I guess the title says it all.
I’ve never taken an online course, but I do recall the consumer grade “barista” class I did a good few years ago was total rubbish.
Is there room for a Barista Hustle online course or accreditation?
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I for one would be interested as I take simple courses online as a way to improve myself.
I don’t have anything to add other than the simple fact that I would also love to hear some thoughts/opinions! With a 2 year old at home while being self employed, I don’t have time (or a huge desire) to work my way up the food chain at a local cafe to better my barista skills, leaving me with home experimentation and practice. I would love to learn some things that I might be missing, or could only learn by ‘being on bar’ so to speak!
I have access to a few of the counter culture training booklets that are given out from classes and a training manual from intelli 2011. I’m not sure what would be more valuable - resources like this available to the public or a whole new online training course?
Not a course as such, but the ipad based ‘textbook’ I’ve found invaluable when trying to pass the barista exam at the coffeeshop I’m currently working in is the Coffee of the Mildly Obsessed. The coffeegen.com website says they’ve got courses coming soon, kinda really looking forward to it.
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Coffee for the Mildly Obsessed looks interesting. I’m downloading the sample now.
I’ve tried a few courses and generally been disappointed with them. The ChefSteps courses on coffee and espresso are a good basic introduction to coffee and very professionally made. The Boot Camp online coffee courses and SCAA online/physical courses are very dry. So much of coffee is taste and technique that I suspect once you get past the basics, there’s not much that online courses can teach. Maybe there’s a need for an updated textbook - how long ago was Professional Barista’s Handbook written?
I reckon there’s space for something like a WSET course, but for coffee. Maybe the accreditation could be somehow linked with the Q-cupping/grading quals? One of our FAQs is 'how do baristas qualify? My answer is always ‘on the job’. Would be great to have an industry standard to refer to.
onlinebaristatraining.com is pretty awesome for the fundamentals of being on bar (pretty light on theory)—and it’s affordable for Baristas. They have a subscription model which had me thinking they were going to add content regularly, but not so much.
I would LOVE to see your stuff in online course format.
Theory is great for online, especially with assessments. I would love to see online assessments for the prevalent books as well.
By any chance Artisan Roast?
There are elements of the Boot / CoffeeCourses.com training that seem quite good. Much of the training, however, dates back quite a ways, as they have simply repurposed most/all of the old Boot Camp Online, adding a few new courses to it. The new content, however, doesn’t seem to ever get completed (Mastering Roast Profiles has been in “early access” form for months… they can’t seem to get the final 5% completed and put up on the site), and there has been nothing new added all year to my knowledge. Some BH training would certainly seem to be welcomed.
Are you familiar with Khan Academy? I like the format of the site, the style of teaching, and the approach to self-testing. I’d love to see what I’ve learned through Barista Hustle and my SCAA courses organized similarly.
Categories could be divided from origin through service with depths of information in each category. This organization would help beginners understand how their topic of interest fits into the larger picture of coffee and would help teachers navigate and compartmentalize information.
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I agree that learning and improving one’s skills as a Barista requires hands-on training, but I have learned about 98% of everything I know from books, videos, or articles. When I finally was able to physically make espresso, I was mostly applying everything I learned and saw. BH has definitely been a source of a great majority of the knowledge I’ve acquired, so thanks a lot @MattPerger! So I have to believe that BH is already an online training course and by far the best one I’ve seen. I would still love to see more videos on here and maybe a formal training course if someone figures out how to do it well!
Hey Guys!
This is something that a colleague and I have been working on for the past couple of months. We are pretty far into the process of building a video heavy, content rich online course. I won’t say any more because we’re not allowed to advertise here, which is fair enough. But we agree that a rich structured online training platform would have been so useful when we were getting into the industry. We hope that what we are building will be described as ‘a truly great online coffee course’!
This sounds great! Is there any way we can be in touch to be notified when it goes live while also respecting the rules of BH?
Hey Chris, I must respect the rules of this site, this community is too important! But thanks for your reply, it is always nice to hear when people are interested in something you are working on.
I am really pleased with the courses I have taken from SCAA. They are instructive and inspiring. Also, the Barista Certification program is incredibly important to the specialty coffee industry. I look forward to the day when I can train new employees with my BGA creds, and I dream of the day where I hire certified baristas.
Where ever the training comes from, I hope they all end up with industry standard certification. Imagine that!
I really got a lot out of the Level 1 and 2 certification from SCAA when I did them, but there’s still a vast amount that I feel I don’t know. I’ve learned as much, if not more, from engaging with the Barista Hustle community.
Online courses have a great potential for busy baristas too, you can fit it in whenever suits. My SCAA course meant time off work + travel and accommodation costs. Definitely worth it, but not an option for everyone.
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Hi Chrissy. I am sorry about the Boot Camp experience. Can you tell me what would do differently or what do you miss? We are in middle of creating new content and would love to make it awesome. :). We love feedback. Thanks.
Thanks Jay. We are working on new content as we speak. We always welcome questions from the users. The most challenging part is to find out what are you guys interested in. For example we made a very cool module on Direct Trade, which I personally love, but according to our stats the members did not go crazy about it.
The next modules will be on grinding and SCA brewing standards. These closely follow the SCA recommendations with a little magic sprinkle by Willem Boot 
We would love to know what you guys want. Any feedback welcome. THANKS!