In the United States, coffee sales are increasing 20% annually and currently account for 8% of the $18 billion domestic coffee market. With half of the American population – 150 million people – drinking coffee-based beverages like espresso, lattes, and cappuccinos, the current market of 24,000+ coffee shops is anticipated to expand to well over 50,000 in the coming years. Though these numbers paint a picture of massive growth in the world’s largest coffee consuming market (as well as in other countries), whether or not any particular coffee shops succeed or fail is due, in large part, to the person behind the coffee bar that is actually making the drinks – the barista.
Looking back to 1982, when Paul Hofmann first mentioned the word, stating in Rome, The Sweet Tempestuous Life that: “A good barista can simultaneously keep an eye on the coffee oozing from the espresso machine into a battery of cups, pour vermouth and bitters..and discuss the miserable showing of the Lazio soccer team,” we can see that, though there has been a social/entertainment aspect involved, the term was not originally applied strictly to coffee bars.
Essentially (and somewhat confusingly), our word is a direct importation of the Italian word barista, meaning “bartender” and coming from the word bar, which the Italians first borrowed from English, and the suffix -ista, which denotes a person’s particular area of skill.
And while the word barista is of generic gender and may be applied as a job title equally to a woman and a man, the typical Italian barista is usually a man. But furthermore, in the Italian language the word has gender differences in its plural form, the plural for masculine or mixed sex bartenders is baristi and for feminine ones – bariste, while the English native plural form is baristas.
Being a barista is more than just pouring a cup of coffee or making a push-button “flavoured latte.” As a 1999 article in New Zealand’s The Dominion Post mentions, “New barista undertake an intensive training programme which covers the philosophy, history, and science of coffee, and the psychology of service.”
While most baristas learn the basics of their craft via on-the-job training, there is also a certain amount of product knowledge involved: some baristas attend a barista school to gain advanced knowledge of the craft, which has developed its own culture and even promotes international competitions.
