Do not belittle any job unless you’ve tried being one.

If you think ‘baristas‘ who assembles your favorite cup of coffee are doing a sissy job, you’re absolutely out of your mind. I honestly never appreciated baristas until I became one, just for a day. (Feeling barista! Haha!) Seriously, I have to tell you this. It’s not a joke to be on any barista’s shoes. Aside from making you happy with a cup of joe, these well-trained baristas exude great smiles on their faces to set a bright mood for your drowsy morning.

Thanks to Nestle’s Coffee-mate Barista U, I had a day of experience in becoming a barista – an amateur one. 🙂

Morning grind to CO/OP, our hipster coffee shop location for our barista class care of Coffee-mate. Later, as you scroll down – nope, not yet, I said later – I’ll show you the cute little things to check out at CO/OP. Zoom in a little to my apron and you’ll see my full name – Jillian – sewed perfectly. Oh wait, not so perfect. I prefer my nickname ‘Jill‘, instead of Jillian. Hehe.

Our funky energetic host Eco Dela Sala.

Meet our three good-looking barista professors who taught us how to become like them.

After coffee lessons with the use of Coffee-mate from the professors, we had an individual time-constrained practical exam. I had to do the best I can do. Follow the recipe booklet, remember what the professors taught and apply to my own glass cup.

All along, I thought it was easy as A-B-C to create a cup of Macchiato. When it was my turn to get my hands moving, I was shaking in a way, kind of nervous if I was doing it correctly or not. The most difficult challenge I encountered was the part of creating the coffee art on top of my Creamy Caramel Macchiato. I tried to achieve a large question mark. Is it obvious? The big question mark defines my emotion that time. I had so much questions in mind! Haha! After 2 tries, within a limited time which added extra pressure, I was able to accomplish the task! Wooohooo! Seems like a small achievement. For me, that’s a cup of hard-work!!!

The practical exam isn’t over with just one cup. After our individual exam, we moved on to the group practical exam. Another time-constrained test that we had to hurry up in preparing our assigned drink – Creamy Cookies and Cream Iced Coffee.

With everyone’s efforts, we presented our finished product Teacher’s Pet. To give you more details why we called it Teacher’s Pet, we didn’t add more ingredients or modify the recipe given to us, just like obedient students. Haha! We just know for a fact that the recipe created were made for a reason. It has been tested more than once or twice and the result tastes perfect as how it should be.

Our Creamy Cookies and Cream Iced Coffee didn’t bag any award. Despite that, we know for a fact our group poured out our efforts and tried our very best to be a barista. We are all amateurs and very proud of what we accomplished! At the end of the program, it’s the fun and learning experience we took home with us.

Coffee-mate may have heard our grumbling stomachs, saw our sweat from our foreheads and so they thought of sending us food as our reward for being a barista. 😉 Hehe.

I’ve been telling my blogger friends about my yearning to visit CO/OP since it opened. O and I planned our visit so many times but the full parking outside the shop refrains us from stopping over. Finally, I had the opportunity to look around the hip lifestyle store and cafe.

CO/OP looks like a playground for adults. Other than sitting down for comfort food and coffee, you might spend some bucks on every cute item your eyes could spot.

Coffee-mate brought out the barista in me! Time spent well with a fun event like this!

How about you foodie? Have you tried using Coffee-mate’s #CreamiestEver for your daily dose of coffee?

Share with me your thoughts! 🙂

Pray, Eat and Love.

Cheers,

The Food Scout