Demo source files

Good morning. I'm Rafiq. I'm the system that's going to build the training for your team, and the way I do that is by asking you questions and writing everything down myself, so you don't have to fill in a single form. Give me about thirty-five minutes and we'll have most of it. Stop me any time. Let's start simple: what's the café called, and where exactly is it?

Morning. So it's Mokha Corner. In Arabic we write it ركن المخا. We're in Jeddah, Al-Rawdah district, just off Prince Sultan Road. Ground floor of the Alsharq building, right next to the pharmacy. Honestly everybody finds us by the pharmacy, that's the landmark. I opened in March 2023. I'm Faisal Al-Zahrani, but nobody calls me Faisal, everyone says Abu Rakan. I'm in most days from about nine until two and I do all the ordering myself, I don't let anyone else touch that. And it's a specialty place, not a chain thing, we roast our own... sorry, no, we don't roast, I mean we buy from a roaster here in Jeddah, Nawa Roasters. They deliver the house blend on Tuesdays, it's a Brazil and Ethiopia blend. The single origins for filter we change every month.

Understood. Who's on the team, how many people, and who runs the floor when you're not there?

Twelve altogether. Four baristas, three cashiers, two in the kitchen doing the pastry, two runners who also do the cleaning, and one delivery packer, but he's evenings and weekends only. The one who really runs it is Ammar Siddiqui, he's my manager and head barista. Pakistani, six years in specialty coffee, three of them here in Jeddah. He speaks Urdu, English, and his Arabic is workable, it's enough. He runs the bar and he trains everybody. Then Noura Al-Otaibi is my second shift lead, Saudi, she takes the evening and she's on the till. On the floor you'll hear Arabic, Urdu, English, a bit of Bengali. Space-wise we seat thirty-four inside, twelve on the terrace, and there's a family section at the back with four tables. And look, if I can get this side of it right, I want a second branch. There's a unit in Al-Salamah I keep going to look at, it's near the... it's a good corner, offices above, flats behind, but the rent they're asking is...

I'd like to hear about Al-Salamah at the end, and honestly it's the best argument for getting all of this out of your head and written down. Let me keep us moving for now. What are your opening hours?

Saturday through Thursday we're six thirty in the morning to midnight. Friday is different, we open at one thirty in the afternoon after Jumu'ah and we run to one in the morning. Busy times: mornings seven to nine thirty, that's the commuters, and that's almost all takeaway. Then a smaller lift four to six. And then the real rush is nine at night to half eleven, that's the money. Thursday and Friday nights are the hardest, the terrace is full, the family section is full, there's a queue at the till. And in the evening now a big chunk of what we're making isn't even walking through the door, it's going out on the bikes.

Give me a number on that. What share of the evening is delivery, and which apps?

Call it thirty-five percent of evening volume. Some nights it feels like more. HungerStation and Jahez, those two. Each one has its own tablet, they sit on the back counter, one per app, and whoever's on the pass watches them. Oh, and the other thing that shapes the day is prayer. At prayer times the doors close, no new orders, the guys pray or we cover in rotation. The machines stay on, nothing gets switched off. Normally we're shut twenty, twenty-five minutes and then back open.

Tell me about the shifts. What time does each one start and end, and how do people know when they're working?

Two shifts. Morning is six in the morning to three, evening is quarter to three until half twelve at night. So there's a thirty-minute overlap in the middle, that's the handover, they're both on the floor together for that half hour. The rota itself, Ammar does the rota. It's in the WhatsApp group. I couldn't tell you who's on next Tuesday, that's genuinely his thing, and if I start interfering with it he gets annoyed with me, rightly. And training, since you'll ask, training right now is Ammar shows them once and hopes. That's it. There's no document, there's nothing written down. That's why I'm sitting here at eight in the morning talking to a computer.

That's fair, and it's the right answer. I'd rather get the rota detail from Ammar than have you guess at it, so I'll ask him directly. Staying on the shift itself: what do your staff get for breaks?

They get a break, of course. Half an hour. And if it's quiet they'll take a bit more, nobody's counting with a stopwatch.

A bit more is going to confuse a new person on day one. On an eight-hour shift, exactly how many minutes, and is it paid?

