Love Your Local: The art and alchemy of being a top barista

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When it comes to being a top barista, you’re only as good as your last coffee, Philip Reay says.

He should know. As a senior hospitality tutor at Te Pūkenga NMIT Reay spends his days teaching students how to make the perfect brew, a skill he describes as both an art and an alchemy.

Even while he's talking, he trails off, and tilts his head, listening to the sound of milk being steamed by student Byron Spinetto, who is about 5 months into a cafe skills and hospitality course.

Reay explains that you can tell a lot about a barista's skills by the sound of the milk.

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"You can almost hear whether or not they’re doing their milk correctly."

If the steaming is very loud or rattly, it's not going to be right, he says.

"We teach our students to try and hit the sweet spot, which is really as quiet as you can get it."

When a barista is able to do coffee art on your order, that means they’ve steamed the milk to a good consistency, he says.

"They only do that to show the milk is the right texture."

While the milk was a key element, a good coffee comes down to the grind of the beans, and how well it is extracted from the machine. Get it wrong, and the coffee can be too bitter or too weak, he says.

A bitter coffee can also be down to the machine being dirty, so looking at the cleanliness of the coffee station is a good indication of how good the brew will be.

For a black coffee, a top-notch extraction will have a good layer of crema on top, Reay says.

New Zealand has a very strong coffee culture, which means Kiwi baristas end up being sought for all over the world.

Spinetto, 17, hopes the skills he's learning will be able to take him overseas to work and live in places like Canada.

Since learning barista skills, he now checks out the cleanliness of a café he enters and makes sure to listen to the milk and the extraction of the shot of coffee.

He's also looking for good service though.

"It's as much about talking to the customers, making sure they feel welcome."

Reay says the relationship between customer and barista will depend on how busy the cafe is.

"If you’re working a busy cafe you’re probably not having any relationship with the customers. You’re just in front of this machine and you’re going for it."

But people know a good barista, and when they change jobs the customers will often follow, he says.

It comes down to the most important thing you want in a barista: consistency.

"It's getting it right every time – that's the key, because you’re only really as good as your last coffee."