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Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind

r/starbucksbaristas

Full History - 2021 - 04 - 15 - ID#mrfxz4

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298

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Micro foam is not the amount of foam, it's the size of the bubbles. (self.starbucksbaristas)

submitted by Theotar

I had a DM enter our store and complain the staff was doing foam wrong, There was to much, therefor it was not micro foam. He was right the new hire was not doing foam correctly, but he was wrong about why.
The foam should be velvety smooth and creamy. You should not be able to see the bubbles because their micro. Having less foam with giant bubbles is not a quality drink.
Thanks for letting me get this out of my system.

steadyslingin 168 points 2y ago

Ah, yet another DM who is knowledgeable about our operational standards....

RanvierHFX 69 points 2y ago

I love outside DM hires :)

Ours couldn't even tell you how to steam milk let alone do it

rudebii 41 points 2y ago

I don’t think I ever met a DM that wasn’t an outside hire, all useless on bar.

4filth 34 points 2y ago

my current DM has been with the company for over a decade and worked all the way up from barista. still very annoying ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

rudebii 19 points 2y ago

I feel like the qualities that make a good barista and good DM are mutually exclusive.

Alefur 6 points 2y ago

I miss our old DM, when he came in while we were slammed he'd join us on Bar to assist and make drinks before doing what he needed to. Our new DM just consistently threatens our jobs for things that we aren't even doing wrong

hopelovepeace33 4 points 2y ago

You can tell a major difference though when you’ve got a DM who’s worked their way up through the company than one who’s an outside hire. My DM right now is an outside hire and he literally does that absolute most ridiculous bullshit ever! He came in one day on a weekend and was trying to get my SM to rearrange the store and brought us hooks for the abundance of chips that get ordered to our store but wouldn’t get us new espresso machines because there was no “money” even though he was spending a shit tone of money to have them fixed literally every other week cause they would break down & one literally melted to itself is how bad it was. So as annoying as DM’s can be it’s much better to have one from within Starbucks than from outside.

CanaryRevolutionary9 10 points 2y ago

My SM and SSV (both have been with the company over a year) don’t know how to bar, it gets frustrating sometimes

rudebii 7 points 2y ago

In my day the leads were usually the best baristas in the store unless the SM was a promotion, then sometimes they were the ace on bar.

I had run a training classes for corporate employees (because reasons?), ugh, imagine running a class full of your store's karens.

xMoon_Faeryx 6 points 2y ago

That's frustrating! I'm an outside SSV hire but I was trained as a barista for a month and a half before I started my shift training. My SM also started as a barista about a year and a half ago. I'm so sorry you got stuck with people who don't want to learn their jobs :(

Js_On_My_Yeet 4 points 2y ago

Not just customers who don't know how to barista. It's the higher ups too. Yet they have the audacity to tell us how to do things. What a fucking joke lol

meezy92 2 points 2y ago

One time my old DM decided to help out during rush by filling the espresso hopper. It was decaf.

PM-ME-BAKED-GOODS 50 points 2y ago

Lmao do they also think a flat white has to be poured onto the table and licked off?

Beardzesty 47 points 2y ago

Most of them don't order this because it reminds them of their wives too much.

ItsGif_NotGif 12 points 2y ago

😱😯🤐

sammiipiie 12 points 2y ago

🤣🤣🤣👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼☠️☠️

ChezShea 2 points 2y ago

OH SNAP SLAY EM

DontSendMeUrNudes 13 points 2y ago

I, personally, only drink flat whites that have been poured into my cupped hands.

ToastedKat69 35 points 2y ago

what i hate is people who complain that they didn't get enough foam to the top and they get "ripped off", like the foam goes down over time. next time dont let it sit in your car for 30 mins. As soon as we hand it off its no longer in the baristas control

Kmsss 18 points 2y ago

Since working at Starbucks, I have barely been able to make good foam. I can’t find a good place to put my steam wand so I get half microfoam with a big side of bubbles. Any help?

jdestinyp 11 points 2y ago

Yep! You’re going to want to place your steam wand just under the surface, by about 1/2” to 1”. It should make a gentle ripping paper sound. If it sounds screechy, you’re going to end up with huge bubbles. But as you’re learning and still trying to get the hang of it, feel free to groom your milk to your hearts content. Lots of times when I get too big bubbles, I just slam my pitcher on the counter a few times to pop them. I usually end up with nice bubbles, like the wet paint image we’re told about. But I’m still learning too.

