Sep 21, 2026 · 40 min · 11 segments
Most cafés don’t have a coffee quality problem—they have a training problem. Kathie Hilberg breaks down what makes barista training effective, when roaster-led education is enough, and when a more…
Kathie HilbergGuest
Andrew TolleyHost
I think that coffee training can feel like it's a waste of money, especially with...
They see... people leave quickly and if they've invested time and training that person um or money or both um they feel like it's a loss of having spent that time and that money training that person um that's still gonna happen unfortunately but people feel more invested in when they actually get invested in with that time and that money and their education and they feel more confident at their jobs if they have that training to help them understand what they should be doing and how to do it well so they don't constantly run into I don't feel comfortable making this drink somebody complained about my drink and I don't know how to fix it And I think overall, training is going to help with those things and help people feel more loyal to those places that invested in them to reinvest back into that place that they're working.
It was a provocative question, but just from a customer perspective, you know, you walk into a cafe and you can see that, like, the barista hasn't been trained, right? And it's not the barista's fault, but the whole vibe of the cafe is off because there's that lack of confidence.
The customer's not happy with the coffee quality and it just costs the business so much money to not invest in training in your staff because coffee quality, because of speed of service, because of the relationships the baristas are able to develop, so...
We're charging for the cost of the coffee, but if the barista doesn't know how to make it well, then the customer isn't getting the quality or at least experiencing the quality that the company is claiming to have in their coffee by charging specialty prices that they should be charging because we want to make sure that everybody in the supply chain is getting paid well.
But the barista is the last opportunity to make that quality shown and like come to fruition in the cup.
That's the same way I feel about decaf is a lot of people are like, it's just decaf.
We should treat all of that coffee with the knowledge that, you know, we're the last step to be able to make it good as baristas.
And we need to be able to like send it out the door with the highest quality that we can.
I think that coffee training can feel like it's a waste of money, especially with...
They see... people leave quickly and if they've invested time and training that person um or money or both um they feel like it's a loss of having spent that time and that money training that person um that's still gonna happen unfortunately but people feel more invested in when they actually get invested in with that time and that money and their education and they feel more confident at their jobs if they have that training to help them understand what they should be doing and how to do it well so they don't constantly run into I don't feel comfortable making this drink somebody complained about my drink and I don't know how to fix it And I think overall, training is going to help with those things and help people feel more loyal to those places that invested in them to reinvest back into that place that they're working.
It was a provocative question, but just from a customer perspective, you know, you walk into a cafe and you can see that, like, the barista hasn't been trained, right? And it's not the barista's fault, but the whole vibe of the cafe is off because there's that lack of confidence.
The customer's not happy with the coffee quality and it just costs the business so much money to not invest in training in your staff because coffee quality, because of speed of service, because of the relationships the baristas are able to develop, so...
We're charging for the cost of the coffee, but if the barista doesn't know how to make it well, then the customer isn't getting the quality or at least experiencing the quality that the company is claiming to have in their coffee by charging specialty prices that they should be charging because we want to make sure that everybody in the supply chain is getting paid well.
But the barista is the last opportunity to make that quality shown and like come to fruition in the cup.
That's the same way I feel about decaf is a lot of people are like, it's just decaf.
We should treat all of that coffee with the knowledge that, you know, we're the last step to be able to make it good as baristas.
And we need to be able to like send it out the door with the highest quality that we can.
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