Barista Training☕ in Kuala Lumpur

In this 2-month stay, I also went to a Barista training course! I took a 2-hour Introduction on coffee then a 3-hour session on how to make coffee using an espresso machine. I highly recommend these sessions.

I’m not a barista of any kind or own an espresso machine at home. I’m just a person that enjoys coffee adventure with my partner on weekends or when we travel! It’s an interest that I share with my partner where we both bond and enjoy over! He can make basic latte art and definitely knows more about his coffee, I’m only starting to learn! I think I have overshoot him on the coffee knowledge after these sessions but latte art is still something I cannot do! Maybe something to learn in the future!

In the Introduction on Coffee sessions the key things you learn:

The 3 common types of coffee beans and their unique tastes; Arabica, Robusta and Liberica.

The trainer explained the uniqueness of each and later we got to taste each of them.

Arabica — Definitely the favorite as it has the beautiful aroma coffee flavor.

Robusta — Slightly harsher coffee aroma that sometimes taste more bitter but personally I think they go well with milk.

Liberica — For Bruneian, Malaysian and Singaporean residents, we called this the Kopitiam Kopi, our local coffee which are strongly bitter and woody taste coffee for a great economical morning drink.

Have a guess which is which?😁

Sooo what does the country origin in coffee packaging represent?🤔

Not all similar type of beans will taste the same as the altitude and the growing environment of the coffee beans does affect the taste, so the origin matters to a certain degree.

In the 3-hour practical coffee making session you get to experience the below:

1. Learning about equipments to purchase to make a cup of espresso in business or at home. Definitely highly recommend this course for business owner or anyone who are planning to buy an espresso machine at home to attend: a. The Grinder. The big advise; it’s not recommended to purchase expresso machine that comes with coffee grinders. Reason being maintenance will be less flexible and costly. b. The Espresso Machine quality for example anything with wood handles are not recommended for business purpose as the volume of use is higher which means durability will be your bigger concern and wood is less durable compare to plastic. c. The general cleanliness and maintenance of the machine was also briefed during the session. Its not thorough as different machines has their specific care instructions but the basics are thought! Example to change the coffee grinder metal gear based on your machine recommendation and basically just basic iron is required! Fancy stainless steels materials not required but if you would like something fancy its fine!
2. Next is the MOST EXCITING part — Practical session to Make Espresso using the grinder, tamping the grinded coffee to the various taste and finally extracting the expresso from the espresso machine. A lot of the key aspects that contributes to the taste happens on the grinding of the coffee beans and the tamping part.
3. After extracting the coffee, next we get the Froth the Milk for latte, flat white and cappuccino. Cappuccino is the easiest, cappuccino milk is foamy, insert only the steam wand surface tip using the pitcher spout as a guide into the milk in a pitcher then with the help of our hand as the temperature reader when it starts to be hot the milk is ready! Another way to know the readiness is that the milk volume doubled. Flat white/ Latte: Insert about half of the steam wand tip then similarly with the help of our hand as the temperature reader when it starts to be hot the milk is ready! The milk volume will expand about 1.5! Flat white is lesser milk while latte has more milk but the frothing steps are the same! It’s more challenging to get the latte milk texture as my milk seems to be not hot enough but too foamy! But hey practice makes perfect!
4. Lastly, Coffee Tasting time. BEWARE! 🥶Do not drink too much! You generally make at least 6 cups of coffee each and if you drink more than 2 you will experience some side effects so beware! Speaking from experience! HAHAHAHAHAHA!🤣

I had so much fun in the sessions and had a better understanding of espresso making! I still don't own an espresso machine but hopefully one day when I have my own place! Nonetheless, this sessions also thought me how to experience and enjoy my coffee adventure more and also the science behind why different cafes’ coffee taste different!

The taste is very subjective but this allow me to learn more about the taste that I prefer and also allow me to make request as per my preference in cafes so I get my coffee taste satisfaction!😂

Hobby n Coffee is the place I went. For KL people if you’re interested or you’re travelling to KL for a trip and would like to join these sessions. You get a certificate at the end too!💕