9 Bars
Training a Barista Champion
by John Hornall, Jr.

Bronwen Serna receives her 2004 U.S. Barista Champion’s trophy from Mireya Asturias Jones and Danny O’Neill. Photo by Amanda Wilson

So they asked me to write an article on what I think it takes to train a National Barista Champion. The short answer is like the punch-line from the old joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice.
   The long answer has to do with my personal passion for espresso. In this coffee mecca of Seattle many consider me a coffee expert, while to others I'm merely an adventurous coffee fool. I do know some things about running a successful coffee shop, and maybe a little more about training exceptional baristi, like Bronwen Serna, the current U.S. champion. But it's not a solo flight. At Hines Public Market Coffee Company, together with my partners, Roast Master John Sanders and John Hornall Sr., we are blessed with a great staff of supportive and hard-working individuals who care about what is important before and after the coffee ends up in your cup. That's crucial.
   When I first started doing coffee 21 years ago, the Seattle coffee scene was different from what it has become today. Stewart Brothers Coffee was not yet SBC. Starbucks was still with Caravali. There wasn't even a Tully's, and most of these companies had yet to make their coffee presence felt nationally or abroad. I spent my first three years making coffee and espresso for the Nordstrom's Cafes. At that time Nordstrom's espresso carts were taking the lead in serving truly specialty coffee and espresso beverages to the general public.
   Three years later I had an opportunity to work with Mauro Cipola, owner of the newly-founded Café Mauro, today known as Caffé D' Arte. At that time, Café Mauro and Torrefazione Italia were considered the original Seattle espresso coffee roasters, bringing their coffee into the best restaurants in all of Seattle and inspiring write-ups in national restaurant and gourmet food magazines about a new roast style.
   One of the things that seems to happen in Seattle is that the city grabs the bean of an idea, supports it, grows it, and gives it a legitimacy for the rest of the country. In those days we were fortunate that Starbucks took such a role in coffee leadership, expanding Seattle's "coffee consciousness" into a global phenomenon. Without Starbucks, many of us would never have discovered the culinary depths of coffee. Due in part to Starbucks, today we have an idea of what a great cappuccino, espresso, or more correctly, what European-style coffee can be. Starbucks was influential in the expansion of a third wave, if you will, leaving in its wake a path for coffee artisans to follow and helping them truly explore the art of coffee, from buying green beans and developing blends to roasting and creating art in your preheated cup. Thankfully, today's artisan coffee roasters define a variety of roasted coffee profiles beyond what Starbucks started. As well, many of today's baristi have definitely raised the level of craftsmanship and artisanship in an industry that is, more often than not, defined by the bottom line. Today the skills of the barista are considered by many to be culinary arts: precise, specialized and based largely in tradition.
   During my 21 years as a barista, I've trained countless fellow baristi. But I remain aware of my humble roots: the espresso cart with a three-group La Marzocco and two "Mazzer" Normales, no 16-ounce cups, and hardly any pastry. Not much has changed except for the addition of a vintage Probat Roaster and a five-group La Marzocco. This is an unlikely spot from which to contemplate a run at a national title. But in reality, the secret of success is very simple, whether you work at a cart splashed by buses or in a hip state-of-the-art coffeehouse: training, training, training. How much is enough? Well, not to sound sadistic, but you have to train until your arm muscles ache.

Bronwen Serna of Hines Public Market Coffee Co. displays her mastery in an early round of the U.S. Barista Championship. Photo by Amanda Wilson

   There's a whole library of books out there that will tell you how to make espresso. As a matter of fact, almost all of them are correct. Most of you reading this know what a good espresso looks, smells and tastes like. However, if someone can't show you why an espresso process or practice is correct, then it's still just a book with a lot of words in it. Having great books like David Schomer's Espresso Techniques, which I recommend hands-down, is essential. But this coffee thing isn't something you can learn just by reading the book and checking out the video. You can't be a great barista and not like coffee! You have to have a connection with coffee. You have to know, for instance, how the coffee is grown and what conditions result in very subtle variations of taste and smell. You have to know about the many growing regions and about the people where the coffee is grown, and why it's so important that they are treated fairly in the marketplace and in their homelands. You have to know what espresso is: for instance, espresso is not something that falls from espresso trees. It is not spelled or pronounced "expressso," and it's not something you just add water to and stir (unless it's an americano).
   I believe espresso is exactly what Dr. Illy declares it to be: "Italian espresso is a polyphasic beverage, prepared from roast and ground coffee and water alone, constituted by a foam layer of small bubbles with a particular tiger-tail pattern, on top of an emulsion of microscopic oil droplets in an aqueous solution of sugars, acids, protein-like material and caffeine, with dispersed gas bubbles and solids."
   Knowing the terminology is critical. I set up my training so that you get to the essence of what espresso is. In training, the terms are very important. A single should taste different from a double. For instance, in the title of a doppio caffè espresso, you have three words; doppio refers to the dry ground coffee volume, caffè pertains to the mixture of water and coffee, and espresso describes the coffee's rate of speed as it moves through the extraction process (20-30 seconds, though we actually shoot for 25-30). So just because you say "double espresso" in ordering your drink doesn't mean it's going to be a bigger drink. It means that more ground coffee will be used in making that drink, giving it a much stronger coffee taste, whether it's a latte or a cappuccino, and definitely an espresso, of course!
   To train for world-class competition, you have to internalize all these lessons, then practice until they, and the actual physical technique, are in your fibers. You have to observe more than just the motions. You have to calibrate, adjust, become aware of, and fine-tune every part of the process, over and over, until you can't pull another shot, then pull one more. We literally spend hours breaking down the steps, making it all second-nature. And we don't just concentrate on the espresso machine. Well before the water hits the grounds, well before the packing, we start with the dosing and leveling. Nothing else. Dosing and leveling. We do this to create for the barista a physical sense memory of consistent movement, and turn that motion into instinct.
   All this I call Instinctual Consistency. Linked to this Consistency comes a sensual awareness for results. Beyond the dosing, leveling and extracting, there is the tasting, smelling and timing. You must be able to notice the smallest improvements. You must master the entire dance, from pulling shots (perfectly), to steaming milk for cappuccino (perfectly), to matching flavors with coffee when fine-tuning a signature beverage (perfectly). Grace and nuance are worthless unless they rest on the foundation of absolute perfection, delivered reliably as a product of well-honed routine. And routine is dead without sensual inspiration, the heart of coffee passion.
   After all these years espresso is still espresso, water is still known as H²0, and milk still comes from cows, not soybeans. Different styles and ideas come and go, but they all fall back on a solid and well-practiced knowledge of the basics. So, one more time, the best way to have a chance at the national level or simply to make the best 'spro' you can in your shop, is to practice, practice, practice.

John Hornall, Jr. is co-owner of Hines Public Market Coffee Co. He can be reached at a1beanboy@hotmail.com.