Barista Training - Learn how to Froth Milk on Both Sides of a coffee machine.
In this video Luke is explaining why it's important for baristas to be using both left and right steam wands on a commercial coffee machine. Luke also gives his tips and advice on practicing to use both and becoming comfortable working on both sides of the machine to aid speed and efficiency.
Learning to use both steam wands and becoming competent is a great way to help out fellow baristas when times get busy and there are lots of orders to work through. Steaming that extra pitcher of milk at the same time will help you pump out those orders much faster.
Hopefully Luke's advice helps you out and you can take your skills to the next level.
Video Transcript
0:00
Come on over here. I want to show you something. This is a
0:02
La Marzocco PB three group machine. It has a steam wand on
0:05
the right and a steam wand on the left and if you're a
0:08
Barista that can only steam on one side, well, you need to
0:12
change and I'm going to teach you how to do that.
0:17
Yes that's right steaming on both sides of a coffee machine
0:21
is the most productive way that you can make quick fast coffee
0:24
and we always get asked like what are the tips and tricks we
0:27
can do well this is definitely something that you as a
0:30
baristas need to be able to do we go into cafes with
0:33
pre-existing baristas that have some great skills but they just
0:36
seem to have this fear that they can only steam on one side
0:39
of a machine and they literally just won't even steam on the
0:43
other side and that causes lots of problems when you might move
0:46
from one cafe to another when you've got the flow of coffee
0:50
coming out to the right in this particular setup because our
0:52
grinders on the left but you job the grinder might be on
0:55
this side and you have to then steam on the left so what I
0:59
want to just go through is is teaching those tricks the
1:02
angles of the jugs and how you can develop yourself to be a
1:05
better all rounder and be more useful for your your coffee
1:09
team and the baristas that you work with so we talk about
1:12
steaming in a lot of our other videos and the placement so I'm
1:15
just going to cover how you can utilize and start to progress
1:18
to the other side so if you're a person that steams on the
1:21
right hand side you will find that your steaming off the edge
1:24
of the machine here and you've got the steamer coming out on a
1:27
bit of a 45 degree angle. So that's pretty easy to work
1:31
with. But if you've got yourself stuck in only being
1:34
able to steam on the left hand side of the machine you can
1:38
just rotate that steamer onto the other side and you're just
1:41
going to replicate the exact same thing. So if you've got a
1:44
fear about steaming on the right side when you're a lefty
1:47
that's all you've gotta do. You can just stand here and still
1:50
steam and just spin the milk the different way. Now if
1:53
you're on the other side it's a bit trickier so what we don't
1:58
want people to do is only be able to steam on the right hand
2:02
side here because it's easy for us to push the steamer on to
2:05
the left hand side and if this grinder was on the other side
2:08
of the machine we would just naturally spin in an
2:11
anti-clockwise direction now that same trick if you bring it
2:15
over to here because you're used to steaming on the right
2:18
side you're going to cause a few problems if we've got
2:21
multiple is working and we want to take this handle out
2:24
after we finish the shot they're going to just in their
2:27
head go oh I need a handle quickly to load up a grind
2:29
they're going to bash that out and you're going to get hot
2:33
milk all over you so you are not only going to risk burning
2:36
yourself with some hot milk but you're also going to slow this
2:39
whole head down and not have it as productive as as it should
2:42
be so I don't want you to be stuck on this right hand side
2:47
so just remember start to get your steamers out on either
2:51
side on this machine on the left hand side it's going to
2:54
spin anti clockwise and on the right hand side it's going to
2:59
spin clockwise and it's the same technique just get
3:02
yourself with the spout inside on the steam arm so that you
3:07
can slide it up and down you want to be on the outside third
3:11
and then the other tip I've got for you is a lot of people
3:14
want to hold the handle or have a really particular place
3:17
underneath where they would be holding the jug which is
3:19
forcing them to either use the left or their right hand so if
3:24
you can try and just hold it underneath you can do that on
3:28
this side or on this side or the left or the right and it
3:34
really won't be too much of an issue you trying to sort of do
3:39
this cross armed thing that a lot of people get themselves
3:41
all tied up in knots trying to do because they're trying to
3:43
use the other side of that they're not used to but also
3:47
try and hang on to the jug with the right hand if you literally
3:49
just have your hand underneath the jug you can use a thumb and
3:52
you can just rest it on your drip tray there and you can you
3:55
can easily have it on the right on the left you still got a
4:00
free hand up top to be able to turn the steam on and off and
4:02
also grab the handle when it gets a little bit too hot so
4:05
that's going to give it nice and steady platform because my
4:08
thumb if you have a look around this side is resting on the
4:12
drip tray there and that's actually what's keeping it nice
4:14
and steady to keep that vortex going perfectly it's not my
4:18
armor up here which can bend at the at the elbow it's really
4:23
about that placement which is going to make it nice and easy
4:25
you can just lower raise and lower that very easy off your
4:29
thumb so hopefully that tip helps you to I guess get rid of
4:33
some of those phobias so if you're a righty go and practice
4:36
on the left side if you're a lefty go jump on the right side
4:40
and just remember to give yourself a little bit of space
4:42
so that you're not purging your wet steam into your dry area so
4:47
just be careful of that because that's the risk you face if you
4:51
are a person that can only work on the side of the machine
4:54
where the grime we definitely want to have a wet side on a
4:57
machine and a dry side and I'm sure in a couple of these
5:01
little clips you'll see Jimmy and I working together we can
5:03
constantly be on either side of the machine and keep the flow
5:07
going and not interrupting either shots or grinding
5:11
handles while we're using the steam on both sides so there
5:14
you go I hope that helps you to understand that you do need to
5:17
conquer that fear that it's okay to steam on the other side
5:20
of the machine and that you can improve and you'll become a
5:23
better team member and a for the future or wherever you're
5:26
working. So, if you got any more questions, hey, please
5:29
leave a comment down below and I'll happily answer those for
5:31
you. Thanks very much for watching guys. We'll catch you
