Barista Tools
The best barista tools don’t have to be expensive or the latest technology to save the day. Here are the essential barista tools you should have in your espresso tool kit.
There is undoubtedly a huge selection of barista supplies out there to delight and confuse those of us who live to sling espresso. Just by taking a walk around a high end coffee supplies showroom, strolling through the stalls at barista competition or checking out huge industry events like the Melbourne International Coffee Exhibition – you can quickly watch your bank account disappear as the excitement about super cool, niche products takes over. The issue with barista tools and accessories however, is that many of them are only specially designed to shine when they’re used in a certain environment or with a piece of equipment that maybe sold separately.
The truly indispensable, life saver barista products are not necessarily the newest kids on the block. And while we are enthusiastically in favour of new tech and barista gadgets here at Crema Coffee Garage, we know that most of the time – the simplest solution is the best one. In this short article, we take you on a quick stroll past the non-negotiables of the café world. These are the things that our Espresso Bar stars and café clients can’t live without.
What Are Barista Tools?
Barista tools include any item used by a barista that facilitates brewing processes, which means the list is pretty long and always evolving with new technologies or advancements. In saying that, there are some basics you’re going to need no matter what...
Tamps & Calibrated Tamps
A calibrated tamper is essentially a tamper that will “say when”. Calibrated tampers are designed to deliver the same amount of pressure each time, making them the perfect choice for beginners, or anyone who wants a higher level of consistency where their espresso shots are concerned. The handle is separated from the base slightly, and a built-in spring works via torque to deliver a slight ‘click’ feeling in the palm when the set amount of pressure is applied.
We love these tampers, and try to sell them in place of a standard tamp wherever possible. We use them in our training rooms, and the vast majority of our café clients have been set up with them. This ensures that no matter the barista working a shift, they will all tamp at the same pressure. This means the grinder won’t need to be adjusted because their tamping pressure has changed – it will only require adjustments in relation to weather or roasting date.
Those of us in the coffee game know that the more variables we can control, the better!
If you aren’t lucky enough to have an automatic tamping station like the PuqPress yet – we have a long time love affair with the Joe Frex Technic Tamp and have placed quite literally thousands of them with happy clients in both domestic and commercial settings.
Tamp Mats
If you have some barista experience up your sleeve already, you probably know that it’s a noisy game. We love to tap, smack and knock our way to a perfect extraction and that can definitely come at a cost!
Depending on the acoustics in the café or venue where you’re droppings shots, the sound of a basket being collapsed on a bench top can be distracting and irritating to customers and staff alike. It can also cause damage to the baskets themselves – repeated collapsing on a hard surface can cause split baskets. It can also cause substantial damage to the bench tops themselves, creating surfaces that are no longer sealed or food safe.
Luckily the solution is extremely straightforward and affordable – get yourself a great rubber tamper mat to protect your benches, group handles and suck up some of that noise.
Knock Tubes
Knock tubes - also known as knock boxes or knock bins - are a round tube bin that have a rubber covered bar across the centre of the opening. You tap the puck out of the portafilter into the knock bin, this is a quick and easy way to dispose of used grind – just remember to clean it out at the end of the day! We currently have in stock Rhinowares THUMPA commercial knock tube, as well as knock bins for domestic use from Clean Machine, Concept Art, and Rattleware. You can also get chutes and bench mounts that can be built into the bench.
Milk Jugs
Milk jugs come in a range of size, including 400ml, 600ml and 1 litre. These sizes should be big enough to make milk for small to large sized drinks, although you can get bigger sizes if you really think you need it. Jugs can also be purchased in a range of colours, including stainless steel, allowing your staff to easily distinguish which jugs can be used for dairy milk and non-dairy milks. Some brands of jugs even come with varying lips which can assist with pouring, for example, Breville pitchers tend to have round tipped lips and Rhinowares jugs tend to have a more standard pointed lip.
Thermometers
Using a thermometer is great for training your staff and making sure you deliver consistency with your coffee! It takes years of working as a barista to know by touch, sound and sight when the milk is just right, so the best practice for all baristas is to keep a thermometer on hand.
