The amount of times I've had someone come up to me and ask for two caramel mac-n-cheetos or a mocha frappee is hilarious

What's the best mispronounciation you've never had?

My cafe is still trying to figure out the best way. Our drinks already come medium sweet which I find to be too much, but we have some customers who get 12 pumps of syrup in a drink that comes with 2 pumps. We charge $1 for more than 4 extra pumps but we don’t increase it to $2 when it gets to more than 8 extra pumps. It feels ridiculous that we are even running into this issue, but our product is expensive so 12 pumps is wasting a lot. How do you guys charge in these situations?

I’ve been working as a barista in a specialty shop for around two years now, and this weird little issue still bugs me every single opening shift. No matter how I prep, the first jug of milk I steam early in the morning never gives good microfoam. It’s either bubbly, too airy, or just won’t fold smoothly for latte art. Once I steam two or three more pitchers after that, everything clicks back to normal, same milk, same steam wand, same routine.

I already wipe and purge the wand thoroughly before steaming, I let the machine warm up fully, and I use the same brand of whole milk we use all day. I’ve tried pre-rinsing the pitcher, letting the milk sit, starting with a colder jug — none of these fixes make the first pour reliable.

My manager thinks it’s leftover condensation deep inside the steam wand, mixing with the first milk and ruining texture. Another barista I work with says it might be temperature drift when the boiler is just reaching stable pressure. I haven’t found a consistent trick yet.

Does anyone else run into this exact opening-shift problem? What has actually worked for you to make that first steam as consistent as the rest of the day? I’d love to hear your habits or little workarounds.

ETA: Mid sized town in Missouri

Small independent, low volume cafe. We do around 10 to 15 tickets an hour during peak hours on weekdays, 5 to 10 on off peak hours, and 20 to 25 tickets on peak hours for weekends, 10 to 15 on off peak hours. Two people working during weekday, three during weekend.

While we are in no way shape or form wealthy, my significant other has fulltime employment that takes care of our expenses, as I was a stay at home parent before this. The business is a passion for me, and something we want to hold on to for retirement. Because of this, we don't take any kind of salary from the business, and instead use the money for any needs and of course salaries. Still, I am working around 50 hours a week at the business, as a secondary employee, so that our barista makes more tips (we obviously don't take any of the tips, which another employee would require them to split it). Because of this, our lead barista makes between $23 and $26 per hour (base plus tips), and assistant baristas make $19 to $22.

Recently, we started noticing some behavioral changes in our children, because I am not around as much. We also found that we are at a critical point where the business is growing, and would benefit from me focusing more on building our business than working in it as much.

Our lead barista currently works full time, helps create new drinks, posts on social media, and helps order the food. We don't want to add more to their plate, because they've made it known they're having a little trouble keeping up as it is. So we promoted one of our other baristas to be a lead as well. Shortly after, our lead barista told us that if we had enough to give someone else a raise, she deserved more money, and if not she would leave.

We're stuck, because we can't afford to give her a raise as well, in addition to the promotion for the other barista, and adding a new barista to assist so that I can step away some. We think for the volume we do, our pay scale is fair. For comparison, our local Starbucks baristas (high volume) get $14/hour plus tips.

Hey everyone!

I'm curious to know from everyone what has been the best brand of electric whisks to use for cold foam. My cafe has a seasonal and permanent cold foam menu and although its the bane of my existence to make, it's such an easy money maker. It's a high demand add on item at my shop and all of our whisks break so quickly from how much we use them daily. I think we've gone through 5 this year.

So, is this just how it is for most brands? Or is there one my shop owner isn't seeing when they order new ones. Typically the shop owner will order items we need via Amazon.

Thanks so much for any input!

Currently working as a lab assistant (organic synthesis) and starting another position as a barista at a nearby cafe next week.

I'm assuming there's a lot of transfer between the mechanics of drink preparation and running successful reactions, but I have absolutely zero knowledge about how I'll be expected to apply these skills to good (or great) coffee prep.

Any thoughts or advice? Just want to make sure I'm making the most of my chem knowledge (my tuition money needs to go to something useful).