Art of the Barista from Coffee Beans to Cappuccino

By Begoña Quesada

LONDON (Reuters) - Tovah Reed-Jenkins puts milk in the pitcher and steams it with precision up to a certain temperature as soon as she sees clients walking through the door, even if she doesn't know if they are ordering any coffee.

She is a barista, the equivalent of a barman in a coffee bar, and her goal is to combine the individual preferences of each customer with strict rules that cut through every single shot of coffee.

"There is nothing worse than a 35 seconds shot," said Reed-Jenkins, who has been a barista for Starbucks in the northern British city of Leeds for more than a year. She was referring to the time water takes to go through the coffee screw-in filter of the espresso machine.

An ideal shot should take between 18 and 23 seconds in a manual espresso machine and between 15 and 19 seconds in an automatic one. Longer times might mean the beans were ground too finely for an espresso and the coffee will taste bitter.

More...