"Am I the only one that finds the new espresso drink preparation absolutely ridiculous?"

This was posted late in the OPEN THREAD discussion, so maybe you missed it. For readers who don't work at Starbucks, would someone please explain what the new espresso preparation is and how -- or if -- it affects customers.

Comments

[Crema]

I love the claims that three drinks can be made simultaneously quicker than one at a time or chained together. Its like saying multiplying 4x2 gives you a larger quantity than adding 2+2+2. The reason you go 2 at a time is so you can loop in blended repeatable (which emphasized *gasp* ONE at a time). If you're batching, by the time you finish the third drink, your first one is already below acceptable quality. I guarantee it. I watched it happen.

[Queen Get 'er Done]

I am a store manager in a district that has been doing this for about a year now. My team loves it. It is strange to get use to first. What we love the best is the only pitcher we have labeled is the soy pitcher. No need for labels. So easy to just grab and go. We also put colored tape on the handle (yellow) to easily call out the soy pitchers from the others. Give it a chance guys, you will love it!

[James Connolly]

I'm absolutely staggered at the number of people just blindly accepting another labor cut disguised as a product improvement.

[abaristagetshiswings]

Really Crema? It's below acceptable quality in 10 or 15 seconds? If that's the case, it's below acceptable quality before the customer even picks up their drink from the handoff plane.

[ImChiquita]

James Connolly,

Please don't count this long-term Partner as part of those blindly accepting the labor cut.

For the past year or so, every time I hear the word, "LEAN," it makes me cringe inside. Because I know that this Corporation is now focused on fewer Partners under a more difficult work load, so that there can be less pay.

Those who can adjust will survive. Every time.

We both know that.

Adapt - or be let go.

[James Connolly]

@ImChiquita: The choice isn't just 'give up or give in.' That's a false binary. What about, 'fight back?'

I joined the union almost two years ago and have started to push back against this kind of garbage. I'm a long term partner (trained on the La Marzocco), too, and it was the best thing I've ever done. In stores with union presence, we have been able to mitigate labor cuts and improve safety conditions on the shop floor. Through a city-wide petition drive, we got an extra two dollars an hour for people working overnights in NYC. We've gotten AC systems fixed in stores that were sweltering that the company was refusing to do anything about, and we're growing all the time (we just went public in Omaha).

The choices aren't just 'adapt or be let go'. You have the right to form or join a union without losing your job, just look at the newest laminated poster that should be up in stores everywhere. There's literally no reason for any long term partner not to join unless they are an ASM or SM.

[A Non eMoose]

Lol, is this serious? Like, they're acting like this is some big new change? I've been making drinks this way since I started working here. How ridiculous. Let me allay some fears for uncertain partners: it's the exact same thing you've been doing, just maybe the cup/milk/syrup order switched around a little. The company really thinks this is a large enough change to justify labor cuts, booklets, training, etc? Christ almighty, it's a wonder we're still afloat.

As a hint, it's kind of tough to do this with tall lattes. Unless you wanna waste a little milk and pour it a little above the tall line, the wands don't quite reach far enough for it to steam the milk so much as aerate it forever. So hold the pitchers unless you wanna make a really foamy latte.

[sumataboy]

Hey all it works, I have a two week barrusta that is as fast and as consistant as our seasoned baristas and the quality is just as good, our taste of Bev is in the high 90's FYI

[javagirl666]

Um..having had both the Verissimo and now the Maestrena..both were calibrated to stop at a certain steaming point..however, it is listed on Eco-Sure as well as a Health Dept. standard. We were still re-steaming milk when we had the Verissimo..that being the case, how was one to know if the milk temp had fallen below 140* if there was no thermometer?? Calibrate and use them..its really no big deal.

[formermanager]

You're either good at bar, or not. This procedure is not rocket science, it's common sense, and how "good", efficient baristas do it anyway.

[meme]

To A Non eMoose to avoid a foamy tall put two hot lids under the pitcher when steaming so your hands are free and the wand will get deeper into the milk.

[javagirl666]

Former manager for a reason: when taught this way from the beginning..there is more support for the bar person, therefore less hectic and they are actually able to catch on as opposed to drowning.

