A Coffee Course at Small Batch

© Small Batch Coffee

I am a keen coffee drinker, I have at least a cup a day and usually start my day with a coffee. So when Small Batch invited me to one of their coffee courses I jumped at the chance. Small Batch is a popular coffee brand in Brighton & Hove. Anyone that lives in the area & drinks coffee will be familar with their coffee & logo. There are eight Small Batch coffee shops in total and their coffee is also sold in other cafes and pubs throughout the city, an indication of its popularity! 

© Our Seaside Baby

There are a number of courses and they are all held in the 'Training Lab' located in the underground bank vault in the Seven Dials store.  

Small Batch Courses include:

Home Brew - 90 mins, £40 
Home Barista/Wholesale - 3 hours, £95
Latte Art - 3 hours, £115
Barista Skills Foundation SCAE - 1 day, £200 (+ £50 certification)
Barista Skills Intermediate - 2 days, £400 (+ £150 certificate fee) 

All courses are run by the lovely and very knowledgeable Laura. I had difficulty choosing which course to take as they all sound great. On the day, as it was just me, Laura kindly taylored the layout to my tastes so we did a combination of the Home Barista, Latte Art and Home Brew. Now, I have had a lot of coffee in my life and I have used an Italian style Moka pot, made Arabic coffee on the stove and my favourite form of making coffee is in a cafetiere. I like drinking good coffee. I thought I knew my stuff or at least a little but I was very wrong! Laura is a coffee genius and the course with her was eye-opening. 

© Small Batch

The Course Summary:

- The origins of coffee.

- Factors to consider when brewing coffee. This includes the importance of the coffee dose, water quantity, temperature and extraction time.

- How to taste real coffee and how different factors effect the taste. Laura drinks all of her coffee without milk, eek. This did take a while to get used to but I came to appreciate what pure coffee tastes like. 

- How to use an espresso machine. This included grinding the coffee and the process of using a coffee machine.

- How to make a latte with a beautiful heart on top. 

*********

I learnt so much from the course. For example, I didn't realise filtered water and a small change in water quantity could make such a big difference to the taste of coffee. I had no idea that making the heart shape in a cup of coffee is a big skill and it took me several tries to reach the point where I could form a heart (see photo above). I didn't realise that using a big cafe style coffee machine takes a lot of skill. I didn't know how many factors you have to consider when making that perfect cup of coffee! Many thanks to Laura and Small Batch for a wonderfully informative course & for lots of delicious cups of coffee!

If you fancy doing a coffee course or just want a cup of coffee visit Small Batch next time you're in Brighton, I recommend it :) 

 Please note: All words and opinions are my own

Are you a coffee drinker? Have you ever taken a coffee course?