Okay, thirty minutes paid on an eight-hour shift, and then fifteen minutes on top of that. So forty-five in total. Taken in the back, not on the floor, and agreed with the shift lead first, and never two people at once in a rush, that's the rule that actually matters. And while we're on it, phones. Phones go in the staff locker. They use them on their break, in the back, never on the floor with a customer in front of them. One warning, and then it comes to me.

Good. Now the menu. Take me down the board the way it's written, drinks first, then food, with the prices.

Right. Espresso twelve riyals, macchiato thirteen, cortado fifteen, flat white seventeen, cappuccino seventeen, latte eighteen. Spanish latte twenty-one, that's our best seller by a mile, it's about forty percent of hot drinks. Saffron latte twenty-four, that's the signature, that's the one people bring visitors for. Mocha twenty-one, americano fourteen, and the cortadito, sweet cortado, sixteen, the regulars order that one. Filter: V60 pour-over, single origin, twenty-six. Batch brew fifteen. Saudi coffee, qahwa, eighteen a pot, it comes in a dallah with the finjan cups and it serves two or three. With three Sukkari dates it's twenty-six. Karak tea twelve. Cold: iced Spanish latte twenty-three, iced latte nineteen, iced americano fifteen, cold brew twenty-two, mango and mint cooler twenty, small water three. Food: butter croissant twelve, za'atar croissant fourteen, pain au chocolat fourteen, labneh and cucumber croissant twenty-two, cheese and turkey toastie twenty-six, halloumi and za'atar sandwich twenty-eight, date and tahini cake sixteen, pistachio cake nineteen. All the prices on the board have the VAT in them. Sizes: hot milk drinks are single, that's an eight ounce, or double, twelve ounce. Iced is twelve or sixteen. Three riyals to upsize, three for oat, five for an extra shot. And the pastries come in frozen from Al-Faridah Bakery, we bake them here at quarter to six in the morning and again at three in the afternoon. Cakes arrive ready-made twice a week, Sunday and Wednesday.

The Spanish latte is forty percent of your hot drinks, so I want that one exactly. Walk me through it as if I've never made one. How many grams in, how many grams out?

Twelve ounce cup. Double shot, eighteen grams in, thirty-six to thirty-eight out, in twenty-six to thirty seconds. But before the shot, condensed milk in the cup first. Thirty mls, and the way they measure it is the black pump, one pump is fifteen mls, so two pumps. Then you pull the shot straight down onto the condensed milk and you stir it, three turns with the long spoon, so it actually dissolves before any milk goes in. That stir is the whole drink. If you skip it, it just sits at the bottom, and the customer drinks a normal latte and then the last mouthful is pure syrup and they're back at the counter. Then a hundred and eighty mls of full-fat, steamed to sixty to sixty-two, glossy, no big bubbles. Pour it, finish with a small dot of foam. No latte art, don't bother, half of them are takeaway. Iced is different at the end: condensed milk and the shot stirred in the cup, ice right to the top, a hundred and fifty of cold milk over it, and then do not stir. Leave it. The layers are the reason they photograph it.

And the saffron latte, that's the signature. How's it made?

The base is the thing. We make a saffron milk base every single morning: one litre of full-fat milk, nought point three grams of saffron threads, that's one small pinch, there's a little spoon in the saffron tin, that spoon is the measure. Fifteen grams of sugar. Warm it to sixty-five, steep it twenty minutes, strain it, and it goes in the small fridge labelled with the date. Twenty-four hours and it's finished, we throw it, even if there's half of it left. Then the drink is a double shot in the cup, two hundred mls of the base steamed to sixty to sixty-two, poured over. Three saffron threads on top. Three. Not a sprinkle, not five, three. Saffron is the most expensive thing in this café by a distance. And the rule I care about most: if the base has run out, it's run out. You tell the customer it's finished today. You don't fake it with turmeric, you don't fake it with saffron syrup. I've seen other places do that and it's cheating.

The V60 at twenty-six riyals. Give me the recipe, and be exact about the drawdown: how many seconds should it finish in?

