05/09/2025: Fantastic coffee - super friendly people - amazing almond croissant. What more could we want for? Thank you.
02/09/2025: My partner and I went to Ireland, and during the few days we spent in Galway, I was looking around to find somewhere to have coffee and discovered Galway Bay Coffee Barista Training. I've been a barista for four years now, and I love working in the specialty coffee industry. While we only had 2 days left in Galway, my partner and I decided to check it out. We came in just to get coffee first and to ask about the barista training.
We were kindly greeted and welcomed by Dave as we walked up to the door. I ordered a latte, and my partner ordered an americano. Both were amazing! We were happy to find that Dave was able to squeeze us in for barista training the next day. While I had several years of experience, my partner was very new to the world of specialty coffee, and Dave recommended we take the Barista Basics training course.
The next day we arrived early, excited for training! Dave has incredible experience in the world of specialty coffee, and his passion for coffee really shows through his amazing work. He shared the experiences he had from travelling to bean origin countries and from the amazing people he has met along the way, and it is clear how well seasoned he is in his knowledge of specialty coffee.
In the Barista Basics course we were taught about coffee all the way from the start: the coffee plant. Dave took us through the different steps of the process and explained the differences in the different types of origins, beans, roasts, and brew methods, as well as the overall culture of coffee. He taught us how to use his grinder and expresso machine for making drinks, cleaning, and calibration. He taught us about all of the different drinks on his menu, pointing out the differences between them and explaining the origins of the types of drinks. My experiences working in the specialty coffee industry have been localized only to American coffee culture, which has some striking differences to European and Irish coffee culture. It was amazing to learn about specialty coffee from Dave, and it really gave me the opportunity to widen my knowledge in the field.
One of my partner and I's favorite parts of the whole experience was seeing the amazing community that Dave has built from his coffee shop. I've experienced this in my home shop in the United States, but it felt like coming home. All of his regulars were very kind and caring, and most of them even knew each other just from having met inside the coffee shop. It was wonderful to hear their stories and share in their experiences.
Overall, our experience with Dave at the Galway Bay Coffee Barista Training was exceptional, and I'd love to come back to Ireland someday to complete the remaining courses that Dave offers! I enjoyed coming home and sharing the things I'd learned with my home shop so that we could better some of our processes, and to teach them the same respect for coffee itself and all the people involved along the process. I am so grateful for Dave's kindness and willingness to share his experiences, and it was amazing to learn from him. I hope to be able to go back someday!
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