A Guide to Café Cleaning—From Bar to Behind the Scenes

From setting the foundation for better-tasting coffee to creating healthier workspaces, consistent cleaning is one of the most important habits a café can build.

BY JOSH RANK
FOR BARISTA MAGAZINE

Featured photo courtesy of Getty Images

What to know:

• Maintaining a clean café is essential to creating a comfortable and safe environment for both employees and café staff
• Regularly cleaning coffee equipment like your espresso machine and grinder will help prolong their lifespan
• Using cleaning products specifically for coffee equipment is essential; otherwise, you’ll risk damaging your gear
• Cleaning checklists (divided into hourly, daily, and weekly tasks) will help your staff keep up a smooth + consistent cleaning routine

Nobody likes to clean—even the people who say they do.

Otherwise, why would they tell you? They just want credit, that’s why. See? Cleaning can make you cranky. But it’s an absolutely necessary evil, just like exercising and choosing kale over ice cream. You can’t eat candy for dinner every night, and you can’t ignore cleaning unless you want to eventually end up on the news.

This is true at home and even more important in the coffee shop. There are many reasons for this beyond simply getting your health inspection score as close to 100 as possible. Maintaining high standards for cleanliness in the café goes beyond wiping crumbs off the countertop before snapping your latest latte art for IG—it can prolong the life of essential, and expensive, machinery and contribute to drink quality.

COVID put a new emphasis on cleanliness (remember when we were washing our groceries?), but it’s not like a sparkling and spotless café was ever out of style. And raise your hand if you’re a fan of hygiene? A failure to keep your café clean impacts how customers and team members view the shop as a whole.

We’ve all had a manager who wanted us to clean everything all the time. And we’ve all thought they were nuts. But maybe … just maybe … they were right all along.

Why do I need to clean?

Working in coffee can be a lot of fun. It’s not all rosettas and frothy pourover blooms, though. It’s work. And that means that every once in a while baristas have to lug a soggy bag of trash to the dumpster. But why? Because these tasks directly contribute to the shop’s ability to remain open and support you in your quest to achieving the eight-stack tulip.

“Coffee itself is made up of many compounds … also the water used to extract our coffee contains minerals,” says Marty Roe of Service Call LLC, a repair company for coffee equipment based in Kansas City, Mo. “Over a very short period of time these compounds and minerals will tend to build up on every surface they touch.”

This not only leads to scummy countertops—it also negatively impacts the functionality of machines. “Not cleaning your machine properly can cause clogging and buildup that affects flavor and shortens the lifespan of some components of your espresso machine,” says Jason Johnson of the Black Rabbit Service Company in the Pacific Northwest.

Improper cleaning leads to costly repairs, but it also leads to unreliable functionality. I don’t know if you’ve tried to work a rush with an inconsistent espresso machine, but take it from me—it sucks.

Proper machine maintenance—while important—is not the only reason to keep things tidy. You must also consider the ever-watchful eye of the government. “Inspections are always unannounced,” says Lori LeMaster of the Tennessee Department of Health. “Any establishment that is found to be in violation of priority item(s) must correct the issues ASAP.”

Can’t I just brush it off?

A friend of mine managed a shop for a bit and told his staff, “If you clean at all, it’ll at least be better than it was before.” It’s no surprise his shop was filthy. You might as well use proper technique if you’re already putting in the effort to clean. Failing to do so is simply a waste of time. This includes using specialized cleaners to directly address the unique needs of a coffee shop.

“Your cleaning arsenal should contain brand-name espresso machine cleaner, milk cleaner, urn (coffee pot) cleaner, (and) grinder pellets,” says Marty of Service Call LLC.

“All-purpose cleaners are not designed for use with coffee equipment in mind,” says Isaac Cohen of PurposeBuilt Brands, maker of the Urnex products for coffee and tea equipment, among other brands. “Not only will they be less effective at removing coffee oils and milk residue, but they also may pose hazards to coffee equipment.”

Failing to use these types of cleaners leads to malfunctioning machines. “We see clogged group dispersion screens more than anything else,” says Marty. “It’s amazing how much better the espresso tastes after we get them flowing again.”