Fifteen grams of coffee, medium grind, six point five on the EK. I tell them it should look like table salt. Two hundred and fifty grams of water at ninety-two to ninety-four. First you rinse the paper with hot water, throw the rinse water away, and that warms the server at the same time. Bloom is forty-five grams, start the timer, gentle swirl, wait forty seconds. Second pour up to a hundred and fifty, slow circles, never pour onto the paper. Third pour to two fifty at one fifteen on the timer. And then the drawdown should finish between two forty-five and three fifteen. If it's finishing faster than two thirty, grind finer. Slower than three thirty, grind coarser. Serve it in the glass carafe with a small tasting cup, tell them the origin and read them the note card. The whole thing takes four minutes, so you tell the customer that before you start, otherwise they stand there watching you and getting irritated. Qahwa while I'm at it: twice a day, in the three-litre thermos, light roast qahwa powder, cardamom, a few saffron threads, no sugar. Served hot from the dallah into the finjan, always with dates. Pour with the right hand, fill the finjan a third, and you keep pouring as long as he holds the cup out. When he shakes the cup side to side, he's had enough.

Let's do the machine. What is it, and is there anything about it a new barista has to know on day one?

La Marzocco Linea PB, two group. Boiler sits at one point two to one point four bar, brew temperature ninety-three. And yes, the left group. The left group has a slow drip. It's been doing it for weeks. It's not a flood, but what it does is it starts channelling, so the shots off that side go bad, and the fix until it's properly repaired is you brush that group head twice a shift and you tamp dead level. If it's still dripping after that, tell Ammar, don't just keep going. And before you ask, yes, I reported it. The technician has told me Sunday three times now. It's Wednesday. That's Jeddah. Grinders: Mahlkönig E65S for espresso, a Mazzer for the decaf, EK43 for the filter. Recipe on the espresso is eighteen in, thirty-six to thirty-eight out, twenty-six to thirty seconds, and we dial in at open and again after the three o'clock bean change, and any time the weather swings, because the humidity here moves the grind. Faults, quickly, because these are the four things that actually happen: weak shot with no pressure, that's the grinder clogged or the basket blocked. Steam wand won't steam, that's the tip holes blocked, take it off and soak it in Cafiza. iPad won't print a ticket, the printer's offline, hold the power button five seconds and reconnect it. And the left group drip, which we've just done. And every night we clean the machine properly.

Define properly. With what, and how many cycles?

Cafiza, backflush, five times ten seconds on each group, then three rinse cycles. Portafilters and baskets come apart and go in the Cafiza solution and get rinsed well. Steam wands soaked and wiped, check the tips. Gaskets aren't us, the technician does those every three months. Grinder hoppers get emptied and brushed every night. Brushed, never water, you never put water near the burrs. Cloths: blue is milk only, green is surfaces, red is toilets and bins, and they live in three separate buckets. Wands get purged before and after every drink, that one's non-negotiable. The milk fridge under the bar runs zero to four and it gets checked and written on the sheet three times a day, seven in the morning, two in the afternoon, nine at night. Ice machine gets cleaned every Sunday. The BWT water filter cartridge is six months, there's a sticker on the side with the date on it. And the pastry oven, one eighty, croissants fourteen minutes, za'atar ones twelve.

Take me through the open, from the first person through the door until you unlock.

Morning shift is in at six, doors at six thirty, so thirty minutes. Lights on, AC down to twenty-one, music on low, unlock the terrace. Espresso machine: it lives on standby overnight, so you bring it up and check the boiler's at one two to one four. Grinders on, EK on, pastry oven to one eighty, look at the ice machine. Wash hands, uniform check, apron on. Then the fridge temperatures, all of them, written on the sheet, and anything out of range goes straight to the shift lead, you don't just write it and walk off. Check the milk stock and the dates, anything past its day-dot is binned. Make the saffron base and label it with today's date. Croissants are in the oven at quarter to six, then into the display with tongs and labels. Dial in the espresso, three shots at least until you're at eighteen in, thirty-six to thirty-eight out in twenty-six to thirty, and taste it, don't just read the scale. Brew the batch filter, make the qahwa thermos. Fill the syrups, stock cups, lids, sleeves, straws, napkins, dates. Float in the till, five hundred riyals, count it, sign the sheet. Bar wiped, cloths in fresh sanitiser, floor dry. Then you unlock at six thirty. Not six thirty-five. There are men standing outside at six twenty-nine.

And the close?

