Hey there! I’ve been a barista for a year and i’m not still the best at sequencing sometimes, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re having a hard time getting a hang of it!! it can be really difficult, especially when you have to make a frappuccino but you don’t want your shots to die. I found a couple tips that have helped me:

If i pull a ticket and it happens to be a refresher or a cold bar drink, i pull the next 1 or 2 tickets to see if any of those are hot bar. if they are, i set up the drink with syrup and pull the shots in the cup and steam the milk, and then head over to the cold bar/tea bar to make that drink. when espresso is added to the syrup, the shots don’t die as fast so it gives me more time to make quality drinks. once i finish the cold drink i finish the espresso drink so i essentially get 2 drinks finished at once.

let’s say the first ticket i have is a latte, and then the next is a refresher and the third is a vanilla sweet cream cold brew. in this instance i would cue the shots and steam the milk, put the syrup in the cold brew cup, and then make the refresher. then i would finish the latte, pull the next ticket and prepare that cup (cue more shots/ steam milk for a hot drink — put syrup if the drink calls any for a cold brew/iced coffee — or place on frap bar/ tea bar) and then finish that vanilla sweet cream cold brew. that way you’re constantly cycling through and setting yourself up for drinks. it’s important to keep pulling tickets and prepping cups for yourself to make it all easier.

for frappuccinos i like to pull more tickets to see if i get two of the same in the next couple of tickets that need to be made. that way i can make as much as i need and keep the blender and have the frappuccino made already once i get to the ticket, especially if there’s 2 or 3 of the same frappuccino separated by a couple tickets.

another thing i try to do is, if a drink calls for cold foam, pull more tickets to see if i can make anything else while i’m near frap bar. if yes then i would make the foam, prep that drink and then go over and make the espresso/ tea car/ cold bar drink that called for the foam.

i hope this helps in some way. just know that you’ll get the hang of it, even if it takes a while. it can be stressful but i like to keep it as fun as possible and challenge myself to do better. it makes the job fun and, most importantly, you get the satisfaction afterwards that you did as well as you could on bar.

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