[Chloe]

i admit i was skeptical. REALLY skeptical. so as a store manager i asked to be a test store.

i converted. i timed all my partners before and after, and EVERY one of them improved their speed and quality, even the fastest barista. it also made training new baristas a LOT easier.

i'm no longer a partner, but the bar repeatable routine works. and once it's under your hands, it is EASY, and actually IMPROVES your communication with clients b/c of the repetition.

i was seriously a jackass about it, but all 15 of my partners thought it was easy easy easy, improved time, and loved it.

if you're reaching too far for stuff and having to move from a 3' square area or so, your bar isn't set up well. we barely had to move b/c everything was right by the bar.

[formermanager]

Former manager because managing a Starbucks became an embarrassing job for me, @javagirl. It's no better than managing a McDonald's, complete with the ballcap, dirty, sticky, stinky clothes, and brainless ops management. I did it for 4 years in a 1.5 million a year store until I was finally done with it. I'd have left earlier, but I loved my staff. I was tired of having a wardrobe (kept separate) consisting of chai stained white polos, dirt hemmed khakis, and shoes that I had to keep outside or the ants would come in. I was tired of getting up at 4am, leaving work with a backache and throbbing feet, and wasting the rest of my day because I was too wiped to exercise or do anything productive. I was tired of the company robbing us of labor so it appeared it was profitable, demanding standards, than pulling them when quality took too much time. I told my DM I'd never want her job if it entailed coming into the stores and obsessing that that wheels of the rolling ice machine had dirt on them, and that the toilet paper was going over the roll, not under. Weekend off? Only if you moved heaven and earth, and only one every few months or so. Go shopping the day after Thanksgiving? No way, you've got to be at the store at 3am to open extra early. Oh, and forget about Christmas Eve with your family. You'll work open to close because you were not awarded with enough labor to meet the demand, and as a manager who gives a rat's arse, you won't leave your staff stuck. Those of you who think managing a store is any different than what you do now, think again. The difference is marginal. Though, I did get paid $45,000 to start to do a job that requires water, a barrel, fish, and a gun. My store was ALWAYS in the black, I just had the good sense to bail when the ship started sailing the wrong way.

[PunkIsNotDead]

Listen. If it's Xmastime and I have 6 tall hot chocolates patiently waiting to be made, you can bet your hat and apron that I'm steaming two pitchers of 2% and blasting those puppies out all at once. Thank you very much.

[Northwest]

@ C to the B

Once you are officially rolled on BR2 you will no longer need but ONE thermometer (calibrated of course) to randomly temp milk. Verismo or Mastrena doesn't matter. QASA will know if your area is fully launched.

I love BR2! Naysayers beware your days with the company are numbered!

[slaw275]

@PunkIsNotDead,

Steaming two pitchers full of milk will take the same amount of time as steaming probably four talls separately. Explain to HC #1 why they have to wait for the 5 HCs behind them to get their drink. You will dig yourself into a hole faster that you think.

[getoffyourhighhorse]

this is NOT new! It's retraining because so many have forgotten how to steam milk! How NOT to waste! How NOT to RESTEAM milk! Get over it

[getoffyourhighhorse]

this increased your time? Wow...just speechless...we were already doing 99% of this...our times are always under 2 minutes, sometimes under 1 and we are a high volume store. Usually one person on bar.

[Spider Jerusalem]

if there was ever a perfect example of the facts that
1. This company is completely and totally out of touch with its customer base
and
2. This company doesn't give two shits about its employees
...this new "Beverage Repeatable Routine" is it.

[Nancy]

I have the least amount of "connection" with my customers. It's usually hi or bye now. It's better in lower volume stores. DT stores are a challenge cos they are fast, or atleast that's the idea behind being a downtown store. People don't have 10 mins to wait for coffee. Trust me, we should know. How long would you wait for coffee?

[Nancy]

@ C to the B

If you have the Mastrenas, you do not need thermometers. You should be steaming, one cup at a time. If you have the old machines, then yes, you do need the thermometers. What Ecosure demands is a clean pitcher and spoon. You should get your manager to figure some stuff out.

