With coffee drinks and coffee houses as popular as they’ve ever been and the competition for qualified baristas at an all time high, it’s extremely important that you give yourself an edge if you are planning to hit the job market for coffee specialists and baristas. Think about it. If you were a hiring manager would you prefer to hire someone with little or no experience or someone who knows how to use the equipment, understands how coffee flavors blend together, and may even be able to create art with creamer?

You can prepare yourself for a career in the coffee shop hospitality market when you take part in a high quality bar course that is designed around coffee. Even if you aren’t planning to make coffee your career, you can benefit from a bar course. You’ll learn the basics of the industry as well as get hands on experience making espresso-based drinks using professional equipment. When it’s all said and done you’ll know the tricks of the trade and certainly be able to make one mean cup of coffee.

A good coffee themed bar course will start by introducing to the history of the coffee industry from the bean to the processing. You’ll discover the differences between the various types of beans and understand how variations in beans and their roasting makes them better suited for various drinks. You’ll get hands on experience creating espresso-based drinks such as cappuccino, macchiato, and café latte on the very same equipment used in the top coffee bars. Your bar course will also introduce you to techniques that allow you to express your creativity. This includes high end skills such as milk texturing and creating poured and spooned patterns.

So you’ve decided that you are ready to sign up! Now what? Well, now you can look for a coffee bar course. But what should you look for? The first thing to look for is the type of individuals who will be instructing you. The best coffee bar courses have professional instructors who have experience both working in the actual industry as well as teaching. This ensures that your teacher can give you practical real world insight into what it is like to be a professional barista. Even if you don’t plan to use your bar course to get a job, having professional instructors means that your learning will be enriched with insights that just can’t be had from book learning.

Coffee bar courses also make an excellent gift. A good professional bar course company will be happy to help you arrange for a gift certificate. Your friend or family member will never forget having the chance to become immersed in the world of espresso based coffee drinks. If you are shopping for yourself, this is the perfect class to take with a friend as well as on your own. You’ll get up close and personal with the world of espresso down to the sampling. You are certain to have an entirely new experience that you will appreciate for a very long time. What could be better than applying for a coffee bar job with the confidence of knowing that you are already an expert?