Close starts around half eleven. Last orders called at eleven forty-five, and we stop the delivery tablets at eleven forty. Then: backflush both groups, five by ten seconds with Cafiza, three rinses, portafilters and baskets in the solution. Wands soaked and wiped. Hoppers emptied and brushed. Milk fridge: anything past its day-dot goes, and record the temperature. Wrap, label and date all the food. Pastries get discarded, we never sell a day-old pastry, ever, I'd rather lose the money. Batch brew and the qahwa thermos emptied and washed. Ice bin only gets drained on a Sunday, otherwise you top it and lid it. Wipe everything: bar top, tables, chairs, high chairs, the menu board. Sweep and mop, wet floor sign out. Bins out, bags tied, hose the bin area, and the back door gets locked immediately after, not left open while you finish. Z-report, count the cash twice, drop slip, everything in the safe except the five hundred float for the morning. Terrace furniture stacked and chained. AC up to twenty-six, music off, lights off except the security light, machine to standby. Set the alarm, lock the front, and message the group that you're out. That last one matters to me, I want to know the place is closed.

Food safety now. Start with milk, since that's most of what you sell. How do you keep it safe?

We keep it cold. It's in the fridge under the bar, and the boys know not to leave it out. It's not complicated.

What does that fridge actually read on the display, and who writes it down?

Zero to four. Freezer's minus eighteen or below, and anything hot-held has to be above sixty-three. Whoever's on records them three times a day, seven, two and nine, on the sheet that hangs by the fridge. If it's out of range you move the stock to the back fridge, tell the shift lead, and write it down, all three, not just the first one. On the milk itself: when a carton is opened it gets a day-dot with the date and the time it was opened on it, and that carton is used within twenty-four hours or it goes. If milk has been sitting out of the fridge more than thirty minutes it's discarded, no arguments, I don't care what it cost. Steamed milk is never re-steamed and it never goes back in the carton. Same logic on everything else we make: cold brew is eighteen hours to brew then five days in the fridge with the brew date on it, batch brew is thrown after one hour, saffron base twenty-four hours, syrups we decant get thirty days, cut fruit twenty-four hours, sandwich fillings forty-eight, qahwa in the thermos six hours.

Handwashing, gloves and allergies. What are the rules, and what happens if someone comes in sick?

Handwashing is at the blue-tap sink, that sink is for hands only. Twenty seconds, soap, warm water, dry with paper. When? Every time you come onto the bar, after you've been on the till, after your phone, after the bins, after the toilet, if you touch your face or your hair, and every thirty minutes anyway during a rush. Gloves are for ready-to-eat only: sandwiches, cut fruit, plating dates. And you change them between tasks. Gloves are not instead of washing your hands, that's the thing people get wrong. And no gloves on the coffee bar at all. Allergens in this café: dairy, nuts, so pistachio and almond, gluten, sesame, that's the tahini and the za'atar, eggs and soy. Nut items get made on the marked board. If a customer asks an allergy question, nobody guesses. You read the allergen card, it's in the black folder by the till, or you call the shift lead. Oat milk lives separately and an allergy order gets a purged wand and a clean pitcher. FIFO on everything, oldest at the front. Chemicals stored below the food and away from it, and never in an unlabelled bottle. Sickness: vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, jaundice, an infected cut, anything on the eye or the skin. You don't come in, you call Ammar. Back forty-eight hours after the last symptom, not the next morning. Cuts get a blue waterproof plaster and a glove over the top. SFDA side of it: every food handler has a valid health certificate, the licence is displayed, no smoking, calorie counts on the board for every item, pest control logged monthly, that's Baytak, they come once a month, and no food prepared on the floor. And inspectors do come, they've been twice. Pest: doors closed, bins closed and emptied at close, and if anyone sees anything they tell me the same day. Spills: this is our number one accident. Yellow sign out first, then clean, then dry, and the sign stays there until the floor is actually dry. If glass breaks near the ice machine the whole ice bin gets emptied and washed.

Service. A customer walks in. How quickly should they be greeted, and in what language?

Within five seconds of them reaching the till, eye contact, and in Arabic first, السلام عليكم، حياك الله, and then you switch to whatever they answer you in. If they gave a name with the order you use the name. You repeat the order back before you take the money, always, that saves half the problems. And when the drink goes down on the counter you say what it is: Spanish latte for Sara. Not just sliding it across. On timing, espresso drinks should be under four minutes at a normal time, the V60 is four minutes and you say so up front, and if a wait's going to be more than ten minutes you tell them before they pay, not after.

And when someone complains?