“We have seen some pretty scary things out there,” says Jason of Black Rabbit Service Company. “Finding steam valves that are full of milk solids is always a bummer.”

Communicating proper cleaning techniques to team members ensures a uniform approach to cleanliness. Espresso machines should be back-flushed “every day that you have used your machine,” says Marty. Many shops will be able to get away with saving this for the end of the day, but particularly busy shops should also back-flush halfway through service.

Grinders should also be vacuumed out at the end of each day. Manual brew equipment “should be washed, rinsed, and sanitized as any item in a restaurant that touches food should be,” says Marty.

Failing to properly perform these essential steps every day can lead to some pretty gross results. And if team members don’t like routine cleaning, they certainly won’t like a deep clean to rid machines of buildup. Have you ever smelled old milk? How about old milk that solidifies, only to be loosened up with hot water? Believe me, it’s better to get it the first time.

But no one can see behind the counter

It’s easy to fixate on the espresso machine because it’s big, it’s fun, and you’re likely to spend a large portion of your shift in front of it. However, it’s not the only consideration to keep in mind. There’s a whole coffee shop to keep clean, not just a few sexy machines.

“Overall cleanliness is a mindset; it’s a way of running your business,” says Marty. “Benefits of a clean shop go hand in hand with maintaining clean equipment. Everything will tend to be easier to operate, easier to repair, and a much more pleasant and safer environment to work.”

Nobody wants to spend a large portion of their day cleaning. Chipping away at upkeep tasks keeps the demand low and the workload light. Sweeping up crumbs, wiping up spills, and picking up items that didn’t make it to the trash contribute to an overall aura of cleanliness. And while it might seem nit-picky, customers will have a better experience even if they don’t explicitly realize why. Every smudge from a muddy shoe, fleck of dried milk, and muffin crumb factors into the execution and success of a coffee shop. This is true both from a customer and regulatory standpoint.

“The Environmental Health Specialist (EHS) focuses their inspections on items that are known to cause foodborne illness, such as improper handwashing, improper cooking, improper hot/cold holding temperatures, employee illness policy,” and more, says Lori of the Tennessee Department of Health. “I would encourage all food establishment operators to view your inspector as a resource; we want to help you prevent foodborne illness.”

We have a responsibility to keep our customers safe in the café. Relaxed cleaning standards threatens our ability to adequately accomplish this. Plus, it can just get nasty.

I already did that last week

Cleaning checklists are a great tool to hold everyone accountable and make sure these important cleaning tasks are completed. “Adhering to a consistent cleaning routine helps your equipment operate efficiently and effectively,” says Isaac of PurposeBuilt Brands.

Take some time to analyze the daily workings of your coffee shop. Which items are used consistently? What needs to be done to keep them clean and operational? What parts of the café see a lot of traffic? Which areas are neglected and accumulating a respectable layer of dust?

We recommend putting together two lists: one for daily cleaning items and one for weekly cleaning items. The daily list should include basic upkeep like sweeping the floor at regular intervals, taking out the garbage, cleaning the restrooms, and proper maintenance for brew methods. The weekly list should include more difficult (and less fun) items like pulling out the milk refrigerator and cleaning beneath countertops, or breaking down cold-brew towers and soaking each piece in Cafiza.

This might sound like something only a manager would say, but you might even find team members thankful for these types of lists. I know I enjoyed having a list of things I could do during slow periods so I wasn’t just staring at a wall counting down the minutes until I could leave. Plus, standing in a clean shop for a whole shift is more enjoyable than working in filth.

Now I get it

We know we shouldn’t have candy for dinner even though it sounds amazing. And we know we shouldn’t ignore a dirty table, even though cleaning it might seem unpleasant. But making the connection between the right idea and action isn’t going to happen without the proper motivation.

Getting the ball rolling on high cleaning standards might seem tough at first, but it will continue rolling from its own momentum once the system is in place. That’s right—Newton’s first law of motion applies to wiping up spills and crumbs. But it’s up to management to set expectations and lead by example in order to create a consistent system of cleanliness.

This article originally appeared in the April + May 2022 issue of Barista Magazine. Read more of the issue online here for free.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Josh Rank (he/him) is a writer living in Tennessee with his wife and two dogs. Find more of his ramblings at joshrank.com.

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