My first day in a barista class at the academy was full of excitement. I saw myself making all the complex art on cappuccinos before i even set my first touch on the machine.
Man,being in a class of aspiring baristas is another experience that brings together different people of different ages with the same passion. In this type of classes, you end up studying with your dads in the same class, and making things worse, you are even better than them in making cappuccinos and lattes. But that's life anyway!
My first time to have a look at the espresso machine during classes made me impatient to atleast touch the portafilter or even just hold the cappuccino cup in my hands. A lot of excitement!
My First Cappuccino......
Before you start real action on the espresso machine, things look to be more simpler theoretically. When the trainer is first teaching the theory part of the training, you feel like you can't wait to start making cappuccinos and so on.
I guess in every barista academy, the first milk beverage to be made is cappuccino after espresso. I think that's right.
Now, the time for every student to start making their own cappuccinos arrives. This was my first time to steam milk, did i even steam well? and it was my chance to show the art on a drink, wow, can't wait.
It's my turn now, i poured cold milk in a pitcher up to the required level,that is,1/3 of the pitcher. Placing the steam wand tip in the pitcher was another hustle, because the moment you lower the tip down, that's boiling, if you keep the tip just at the surface, you are creating large bubbles rather than the microbubbles required. So, at first things will never go well as a beginner.
I opened the steam wand to start steaming, this was not actually steaming, i was boiling milk and the moment you boil milk, you will never make any froth required to make the latte art and even for the drink to qualify as a cappuccino. To master steaming, it can even take several days if you are not sharp enough. But atleast i tried to make some little froth, though it had a lot of large bubbles that could not disappear even if you hit the pitcher gently on a flat table.
Next was pouring the steamed milk in a cappuccino cup containing a "double shot" of espresso. Pouring is also another technique that requires time and experience plus confidence.
The art you see in the picture above (looks like a heart) was my first latte art to be make during my barista training at the academy. But as time is passing by, i'm gaining more experience on making better cappuccinos plus latte art.
That was part of my experience during my first days at the barista academy.
Thanks for reading.....
Love,
