Week 1
Date: Tuesday 25th
& Wednesday 26th September Total Hours: 10
The first week of my internship started with an introduction
to Coffeesmiths Collective. I met the HR director, Ashley Lopez, at Liberty of
Norton Folgate (one of the coffee shops) at 1:00. When Ashley walked in, it was
clear that I was over dressed in my dress clothes, but she did tell me that it
was safe of me to dress smart even though I do not need to. The introduction
started with going over what they wanted me to do during my time with them and
what I was expecting to get out of my internship. From there, we took a tour of
all four of the coffee shops that Coffeesmiths own, and I was treated to coffee
at all the shops as well as a piece of cherry chocolate cake at Speakeasy Espresso
and Brew Bar. I must say, it was a great way to be introduced to the company.
During our tour, I got to know Ashley, and a little history on Coffeesmiths.
On Wednesday, I worked at Speakeasy, and I was definitely
nervous! The source of my nerves was in my inexperience in the coffee world,
and I do not think that my nerves went away throughout the whole shift. John,
Speakeasy’s manager, started me on dishes until the shop slowed down. Dishes
are something I know how to do so I was okay with starting there. The only
thing that sucked was the dish machine is down stairs, but majority of the
coffee is served upstairs. I got a workout! Dishes are simple; however, putting
away clean saucers is another story. The saucers vary in size depending on what
drinks are served on them. The problem is the size difference is hardly noticeable,
and I found that I was placing them in the wrong stacks. I was corrected multiple
times but in a friendly way, which was nice. After the morning and lunch rush,
John and I had a quick meeting to go over what I wanted to learn while at
Speakeasy. Being that I have no experience as a Barista, I wanted to learn the
trade. My afternoon consisted of learning how to pour a shot of espresso.
When John started to
explain how to pour a shot, I was shocked at how precise they are at
Coffeesmiths. The espresso beans that go into a shot have to weigh within .1 of
20.4 grams, and the shots are poured for precisely 30 seconds. There is a
certain order to how things are done during the process of pouring a shot, and I
think remembering the little details and steps was the hardest part. I would
often forget to purge the machine before putting the basket in, and John would
have to stop me. Because these shots were being used in customers’ drinks, John
had to make sure I was pouring the shots to Coffeesmiths’ standards. It was
challenging, but by the end of the day, I was doing pretty well.
Majority of the staff at Speakeasy are from countries other
than the UK, and their accents are rather thick at times. This made it
difficult to understand the staff at times. I did not catch many of their
names, and the ones I did catch, I forgot within a few minutes. If they asked
me to run drinks to tables, I often had to ask them to repeat what table it was
going to because I could not understand them. This was challenging, but I think
the more I work with them, the more trained my ears will become. At least, I am
hoping that is the case! You feel a little stupid asking ‘what’ all the time.
Overall, it was a fun day, and I learned more than I thought I would on my
first day!
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