[mrso]

We've actually been using this method in my (very high volume) store. I'm in a large shopping mall in one of the country's largest cities. We started playing with this technique a week before Christmas. Guess what? It worked. Taste of Bev? Up. Speed of Service? Up. Overall Satisfaction? Up. Anyone who thinks prepping all the cups and using two machines is faster obviously has not been through the training, completed a go-see activity, or gotten over their emotional curve. I've been in the coffee business for 12 years, 8 with Starbucks, and I can say this is the best LEAN activity I've seen so far. (I started as a barista and worked my way up the coffee ranks to management.) I'll admit, I thought the idea of pulling shots before milk stopped steaming was crazy, but why do I need the milk and foam to completely separate if I've correctly aerated the milk? Unless I'm crafting a no-foam something or other THERE IS NO NEED. Change isn't always a bad thing, people.

[whatwhat]

The only problem I see is that in my store my manager has the bar person call the entire line before starting drinks. So then I have 15 drinks to make all at once. At least if they were called TO me then this method would work great.

[VandL]

@ slaw275

i really doubt steaming milk for 6 talls one at a time is faster than steaming milk for 6 talls in 2 pitchers. do you not take into account that you have to rinse the pitchers in between, pour milk and steam again 5 more times. and with the fact that we have small pitchers steaming shouldnt take so long in the first place. while you start steaming your first initial milk thats when you go pump your vanilla and mocha for the hot chocolates.

for everyone else. im not saying this "new" method is good or bad. i say "new" because if you had any common sense which some people do, you know you should have been doing this from the start. im sure some people have drastically cut their time and others feel its a waste of time when they can be working on more drinks than allowed. however not everyone is the same and although we all received the same training not everyone bars the same. we arent all robots even though the company would like to view us this way. there are certain partners i like to bar with more than others because we flow better together. obviously communication is key to that. but even if im barring by myself i have my own repeatable routines that i use. guess what same quality of beverages throughout and customers always say "wow, that was fast" or "this is mine? i just ordered!".

i am going to give this a try though. i am my stores learning coach with any new hires and im glad that this will be in place to tell them hey steam your milk first. because as much as i train them to do so, they feel its more important to pump syrups first. i don't exactly agree with the one drink at a time and only one machine unless other shots are needed beyond 2 for the verissimos. however for now, i will try it, and if i feel its not as efficient with what i do now, im abandoning it. sorry for those who are for it, but you never know i might end up liking it, we shall see.

[John the Equipment Tech]

OMG! ALWAYS use a properly calibrated steaming thermometer. Temperature readout on the Mastrena display is not accurate, as the milk will continue to "catch up"/get hotter after the steam stops. If the temperature sensor on the machine begins to fail, how will you know? When you have an entire morning's worth of customers come back and complain about their drinks were not hot enough? When the Mastrena's sensor is bad, it will cut off the auto steam too soon; either 10 to 20 degrees sooner or immediately upon pulling the lever. When the sensor went bad on the Verismo 801, it boiled the milk and you cleaned it off the ceiling.

You should never ASSUME that the milk is at the proper temp.

[Will]

This is ridiculous. Does anyone actually do the cadence any more? We sure as hell don't.

Lean is double-speak. They talk about "make it work for YOUR store" and about how every store is different, but then give out ridiculous standards and instructions that are supposed to be one-size-fits all.

Maybe I'm ignorant, but I had no idea about the indentions or whatever on the bottom of the pitcher being used to aerate milk as described in the training. I've worked for Starbucks for 5 years, and you'd think if they really cared about beverage quality that maybe they'd have emphasized this sometime in the time I've been with the company. Maybe during "espresso excellence" or something.

I'll smile and nod when my SM tells me to do BR2, but that's only with the knowledge that we'll have abandoned it 3 months later.

Oh, and if you weren't steaming/pulling/pumping before this, and keeping the machine busy, you're a nitwit and shouldn't be here anyway.

[coco]

Just grin and bear it, in a year someone will come up with a new and better way to make drinks and it will all change again.......in my opinion, what Starbucks really needs to focus on is the "Third Place Experience"....... it seems that has taken back seat with the never ending new promotions (ie VIA, VIA, and now to come, more VIA). After working in a cafe only for 3 years, I've spent the last year in a drive thru and have lost MY connection with what Starbucks promotes to be....how can you connect with customers at the cafe registers or the bar when you have non-stop chatter from the headset in your ear????? The cafe suffers greatly......everything is about drive-thru...get that line going......what about the people who took the time to park, walk into the cafe?? They take back seat to drive thru.....no wonder customer voice is always up and down at drive thrus..........

