How can you learn more about coffee? Which coffee courses and coffee schools can we recommend as coffee professionals? Many turn their coffee hobby into a profession. What opportunities are there for career changers? We cover these topics in this article and also give you tips on how to improve your own ability to taste – your sensory skills.
Here we have compiled for you how a path through coffee training can go as an example.
Starting your coffee training
How can you learn more about coffee? For example, in our blog, in our videos or also in the very good blogs by Backyard Coffee or Coffeeness. Arne from Coffeeness focuses primarily on the world of fully automatic coffee machines, but in individual articles also covers broader topics, such as caffeine content in coffee drinks. Wolfram from Backyard Coffee writes in-depth background articles and some of his article series summarize coffee topics better than anyone else on the internet in German or English.
With limited travel options, it's easier to attend courses in the digital space. With our Home Barista Online Course, we have created a course consisting of over 30 individual videos. In short units, we explain in this course how to make good coffee at home with an espresso machine.
Coffee schools in Switzerland
Of course, the best way to really learn a lot about coffee is to attend a course at a good coffee school. Of course, we'd be delighted if you visit us at our Academy and take one or more courses with us. Coffee courses and coffee schools are becoming increasingly available, and we can recommend several of them to you wholeheartedly.
In Switzerland, courses by Philipp Henauer from the Henauer roastery are definitely worth a recommendation. Philipp is an experienced course instructor and very well trained himself. He is "the coffee master maker" in Switzerland. In recent years, Philipp has guided many championship participants to victories at barista, latte art and brewers cup championships. In French-speaking Switzerland, Ennio Canterigani with Swiss Latte Art Master Grégory Raymond at his side at the Académie du Café is a good address.
Gloria Pedroza offers training and certification as a Q-Arabica and Robusta Grader. All of Gloria's sensory courses are worth visiting, as are the green coffee courses.
International coffee schools
In Austria, courses by Johanna Wechselberger and Goran Huber are really no secret tip. Both have been involved in training for many years, were Austrian barista state champions and have experience as roasters and Cup of Excellence judges. Most people have probably read Johanna's books. Benjamin Graf is a coffee trainer of the "next generation". He is a Q-Grader, has attended several courses with us and participated in the Coffee Farm Training at Santa Rita, among other things.
We appreciate looking beyond our own horizons. This led us in our continued education to John Thompson in Scotland. John runs Coffee Nexus there, is a coffee consultant, Cup of Excellence head judge and helped develop the sensory and green coffee modules of the SCA.
In the sensory and roasting area, many course participants travel internationally to Copenhagen to Coffee Mind. The courses have a rather analytical and scientific approach and are therefore more suitable for some participants than others.
Gwilym Davies and Petra Veselá offer coffee courses in the Czech Republic. Gwilym was himself a world champion and runs together with Petra a small but fine coffee school.
Coffee schools and courses in Germany
With recommendations for coffee courses in Germany, we can really only burn our fingers. There are simply too many courses, schools and trainers. And as we write this, we realize more than ever that we should be attending far more courses from our colleagues, simply to be more in touch.
Without hesitation, we recommend you courses at Backyard Coffee in Frankfurt. They have just undergone a complete renovation to prepare the course rooms with HEPA filters for the corona era.
Also in this part of Germany: Paul Bonna from and with the Kaffeekommune in Mainz. Paul is a pioneer of the German specialty coffee scene. With his café, he realizes his high standards every day. The Kaffeekommune offers tastings, repairs espresso machines, roasts and provides barista training.
The Roestbar Coffee School with Erna Tosberg in Münster is part of the roestbar cafés. Erna is a two-time German barista champion and one of the most successful German baristas at world championships.
Marc Czogalla from the Bonn Coffee School we got to know in Benjamin's advanced brewing courses. Marc was also with us in roasting courses. Marc offers various trainings from the SCA Coffee Diploma.
We ourselves have never attended a course by Thomas Brinkmann from the Hannover Coffee School. Thomas and his courses have a good reputation. In addition to SCA courses, Thomas also offers courses in cooperation with the chamber of industry and commerce.
In Hamburg, Andrea Jacobsen is active as a coffee trainer. She trains private individuals and restaurants. Andrea completed the SCA Professional course with us.
