Naomi Falk

Tag: Barista

  • My Life is Coffee Now

    My Life is Coffee Now

    In my last year of college, I was in a creative writing class. It was definitely one of my favorite classes. (Actually, it might be my favorite.) 

    Anyway, the first unit of this class was *shudders in fear* poetry. I am not a poet. But one of the poems that I wrote for this class (which I will not be sharing here because it was quite bad) was called “70% Coffee.” It was about how I felt that everyone who drinks coffee talks about it like it’s some miracle liquid, and they drink it so quickly that they might as well have it injected into their veins. So they would be 70% coffee instead of 70% water. 

    Well. 

    Two years later and I am on my way to being 70% coffee. It’s been two (??) weeks since I got my espresso machine, and I don’t think a day has gone by where I haven’t had an iced latte. I used to almost die if I drank coffee, and now I might almost die if I don’t. 

    My, how the tables have turned. 

    My life revolves around coffee these days. A few people at my Starbucks location quit, so I’ve been working a lot. I practically live at the kiosk. Last week I worked eight days in a row. 

    I was getting flashbacks to my Disney days. 

    On my (rare) days off, I’ve been experimenting with my espresso machine. I can consistently pull good shots on it now (hooray) but I’m still using pre-ground beans (not hooray).

    Still, I’m having fun trying new recipes and flavors. I got a lavender flavored syrup from the store that was actually disgusting, so now it’s just sitting on the counter. But I’ve got some good caramel and vanilla syrups. My favorite thing to make is an iced salted caramel latte with salted caramel cold foam: 

    My drinks are getting unhealthier and unhealthier as I go 

    I’ve also made an iced brown sugar shaken espresso: 

    I didn’t put cinnamon in it though because the cinnamon I found in our cabinet expired in 2023 💀

    a somewhat-okay cappuccino: 

    I’ve made another one since this that looks a lot better–unfortunately I did not take a picture

    and did I mention lots and lots of cold foam: 

    Delicious

    On top of this, I have also been making a lot of blonde caramel lattes for my mom. She likes hot lattes, so this gives me a chance to practice my latte art (right now they just look like vaguely circular blobs). One time I tried to make a heart, and instead I think I invented a new geometric shape. My mom did say it kind of looked like a planet with a ring around it. 

    So there’s that. 

    Maybe I’ve invented a new kind of Rorschach test: “What do you see in the milk blobs?” 

    From an episode of Make Some Noise that features Rorschach tests (one of the best episodes)

    Yesterday, I made a hot chocolate for Joanna. Which doesn’t involve espresso, but I did get to practice milk steaming.

    And she liked it! There’s really not that many ways to mess up hot chocolate, thankfully. 

    I think my favorite thing about coffee is that it’s creative, but it’s also scientific. I like experimenting with different flavor combinations and milk-to-coffee ratios, but also if I don’t tamp the 18 grams of grounds exactly right my espresso machine will betray me. (I’ve tasted a lot of under-extracted espresso lately). 

    This morning, I created a “chocolate covered strawberry” latte. I am sure that this is not original, but it turned out super pretty: 

    🍓🍫🍓🍫🍓🍫

    Overall, I love being a barista. I know I still have a lot to learn, but it’s a very fun kind of learning so I am not burnt out (yet–we’ll see how I’m doing after another straight week of closing shifts). 

    Actually, I do have a deadline for my learning now. My family on my mom’s side is getting together for Thanksgiving this year in Missouri (none of us live in Missouri–well, except Rachel–it just happens to be a great midpoint between Colorado and Alabama), and it has been requested that I bring my espresso machine. So hopefully I can stop under-extracting my shots by November. And maybe I’ll also be able to make some decipherable hearts on lattes.

    A girl can dream. 

    Otherwise, there’s not much else on the update front. In a couple of weeks, some of my family is going to California for a few days. There’s some kind of court reporter/legal videographer conference that my dad is attending, so we get to come along. The downside is that we are flying, so I will not be bringing my espresso machine. Will I survive five days without coffee? I guess we’ll find out. 

    Also, I took a dialect quiz yesterday and got California, so I’m sure I’ll fit right in. 

    Here is the link to the test, in case anyone is interested: mydialect.us

    My other non-coffee update this week is that I made a comment on one of Dropout’s Instagram posts, and it now has over 300 likes. So I’m famous now 😎

    When will Dropout go back to small dumpling prices???

    Anyway, I really haven’t had much time to write this week, so I’m not surprised that this post has turned into just a lot of stuff about coffee. (Seriously, I live at that kiosk now.)

    Maybe next week I’ll have something more to write about. I just saw the trailer for the new Harry Potter series, and I’m developing Thoughts™ about that as we speak. If there’s one constant in the universe, it’s that I will have opinions about TV shows.

    See you next week! 

    Junior says “like and subscribe…or else” 🐈
  • Life Update!

    Life Update!

    Well, it’s official–I’m no longer an employee of The Walt Disney Company. 

