Why Your Coffee Shop Needs a Recipe – Not Just a Good Barista

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You have a brilliant barista.

They can make beautiful espresso.

They understand milk.

They can produce latte art that makes everyone else behind the bar slightly jealous.

Great.

But what happens when they're off?

This is where recipes become important.

A coffee shop shouldn't depend entirely on one person's memory or intuition.

A recipe creates consistency

Imagine your espresso recipe is roughly 18 grams of coffee producing 40 grams of espresso in around 28 seconds.

That's a starting point.

It gives the barista something to work with.

If the espresso suddenly takes 40 seconds, something has changed.

Maybe the grind.

Maybe the coffee.

Maybe the equipment.

The recipe gives you a reference point.

It doesn't mean the coffee must obey the recipe.

Taste still wins.

But without a reference point, you're mostly guessing.

Write things down

This doesn't need to be complicated.

Your espresso recipe can be written on a small card next to the grinder.

Coffee dose.

Target yield.

Approximate extraction time.

Water temperature if adjustable.

That's enough to start.

Your milk drinks can have standard cup sizes and milk quantities.

Your filter coffee can have a basic recipe.

The goal isn't bureaucracy.

The goal is making it easier for everyone to produce the same drink.

Recipes are especially useful when training staff

A new barista has a lot to learn.

Where everything is.

How the till works.

How the milk steamer works.

How customers order.

Where the cleaning products are.

Which cup goes with which drink.

And somewhere in the middle of all this, you want them to make good coffee.

A written recipe removes one thing from the list of things they have to guess.

But don't turn recipes into religion

This is important.

A recipe is a starting point.

Coffee changes.

Beans age.

Humidity changes.

Grinders behave differently.

And sometimes the coffee simply tastes better when you move away from the numbers.

Our approach to espresso is simple: change one thing at a time and let flavour make the final decision.

Read more about dialling in espresso here.

A recipe gives you consistency.

It doesn't remove the need to taste.

And that's a very important distinction.

Your Coffee Shop Needs a Recipe

Your Coffee Shop Needs a Recipe

— Henning  Al-Gharb Coffee Roasters, Algarve

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