Ammar teaches them LAST, that's his thing and it works. Listen: let them finish, don't interrupt. Apologise, once, and mean it; saying sorry five times sounds fake. Solve: remake it, no charge, and they don't need permission from anyone up to thirty riyals. Thank them, because the ones who tell you are doing you a favour, the rest just never come back. Above thirty riyals, or an actual refund, that's the shift lead. And what we never do: never argue about whether the drink is correct, never blame the app, never blame the other shift, and never blame a colleague in front of a customer. The usual ones: too sweet, remake with one pump less. Waited fifteen minutes, apologise, check the ticket, offer them a pastry. Single guy asking for the family section, you explain it politely and offer him the terrace. A driver pushing to the front, in-store first and he waits at the marked spot. Allergy question, read the card, never guess. Group wants to move tables together, fine, just ask them to put the chairs back. The phrases I want them all to have: حياك الله, تحت أمرك, أعتذر منك, تفضل, and دقيقتين وجاهز.

The till. What system, and what's the order flow from greeting to handing the ticket to the bar?

Foodics, on two iPads. One on the front till, one on the bar. Cash drawer's under the front till. Everybody has their own four-digit PIN and they never, ever use someone else's, because every order is tied to a person and that's how I know what happened. Flow is: greet, take the order, repeat it back, then ring it in: size first, then the milk, then the extras, that order, or you end up amending. Ask here or takeaway, that's not just politeness, it changes the ticket colour on the bar so they know whether it's a glass or a paper cup. Take payment, give the receipt, call the ticket to the bar. Payment is mada, Apple Pay, or cash. Card's about eighty-five percent. The drawer only opens off a cash sale, and you count the change back out loud. Refunds need a shift-lead PIN and the original receipt. A void before payment is fine, anyone can do that, but a refund after payment is a shift lead job. Delivery: you have two minutes to accept on the tablet or it times out and it counts against us with the app. Print the ticket, bag it, sticker on the bag, hot and cold in separate bags, always a napkin and a stirrer, cups double-lidded because the bikes tip them. And you mark it ready only when it is genuinely bagged and sitting on the shelf, not when you've started it. End of shift, X-report at the handover, Z-report at close, cash counted twice, five hundred float stays in the drawer, the rest in the safe with the drop slip.

House rules: uniform, lateness, tips, anything you want a new person to hear on day one.

Uniform is the black Mokha Corner t-shirt, clean and ironed, black trousers or a black abaya, closed black non-slip shoes, the brown apron, name badge. Everyone gets two shirts and I expect them washed. No shorts, no sliders, no strong perfume, that one matters in a coffee shop. Hair tied back, cap on if you're handling food, beard covered if you're on the oven. Nails short and clean, no polish, no rings except a plain band, no watches or bracelets on the bar. Lateness: you're on the floor and changed at your start time, not walking through the door at it. Twice in a month is a conversation with Ammar, three times it comes to me. And message the group the moment you know, not when you're already late. Swaps they can arrange between themselves but it doesn't count until Ammar confirms it in the group. Tips are pooled in the jar, split by hours worked, paid out on the first, and the delivery app tips go into the same pool. I was very clear about that. Staff drinks, one free drink a shift, made off-peak, drunk in the back, never standing in front of customers with it. Thirty percent off food when they're not on shift. On the bar the only thing you can drink is water, closed bottle, on the low shelf. Social media: no photos of customers, no filming inside during service, and if you post about the place tag it and keep it positive. Nothing about an incident, ever. And nobody discusses another person's pay or another customer's complaint on the floor.

Last big one. Something goes wrong: a fire, someone burns their hand, an inspector walks in. What happens, and who gets called?

Fire: shout first so everyone hears you, pull the alarm by the back door, get the customers out onto the pavement in front of the pharmacy, and nobody goes back in for a bag or a phone. Extinguishers: CO2 by the bar because that's the electrical one, foam by the back door, fire blanket by the oven. And you only fight a fire the size of a bin, and only if you can see the exit behind you. Otherwise out. Civil Defence is 998. Burns, and we get steam burns, that's the common one: cool running water twenty minutes, no ice, no butter, cover it loosely, tell the shift lead, write it in the incident book. Cuts: stop what you're doing, wash it, blue waterproof plaster, glove over it, bin any food that was near it, record it. Numbers: ambulance and Red Crescent 997, police 999, traffic 993. First-aid kit is on the wall in the back corridor, right next to the incident book. Power cut: machines off at the wall, fridge doors stay shut, call me, and the food's fine for four hours as long as nobody opens the doors. Gas smell or a water leak, everyone out, call me and Civil Defence, and don't touch any switches. Robbery or somebody aggressive: don't resist, don't chase him, press the panic button under the till, call 999 after he's gone. Nothing in here is worth anybody. And who to ask, generally, since that's really the same question: drinks, recipes, the machine, training, that's Ammar. Rota, swaps, lateness, holiday: Ammar first, me only if he sends it to me. Refunds over thirty, till not balancing, supplier problems, anything with money: Noura in the evening, otherwise me. Food safety, someone sick, a pest, an inspector at the door: me, immediately, and if I don't pick up within ten minutes then Ammar. Injury or fire, it's the shift lead on the floor, then 997 or 998, then me. And the one I say to everybody: if you're guessing, stop and ask. Nobody has ever been in trouble here for asking.