    Hey, who put that there? 

    It’s actually been official for a while now. My program ended at the beginning of June, and then I guess I decided I needed a break from blogging. 

    But I’m back!

    I have so much to say about my program–so much, in fact, that I have a whole post planned about my full experience on the Disney College Program. I’ll be exposing everything. 

    Just kidding. 

    In reality, I just have so much to say about my time at Disney (all good things, all good things) that it’s going to have to get its own post. So, look forward to that–if I ever have enough motivation to write it. 

    So today, I’ve decided to just do a little life update. Since starting this blog, I’ve realized that I enjoy writing my life updates much better than putting together Instagram photodumps. This may have something to do with the fact that I never take pictures…

    I guess we’ll start with May/June: the end of my program. 

    During the last week of May, my family came down to help me move out of my apartment.

    That’s right: I’m no longer a resident of Flamingo Crossings Village.

    Now that one’s there on purpose

    When I met up with the rest of my family, one of the first things I realized was that despite being the oldest sister, I am now the 4th tallest (out of five). 

    I guess age order and height order aren’t the same thing anymore…

    During my time as a cast member, I earned a bunch of complimentary Disney tickets, so my family stayed an extra week in Orlando and we got to have a 10-day family vacation. We did four days at Disney and five days at Universal. (I didn’t have tickets to Universal; we just like long vacations.)

    We also had one “rest” day in the middle, except that while my family was resting, I was working my last shift. 

    Anyway, we had a lovely vacation. We started with Disney and did one day in each park. Then, for our Universal days, we did two days at Epic, two days at Islands of Adventure, and one day at Universal Studios.

    You could say it was the Most Magical and Universally Epic trip on Earth. (I think I got all the parks in there…)

    We got lots of pictures, too. I will put some below. 

    “But wait,” you say, “I thought you said you never take pictures!”

    And to that I respond: Yes, you are correct. These are all either taken by Photopass or my mom😂

    These may not be the best pictures from our trip; we have just shy of 500 pictures in our Google Photos album, and I am not about to go sorting through all that. So these are just some fun ones I found. And they are also in random order.

    Anyway, after four Disney days, one last shift at Goofy’s, and then five Universal days…we missed our morning flight back to Colorado.

    If there’s one place the “Disney Magic” doesn’t exist it’s the Orlando International Airport.

    Luckily, we were able to get on another flight later in the day. But it was touch-and-go for a while there.

    So, after like three flights (we had two transfers) we arrived in Colorado Springs. As soon as we walked off the plane, I immediately realized I couldn’t breathe. 

    6,000 feet is a lot after you’ve gotten used to living at sea level. 

    Anyway, after a couple weeks of rest, I started a new job: 

    I’m in my barista era ✨☕

    For the past two months, I’ve been working as a Starbucks barista, and I love it. Which is surprising, because I used to be pretty coffee-averse. Those who know me know I couldn’t handle any amount of caffeine. 

    But, over the last few weeks, I’ve built up my tolerance, and now I drink coffee all the time, lol. Making drinks is so much fun, and I get a lot of fulfillment from it, too. I love connecting with the customers and getting to know all the regulars!

    A few days ago, someone came into the shop and said, “Oh, I’m glad you’re here; you make good drinks!” 

    There have been some crazy days (*cough cough* unicorn frap *cough cough*) but it’s all been mostly fun. And I will say it is also really nice to work at a job where I can pull out my phone for one second and not worry about getting fired lol.

    And where I can take a sick day and not get a “point.”

    And where I can use the same bathrooms as the customers.

    (Also–It took me like three weeks before I started saying “customers” instead of “guests” lol.) 

    One other fun thing that has come from this job is that I bought my own espresso machine!

    Isn’t she lovely

    I spent many hours in the “figuring stuff out” phase, which may or may not have included a can of coffee grounds exploding on the counter. Anyway, I’m still not perfect at it, but I did successfully make one iced salted caramel latte!

    I know for sure there’s other things that I could give updates about, but if I wrote it all now I would have nothing to write about for the next few weeks! And I really want to start blogging regularly again lol.

    But I can’t leave off without first showing the best part of the summer: being reunited with my cats. 

    If there’s one thing I do take pictures of, it’s the cats. 

    Ok, now I can finish this post.

    I’m looking forward to a lot of things: the beginning of fall (and the fall Starbucks menu!), the holiday season, getting to celebrate my birthday at home for the first time in like four years…

    And hopefully continuing to blog through it all! 

    If you’ve read this far, thank you! I really do appreciate my blog readers 😊 I hope to get back to my regular schedule of Blog Sundays, so stay tuned! And subscribe, if the ramblings of a 22-year-old English-major-turned-barista sounds like something you’d enjoy. 

    See you next week!

    P.S. One more update:

    My family and I all got subscriptions to the New York Times Games app.

    My favorite game is the Spelling Bee.

    It definitely doesn’t ragebait me at all.