Tea Lattes Like There's No Tomorrow!

Today was pretty crazy. Hordes of people came in, ordering tea lattes like there was no tomorrow. The ENB (espresso-based beverages and regular ole' brewed coffee) station was pretty much overwhelmed, swamped by tea latte orders by the fives, sixes, sevens and eights, and there was but one portafilter to work it all through with (we seriously need another for tea lattes!).

Most of the day I was stationed at the ENB, doing all those tea lattes and espresso based beverages in between. Another barista would come and help me by pulling shots while I steamed milk and mixed and finished beverages. I'll be honest with ya, I've only been on the job a few weeks, and while I've gotten pretty comfortable with most of the beverage preparations, I'm not that fast. But I ain't slow either. I just do my best to make sure that the drink I'm making meets the set standards I was taught and nothing less.

That's why I got seriously pissed when this veteran barista starts getting on my case to go faster. I told him I was doing the best I can, and going as fast as I can, and he says that's not good enough. I say that I can't do what's not possible. I could only do what I could to the best of my ability. And this guy goes "that's no excuse". Douchebaggery! *fingerwag*

This is the same guy who told me to slow down and try to focus, when he saw me making mistakes when I tried to do things too fast. Now he tells me to go faster than I realistically can... which will likely make me make more mistakes and thus slowing down everything in effect.

Well, I just decided to shrug it off. What's he gonna do, crack a bullwhip to make me work faster? Shyeah. (Truth is, dude's actually a pretty cool guy. I guess the situation just got to him and it stressed it even more that a newb barista [me] wasn't working as fast as he would have liked).

If I work hard enough, I think I can get to be as good as that guy someday. But right now, I'm just me.

Anyway, I completely missed lunch due to the hordes of people coming in. We also ran out of milk, and we had to ask other nearby stores for help. Everything was running low and the counters were a mess. Paper cups, cup lids, cup sleeves, you name it. We were also seriously undermanned, which made matters worse. People were piling up at the pick up counter demanding that their drinks be served yesterday, and complaining that they've waited x number of minutes and so. We just tried our best to reassure them that we were working as fast as we could on their orders, but it didn't seem to satisfy them.

Things even got so crazy that at one point, some people just left and didn't claim their orders, just leaving them on the pickup counter. Well, those go on the wastage form, and I hate having to be the one to report stuff like that. Makes it look like it was my fault (which of course, sucks, anyway you look at it). I also prepared some tea lattes that on of my finishers (some baristas rotated in and out as my starters/finishers) didn't finish for some reason, and those too went on the wastage form (again, I hate being the guy who reports these things).

Oh well, it's a learning experience. I just hope that the next time I have to "learn", we're not understaffed so that we'll be well-equipped to deal with and satisfy everybody's orders.

s{k} out.


Other stuff today:

• My Great-grandma died this morning.
• My throat infection seems to have gone away. Hooray for garlic as an antibiotic.
• ...Still got to do something about this lack of energy, though.
  

Shot Log:
Good Shots: I lost count.
Bad Shots: 6.
Bad shots were mostly over-extracted ones. I'd rather go over than under, though. Need to lighten up a bit on tamping.