Home barista courses

Alexvs

Hi all, has anyone done a home barista course before? If so any recommendations for who to do it with?

My birthday is coming up and I’m at the stage of not really having many wants, so the wife said she’ll send me for a course now I’m obsessed (as she puts it) with coffee. I’m hoping to get a better understanding of the types of roasts, tasting of some, general espresso knowledge and milk techniques. I know most skills come from practice but think I’d enjoy the experience of a course.

I’ve so far looked at:

Prufrock consulting
Winchester coffee school - allowed to take own machine to learn with which I think is great
200 degrees

Would be great to hear of any experiences people have had doing similar or course recommendations.

Thanks

DavecUK

Alexvs If you are in the South, you could always come to a forum day, I am organising one I promise….Something I will get onto when I return from Germany. Might be a good way to see how people do things.

A course can be a very good intro though, to get you up to speed.

Doram

Alexvs Would be great to hear of any experiences people have had doing similar or course recommendations.

Can’t say if they are any good because I haven’t tried myself, but I think Cambridge Coffee Academy in Milton are closer to you than the ones you mentioned and have a range of courses that sound interesting, including a Bring your own machine, Latte art, Barista Basics/Advanced and a few others.

SouthMark45

Alexvs I did Winchester coffee school….. it was OK and I picked up some good tricks but really you could watch a few YouTube videos and pick-up the same things. I did enjoy learning about different drinks and Latte Art though which was good

Alexvs

DavecUK I’m Milton Keynes so good enough transport links to the south so could be up for that. Yeah that’s what I’m thinking and the concentrated couple of hours with testing the techniques should help as only do 2 drinks a day for the wife and I currently.

Alexvs

Doram Thanks for this, didn’t come up in my searches so good to look into. London is probably the easiest to get to from locations but this isn’t too far.

SouthMark45 It’s great to hear first hand experience, thank you. That’s the furthest one so kind of glad it was only ok, will look a bit more at the others.

hornbyben I’ll take a look thank you.

hornbyben

While it doesn’t replace hands on training, I enjoyed doing the Barista Hustle online courses (https://www.baristahustle.com/). You get access to everything for $15 per month. It took me about 3 months to do all the courses and then I cancelled.

SouthMark45

hornbyben yeah there is a video on YouTube about how to dial in espresso by Barista Hustle and how you fix the variables in a strict order….. probably the most helpful video I have ever watched

Eyedee

Try these people they know their stuff.

Barista training courses, latte art training course, coffee training. (liminicoffee.co.uk)

Ian

Alexvs

Eyedee Hi Ian, unfortunately they’re too far from me but I did look at them, thanks

europa I was actually looking at their courses last night, good to hear feedback. I’ve lost count of the YT vids I watch and doesn’t seem to be sticking as don’t get enough practice only doing 2 drinks a day. Any more than 2 seems to mess me up haha so practice is slow progress. This is what draws me to a course as will be plenty of compacted practice without worrying about the waste of my own beans haha.

Think I’m going to reach out to Cambridge Coffee Academy to see if they’ll do the bring your own class with some additional bits from their regular courses so I can get some of the background knowledge too.

Thanks again all for your help.

EddieT

Eyedee I’ve done a course with them, it was very good.

europa

@Alexvs I just did a latte art class at Artisan Coffee School in Ealing Broadway. It cost 90£. Whilst i did pick up some tips (and it was good fun), i have learnt more from vids on YT and thru lots of practice!

BigTTony

Bella Batista do a 1 day course and its only up the road from you.

Alexvs

BigTTony Thanks, I did not know that 👍🏼

BigTTony

David (who works there) told me when I picked up my Bianca. I’m considering doing it myself as well tbh

Alexvs

BigTTony It looks comparable to most of what I’ve seen, just need to work out whether I really want to take my own machine to a class or do one of these with what they have. I’m sure it’s all transferable. Thanks again for the heads up.

ChristosC

I know it does not suit you geographically, but I did the Home brew master class at the Artisan Coffee school (Ealing, London) which was relatively good value for money (60 pounds/ 4 hours, now goes for 90 pounds apparently), more orientated towards V60/ Aeropress techniques. They also have a Home barista course (yet to do it) which I guess is what you are after.

Think it is can be useful and entertaining to attend a physical course whch can complement the self-directed training you get by watching all the online stuff.