The invention of the stick-on coffee thermometer has been one of the greatest to hit the industry. The passion that the Crema Crew has for these babies is hot and everlasting. It’s such a simple tool that solved so many issues with standard coffee thermometers. The top things we love about these include:
- Cost effective – Depending on the brand, they are either much cheaper or on par with standard milk thermometers
- Hygienic – Because they are placed on the outside of the jug, they never have the potential to contaminate the milk in the jug or become unsanitary
- User friendly – The colour-change technology allows users to easily identify when the milk hits each temperature benchmarks – unlike the tiny increments we had to squint at on the old school milk thermometers. They make training newbies a breeze!
- Higher temperature accuracy – Because these tags are stuck directly onto the metal of the jug itself, there is far less delay between the milk hitting a temperature, and the tag displaying that result. The old thermometers had a lag of around 5 degrees Celsius that we baristas had to remember when steaming.
Some of our favourite coffee thermometer stickers include those by Temptag and Rhinowares.
Shot Glass Pitchers
Having a great measuring shot glass means you can keep an eye on your shot volumes. Like many programmable things, the shot volumes programmed into your coffee machine can drift out a little over time. Many baristas won’t notice because it happens so gradually, but when you have a measuring shot glass you’re always going to know when things start pouring a little over or under. If you are in charge of reprogramming your coffee machine, you will need to have an accurate measuring glass to do so. If you’re not, you will still need one to identify the problem and alert a coffee technician to fix it for you. We love it when our customers can tell us exactly what is pouring from their machine – it makes problem diagnosis so much faster.
Measuring shot glasses often come with handles and spouts, and for this reason are often used to pour shots directly into when your takeaway cups don’t fit under your group handle dribblers properly – a volumetrics shotglass is never a useless tool to have!
Cocoa Shaker
Shakers for storing and distributing your chocolate powder and cinnamon sugar. Check out the popular Clean Machine Cocoa Shakers which come in Black, Red or Stainless Steel.
Barista Cloth Sets
Another often forgotten barista aid – the humble cloth. While many of us get by with traditional tea towels, chux cloths and any number of ad-hoc solutions, they certainly aren’t the best performing options out there. Similar to chamois cloths, barista cloths work by absorbing moisture and removing dirt in one motion. In the case of your group baskets, you can wipe out any old coffee grinds from your last espresso shot while also making sure you’re about to dose fresh coffee into a dry basket – no one wants an uneven extraction because they left wet patches in the basket!
Great barista cloth sets will give you a selection of cloths for different uses – the Rhinowares Barista Cloth Set has one for your group handles, two for your steam wands and one for polishing your coffee machine up at the end of the day – sans chemicals!
Another inexpensive but integral barista tool gets a top spot in our list of things to pick up on your next shop.
Measuring Scoops & Spoons
Measuring scoops and spoons are used to measure out powder, drink additives or ingredients efficiently and accurately. These are important if you’re planning on doing hot chocolates, mochas, chai lattes, smoothies or frappes.
Dosing Scales
Brewing and dosing scales are an important addition to any bar, allowing baristas to accurately measure how much they are dosing and pouring for different brewing methods, and a lot of newer electronic grinders deliver a timed dose. But as fantastic as these grinders are, they can be a little naughty when it comes to their accuracy once you have adjusted the grind, as the swap beans, or the grinder hopper gets low.
Because they don’t weigh out a dose and then grind it, they only grind for a certain period of time – they are affected when you change your grind setting or allow the quantity of coffee beans in the hopper to fluctuate too much. This is because your grinder burrs spin faster or slower depending on the grind setting, grinding more or less coffee in the same set time period than before the adjustment. The weight of gravity pressing beans through the burrs will also change as your hopper empties out – less beans will fall through the burrs in the same set time period.
This is where dosing scales come to the rescue! A good set of scales will allow you to check that your grinder is still behaving, and giving you the right dose. It is especially important to check its dose when you have made a grinder adjustment. Unfortunately trying to adjust or stay on top of these grinders without a set of scales is tough. While many baristas can get by with a strong instinct based on experience, they can still avoid some real head scratcher moments simply by having a set of good brewing scales to clear questions marks up with.
