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Making a good coffee is tricky
Making the perfect coffee
The rise of coffee culture in the UK shows no sign of stopping – and now you can learn to be a barista yourself at a training centre in Blaydon.
“I’ve had some bad coffees with burnt milk and I’m fed up of it. I’m going to teach people to make good coffee.”
That’s the promise of Stuart Lee Archer, head trainer and website manager for Pumphreys of Newcastle – a man who is seriously passionate about coffee.
Stuart plans to enter the UK barista championship
Barista training
The tea and coffee company has a long heritage on Tyneside, dating back to 1750, but it’s successfully moved with times.
Their latest venture has been to create a barista training centre at their premises in Blaydon.
Such a move would have been unthinkable ten years ago, but with the rise of coffee culture and multi-national cafe chains there’s now a huge demand for good coffee.
“The more espresso machines we were putting out the more we were recognising the need for training,” explains Stuart Lee who leads the training sessions.
“You could do an hour of training when you did an installation but the person you trained might not be there next week.”
“We’ve done everything along the chain to produce this great coffee but it still comes down to the person actually making it and it can easily be ruined,” continues Paula Jean Archer, sales and marketing manager. “So we just wanted to get people more enthused about it really.”
Malcolm’s been roasting beans for years
High standards
The centre opened at the end of 2006 and already a broad mix of students, catering staff and coffee enthusiasts has been through its doors to learn the secrets of making a proper espresso.
“We start off teaching them a tiny bit about coffee history and what coffee is and then we move on to the espresso extraction and what makes it special,” Stuart Lee says of the course.
“We take people through why something tastes good and why something tastes bad. We also teach people how to foam milk properly, which is something a lot of people can’t do.” (Here’s a good tip – if you go for a coffee and they have to spoon the foam out of the milk jug onto your drink then they’ve overdone it.)
“If people take what I say on the course and understand it they will produce a coffee that’s better than 99% of the coffee out there.”
There is coffee from 19 countries in the warehouse
That’s quite a damning comment on the quality of the majority of coffees being served but Stuart Lee has high standards.
“My girlfriend hates me as we can’t go in anywhere for coffee,” he says. “When we go in somewhere I can hear if they’re not making it properly and walk straight back out!”
He really is evangelical about coffee – and it doesn’t stop with the training centre. Pumphreys are now working with other companies around the country to try to set up a City and Guilds course on coffee.
It’s seems as though coffee is starting to be taken as seriously as wine – with tastings and talk of pairing different blends with different meals. That’s quite a change for what is traditionally a nation of tea drinkers!
Find out more about the history of Pumphreys:
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Hello everyone, sorry its been such a long time between posts. I’ve been building and organising with my family our new shop/showroom/mini cafe (see bellow)
Think I’m about to colapse. I have lost a load more of my hair, dropped about a stone and have thouroghly battered my feet. Its all in the cause of coffee and espresso so i’m not going to feel that sorry for myself.
The shop is aimed at startup and existing cafes as well as the home user. Hopefully we should have just about everything a cafe could need and want to serve quality coffee, tea and add ons.
Although we’ve only been open a few days now it seems to be hitting the right note, which is a hell of a relief.
Enough about that, its not the Pumphreys Coffee Blog, its my blog.
I’ve recently had the opportunity to have a lot more time playing with machinary and boy have I had some fun. I’ve just about mastered a simple rosetta for my lattes and I’ve cupped a good few coffees through the espresso machine, all of which has fired my enthusiasm even more.
I’m hopefully meeting up with the James Hoffman in the new year which will really get the juices flowing. Maybe I can steal some latte art tips and pick his brain on some issuses going round in my head on how the brew temperature of espresso machines effects extraction and how to blend with that information.
See you soon
Now i’m back into it I might post again tonight!
Cheesy Photo Finish
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