Coffee City
Melissa Allison follows the world's biggest coffee-shop chain and other Seattle caffeine purveyors.
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Baristas talk about coffee, pay and passion
Posted by Melissa Allison
Check out my story on baristas from yesterday's paper, which includes snippets of much longer interviews. In trying to give a decent overview of the profession, I used just a sliver of what I learned from each person.
I don't know the answer to one commenter's question about how baristas might ever make more money. Right now, they make $9 to $10 an hour plus tips, which as Sam Lewontin says at WhyNotCoffee.com, is a starting wage for most food industry jobs and does not reflect the years of training and experience that go into barista work. Some baristas are thinking about other business models for cafes that will be interesting to watch.
Here's a dissection of the story at Sprudge.com, whose Zachary Carlsen I interviewed for the story and who always has something interesting to say.
(The photo by The Seattle Times' Alan Berner is the reflection of barista Andrew Milstead of Urban Coffee Lounge in Kirkland, who's placed high in barista competitions lately.)
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