-
Hario V60 Drip ScaleYour Price $99.90 RRP $109.95 -
Brewista Ratio ScaleYour Price $129.95 RRP $149.95
Dosing Cups
With the rise of electronic grinders, dosing cups have shot to stardom. For those who work with them – we could never go back. Each dose of coffee grind directly into the cup now, instead of the group handle. You then do a little bit of magic to transfer the coffee into your group handle and voila! An espresso shot that left almost no coffee grounds on the best, and without having to hold onto a group handle while the dose ground out. Dosing cups mean you can get a shot grinding and walk away from it, or having it going before you’re even ready to pack the next one yet. Dosing cups are earning the praise or baristas and café owners alike and have become one of our standard set-up tools for our café clients and home baristas now.
Cleaning Products
Cleaning products you will need include a blind filter to fit your group handle, cleaning powder for back flushing, milk steamer solution to keep your steam arms clean, a group head cleaning brush (like this Rattleware brush), coffee machine steam brushes, and a coffee grind brush (like this Pallo or Rattleware brush) to start.
This is a good starting point for getting your essential barista tools, although the list doesn’t end there depending on your needs and the types of brew methods you’ll be using. Other barista tools can include Coffee Catchas, Latte Art Pens, Latte Art Tools, Automatic Tampers, and much more. For barista tools specific to alternative brew methods (this page is suitable for espresso coffee making), you can check out our listed brew methods such as Cold Brew, Pour Over, and Syphon for required equipment and instructions.
Other superstar coffee equipment changing the game
The list of service-changing tools could go on for a long time, but stand by our best, most inexpensive picks. Of course, there are a host of other great barista toys, tools and essential gear that all contribute a faster, cleaner and overall higher quality coffee service. Some of these great barista tools include:
- Jug rinsers – worth every penny, we have a great range, and could never go back to sink washing!
- Drink whisks and stirrers – When you spend a good amount of time stirring in sugar, chocolate powder, chai or honey – have a great little stirrer or miniature whisk comes in handy. There are a great range of funky little guys in-house at Crema Coffee Garage to help with that.
- Latte art pens – If you love etching latte art, then have a latte art pen set is a great investment. They are made specifically for a comfortable fit, and helpful design for great artwork.
- Shot timers – if your machine doesn’t have shot timers built into the group heads, then having a shot timer on the machine is a must. Your espresso extraction time is one of the most important measurements of success – no one wants to overcook or undercook their coffee! Your extraction time is one of the first things our team might ask you about if you call with troubleshooting issues, so it’s great to get to know yours.
- Grinder brushes – there is nothing like coffee grinds to get everywhere, on everything. Known for filling every crevice and corner in the general vicinity, having a great grinder brush can make cleaning up a much faster, more accurate game. They are also really crucial for cleaning out grinder chutes, and getting into hard-to-reach places. We love the Pallo for its double handle, with ab rush for the grinder on one side and a brush for the bench on the other.
- High quality milk jugs – having a heavy duty, commercial milk jug makes all the difference when it comes stretching milk successfully. You also need to consider buying a milk jug with the right spout shape for great latte art and consistent pouring. While you can get great results with a basic range, you can also choose to invest in some heavy hitters later on for a little more flair and longevity.
We know there is an overwhelming amount of choice when it comes to picking the right tools for your coffee trade, and it can be hard to tell the needs from the wants. As far as the team at Crema Coffee Garage is concerned, everything listed in this article are must-haves, and the majority of our commercial baristas have access to these tools in their daily trades. We have seen a huge increase in quality and consistency as the uptake in great barista tools has risen. It makes perfect sense – you can do a better job when you keep a closer eye on things, and invest in equipment that was literally invented to produce excellent results. There are some great barista starter kits that take some of the guess-work out of it, and our team can help you add what might not be included.
If you’re keen to chat with someone about the must-haves and the nice-to-haves – give our awesome team a call today, and get some great specialist advice on how to navigate such a big market.