Kmsss 6 points 2y ago

Yeah. I’m not so much learning as I am trying to work with an automatic steamer. I learned on a fully manual machine.

jdestinyp 3 points 2y ago

Ohh. That makes sense. I was trained on the automatic system

clumsycalico 3 points 2y ago

This feels like a stupid question but any tips on how I can bang the pitcher on the counter without spilling it everywhere? My foam is pretty decent now but I often get like a small cluster of bigger bubbles that could totally be popped but I stopped trying because I couldn’t figure out how not to get it all over the counter and espresso machine 🙄🙄🙄

MawcDrums 2 points 2y ago

Try to consider the natural frequency of the liquid inside, if you swish it around at the right frequency the waves will get higher and higher and pop out, if you just lightly bonk the pitcher and then let the waves settle it shouldn't slosh around as much. Also search around on your counter for a very solid hard place to bonk, rather than a softer place in the sheet metal.

jdestinyp 2 points 2y ago

Haha honestly I’m trying to figure that out too

MawcDrums 2 points 2y ago

Are you on a Mastrena 2? I've had inconsistent foam since switching to the new steam wand as a 5 year barista who's (I like to think) at least okay at latte art.

colonade17 1 points 2y ago

Yet another sign that quality is not a priority for starbucks. It's all about connections and DTO times.

1. Put the wand in the milk before you turn it on.
2. the tip should be just barely below the surface making a ripping sound
3. as you generate foam you'll have to slightly lower the pitcher as the volume in the pitcher increases
4. it helps to angle the pitcher and have the wand near the side to get more of a vortex.
5. if you see bubbles groom your milk by tapping the pitcher

jaw295 11 points 2y ago

Honestly, I didn't know $#\*+ about foam until I left to work at an independent coffee shop and started entering latte art throwdowns.

King_Spamula 9 points 2y ago

Well if the machines wouldn't be locked at such a high power, we'd be able to easily pull off better milk texture. I understand why they have it locked, especially with time constraints, but come on.

wandering_mind_ 9 points 2y ago

I feel like “micro foam” is a bit self explanatory bc micro isnt really used to describe amounts of something but the size of material that makes up said something.

Besides that, do these outside hires not go thru training? lol

ShannyES 7 points 2y ago

Hand them the pitcher “show me”.

drinkliquidclocks 7 points 2y ago

LMAOO starbucks in a nutshell

Serienmae 4 points 2y ago

How do you combat the bubbles that form on the espresso? Asking bc sometimes my milk comes out perfect but big bubbles in the espresso at the bottom of the cup mess it up

Theotar [OP] 4 points 2y ago

Don't let the espresso directly drop in. Instead have it run down the edge of a cup, or if you good, get it to hit the shot glass just right. It's about getting the shots to enter a pool smoothly rather then with a slash.
If you watch some of the pro starbucks challenges lots of them do this method.

Serienmae 2 points 2y ago

I'll try that next time, thanks!

Edit: typo

colonade17 3 points 2y ago

This is the problem with outside hires for SM and DM with no previous coffee experience. Not understanding the details of a barista's job leads to them not understanding issues that customers and partners bring to them.

baristaabitchh 2 points 2y ago

Key example of why you don’t have outside hires.

GracieofGraham 2 points 2y ago

I love the foam (which I presume is micro foam) that comes in a flat white. Only about one in every 10 times is it right though. I don’t mean for that to sound bitchy!

Theotar [OP] 1 points 2y ago

Your not wrong though. Starbucks has a bloated amount of drinks and customization. They have long lost the title of having a great Latte or flat white. I had worked there off and on for over 10 years, and I watched training get cut to bare minimum, while difficulty of working their grew.
I remember the good days where a vanilla latte had it's own button and was a big deal. It was more of a art then.

GracieofGraham 2 points 2y ago

Yeah and yet the prices are still way up there. So that’s definitely a reflection of the company, not the employees. It’s a shame.

xkcismex 1 points 2y ago

we got a new SM several months ago and the DM still hasn’t been buy to check up on how things are going. we’re falling apart inside and no one on the outside can hear us scream... not that they’d be helpful anyway.

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