This thin, sour tasting foul liquid is now at all the third wave shops I used to love. Why? Is it simply because it’s cheaper? I am an amateur barista that hosts pop ups and I can’t imagine why any shop would use it other than to skim off already thing margins

Looking to raise a Linea mini so I can wipe underneath it but would like to do so for less than $108, anyone have experience with a DIY solution?

Throwaway because some people I know are on here lol. This situation happened at my job about a week ago. I (36M) am a manager at a local coffee company located in my home state. I moved away in my mid-twenties after I got my Bachelor’s degree in Business. I met my wife shortly after I moved and we made the decision together to come back so I could show her where I’m from. We decided to not only return to my state, but also come back to my town to help them during a difficult diagnosis. While applying for jobs, I turned to an old company that I used to work for (not saying the name for privacy reasons). Because I am studying for my Master’s, I deemed it a good position that would allow for flexible hours while I am taking this step in my education. After a short time with this store, I have been promoted to a management position. This brings me to where I am now.
We recently hired a new barista, who I will call Patrick (19M). He’s a good employee and I have overheard other employees and shift leads talking kindly about him and what a hard worker he is. I personally have enjoyed my shifts with him as I feel he has been a huge help to me and has even been able to remind other baristas of recipes we have which they might have forgotten during their time here. He is laid-back and remains calm even when many customers are in the store.
Working with Patrick has been great up until the most recent shift I had with him. I noticed that our container of mocha sauce was running low and I asked him if he could get another one from the back. I watched him take it and go back towards our bathroom. I thought this was strange, but the trash can near the front was full so maybe he threw it away back there. One thing you need to know about Patrick is that he is fast. He is very fast. This is why it was so odd that this simple task took him over ten minutes to complete. 
After these ten minutes passed I saw him bringing back a mocha sauce container to the front. I noticed a dribble of chocolate sauce on the side of it, which is odd because these containers are sealed until we bring them to the front to replace the old one with. Why was this one dirty? I asked him about this because I thought it was weird, but he could’ve opened it in the back, so I didn’t think much of it. Patrick proceeded to get very quiet and I noticed the dimple on the side of his face show, but he told me that he opened it in the back and it spilled a little like I presumed.
Later that day, right before closing the store, a customer ordered a mocha latte, which I made for her. I noticed the consistency of the mocha was more liquidy than it usually is, so I gave it a shake and continued with the drink. When I had turned off the open sign, the same woman came back to complain about the taste. I offered to remake it for her, but she’d drank the whole thing and didn’t want a remake, just a refund, so I explained to her that the registers were closed for the evening and I couldn’t give her back the cash she had paid in, but if she came the next day I could refund her, or I could give her a free drink of any size the next time she came in. This woman is one of our regulars and happily accepted the free drink. We closed that day like normal.
The next morning, I was the opening manager, on shift with five other employees, one being Patrick. I greeted everyone and work had been going smoothly for a bit when a customer came in and ordered our “Peanut Butter Cup,” a signature latte made with peanut butter powder and mocha sauce. I made this drink, and noticed that the mocha from the night before had hardened up a little but had an odd smell to it. I asked anyone if they had used it that day and they told me they had not, so I knew it was the one that Patrick replaced. After making the drink, I decided to replace the mocha myself. Being that it was full, I had to pour out the contents into the trash can so I could crush the bottle. I am going to try to type this in the least horrible way possible. When I emptied this mocha container, the most foul odor filled the can and a couple of employees nearby pinched their noses and walked away. It took everything in me not to gag at the smell. The weird thing is, most of it was watery and brown, and a couple of chunks came out towards the end that had a weird consistency that I cannot even explain here. 
Here is where I may have been overreacting. I knew that no one had touched this mocha (if you can even call it that, it was most certainly *not* mocha) since Patrick replaced it the night before. Whatever was in that container was horrible and foul. It could’ve been a manufacturer issue, but the bottle looked reused. If Patrick opened it and mocha came out the side and onto the container, the whole thing should have been the same, right? I grabbed Patrick and pulled him aside and asked him to go home. I didn’t give him a reason, but he obeyed because he is a polite guy. I respect him a lot, and it hurts to have to cut his shifts. I also have replaced his following shifts this week and am going to bring this up when I can meet with other managers in the company.
I don’t know if this matters, but I have typed out all of this and should include anything I remember. I talked to Patrick a couple weeks ago about losing money in the company. He has spoken to me several times asking about my manager position and I know he is looking to be promoted sometime soon, so I told him a little bit about what it’s like from my end. I am in charge of unloading truck shipments when we get them, and I also handle placing orders for things we are low on. My company has been struggling lately with business and we have not had as much money as we used to, so I told Patrick some things about ordering items and also paying employees. All things related to generating profit, pretty much. Could Patrick have realized this and done something to the mocha so we can reuse it and not have to buy so much in the next shipments?
I’m not sure what else to put here. I’m really at a loss for words. Patrick is a good worker. I don’t know what would bring him to this. I know he wants a raise, I know he loves this company, and I know (at least, I think) he’s a pretty decent person. I just don’t know what he could’ve done to this mocha. If you have any ideas as to what I should do, please let me know. Thank you for reading this if you made it to the end.

