# Barista Training - Pumphreys Coffee



## vintagecigarman

Late last year one of the form members (Pan) bought a La Spaziale machine from Pumphreys Coffee. Included in the deal was a voucher for Barista Training with the company. Details of the training are here: http://www.pumphreys-coffee.co.uk/products/training/

Living at the other end of the country made use of the voucher impractical for Peter, and he very kindly passed it on to me and I went on the course yesterday.

Pumphreys are a well-known supplier of coffee in the North-East, and have over 250 years' experience in the business. They deliver to businesses throughout the area and have a retail outlet in the centre of Newcastle. The training is undertaken in a dedicated facility in their premises in Ryton, a few miles West of the city. I hadn't visited the Ryton premises before yesterday, and in addition to the training room it contains their roastery, a retail shop and small coffee shop. The retail shop is amazingly well-stocked with coffee hardware in addition to their coffees. La Spaziale machines are on display, along with grinders including Anfim, Mahlkonig and Iberital, plus a very wide selection of tampers, jugs and other equipment.

When I met the trainer, Stuart, he told me that I was the only one on yesterday's course. He explained that half-term weeks were unpredictable, sometimes being run at full capacity, and other times getting few takers. I think that it speaks well of the ethos of the company that they were prepared to run the training with only one participant - I am sure that less scrupulous businesses would have cancelled the course. As it was, I had the benefit of 5 hours intensive one-to-one training with Stuart, and left both exhausted and excited by what I had learned.

The course begins with some essential theory, but is largely practical. It also includes a tour of the roastery - fascinating for a dedicated home roaster like me, as I had never got up close to commercial roasting equipment before. The practical work involved the use of a San Remo two-group and an Anfim Super Caimano grinder. (I was mightily impressed by the grinder, and had I not recently bought a Mini-e I would have finished the day with one in the back of the car a considerably lighter bank balance!)

Through Stuart's training, and adjusting the equipment and tasting the resulting shots, I feel that I have at last got a handle on the complexities of the relationships between temperature/dose/grind /volume and how they impact on the shot. He also demonstrated - again with tastings - how the shot changed during the length of the extraction, and how the variables can be adjusted to bring out the best of the flavours. I'm not saying that I've got it completely sussed - I know that I've got an awful lot of experimentation to do with my own equipment now - but I now have a much better grasp of the principles involved in getting the very best out of whatever beans I'm using.

Stuart was also able to instantly identify the mistakes that I've been making with milk texturing and latte art, and guided me through the techniques. As soon as I've written this I'm off to buy copious amounts of milk to have a morning's practice at home.

Stuart is a gifted trainer, who is approachable and friendly and inspires confidence in your own abilities. He combines theory with practical experience and anecdote and kept me enthralled and focussed over a solid 5 hours that just seemed to fly by. He also talks with some experience, just recently having achieved third place in the Northern Heat of the UK Barista Championship. His enthusiasm and dedication come over very strongly, and cannot fail to inspire anyone to want to make better espresso. I certainly regard yesterday as an epiphany in my espresso-making experience.

My sincere thanks also go to Peter, who kindly provided the voucher for the training, which normally costs £84. And of course, the obvious question is going to be: but is the training worth the £84? In my opinion, there's no doubt about it. I admit that I was fortunate in getting on-to-one attention yesterday, and Stuart was able to concentrate on issues that were of direct relevance to me. Once a group dynamic comes into play the training will probably need to be a little more generalist, in order to be accessible to all members. But I have no doubt that Stuart will adapt to suit any audience and ensure that everyone leaves with a vastly increased knowledge level.

Finally, I'd just like to make it clear that, other than being a satisfied customer, I have no connection with Pumphreys. I am also aware that other forum contributors run barista training, and this post is in no way meant to belittle them, as they too have excellent reviews of their work.


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## Glenn

What a brilliant endorsement and fitting reflection of Stuarts skill and passion as a barista

I am so pleased you had a great time and thanks to Pan for providing the voucher.


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## lookseehear

Wow, sounds like you had a great day!

Thanks for sharing your experience.


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## mentness

My flabber is completly guasted at the length of that Geoff!

It is always a pleasure to meet passionate people! Any trainer will agree that it is easy to teach when people are excited and eager to learn.

My absolute pleasure! Keep in touch!


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## MonkeyHarris

Sounds fantastic. I must get myself some training at some point.


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## CoffeeJohnny

I cannot agree more with the feedback you provided for Stuart Lee, I had the privilege to see how taken aback he was when I popped in to the showroom. But as you said mentness is indeed truly a great teacher and has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of his field, which is constantly updating.


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## DavidBondy

I have to say that my own, at home, training session with our own Glenn has stood me in very good stead. I have consistently produced the most amazing shots ever since his visit - and he is local to me near London!

David


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## vintagecigarman

I know that you're not alone in applauding the quality of Glenn's training, David. (And I've told him to give me a shout if he's ever working in the North-East!)


