What Does a Barista Trainer Do? A Day in the Life

Ever wondered what it would be like to work as a barista trainer? Or interested in hiring a barista trainer and want to know what it’ll involve?

Watch our recent video above: “What Does a Barista Trainer Do? Full day of Coffee Training” , to see what a typical day looks like for one of our coffee trainers here at Bridge. Keep reading to learn about the responsibilities of a barista trainer and how one could benefit your business.

Interested in hiring a barista trainer for your coffee business? Start here

What are a Barista Trainer’s Main Responsibilities?

The job description for a barista trainer at a wholesale coffee company such as ourselves could include header responsibilities such as:

• Undertake site visits to agreed contracted frequencies for specific customers
• Carry out coffee and equipment quality checks in the form of site audits
• Deliver Barista & Coffee training sessions as scheduled on an agreed frequency
• Conduct SCA coffee training courses and certifications

In short, a coffee trainers’ job is to provide education and guidance to their customers that ensures continual improvement in coffee and service quality, both on the day of training and going into the future. This is conducted through a number of tasks including:

Account Management Visits

Wholesale coffee customers may be entitled to upfront coffee training as part of their setup process, or they may pay for additional training and certifications when required. Outside of this, a barista trainer will often make regular account support visits to wholesale customers to aid with training and ensure their coffee is being served to a high standard.

Latte Art Training

In terms of improving your latte art, the best teachers are time and practice. However, a little coaching can give baristas a big boost along their learning process to teach the fundamentals and outline any mistakes they might be making. A typical day of barista training will often include some time dedicated towatds teaching milk steaming and conducting latte art practice.

Equipment Calibration

It’s the barista trainer’s ultimate goal to educate their students and provide them with the tools to calibrate their own equipment. However, not every barista they train will have that knowledge, and it can be difficult to manage during busy times for even the most experienced baristas.

During a session, a barista trainer will likely check the calibration and fine-tuning of all equipment to help produce better tasting coffee and improve the longevity of the equipment.

Coffee Extraction

Getting delicious coffee from your beans is one of the most important aspect of barista training, and is something a trainer will spend a lot of time focusing on during their day-to-day. A barista trainer will teach their students through dialling in their espresso, perfecting the perfect cup of filter coffee, and creating delicious recipes for each of their coffee drinks.

SCA Training and Examinations

SCA training is a specific type of barista training conducted in line with, and certified by, the Specialty Coffee Association. It is a more intensive, and expensive, form of barista training that many businesses will not require. However, when the barista trainer is qualified to AST level, part of their role may be to conduct SCA training and examinations for customers who want to invest in their staff.

What Does a Normal Day Look Like for a Barista Trainer?

The video above follows Nikolay Rangelov, one of our SCA accredited barista trainers, during a typical day of barista training for one of our larger wholesale customer accounts.

It goes without saying there is no ‘normal day’ for a barista trainer, as each day will likely vary in the amount of time spent travelling, the amount of time on site, the number of people trained, the content of any training sessions, and the type of customer and site they’ll be visiting.

That being said, a typical day for one of the trainers on our team will start on the road – heading to one of our customer sites for a day of barista training and account support.