I agree that serious attention needs to be paid to quality of drinks, consistency and customer connection....I like the ideas on steaming one drink at a time, but just don't understand the use on only one machine......we were in middle of rush today, had five people on the floor and drinks were backed up and one machine was just sitting there while customers were hovering over the hand off bar wondering what in the heck was taking so long..........

I hate to be a skeptic, but I don't think it will work in the long run....

[hunguptheapron]

I worked for the company for two and a half years spending nearly every shift on bar for the last year and a half. If I understand things correctly, I used this method and it worked fine. But nobody tried to shove it down my throat and threaten to fire me or write me up if I didn't do it this way. And if they did, I would have handed them my apron and tell them where they could shove it. *cough cough crema cough cough*

[LeanBlog]

I'm commenting (late to the game after reading this a few weeks ago) as nothing more than a Starbucks customer and somebody who has worked with Lean my whole career (in manufacturing and in healthcare).

Lean, if you study Toyota's methodology has two pillars: continuous improvement and what they often call "respect for humanity" or "respect for people." I know that Starbucks (from the earlier WSJ article) has gotten coaching from John Shook, one of the first Americans to work for Toyota in Japan (and the incoming CEO of the non-profit Lean Enterprise Institute).

I'm certain that John is engaged with Starbucks because they are interested in the "respect for people" side of Lean - ideally engaging every barista in continuous improvement.

Will it take time to change the culture at Starbucks? Undoubtedly, yes. I'm sure there are a lot of old bad habits in the minds of the store managers and at corporate.

As a customer, I'm encouraged to hear of the quality improvements, faster drink making, and better environment for the baristas. That's going to make me happier as a frequent customer (and I know how inconsistent drink making can be, even on something as simple as an iced chai).

If Starbucks is truly embracing lean (it's not an acronym) and "respect for people", this new process won't be just a top-down mandate from Seattle. Baristas will have a chance to give their input into making the process better -- if you're not getting the chance to give that feedback, then this is a one-time "re-engineering" effort, not a lean situation.

Thanks to all of you who are working to make the stores better for the customers.

[Burned Bean]

so, starbucks closed stores to retrain all baristas on how to properly hand craft beverages, and now this? wow. the right hand and left hand need to have a conference call...

[oldschool]

When I was first trained by Starbucks in 2000. This is how they taught me to make drinks. I left for a few years and when I came back I still made drinks this way because I understood this made the best quality drinks. I saw quickly that other new employees weren't trained this way. I think Starbucks needs to go back to the days of spending way more money and time on training, like they used to, instead of spending all the money on turning the baristas into salespeople.

[Rudolf]

I cant wait to see if this works during the holiday season. I am really pumped about this! ho ho f'ing ho, what a crock of sh't

[confused]

So I'm a new "partner" at Starbuck's and the training is similar to what I went through with another cafe I managed a few years ago but with a few minor differences. Of course I hear all the requisite complaining from people who have been there for a while about doing things differently. So to clarify with my SM today, I asked if the official way is to pull a shot directly into the cup or into the glass. She said the cup and gave me some memorized corporate spiel about efficiency and blah blah blah. When I was trained years ago the reason was because the full flavor of the crema goes directly into the cup and it isn't stuck to the inside of the shot glass (a good idea since most of the good flavor is in the crema....not that anyone notices a difference when ordering stuff with all sorts of flavoring added to it.) Then she explained that dumping from the shot glass and leaving all the crema behind was good because the crema is almost nothing but coffee grounds and is the worst part of the shot and therefore it's preferable to have as little crema as possible. Has anyone else been told this as a reason or is my manager just an artard who doesn't have any idea what she's talking about? There are some grounds in a shot yes but the crema being the worst part altogether and the black part being the best? Am I losing my mind here? I mean there are several recipe decisions that Starbuck's has that I question and disagree with but this is just almost too much. Surely this isn't corporate philosophy right?

[Win]

This new method is ridiculously. As a partner of 5 years I can solo bar a $2200 morning solo, and now they're tying my hands. But that's okay. All the partners in my store have agreed to follow this method to the dot, especially when we're being slammed. This should tank the shit out of our sales, and when the DM comes by to see WTF is going on, he'll find me with a line of 20 drinks twiddling my thumbs because of the new system.

Work less. Paid same. I WIN.