Friday 26 October 2012

Coffee Training at Peaberry’s Gourmet Coffee – October 2012




Regular customers at Doubletake Café often say, “You know. When my coffee comes out to me, I know exactly who is working that day.”

This may seem like a simple observation, but to a café manager who loses sleep worrying about the quality of coffee being served at the café, it is very significant. It says a great deal about the consistency of product being served each day and it reinforces the pivotal role of the barista in the success of any café.  After all, the barista and customer clearly share a strong connection in the coffee experience!



Peaberry s recently tailored a coffee training course for the barista staff at Doubletake Cafe, which overlooks beautiful Lake Macquarie in Toronto.  

The larger than usual group spilled into Peaberrys’ new, state of the art training facility at Islington, alongside their impressive new Roastery and Café.  For a little over two hours, Joe imparted his massive knowledge of coffee to the group, in a session that was fun and informal yet hugely informative also.



It is one thing to be able to make a coffee, but another to understand what it takes to make a truly awesome cup of coffee. The training therefore ensured that all of our baristas understand and appreciate the most simple, as well as the more technical aspects of coffee preparation. The course highlighted the importance of cleanliness, maintaining the correct grind settings and correct care of the beans. There was also a hands-on session where our baristas could adjust the grind and craft the perfect piccolo latte.


Doubletake Cafe, just as much as Peaberry’s Coffee, strive to create an awesome coffee experience for our loyal clientele. Equipped with their new understanding of how to consistently provide a high quality coffee product, our barista’s are now much more interested and enthused about creating a great cup, each and every time a coffee is poured.



Training with Peaberry’s will now become a regular event for baristas at Doubletake Cafe. The world of coffee is constantly evolving and changing. There is always something new to learn and every training session will lead to a better cup for our customers.  

You can now also be sure that our staff will be happily buzzing when you come into the café, because they will all have had several piccolo lattes of a morning.  Joe, I think you’ve created a bunch of monsters with that one!



Thanks to Joe and Peaberry’s Coffee for a great training session. 

an awesome introduction



A little while ago, when I asked my brother how his day was, he blurted back with utter innocence, enthusiasm and sincerity, “Awesome.”

Now, John has Down Syndrome and has the most carefree life of any person I know so I have no doubt that his day was, in fact, no less than awesome. But I hadn’t ever felt that I could describe my day as “awesome ” and that worried me!

Life was good. I was healthy; I’d travelled; I’d had opportunities to study and live in great places; I had a good group of people around me at home and at work.

What was missing?
I concluded it was fun and creativity and direction.
I can’t remember exactly how I reached that conclusion, but I do know I didn’t need a soul-searching tour through India, Europe and Cambodia to get there!

I had always wanted my own business – to create something vibrant, that stood out from the average daily routine and made people happy. So for better or worse, I quit my office job and went in search of a more “awesome” life path.

On my career path to date, I have discovered the art of producing a killer coffee and learned the complexities of buying, establishing and operating businesses. I have learned about people – the good and the bad - and ultimately, it’s brought me to my current position managing Doubletake Café.

As hard as the hospitality industry can be, I love the opportunities it brings to create something special, to make people smile and to bring people together. 

I am hugely lucky that I can now focus my energies towards giving people a simple, fun, creative space where they can enjoy themselves and come away thinking, “I’m so glad I went there for coffee. It’s made my day.”

It makes me feel, well, “awesome.”