I know you want to learn, and that’s awesome, but I’m going to tell you something valuable my SM told me when I first started: Do not, under any circumstances, study at home. You will learn how to make drinks while on the job, being paid. During your training, it is highly likely that your trainer will give you a little cheat sheet of how many syrup pumps go into what drinks and what sizes, as well as how many espresso shots, builds, sequencing, all of that. It will be overwhelming and a lot of information, there’s no getting around that, but if your SM is smart, for your first few weeks you will mainly be on register, which means you will OFTEN have a chance to see what goes into every drink. It’s a great way to memorize things if you are a visual learner. If you are an auditory learner, you can read the drink’s contents out loud to yourself. When you finally get on bar, it’ll make things a little bit easier.

As far as tricks goes: this one made a huge difference for me. It made everything begin to click for me. If we’re thinking of the sizes Tall, Grande, and Venti, I want you to remember this:

Cold Brew: 1/2/3
Fraps and Matchas: 2/3/4
Hot Bar: 3/4/5

So when I’d forget how many pumps go into what, I’d point to the Cold Brew area and say “1” then the Blending area and say “2” and finally the Hot Bar and say “3”. It helped a lot.

Most importantly, take your time. It’s much more important that you are accurate, not fast. Speed will come with time. Focus on accuracy. Focus on standards. Focus on drink quality. If it means going slow in the beginning, so be it. Again, the speed will come once everything is locked in your muscle memory and you’ve been a barista for a while. Be patient with yourself. You got this!!!

you’re gonna look like an idiot haha, everyone does sometimes, even the people that have been here a long time (the other day, i pressed the wrong button when making cold foam and it went all over the walls of the blender hah, and another time i spilled half of a vanilla sweet cream pitcher when putting it back in the fridge. i’ve also pumped the frap roast pump too hard, getting it into my eye while customers watched) all i can say is - don’t be afraid to ask questions. i was scared that i would be a burden to fellow partners by asking them about “basic things”, but trust me everyone is willing to help because we’ve all been there before. plus, we’d all much rather you ask questions than get a drink wrong and have to remake it

https://www.reddit.com/r/starbucks/comments/p1ik3o/the_last_infographics_i_will_ever_post_leaving/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

Accept that it’s a process to memorize every drink and know that as a 3 year partner I still refer to the iPad drink recipe cards.