00:00China Yunnan pour over on the bar. I'm Lucy Fink. I'm a video producer at
00:04Refinery29 but every so often I like to try other people's jobs. Today I'm at the
00:09La Cologne Hudson Square location in New York City and I'm gonna see if I have
00:13what it takes to be a barista. This is Lucy for Hire. My name's Josie and I'm
00:19the director of education and culture for La Cologne coffee roasters. The most
00:23challenging part of this job is probably maintaining a high standard and keeping
00:29things consistent while performing in very high volumes. I think Lucy's got a
00:35lot of experience and a lot of different industries and I figure that she'll pick
00:40up on this fairly quickly. Let's see what we can do. Your first challenge is coffee
00:45school. So if I was just a trainee that came in here and you just went learn how
00:51can I digest this in ten minutes? I can't. Point me to the important pages.
00:59See this? Mind your grind. Mind your grind. I am a little bit nervous because I'm
01:04handed this manual and it's written by Josie and I'm trying to cram all this
01:08information into my brain but it's a lot to take in. So what's the proper ratio of
01:15coffee to water if we're gonna prepare a pour over? 16 grams of coffee to 32 grams of water.
01:22Oh no. A 1 to 16 ratio. One gram of coffee to 16 grams of water. And as it turned
01:30out I learned nothing.
01:32Am I even ready for the next step here? Can anyone really be? Okay. But you gotta
01:38take a leap sometime right? Right. Should we just do the pour over? We'll see how I do on that?
01:43Sure. Okay.
01:43This is a single-origin Guatemala from La Hermosa. It's gonna be delightful. So we
01:50have 25 grams of coffee. 25. Oh that's beautiful. Yeah. Times 16. Now that'll tell
01:58us how much water we need in relation to our dose, right? 400 grams. The brain on Lucy. 400 Gs.
02:08It's time to set the timer for 2 minutes and 30 seconds and let it grow. So we're gonna start
02:14pouring slowly in little circles, right? Uh-huh. And then once we have our slurry, I'm just gonna
02:20pour kind of harder in the middle. Mm-hmm. And then all this time I'm looking at my numbers
02:24down here because I want to stop at 400, remember? And then we pull it. Ooh, so dangerously close. Oh
02:31my god.
02:33Three, two, one. All right. So now our timer's going off. We grab this and we do a little wiggle.
02:41And then we're just gonna set this on here. Whoa. Mm. Then it was my turn to do it myself.
02:52Pour them into the wet filter. 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Starts now. And now pour a little harder,
03:01but right in the middle. So you want to tilt harder. Nice. I feel like I'm getting the technique.
03:06My hand is swirling in a circle. I'm wetting all the grounds. It's trickling. It's trickling.
03:11And the best part of all of this is that after we have a cup of coffee, Josie and I
03:16taste the coffee.
03:18And there's a special technique for tasting the coffee.
03:26Oh. He basically said you want the coffee to just spray all over your mouth.
03:31This is a great cup of coffee. Yeah, I'm into that. I would say you may have bested this challenge
03:36if it were a challenge. Yeah. The second challenge will be dialing an espresso.
03:41Our recipe for this is going to be 16 grams of coffee, approximately,
03:47turned into 32 milliliters of espresso in a matter of 20 to 22 seconds.
03:54First, he bangs out the portafilter from the previous brew. Then he takes a rag, rinses it out.
03:59It has to be very clean before he places it beneath the actual espresso machine to let the grounds
04:05trickle in. That machine is programmed to let out a specific number of grams of grounds. As soon as that's
04:12in there,
04:12he just taps it gently to even it out. And then he places it down on the rubber pad and
04:17takes the temp and pushes it down.
04:20But there's a lot of wrist action that you have to be careful of here. He goes back to the
04:25espresso machine.
04:26He presses the on button just to sort of clean it out. And then he snaps the portafilter onto the
04:32machine.
04:32And as soon as it's on, he just presses go. We take the espresso out and we taste it and
04:38it is rich.
04:43Fruity.
04:46It's almost like coffee comes from a fruit or something. It's almost like it does. Then I'm out.
04:51I take it out from the grinder and then I tap it out to make it even. And then my
04:55first temp is completely uneven.
04:59Yeah, it's totally uneven. Let's do it again.
05:01I temp it. We look at it. And then I go over to the espresso machine. I snap it in
05:06and press go.
05:10Oh my gosh, I'm totally missing the cup. Oh no.
