In this practical, hands-on class, you’ll learn how to prepare espresso using a commercial espresso machine and grinder. Designed for both aspiring baristas and coffee enthusiasts, this session focuses on giving you real experience with the tools and techniques used in cafes every day. We begin with a conversation about what espresso is—how it’s defined, what people expect from it, and why those expectations can vary across different coffee cultures or just cafe to cafe. Then, we’ll cover the basics…

SEED TO CUPPING COFFEE TRAINING OVERVIEW Seed to cupping training introduces coffee. It covers coffee's origins, processing, and logistics. The course includes info on the coffee tree, seed, and varieties. It also gives a broad overview of the roasting process. In addition, the leader explains Blueprint Coffee’s vision for buying green coffee and building relationships at origin. The seed to cupping training concludes with a cupping, the industry-wide method for tasting and evaluating coffee. While we offer free cuppings twice…

Whether you're a seasoned barista, a cafe regular, or someone just curious about coffee, this class is an invitation to explore and delve deeper into what makes specialty coffee different from the commodity market and why that difference matters on multiple levels of the supply chain. We begin with the core values that shape Blueprint’s approach to specialty coffee: intentionality, transparency, quality, and care. From there, we’ll follow the journey of coffee from farm to roastery to coffee bar, exploring…

ADVANCED ESPRESSO TRAINING OVERVIEW This Advanced Espresso training course approaches espresso recipes with tasting exercises and guided manipulation. Students will approach and obtain a deeper understanding of espresso recipes than what was covered in the Introduction to Espresso training. In Introduction to Espresso, we learned how to pull a shot, the basics of espresso recipes, and began to approach “dialing-in” and troubleshooting our espresso. In Advanced Espresso we begin to consider what exactly we are extracting from our coffee, how…