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Barista Basics - Articles |
Hygiene in the Café Environment - Bean Scene, Issue 3, 2004
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Hygiene in the Café Environment
Personal hygiene and machine
cleanliness will not only ensure
that your café is socially
acceptable and medically safe
but your coffee will taste better
too, write Matthew Gee and David Gee
Hygiene and the Espresso Machine
Steam Wands
Ever walked into a café, taken a glance at the coffee machine and seen a hundred years of caked-on milk that has calcified onto what you assume was once the skinny steam wand? We have and it literally makes your stomach churn knowing what bacteria probably lies beneath. (By the way, before you get the wrong idea, we're not face mask and rubber glove- wearing cleanliness freaks - it's just that after having a coffee, we don't want to walk out with any nasty diseases!)
The bottom line is that the steam wands on the espresso machine need to be cleaned after EVERY use. Most baristas believe that they are too busy to do this and that the person who cleans down the machine at the end of the night will do it. This is just unacceptable and any owner or manager worth their salt should carefully police the regular cleaning of the steam wands on their espresso machine. The reason that you need to clean the steam wand after each use is that the milk dries on it very quickly after the frothing process and dried milk is incredibly hard to remove once caked on. Caked-on milk will build up and within a couple of hours will begin to harbour bacteria that in turn gets injected into the fresh milk as it is steamed.
Local councils are cracking down on the cleaning of steam wands. They are also looking out for cafés whose baristas go too far in the cleaning of the steam wands by using scouring pads to remove the caked-on milk. Some steam wands are steel plated and have copper unde
| Archive |
 Effective Barista Training, Tea and Coffee Asia, first quarter 2006 |
| Coffee The Australian Way, Tea and Coffee Asia, fourth quarter 2005 |
| In the End, It's All in the Blend, Bean Scene, Issue 10, 2005 |
| Tools of the Trade, Bean Scene, Issue 10, 2005 |
| The Starters Guide To Coffee, Bean Scene, Issue 9, 2005 |
| Cutting Edge Espresso - Bean Scene Magazine, Issue 8, 2005 |
| Postcards from Seattle - Bean Scene Magazine, Issue 8, 2005 |
| Making Great Coffee At Home - Loreal's Club Matrix Magazine, Issue 2, 2004 |
| Buying a Home Espresso Machine - Loreal's Club Matrix Magazine, Issue 3, 2005 |
| Australians v Italians: Who Makes Better Coffee? - Bean Scene Magazine, Issue 6, 2004 |
| The Decline of Tea and the Dethroning of the Flat White - Bean Scene Magazine, Issue 7, 2005 |
| Coffee Indulgence - Loreals' Club Matrix Magazine, Issue 4, 2005 |
| Coffee Appreciation |
| How to be a Gun Barista - Bean Scene, Issue 5, 2004 |
| Affogato with a twist of Mocha - Australian Table, May 2004 |
| Hygiene in the Café Environment - Bean Scene, Issue 3, 2004 |
| Grind It, Baby - Eat Drink Magazine, May 2004 |
| Coffee Myths, Dispelled!, Bean Scene, Issue 4, 2004 |
| Coffee Art - Eatdrink Magazine, June 2004 |
| Questions: Hospitality Magazine, May 2004 |
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