October 18: Paperwork. The Art of Coffee Tasting. The Art of Pairing. And 8 Booklets on How To Become the Ultimate Starbucks Barista… Lobby? Wha?
October 19: Start time 4:30am. Official First Day. I normally sleep at 4am… ‘Nuf said for October 19th.
October 20: 4:30am, I’m in charge of the the pastry case… No one told me about the rubber gloves that fit nicely on your hands so I’m fumbling around in these oversized, plastic gloves that keep sticking to the cinnamon rolls… And it is at times like these when your forehead conveniently gets all itchy… Reacting naturally = Sugar glaze on yo’ face. 5:15am rolls around and I realize that, shit, the store is open and I’m only on the Petite Vanilla Scones. AGH!!! Why are there people up this early?!?! 5:30am, Geffin it as best as I can cuz, no one is saying anything cuz I’m new, but I know they’re all thinking, “geffit”.
5:35am, Prep. What? Blonde barista named Amy teaches me how to make prep…Starts off with: “So, ‘so-and-so’ trained me and she was a hard ass…” and then doesnt say anything… I think she was making a point so I pay HELLA attention. Frappuccino base, creme base, lights, mochas, signatures, goffit… Kinda.
More book time. And then I’m thrown on the Bar. I’m given a run down of how to brew/rebrew coffee… Shots: 1,2,2 Pumps: 3,4,5…Iced=6… Americanos: One more. Caramel Macchiatos: One less. A Hot Venti is Twenty, An Iced Venti is TwentyFour. Why? No time for questions, the Persian guy is staring…
10am rolls around and I’m tested.
Manager: “Please make me a tall cappuccino.”
Me: Ooooohhh, Caps are my thang… Goffed it.
Manager: Checks the weight, checks the foam… “I’m impressed”
End of Day Two.
October 21: On my own making the Prep. So I thought I had it down…
Frappuccinos, Check.
Creme-Base, Check.
Lights, Check.
Mocha, Check.
Signature Hot Chocolate… . . I basically go by instinct on this one. Everyones so busy with other things, and I feel bad asking for help. I definitely do not know what I’m doing and after about 9 minutes of hot water and bags of signature powder mix, I’ve created some kind of thick-ass chocolate goo…like, straight up. thick. ass. paste. My supervisor finally notices me trying to un-goo my life and comes over. He stares at what I’ve done for about 47 seconds in silence and then goes, “…. yea…. that’s not right….” He picks up the jug of, what can now only be construed as chocolate cement, and sees that there are two pieces of the mixing tool floating around in it… (Yes, that’s how thick the paste was). My dumbass response to the awkward silence: “yea…. the thing kept breaking inside…”
My supervisor: “….yea….I’ll finish this…you go ahead and sign on the right register…”
4 outta 5 aint bad I guess :/
End of Day Three.