That's everything I need, so let me play it back to you. Mokha Corner in Al-Rawdah, open since March 2023, twelve staff across two shifts, Ammar on the bar, Noura on evenings. I've got the full board with prices, the Spanish latte at eighteen in and thirty-six to thirty-eight out with the condensed milk stirred first, the saffron base and its twenty-four hour rule, and the V60 down to the two forty-five to three fifteen drawdown. I've got the open and the close as checklists, fridges at zero to four checked at seven, two and nine, the milk day-dot, the allergen card in the black folder, LAST for complaints, Foodics with the personal PIN and the two-minute delivery accept, the uniform and the breaks, and who to call for what. Two gaps. First, the rota and how the handover actually runs, that lives with Ammar, so I'll take it from him rather than have you guess, and I'll ask him about the left group at the same time. Second, I'll want ten minutes with him on the bar quirks generally. After that I'll build the programme in English, Arabic and Urdu, your handbook falls out of it, and then you and I can talk about Al-Salamah.

Ammar, I'm Rafiq. Faisal gave me the long version this morning, so I'm not going to make you go through the menu again. Quick check first: you're head barista, you run the bar and you train the new people, yes? Then I want the things only you would know. Start with the machine. He mentioned the left group.

Yeah, that's me. Six years in coffee, three of them here. And yeah, the left group. It's been dripping about six weeks now. It's not a flood, it's a slow drip after you lock the portafilter in, and what it actually does to you is it starts channelling: you get a thin, sour shot and the puck's soggy on one side when you knock it out. So the rule I give everyone is: brush that group head twice a shift. Once when you come on, and again after the three o'clock bean change. Brush up into the shower screen, flush it, wipe the gasket. And tamp level, that's half the problem gone right there. If it's still dripping after you've done that, come and tell me, don't just keep pulling shots and hoping it fixes itself. The technician's meant to be coming. He's been meant to be coming for a while.

Dial-in. What are your numbers, and what makes you go back and re-dial?

Eighteen grams in, thirty-six to thirty-eight out, twenty-six to thirty seconds. That doesn't change, that's the recipe. I dial in at open, three shots minimum, and I taste it. I don't just look at the scale, the scale doesn't tell you it's sour. Then again after the three o'clock change when the beans have rested differently. And any time the weather swings, honestly, the humidity here moves the grind more than people believe. If a shot's coming in under twenty-six seconds I go finer, over thirty I go coarser, one notch at a time, not three, and you re-pull before you decide. New bag from Nawa on a Tuesday is a re-dial as well.

Give me the three things that go wrong most on a shift, and what the barista does about each one.

One, no pressure, weak watery shot, that's the grinder clogged or the basket blocked. Clear the chute, check the basket, run some coffee through it. Two, the steam wand won't steam, there's no power in it: tip holes are blocked, take the tip off, soak it in Cafiza, poke it clear. Three, the iPad won't print the ticket: the printer's gone offline. Hold the printer power button five seconds, let it come back up, reconnect, and it prints the backlog. And the fourth one's the left group we just did: brush it, tamp level, tell me if it carries on. Past that it's me, and if it's me and I'm stuck it's the technician.

The V60. What's your drawdown window in seconds, and what do you change if you're outside it?

Two forty-five to three fifteen, that's the window. If it's finishing faster than two thirty the grind's too coarse. Sorry, I mean the water's falling straight through, so you go finer. Slower than three thirty, go coarser. Everything else is fixed: fifteen grams, six point five on the EK, two fifty of water at ninety-two to ninety-four. Rinse the paper, dump the rinse water, that warms the server too. Bloom forty-five grams, swirl it, forty seconds. Second pour to a hundred and fifty in circles, never down the paper. Third to two fifty at one fifteen. And you tell them four minutes before you start it. If you don't say that they stand there watching you and by minute three they're annoyed.