Not only in terms of latte art courses is Christian Ullrich recommended. The 2014 Latte Art World Champion gives regular courses, provides consultation and is also available for private courses.
What makes good barista courses?
Good barista courses are characterized by solid foundational work in theory and practice. One might think that in coffee everything has long been researched and hardly any changes to the state of knowledge are being made. The opposite is the case!
In recent years, progress in coffee has accelerated rapidly. Universities and companies have increased research budgets and activities. New processing methods are changing the taste of coffee. The way coffee is roasted has become more diverse. The quality of green coffee has improved. Espresso machines can now run temperature profiles in addition to pressure profiles and grinders indicate the size of the particles. Only those who stay on top of things, constantly work with new materials and also look internationally can keep up as a barista trainer.
This is also where the wheat is separated from the chaff and good barista courses differ in quality. Showcase knowledge and technique from 2010 is old hat today. When choosing barista courses and schools, we recommend you check the quality of the accessible content. Roestbar, for example, has written a book. The roastery Backyard Coffee, already mentioned twice, also has a YouTube channel.
We have a total of 4 Q-Graders working with us and ensuring quality and teaching sensory skills.
Coffee sensory: Practice tasting better
The ability to precisely assess coffee quality is the most important basis of training for both home coffee aficionados and ambitious baristas or café operators. Starting from the assessment of an espresso, from tasting a new roast, changes can be made.
In our courses, we repeatedly find that especially with espresso, participants confuse acidity and bitterness. If this confusion occurs here, it's difficult to make the right decisions when adjusting the grinder.
Good coffee sensory provides confidence. It is your own feedback tool and helps you make corrections and leads to a much steeper learning curve.
We advise all coffee enthusiasts: attend sensory courses. Participate in public coffee tastings by roasteries. Seek out conversations with other coffee enthusiasts about coffees. Note down tasting notes and work your way piece by piece into the world of sensory. This is not only exciting when it comes to coffee, but also opens up new worlds when tasting other products. Last but not least: attend the sensory courses by Nadja. In her courses, she teaches you the language that enables you to put your sensory impressions into words.
Coffee as a profession – even for career changers
The coffee industry is a diverse field and offers numerous career perspectives from cultivation to the finished product. We know many hundreds of coffee professionals and almost all of them have made a "career change". Coffee makers have studied business administration, trained as chefs, are Islamic scholars, carpenters or economists. Often the path into coffee comes through working as a barista in a café. Through courses and coffee championships, knowledge is deepened. If one is successful at championships or patient in repetition, recognition by the scene and industry follows automatically.
Of course, you can also enter the coffee industry through a degree in food science and this happens regularly in larger companies such as coffee roasteries that are connected to supermarket chains. But food science is not the same as coffee science. As a rule, graduates leave universities with only rudimentary expertise in coffee (which you can sometimes also taste in the coffee). But good coffee skills require practical experience and continuous practice – exactly what a barista from a café bar or an enthusiastic home barista brings.
With this practical knowledge supplemented by accompanying training from a good coffee school, the world is open at roasteries, in development or in quality assurance of coffee merchants. Good baristas are also sought after everywhere. And last but not least, many successful café and roastery startups also show that your own venture in the coffee sector represents an interesting and varied field of work.
Why we don't think much of SCA certificates
As coffee professionals, we should be able to take all SCA modules. However, for about two years now, we have discontinued all courses as part of the SCA Coffee Diploma. There are course areas in barista, roasting, sensory, green coffee and filter coffee, each at the levels of introduction, intermediate and professional.
The SCA is the international Specialty Coffee Association. The European SCAE merged with the American SCA a few years ago. Since then, the organization has become increasingly alienated from us. Since the headquarters is in America, American boycott regulations also applied to the course program, such as a course ban for people from Iran. For us, that's a no-go.
Course participants incur enormous certification costs, while at the same time the SCA internationally does nothing to strengthen national recognition of certifications. And authorized course instructors also send a lot of money to the SCA international for their authorization, but create the course content, handouts, etc. themselves. We no longer support this imbalance. Instead, we prefer to offer cheaper courses, save ourselves a lot of administrative effort and design course content in a way that makes sense for the Swiss market and for the respective course participants.