05:13And the espresso is just pouring out of the wrong hole, missing the cup completely.
05:19Yeah, you want to really get it up in there. Oh my gosh.
05:22Third time's a charm. I do the whole thing one more time and I'm pretty proud of it.
05:26It tasted very rich and dark and creamy and Josie seemed to like it too.
05:33Wow. Deep.
05:35Deep, right?
05:36Rich.
05:37Yes.
05:37But I did a good job.
05:38You did a great job.
05:38My first espresso that wasn't from a Nespresso machine.
05:41Um, you did a fantastic job, yeah.
05:43Your third challenge will be steaming and pouring milk.
05:46There's only really one way in which to get good at steaming milk and that's by doing it,
05:51and doing it, and doing it, and doing it, and doing it.
05:54Yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:55Got it.
05:56Like for a long time.
05:57All right, so we fill the pitcher up about to the bottom of the lip.
06:00Mm-hmm.
06:00First, we'll clear it out.
06:02We'll put it at a 45 degree angle, okay?
06:04We're going to tilt the pitcher so that the tip's kind of just sneaking out, right?
06:08Yeah.
06:08And then we'll crank it up.
06:10You hear that sound?
06:12Yeah.
06:13You want to hear that for a couple seconds before you fully emerge the wand just to heat the milk.
06:18And then...
06:19Ah!
06:20Are you okay?
06:21The milk fountain.
06:22This is properly steamed milk.
06:24Latte art.
06:25Everybody wants to do latte art, right?
06:27Mm-hmm.
06:27But you've got to start somewhere.
06:29Come down into the drink, and then cut through it, and then you've got a little heart.
06:35That looks really easy enough.
06:38Right, but it's not.
06:39Okay.
06:40Right to the lip.
06:41Right to the lip.
06:42Now, these shots are going to be done before you're done steaming, and we're okay with that.
06:46Now, you want to tilt the pitcher so you see the tip peak out just a little,
06:50and then you want to crank it up.
06:53Now, you want to hear that sound for a couple seconds before fully submerging it.
07:00Now, feel our bodies.
07:04Nice.
07:04You want to keep your flow rate the same the whole time, okay?
07:08Okay.
07:09Now, I tilt the cup, but come down in.
07:13Now, tilt the cup more, and now go through it.
07:16Oh my god almighty!
07:18There's my first latte!
07:20It's da-tism.
07:22It's an abstract piece.
07:24It really screams my name.
07:26Mmm.
07:28Sweet and frothy.
07:30My final challenge is serve someone a drink.
07:33You look good.
07:33I think I'm ready to go into the wild.
07:36I think so too.
07:37Let's try it out.
07:38See you at the bar.
07:38Follow me.
07:39Okay.
07:40And now, I am about to go out onto the floor to work behind the bar.
07:44I'm a little nervous.
07:46I'm going to do my best, and I will see you behind the bar.
07:49We're making someone's drink.
07:53Beautiful.
07:54All right.
07:54Let it go.
07:54One minute.
07:55Place it.
08:00Nice.
08:01Nice.
08:03All right.
08:03We got to hustle, Lucy.
08:04Hustle.
08:05We're getting in the weeds.
08:06We are.
08:07Oat cap.
08:08All right.
08:09Keep some shots coming.
08:10We're going to work together.
08:13Almond latte.
08:14Double espresso.
08:16You're killing it, Lucy.
08:17Killing it.
08:18While it's slow.
08:19Latte time.
08:23The cortado to stay at a what you go.
08:26Pour harder.
08:27Get down into the cup.
08:29Tilt the cup.
08:29Pour harder.
08:30Tilt the cup.
08:32Pick up and go through.
08:34Oh, that's nice.
08:36It's the seedling.
08:37Latte.
08:39Enjoy.
08:41Woo.
08:42All right, all right.
08:44Thanks for being the best teacher.
08:45Thanks for being the best student.
08:47I will be back and I'll be behind the bar.
08:49I can't wait.
08:50Bring the effervescence.
08:50Was I hired?
08:53Six more weeks of training?
08:54Yeah, six more weeks of training.
08:55Okay.
08:55We'll talk about it.
08:56We'll see you there.
09:02Hey YouTube.
09:03Thanks for watching this episode of Lucy for Hire.
09:05Click right here to watch another video on Refinery29's channel.
09:08Right here to subscribe to us on YouTube.
09:11And here for my personal YouTube channel.
09:13See you next time.
09:16I spilled.
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