Brewing Like a Barista
Step behind the espresso bar and master the core skills of specialty coffee. Learn to balance extraction, dial in rich espresso, steam velvety microfoam, and build classic café drinks with confidence.
Like Duolingo, but for Brewing Like a Barista. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Extraction and the Espresso Machine and Milk Craft and the Café Menu. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Brewing Like a Barista
- Bright, sour compounds dissolve almost immediately when hot water hits coffee grounds
- Sweet flavors extract in the middle phase of the brew
- Heavy, bitter tasting notes extract last after prolonged contact
- A sour or puckering brew means water flowed past grounds too quickly, missing the sugars
- An astringent, harsh, or ashy cup means the water pulled out too many late-stage bitter compounds
- A well-extracted cup hits the sweet middle ground between sour and bitter
- Finely ground coffee packs closer together, slowing water down and boosting contact area
- Coarsely ground coffee creates large gaps that let water rush through quickly
- Shifting to a finer grind pulls water flow back to a slower pace, giving sweetness time to extract
- Brew ratio controls concentration—how light and watery or rich and concentrated the coffee feels
- Grind size regulates contact time and extraction balance—adjusting between sourness and bitterness
- Changing coffee bean weight to water weight changes strength, not the fundamental flavor balance
- Dark roast beans puff up and weigh less per scoop than dense, compact light roast beans
- Scoops measure bean volume, which varies dramatically between roast levels and origins
- A digital scale measures actual weight in grams, guaranteeing the exact same amount of coffee goes into the brewer
- Espresso uses high pump pressure to force hot water through tightly packed coffee
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Brewing Like a Barista the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
When do the sweet flavors start dissolving into your brew?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
Where Brewing Like a Barista takes you
- 1
Extraction and the Espresso Machine
- Balancing Sour and Bitter Flavors
- Dialing in the Espresso Shot
- 2
Milk Craft and the Café Menu
- Steaming Silky Microfoam
- Constructing the Classic Drink Menu
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Brewing Like a Barista is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Brewing Like a Barista today.
Download Tomo, search Brewing Like a Barista, and play your first lesson in under a minute.