Quality Control Job Duties

Is anyone familiar with the job duties and tasks of a quality control person in a small retail coffee shop? I’ve searched and searched and can’t find anything online. I am interested in seeing what other shops are doing to maintain quality control, especially if they are a smaller roaster/retailer. Any help is much appreciated!

Are you speaking about a shop that is purely retail, or also does their own roasting? If it’s the former, I usually see a head barista performing most of the QC duties, especially if it’s just one location. Things like making sure there are set standards and operating procedures, how to handle an instance of not meeting a standard for drink or service, and ensuring people have access to these standards and the means to hit them consistently.

If you also roast coffee, the same applies in retail, but then also QC on the back end to ensure that roasts are consistent, blends are hitting the intended flavor profile, and that the coffee is tasting as intended out in the shop as it is in the roastery/on the cupping table. I think that second point would be the most important aspect of a QC role for a cafe/roaster, since it encompasses all of the above floor work as well as having a knowledge of what your goals are in serving the coffee that you are.

Wholesale also throws another dimension to it, but I’m less familiar with that aspect so I’ll let someone else chime in.

More specifically, to which aspect of the retailer? The variables run the gamut.

Roasting – Sampling green beans, cupping, buying, roasting (which has its own inner accounting), careful storage of green and mindful accounting of how old the roast is that you’re serving.

Brewing – Many many variables in how you brew because of the broad range of drinks. But the same best practices would apply.

It would not take long to jot down all the best practices from green bean to brewed cup and ensure those methods are being applied.