320***** here!! be kind + patient to yourself! everyone learns at different speeds and there is So Much to learn. don’t be afraid to ask questions. make yourself a cheat sheet or flash cards or whatever for the number of shots and pumps in each size for hot and iced (i.e. espresso shots in hot drinks: 1t 2g 2v, + an extra shot for americanos) etc etc. ultimately quality is better than speed (window times be damned lmao) and once you can confidently make all the drinks you can work on getting faster, but until then don’t worry about it!! also, messes happen, literally all the time, don’t worry if you spill something that’s what the rags and mops are for lmao. the register and dto (drive thru orders) were the most stressful for me at first, on dto don’t be afraid to ask ppl to speak up or repeat themselves if you can hear them, and it always helps to repeat back their order when you hear it so you can take that extra time to ring it up and confirm you heard them, it makes it easier to remember what they said especially when it’s a weird order lol (i.e. someone orders something more complex like a triple shot espresso with heavy cream, 3 pumps white mocha, in a venti cup over ice with extra ice and whip, you can repeat all that back to them while putting it in lol) and when you have down time you can use it to familiarize yourself with the register screen and on the right side it will show the amount of syrup and shots etc in each drink which is super helpful too!! that was a lot lol but i hope it’s helpful, good luck!!! i’m sure you’ll do great!!

hi! 320 here. i don’t have much experience yet but:

• never wear nice clothes. when you’re making drinks in a rush, whips/syrups/sauces/coffee splashes everywhere.

• get non-slip shoes. nothing too chunky. make sure they really support your feet.

• there’s a lot to learn. you’ll make mistakes. you’ll forget things. you will encounter situations that you weren’t trained on and just have to wing it. take advantage of asking your partners questions.

• when on POS/DTO go slow and strive for accuracy. take pics of the register screen so you can study at home. repeat orders back to customers. ask clarifying questions (hot or iced? whip or no whip? sweetened or unsweetened?)

• when making drinks it’s just a matter of memorizing the shots/syrups ratio and the beverage routine. it all seems daunting at first but you’ll see a pattern and you’ll develop muscle memory once you get practice in.

I’m a fairly new hire. I’m older so the fast pace in which they expect drinks to be churned out by memory baffled me. What I learned was try staying in each position for several days to get it down pat. So ovens, then register, then hot and cold bar during slower store hours. You’ll drown if you try hot bar or cold bar during a rush. Also a tip, the recipes are built for you on the register screen on the right hand side. As you ring up drinks, pay attention to the codes for what goes in each drink. Also people are fairly predictable and you’ll learn the more popular drinks are ordered most of the time, with the occasional random oddball drink you didn’t even know they make much less of the time. A red eye is brewed coffee with a shot, a black eye is brewed coffee with 2 shots. A medicine ball is the honey citrus mint tea. If some one orders brewed coffee and they want steamed milk, use the cafe misto button!! All brewed coffees fall to the register person and won’t print out a ticket to the hot bar. So don’t get stuck panicking at the register when it’s slammed and you need to ask the bar for steamed milk. We have a regular who gets a grande blonde, with steamed almond milk, in a venti cup, with half and half on the side. It’s annoying as heck because he pays only for the grande blonde and I’m stuck needing basically a hot bar drink but I’m serving the brewed coffees. He was never introduced to the cafe misto concept so doesn’t pay for it!!! Lol Also I have no idea how to make paragraphs in a Reddit comment so apologies for the block of text.

[removed]