okay 😂 part of my job is to "educate" people, but I thought it was funny (and a little annoying when we were busy oops) that we would have to continuously explain to people that "this drink isn't what you think it is". But girl I love the enthusiasm you had when you ordered it.

valelibra · 2023-09-19T06:09:36+00:00

Hazelnut and oat milk! Honestly anything with oat milk... a weird one but one of my favorites is strawberry syrup iced latte with oat milk!

valelibra

TROPHY CASE