Coffee classes a big hit in Cardiff

21st June 2011

Coffee connoisseurs are being offered the chance to become budding baristas, (expert coffee makers) thanks to a new scheme dreamt up by a Cardiff tea room.

Waterloo Gardens Teahouse in Penylan has launched classes for wannabe baristas and followed up a sold-out lesson in January with another in June which was hugely in demand. Plans are already under way to arrange more courses, according to a South Wales Echo report. .

Waterloo Gardens Teahouse owner Kas Ali told the paper: “We’re going to have the classes hopefully every two months, and when people are happy to come to events like this it’s brilliant.

“We’re creating a kind of community and getting people talking. The courses are perfect for someone hoping to set up a coffee shop, and we are happy to share our knowledge to help them do that. The only way we will get a healthy cafe community is to see quality coffee shops open and set us a challenge to improve.”

Kas runs the course alongside Cardiff’s Caffeine Kid, Will Corby, who is the best barista for the south-east of England, according to the UK Barista Championships.

The lessons include tips on how to make an espresso, how to clean an espresso machine and how to make versions of the drink that are popular throughout the world, such as cappuccino, latte and a flat white.

Students in the class, who include coffee lovers and prospective coffee shop owners, are shown how to grind the coffee beans, load a porta-filter (the handle that goes onto the machine containing ground coffee), and how long to let an espresso brew through the machine. The two coffee experts want to spread the message that drinking coffee is actually something of a fine art, and that a jar of instant just doesn’t do the job.

In fact, it is just as detailed a process as the art of wine-tasting, with the many varieties of coffee, coffee farms, beans, aromas and flavours to consider.

Will said: “Very few coffee shops spend a long time thinking about the coffee they make and they can buy any old milk to go with the espresso. The lessons give people a bit of information to understand quality coffee.”

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