Chiara, our in-house NZSCA-accredited barista trainer says knowing how to brew perfect coffee every time is essential for respecting the customers. “They know the places that do quality coffee consistently. You can have great beans, great atmosphere, but if you don’t do a good job with the coffee, it won’t matter.”
If you’re here then you probably already know about Switch Espresso and our awesome range of coffees. We care about every link in the chain of tasty espresso, from the ethical and organic growers, to the roasting we do in house, to the brewing at cafés and in your home.
Each individual roast, whether it be a blend or single origin, has a recipe for the perfect brew. Honestly, developing these recipes is hard – you’ve got to get the grind right, the extraction right, the right ratio of water to coffee in the cup. So we do the work of figuring out the recipe for each of our roasts, and our barista trainer teaches it to you so you can master it every time.
As our resident Italian, Chiara compares barista work to a pizzeria. “You can go home and make an OK pizza or you can go to a restaurant and have a proper pizza,” she says. “The barista becomes like a chef instead of a cook.”
We recommend that all our partners who use Switch espresso in their cafés do training with Chiara. She’ll take you through all of the steps including grinding, tamping, extraction, milk, and soft brewing methods. She’ll also teach you the story of the coffee you’re using, and the value of coffee that has been lovingly grown and dried by families and farmer collectives around the world, then roasted right here in our Christchurch roastery.