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## lookseehear

Assuming you meant to say *not* alone there?


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## BanishInstant

Thanks vintage for a great write up.


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## vintagecigarman

lookseehear said:


> Assuming you meant to say *not* alone there?


God God, Yes!

Posted before I had sufficient caffeine this morning - that's my only excuse for that. I've amended it now!


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## Dave Hopkinson

Hi Guys

I would just like to add my thanks to Stuart for a great training afternoon. I went on 29 July 2011. Excellent value for money!!


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## HottopMan

That's a really interesting post because my wife and I had seen that section on the Pumphrey's web site but were unsure how worthwhile it would be. Needless to say, after such a detailed, positive report, we'll be giving that a go as soon as we practically can.

Does anyone know of a similar course for roasting?

I guess it would be most useful if the course equipment was the same as you have at home but in general does anyone know of such a thing?


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## MikeHag

Might be more than you're looking for but the only uk roasting course I know. If you find another please share









http://www.londonschoolofcoffee.com/roasting-coffee-course.php

Where are you based?


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## HottopMan

Thanks for that link, I'll post a report after I've attended. I'm based in Harpenden Hertfordshire so easy to get to London.


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## funinacup

Having been to a course at the London School of Coffee (advanced barista skills) I can say i'd definitely recommend them. I took part in a session with Ben Townsend and have no experience with any other trainers there but I'm sure the passion and knowledge continues through the other trainers/courses.

Sent from my Galaxy S using Tapatalk


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## HottopMan

Just completed a London School of Coffee course on coffee roasting, following from Mike Hag's recommendation in October. Well, he recommended a different course but this was the one I chose to go on. It was a fantastic experience which I can recommend to anyone who wants to learn about the roasting process. Thanks very much for the tip Mike and thanks to the London School of Coffee for organising such a great course 

If you're interested there are photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/colinsjones/

The course is only 3 days long but we covered every topic in the syllabus with time for some interesting discussions. My fellow students came from all over the country to attend, one couple came from France just to attend the course because there is nothing like it available in France.

Our lecturer, Morten Munchow, a Danish guy with years of experience of roasting coffee and running a small roastery, covered a range of subjects including green bean production, the chemistry of roasting and management of a roastery with plenty of hands on roasting to support the theory.

I'm happy to provide more detail to anyone who is interested.


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## MikeHag

Great photos. I am certainly interested in more details. It's a course I've been considering for a while, along with the Starting A Roastery one. My main concern is that the course days do not seem long or intensive enough. I have been on too many courses that have gone at the pace of the slowest attendee, making me frustrated and making the course less value for money than it could have been. But it sounds like perhaps this is one of the good ones, would you say? If you're happy to share info, I'd love to hear more about what you covered each day on the course, what you see as the good/bad things about it, and where you see it positioning you for moving forward. So many questions! Would you say it was more oriented to either home roasting or commercial roasting in any way? Did you cover the green buying market? To what extent did you get into identifying defects? Did you discuss storage?

Anything you can tell us would be fantastic


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## HottopMan

The course I attended was "How to Start a Roastery" which ran from 5/12 to 7/12. I can understand your concern about pace but that is usually only a problem if the class size is large and the syllabus is so structured that you can have no influence on the pace of proceedings. The course I attended had 7 students and only a framework syllabus and it was clear from the beginning that our lecturer liked, and had planned for, additional content to come out in discussion. As a result of this clever planning, much of the content we covered came out during discussion which was led by the class at a pace we were all (apparently) comfortable with. Each day was about 8 hours long.

I have listed out below the subject areas we covered, from my notes so if I've missed anything then I apologise but I think I have got most topics.

Speaking personally, I found the course worthwhile and I learned a great deal but to address one of your concerns directly, I think it might not have been so rewarding if the group had included a less harmonious mix of absolute beginners and more experienced students. Fortunately, we were all beginners, eager to learn and our lecturer really knew his stuff so was not afraid of the unpredictability of an open forum.

Day 1

Basics of Roasting (types of heat transfer, roast period, inside the bean, Maillard)

Physics of Roasting (heat to bean, different temperatures, different roasters, chemistry of browning)

Bean Colour & Bean Taste (heat absorption properties, best practice, the Agtron scale)

Hands on roasting to a predefined target colour (Careful recording of roast profiles)

Day 2

Green Bean Production (washed & natural, bean structure, chemical changes, growing problems)

Hands on roasting (to produce extreme effects)

Cupping (much discussion)

Day 3

Roastery Organisation (lean production, visualising processes, One thing at a time, the 15 min rule).

SCAA

Roastery visit (7*14kg roasts, cupping, discussions)


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## leocohen

If you are looking for a professional place for a barista training in central London that with a range of coffee machines to choose to train on or even if you would like them to come to your workplace to do barista training for your staff in their own environment.

Check out this website which helped a lot to my barista's, They now seemed to have a better knowledge in coffee making and the milk is just outstanding

www.baristatraininglondon.com

Hope it helps

Leo


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