The Barista's Craft
Move beyond basic button-pressing and master the levers of espresso extraction and milk texture. Learn to diagnose flavor flaws by taste, eliminate channeling through deliberate puck prep, and steam glossy microfoam every time.
Like Duolingo, but for The Barista's Craft. 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 Controlling the Extraction and Texturing Milk and Building Drinks. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Barista's Craft
- Extending liquid yield extracts more sugars and bitterness to quickly balance acidity
- Changing grind size requires re-purging and resets puck flow resistance unpredictable ways
- Liquid yield alters the extraction yield percentage much faster than changing burr spacing
- Contact time is merely a metric showing how much the coffee puck resists water flow
- Taste balance overrides rigid clock targets like the conventional 25-to-30-second rule
- High-clarity light roasts often taste best at faster flow times with lower puck resistance
- Sour under-extraction calls for increasing the brew ratio to pull more balancing solids
- Astringent over-extraction calls for cutting liquid output earlier to omit bitter compounds
- Dialing in mouthfeel without shifting flavor balance is accomplished by fine-tuning grind size
- Dark syrupy drops emerge first as concentrated acids and oils dissolve into the cup
- Flow transitions into a thick, striping stream of rich hazelnut crema as solids extract
- Puck resistance collapses as solubles deplete, triggering rapid blonde flow at the end
- Grinder chutes hold retained grounds from the prior setting that contaminate new doses
- Pulling a shot immediately after an adjustment tastes like a mix of two different grind sizes
- Purging a few grams clears the grind chamber so changes reflect accurately in the basket
- Water rushes through fissures, over-extracting bitter compounds along the paths
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 The Barista's Craft 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.
Why is shifting your grind size often slower than simply adjusting your liquid yield?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
Where The Barista's Craft takes you
- 1
Controlling the Extraction
- Dialing In by Ratio and Grind
- Puck Preparation and Channeling
- 2
Texturing Milk and Building Drinks
- Microfoam Physics and Steaming
- Drink Architecture and Pour Calibration
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
The Barista's Craft 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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Bridge the gap between basic espresso pulling and cafe-quality consistency. Master extraction variables, diagnose channeling by taste and flow, and steam silky microfoam every time.
Dialing In Espresso and Milk
Bridge the gap between basic button-pressing and barista craft. Learn to diagnose extraction defects by sight and taste, manipulate grind and yield variables, and steam silky microfoam with repeatable speed.
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Learn the essential mechanics of pulled espresso and silky steamed milk. Dial in balanced shots, texture microfoam properly, and pour classic cafe drinks with confidence.
Espresso Extraction and Barista Technique
Move beyond basic coffee recipes to actively controlling espresso extraction. Master grind-to-yield dialing, puck preparation physics, microfoam steaming, and sensory troubleshooting.
Start The Barista's Craft today.
Download Tomo, search The Barista's Craft, and play your first lesson in under a minute.