Collaborations,  Foodie Life

How I became barista for a day thanks to Nestle Coffee-mate

Coffee is my fuel. You know those people who always say their day isn’t complete without at least a cup of joe? Yup, I’m one of them. It’s a real thing, people! To be honest if I ever fall into a situation where I need to stop drinking coffee for a length of time… Let’s just say it ain’t going to be pretty.

However despite my love for the stuff I am generally “clueless” about coffee. I’ve been wanting to learn more about it beyond simple reading, but it’s hard since I live in an area where most of the coffee shops that provide in-house coffee lessons are far faaaar away. There’s also that thing about not having time.

I am just full of excuses aren’t I?



Anyway, I want to make it a mission to learn more about all the things I am interested in, so it is completely understandable how I practically jumped at the opportunity that Nestle Coffee-mate gave me to do just that with what is in my opinion one of the best things that exist in this universe: Coffee!

But I’m not just talking about coffee here, my friends. Have you ever wondered how your favourite coffeehouses concoct these luscious drinks that keeps you going back for more? As someone who likes to recreate stuff at home it is practically ingrained into me to ask these types of questions, so I was really happy to get to attend Nestle Coffee-mate’s Barista U as a “student” for the day.



I’ve always known that there’s so much more to Nestle Coffee-mate beyond it simply being coffee’s perfect mate. Even though I went into the event not having an extensive knowledge of coffee, I did at least have an idea of just what Nestle Coffee-mate can do. I have used it quite a few times to make my own milk tea at home, and I have to say that after trying and failing with a different mix of ingredients, I find that a good creamer like Nestle Coffee-mate is actually the secret ingredient to achieving milk tea with a similar rich creaminess as those from the stores.



I should probably share that recipe up here soon! In fact I can’t wait to make more drinks using Nestle Coffee-mate’s new creamiest ever formulation, as I’m sure the experience will now be at a whole new level of awesome. The drinks we made during our Nestle Coffee-mate Be Your Own Barista class is proof of that, and I’m here to share with you the things I learned so you too can elevate your coffee experience with the new and improved creamiest ever Nestle Coffee-mate!

The place we had our “class” in is this quirky coffee place in San Juan called CO/OP Manila. Spacious with a great ambiance, I felt myself settle in immediately after I stepped through the front door.



There are a lot of interesting things to be seen here since the café does double as a gift shop too, but it’s the cozy yet fun environment I found myself drawn to more.



There were several tables stacked with ingredients and coffee-making paraphernalia. One of the things I adored about the whole day was getting to take home my personalized apron! It sounds a bit shallow but I have been planning- and keep forgetting- to buy a new apron for a while. Now I have one haha! Thank you, Nestle Coffee-mate and Nuffnang! 🙂



We were also given a “textbook” for the class, which is a pretty little visual thing that contains coffee trivia and the recipes we were going to learn for the day. My favourite part of the booklet is where the anatomies of the different types of coffee drinks are illustrated through their coffee versus creamer ratio. It is a fantastic guide for replicating coffee house drinks at home in my opinion.



Our host for today’s event, Eco Dela Sala, introduced our headmistress Ms. Kristy Salumbides (brand manager for Nestle Coffee Mate Philippines) who welcomed us to today’s Barista U class.



Just like with any regular college class, we students were assigned to groups and without knowing who my groupmates were I waited at my table with more excitement than anxiety. I don’t know a lot of bloggers because I so seldom attend these kinds of events, but I was looking forward to making new friends. Plus I had a feeling this was going to be such a fun event.

I was right.

The bloggers I got grouped with are (from L-R) Cyra of Fashion Sage, Jill (who is surprise, surprise a DLSU 107 batchmate!) of The Food Scout, (there’s me, hi!) and Rodel of Nognog In The City.



I loved the enthusiastic spirit of my group as we all tried our best to recreate the coffee concoctions our barista-professors were teaching us.

We had three “professors” for today: Lloyd, Shiela, and Stephanie. If they seem familiar to you somewhat, you’ve probably seen them on TV commercials and print ads for Nestle Coffee-mate. However they are indeed real-life baristas who are here to teach us a thing or two about all the magical tricks you can do with Nestle Coffee-mate. I hope you guys are ready for some Nestle Coffee-mate recipes to up your coffee experience! 



Up first Stephanie showed us how to make Creamy Foamy Latte. It basically requires just three ingredients and a blender. Stephanie’s trick to keeping the foam up top is to tilt the glass as you transfer your coffee from the blender. You can click on the photo below to enlarge and read the recipe. 🙂



Next, Shiela taught us how to make Yin Yang Coffee, which is essentially a coffee-milk tea hybrid type of drink. It’s one of the things I often order from a milk tea store because it combines two of my favourite things in one, and now I know how to make it at home! And of course you guys can make it too by clicking the photo below to enlarge the recipe.



