For frappes with pumps of mocha the recipe card says half dose pumps, my store gets our mocha from hot bar and I don’t know if it’s a half or full pump lol. Anyways, for the hot bar pumps of mocha would it be 2,3,4 pumps? My SM says a venti mocha frap would get 2 pumps, just want to double check here, thanks!
This is a long winded post but I’m really needing some advice before I lose my mind!
Before we begin, I’m a new barista at a corporate store (returning after 5 years, forgot mostly everything) and wasn’t really specifically shown a lot of things during my recent training (I’m about a month in). Absolutely loved my trainer and got along with them really well but I think my trainer just assumed I know how/what to do for many circumstances but I’m feeling really lost and notice how I bring down the team with my lack of knowledge and slowness/question asking. I’m not really sure how to fix this immediately but I’m doing my best to grow and ask for clarification when I need it, I know it takes time!!!
That being said, I have a few things I feel a little silly to ask my team for advice on and I thought this would be a great place to do it!
Dishes? I was shown to do dishes by rinsing anything with visible gunk, putting EVERYTHING in the sink filled with soapy water and scrub every item then rinse excess bubbles (if necessary) and pop in the Hobart to finish sanitizing. I feel like this takes forever and is not how I remember having to do dishes from my first store… Any tips?
All of my partners whether or not they’re SSVs take initiative and help out the store A LOT with cleaning, breakdown, restocking etc, like they just know what needs to be done and when to do it but I just don’t know how to insert myself in ways that is helpful? For example, after peak there’s usually a lot of downtime at my store. If breakdown doesn’t need to be done (or I’m not told to go do dishes etc) I don’t really know what to do outside of wiping down the bar areas. What can I do to show my partners that I am willing and able (also eager!) to be a team player and do things without them needing to ask me. I have a hard time with the timing of things, like when is it appropriate to start pre-closing tasks also what even are the pre closing tasks?
My third thing I need advice on is recipe memorization and sequencing. I want to be able to work super efficiently but I honestly am only 85% sure that I’m making all drinks correctly. I was only “retrained” on the bare bones basics, lattes, americanos, shaken espressos, and a few frappes and matchas. I keep finding more and more things I’ve been making wrong each day and it’s been really frustrating for me!
When I was trained 5 years ago I had to make EVERY SINGLE DRINK in front of my trainer before I was allowed to make anything on my own but recipes changed and I do not remember many of them that haven’t changed (outside from the simple ones like lattes with syrups, mochas etc) and did not have to make every single drink during my retraining so the more and more I work I see new things everyday that I have no idea how to make or don’t know that they come with classic or vanilla or whatever other random things…. I kind of just guess on a lot of recipes (which don’t get me wrong, definitely works a lot of times) but I know customers have been receiving the completely wrong drinks whoops…
Anyways, thanks for reading my spiral, literally ANY ADVICE is appreciated even if I did not mention needing it!