It is. My girlfriend worked as a barista for about 8 years, since highschool. She'd come to school after a morning shift on a caffine buzz so high that she'd be bouncing off the walls, but that was the only way she could stay awake after waking up pre 4am to open the doors. Remembering all the lingo, being patient with irritable customers, overseeing new employees, she was our barista goddess by the time she left Starbucks. I never envyed her, but I knew for the most part, she had a good time. Besides, I'm a tea drinker

Great job — I love the video and pictures!!

Great video! If you ever get tired of working at Sugar, you could definitely start a second career as a barista!

interesting! it does always seem so crazy and disheveled behind the counter. i don't think i would be able to do it, and i love espresso!

very cool insider reporting!

You don't look anything like your avatar... then again, neither do I...

You have to wonder what the baristas are thinking when they get some of these super high-maintenance beverage orders. But I love the ones who try to accommodate the high-maintenance folks with smiles on their faces because not every barista does. Unfortunately at my local Starbucks in SF by the Caltrain station, the baristas rarely utter a word to greet you when you approach the register to place your order. Most times I complete the entire transaction and the only thing they've said to me was the total I owed for the purchase followed by a grunt when I say thank you and walk away to wait for my drink. Thankfully this isn't the case at most Starbucks.

Not to be a snob, but, as a barista at an indy coffee shop, I think you may have a better idea of what a barista does at a non-franchise shop. There is a lot more to making a drink than push-button machines offer, a lot more skill and patience. You need to know how to adjust the grind of the espresso, how to properly tamp and prepare a grouphead, what to look for in a good shot, how to steam milk properly, etc. It is a real labor of love, and to remove or simplify any step of the process, from roasting to warming a mug to serving is really a shame.

Nice job.

That looks like it'd be a cool job, but I'd probably get a little frustrated if I had to deal with impatient people who want their coffee ASAP all morning.

I was a Barrista at Cariibou coffee for a year and it was the most stressful job ever. I work the AM shift and people get very pissy that early. Many people talk down to you and/pr treat you like you don't exist. I've eve had a customer insist I run across the street to drop off and pick up her dry cleaning since she had to run to work...oh, I'd get 5 bucks for doing it....really?
People tip th poor college/grad/starving artist barristas!

#8 - I work at Starbucks, and I think we have more to deal with because people expect more out of Starbucks. No offense to indie coffee house baristas, but I go in expecting mediocre service. At Starbucks you have a certain environment, speed, and quality you expect. Customers expect everything out of Starbucks employees. It gets frustrating at times.

I used to be one of those high maintaince people..then one day I really listened when my order was repeated back to me. Now the baristas look at me perplexed when I order a plain Venti drip coffee. They keep waiting for me to add more to my order. Nope, just a drip coffee, thanks.

Don't know about being a barista, but any fast food/drink place is super stressful. I worked at Panera on the salad line my senior year of high school, and oh my god, I cannot tell you how many times customers got mad because I put on too much/too little dressing or dried cherries or apple chips etc. etc. And everyone expects to be able to boss you around (one lady asked me to peel and core her apple and slice it into 8 segments.. what?), customize their order however they want: a tiny bit of this, hold that, dressing on the side... Oh, all in under 30 seconds please (not exaggerating), or both the customer AND the manager would get irritated.

I'm glad someone realizes how hard it actually is. I've had people come up to the bar and say, "How hard is it to pour coffee?" Most people would have a very hard time working a day at Starbucks during the morning rush. It's not as simple as it may seem. If we make it seem easy it's because we're trained well and we work hard. As far as #8 and the indy coffee shop goes, that's very different. I agree that indy coffee shops make drinks as more of a "labor of love" sort of thing, but people don't expect the speed that they do at Starbucks. They want to get their coffee and they want to get out. All the while, they still want a friendly experience and a good drink. Starbucks is a demanding company.

I worked at Starbucks for a few years during college. Once you memorize how to make all of the drinks (which is super daunting at first, but there are lots of similarities), it becomes really fun trying different things and even different combinations. When I started working there, I thought I didn't like coffee, now I can't get enough!! I loved working there!

I think that most jobs that people consider as "easy" are anything but. I have nothing but respect for anyone making anything that I will be ingesting into my body, haha, for a number of reasons. I work in retail, and it is really, truly amazing how people thing it is an easy job...when it is anything but easy. Plus, all of us are college educated but I can't tell you how many people think we are stupid -- when that's so far from the truth (95% of us are college educated/graduated). I can't truly say that for all of our customers.... Anyway, case-and-point, nothing is as easy as it sounds or looks, and I think that no matter the job, the person performing it deserved so much respect.

I'm sure that Starbucks can be both a challenging and rewarding place to work, but as another indie-coffee shop barista who previously worked at a Borders cafe (push-button style, like Starbucks), I don't think it's unfair to point out that if you think making a drink on an automatic machine takes times and effort, you should try a manual one!

And sure, Starbucks has a big name to live up to, but I field more questions in a day about why Starbucks coffee always tastes burnt than complaints about my service. Most people who choose independent shops have expectations every bit as high, if not higher, than customers in chain shops. The whole point of a chain is to create reliable, repeatable service, yet I can't get a SINGLE Starbucks to make my drink properly twice, let alone from store to store. Chain retail breeds high turn-over, which leads to under-training and (for many people) lowered expectations.

I have to agree with the other person who posted about indie coffee shop baristas. While working at Starbucks is no doubt challenging, it is not a good representation of a true barista. How many Starbucks baristas do you see competing in the World Barista Championships? Few, if any (none in the past few years come to my mind). Why is that? Probably because Starbucks moved to super-automatic espresso machines (thus depriving their baristas of the necessary skills involved in grind adjustments, tamping, etc.), switched away from the La Marzocco line of machines (which even Howard Schultz has mentioned was a huge mistake), and roasts their beans according to a roast profile and not what the individual origin coffee demands. The barista creed (as spoken by highly qualified people such as former WBC champion James Hoffman) is "any coffee, any grinder, any machine, any time, as long as all are capable components". If you don't know the PSI to tamp, correct temperature for extraction, etc., how can you truly be considered a barista?

To poster #12 - Yes there is a roast profile, but it's different for every coffee. They're not all roasted the exact same way.

I'm sorry, I meant #19, not 12

A very funny article. Anyone who thinks that Starbucks is real coffeee deserves what comes from behind the counter (service and coffee included!!!)