My husband and I began Barbaric Bean Coffee Roasters Cafe' nearly 3 years ago, after falling in love with specialty coffee and then this business and looked for a cafe' location for over 3 years.  We travelled all around the country for training, let's see: Florida twice, Seattle (SCAA), Washington, DC (Coffeefest) so we could learn and become great baristas, solid business owners, you name it. 

Well, we found our location in Ocean Grove, NJ, by the beach at the "Jersey Shore" (no it's not like that crazee TV show, it's a really cool & quaint town) and got our Ambex Roaster and cleaned for 2 weeks straight.  About 40 volunteers gave us over 200 hours and after 3 CO visits we opened on a snowy February weekend.  Our lives have not been the same since!  It seems like we have been sucked into a black hole of activity and this whirlwind has morphed us into people with seemingly endless energy, and excitement, so our friends tell us.  Don't get me wrong, our friends also tell us we look tired, especially in the summer when the volume increases by 500 percent!!  We now describe our lives as "before the business" or "after the business." 

Every day is an adventure when you own your own business.  And I liken it to making a specialty espresso drink.  Kind of like Forrest Gump says: "you never know what you're gonna get."  Each latte and cappuccino comes out slightly different and there's always an excitement for me along with the hope that my customer will utter those words I long to hear: "This is the best (capp or latte) I've ever had in my life."

I hope you're having great experiences at your cafe'.  What I love about a new barista is their enthusiasm as they start off on the machine and to watch their progress every day.  It's an exciting business and it really is an adventure.  For those of you who've always dreamed of having your own business, I would say: go for it!  It's really hard, but awesome at the same time.  As we say at Barbaric Bean: "Carpe Beanum!"