The Spanish latte is forty percent of your hot drinks. Why does the condensed milk have to go in before the milk?

Because if you don't stir it in first it just sits at the bottom like glue. Two pumps, thirty mls, in the cup. Shot straight down onto it, then three turns with the long spoon, three, not one flick, and then you steam and pour. If you skip that stir the customer drinks what tastes like a slightly weak latte and then the last mouthful is pure syrup, and they come back to the counter. That is our number one complaint and it is always, always the stir. Iced is the opposite at the end: stir the condensed and the shot together, ice right to the top, a hundred and fifty of cold milk over it, and then hands off, don't stir it. The layers are what they photograph, that's the whole drink for them.

Saffron base. You make it, so tell me your rules on it.

Fresh every morning, I usually do it myself. One litre of full fat, nought point three grams of saffron, that's the little spoon in the tin, one pinch, and I have to say that to people because they see saffron and get generous with it. Fifteen grams of sugar. Up to sixty-five, steep twenty minutes, strain, into the small fridge with the date written on it. Twenty-four hours and it's gone, even if there's half a litre in there. And when it's finished for the day it's finished. You tell the customer, sorry, the saffron latte is done today. Nobody fakes it with turmeric, nobody fakes it with saffron syrup. I've worked in a place that did that. Three threads on top of the drink, that's it, three.

Cloths and milk on the bar. What's the system a new person has to learn on day one?

Colours. Blue is milk only, that's the one you wipe the wand with, green is surfaces, red is toilets and bins. They never cross and they live in three separate buckets of sanitiser. The wand gets purged before and after every single drink, there's no version of that where you're too busy. Milk fridge under the bar is zero to four, and it goes on the sheet at seven, two and nine, whoever's on writes it, not me. Open a carton, day-dot on it with the date and the time, twenty-four hours and it's finished. Milk that's been standing out more than half an hour goes down the sink, I don't care what the queue looks like. And you never re-steam milk and it never goes back in the carton.

Handover. Quarter to three to three o'clock. What actually happens in that half hour?

So the evening lead comes on at quarter to three and I'm on until three, that's the overlap, and we do it together, not one person shouting over their shoulder on the way out. X-report off the till first so the cash is agreed before I leave. If it's wrong I want to be standing there. The two o'clock fridge temps are already written by then. Then I walk the bar with whoever's taking it: milk levels, how much saffron base is left, cups, lids, what's low, what's broken. That's when I re-dial the grinder for the rested beans as well. And anything that's a problem I say out loud to Noura, face to face, I don't leave it on a sticky note. The rota I write myself and it goes in the WhatsApp group. Swaps they sort between themselves but it doesn't count until I confirm it in the group. Late twice in a month they talk to me, three times and it's Faisal.

Two scenarios, then I'll let you get back to the bar. First, a customer says their Spanish latte is too sweet. Second, a delivery driver walks up and starts talking over a customer who's already at the till.

Too sweet, you don't argue, ever. You listen, let them finish, don't jump in halfway. Apologise once, properly. Once is enough, if you say sorry five times it sounds fake. Then solve it: remake it with one pump less, no charge, and they don't need to ask me or anyone for permission up to thirty riyals. Over thirty, or if they want money back, that's the shift lead. Then thank them, because the one who tells you is doing you a favour, everyone else just doesn't come back. That's LAST, I teach it to every single person on day one. The driver: the customer at the till comes first, always. You say تحت أمرك, one moment, and you point him to the marked spot and he waits there like everybody else. What you never do is serve him over the head of the person standing in front of you, and you never argue with him about the app where customers can hear it. We've got two minutes to accept on the tablet anyway, so it's never as urgent as he's making it sound.

That's what I needed. I've got the group head routine and the twice-a-shift brushing, your dial-in and what makes you re-dial, the three faults, the V60 window, why the condensed milk gets stirred first, the saffron base rule, the cloth colours and the handover. And the handover is the piece Faisal genuinely couldn't give me, so the picture's complete now. I'll build the programme in English, Arabic and Urdu and you'll have it before you train the next person, so it isn't just you showing them once. Thanks, Ammar.