Finally it was time for the students to get some hands-on action. We were supposed to make the Creamy Caramel Macchiato, and the exciting part about it for me was getting to use the frother, which is this awesome handy tool that mixes your creamer with the hot water and makes it nice and foamy like those covering the top of coffee shop drinks! (I know, I know… The most random things excite me.)

So first we mixed some Nescafe Classic coffee powder in a quarter cup of hot water in a bowl, adding in a teaspoon each of caramel and vanilla syrup for flavour.



Then in another glass cup we mixed ¾ cup of hot water with 3 teaspoons Nestle Coffee-mate using the frother. Didn’t want to stop frothing to be honest.



Now it’s important to get yourself a really nice froth so that once you pour your coffee into the cup of creamer it rises to the top nice and thick.



My group mates did really really well with their coffees. I’m not sure if my creamer was not frothy enough or if I used too much water but it disappeared really really fast once I poured my coffee in. Didn’t even last through my whole attempt of stenciling my coffee. So, no artsy-fartsy pictures of my work guys. Sorry! I’m going to have to redo this at home and write about it later on. 😛

But if that wasn’t challening enough, our professors had another activity in store for us! We were to have a contest against the other groups on who can create the best version of Creamy Cookies and Cream Iced Coffee. The judges were going to be our three professors plus our headmistress. We even had our own little blending station and everything!



Using the recipe in the booklet as the base we were supposed to add some flavourings and stuff to make the drink unique and more special. My team opted to do the classic version and just add vanilla to flavour, plus a bunch of sweet toppings to make our drink cute. We had to come up with names and present our creation and everything. Literally just like we used to do back in college. It was fun and nostalgic at the same time!



We named our drink Teacher’s Pet using the idea that since this is college, we want to do whatever it takes to please our professors by following their instructions. Or something like that hahaha! Turns out making this drink isn’t as difficult as I thought! We even went all out with the decorations. 🙂

Creamy Cookies and Cream Iced Coffee

Servings 1

Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon Nescafe Classic
  • 4 teaspoons Nestle Coffee-mate
  • ¼ cup hot water
  • 1/8 cup corn syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup ice cubes
  • 4 to 6 pcs chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, crushed

Instructions

  • 1. In a cup, mix Nescafe Classic and Nestle Coffee-mate in hot water.
  • 2. Transfer into a blender and add corn syrup, vanilla, ice cubes, and crushed cookies.
  • 3. Blend for 30 seconds or until all ice cube pieces are crushed. Taste if the coffee has enoug cookie flavour.
  • 4. Transfer to a glass and top with whipped cream and more cookies, as desired.

Notes

Adapted from Nestle Coffee-mate Barista U booklet
And ta-dah! That’s pretty much it! All the decorations on top are completely up to you. Probably the most crucial thing is to remember to taste the coffee before you take it out of the blender.



Oh, and a trivia bit from our Barista Textbook that is interesting to know:

Some baristas freeze leftover coffee into ice cubes and use those to make iced coffee. This is to ensure that the flavour of the coffee is not affected even when the ice cubes melt.

That makes a world of sense and is a pretty neat trick. 

The judges went around the groups’ tables one by one to hear them out and have a taste test. Famous Filipino bloggers Nicole Andersson and Laureen Uy really got into the spirit of explaining their groups’ creations!



And here’s the winning group:



While the competitive side of me hoped that we would somehow win, it was still okay that we didn’t. The important part was that we enjoyed ourselves. Sounds cliché but who cares when it’s the truth? In fact this is the most fun event I’ve attended this year because I actually got to participate rather than just sit and ingest. You know what I mean?

Yay for Team Teacher’s Pet! 😀



At the end of our session we even had a class picture taken, and of course we were sent off with a big box of surprises. It was the Nestle Coffee-mate Barista U Be Your Own Barista Creamy Concoction Kit which I love love looooved. Anything that helps me make food and drinks at home I am obviously a fan of! Inside the box is a pack of Nescafe and Nestle Coffee-Mate, plus some stainless steel pitchers and a gorgeous coffee glass.

And my very own frother!!! It deserves a special mention haha!



I was so happy to get this kit but really you don’t need all the fancy equipment to be your own barista, because having the new and improved Nestle Coffee-mate on hand can turn any ordinary coffee experience to a wonderful and creamy one!



For more details, check out Nestle Coffee-mate on Instagram (@CoffeeMatePH). When you try any of the recipes above, please do tag your creamy coffee creations with #CreamiestEver and #CreateWithCoffeeMate. Have fun fellow coffee-lovahs! 🙂

Full disclosure: Although I received an invitation from Nestle Coffee-mate and Nuffnang to attend this event, all opinions stated above are my very own.

2 Comments

  • Chef Jay

    Wow, that’s pretty incredible! I’m a coffee enthusiast as well, I brew my own coffee from fresh beans but I love nescafe and coffee-mate when I’m looking for a quick coffee drink.

    You’re really lucky to have been able to go! I hope I can be a barista (well, at least for just a day) too. 🙂 Maybe someday.

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