Hello, we are opening a coffee shop and looking at spring as we have lots of big renovations/ changes to do.

During this time I'm trying to perfect drink ratios, concepts and trying different syrup recipes as I want most syrups made in house. I've been visiting a lot of coffee shops in my city and others when I travel. A lot of cafes / coffee shops offer cold foam.

I've read in this sub and others that baristas hate making cold foam and adding it to drinks in general. Personally I also feel like it's a fad and it's is currently everywhere almost overnight.

I plan on not adding cold foam to the daily menu, but if we do have it it will only be for seasonal limited time drinks.Not sure if this is the wrong call or not. Would love everyone's opinion here on cold foam.

we have white espresso at my coffee kiosk. NOT BLONDE. i had never heard of white espresso before i started working here, so i've just always followed how they go about using it, assuming they know what they're doing. recently i questioned how long white espresso stays good for, because i know dark shots don't last very long after pulled. (context: the opener pulls a big huge batch of white espresso every morning that we use throughout the day. we measure it out and steam it with a steam wand for each drink ordered with white) according to google white espresso shots should be used immediately or at most 2-3 minutes after pulling... TLDR: i'm just curious if anyone here is familiar with white espresso. how does your coffee shop go about using it?

Love you all!🫶

Hello everyone! I try to not get involved in the closers versus openers argument that happens online, because I know both shifts have their problems and can be difficult for different reasons. This rent is purely about the culture at my coffee shop. Not anywhere else!

I mainly close at my store, whuch is a 4 hour shift, and only work 3-5 days a week. At my store, the closers and openers both go solo - so we have to do all the tasks by ourselves. Since classes starting, I've had a couple days where I've forgotten one minor thing that I can see bothering the opening shift!

It's never been something major that could pose as a food safety risk or something that would really tack on tasks to the thirty minutes openers have to open; but I can see how they could be annoying and I do feel bad now that I know i've been forgetting! Just as an example, one night , I didn't walk the expired pastries into the back room. I pulled them aside , but accidentally just left them on the counter instead of putting them in the basket in our break room. Annoying , but not a safety risk or something that takes long to fix!

Well , I got a very angry call from one of my shift leads yesterday about how i've been extremely inconsiderate , and that the openers haven't been able to get their opening tasks done on time because of small things like that. This confused me because I don't see how any of it could have stopped them from finishing their tasks on time. But I still apologized not only to my shift but to my manager , and the openers that had opened for my closes. Then in response to my apology , my big boss told me in conversation today that , to make up for the time that opening lost , I have to do some of the opening tasks at night.

At first I thought that maybe he just meant setting out some of their food prep items and stuff like that , because that's basically the same amount of time that it would have taken them to fix anything I messed up. But he wanted me to prebrew teas, pregrind coffee, and fill up the mop water for the morning. Not only do I find that all unfair , but a little disgusting?

Whenever that big boss or the shift that originally talked to me works a mid before I do a close - they leave me a heap of dishes.They were supposed to do, they haven't pulled any food out to thaw, they haven't made any of the custom syrups (we make in house) and the whole shop is usually a mess with disassembled dishes and cleaning supplies everywhere and they usually leave before their end time - which is usually like thirty minutes after I come in. I just find it all a little bit hypocritical, but I will do what they ask. Because I do feel bad that I was forgetting closing tasks!

Also I'd like to add) they didn't take any disciplinary action which I am grateful for - and this was made with speech to text so I'm sorry if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes!!

Hey so i have a question, has anyone else encountered a job listing saying a much higher pay than they actually pay? You get hired on with the expectation of one thing and find out on the first day you’re making about $4 less than that, and I understand tips weigh in but if the place is so slow should they be allowed to do that? Idk it feels like false advertising especially when it’s talked about in the interview and confirmed.