"Are we Stereotyping Baristas?"

I have noticed in most good cafes there are the typical "stereotype baristas" being mainly guys with nice cropped hair and the fashionable beard.

Now don't get me wrong, I like it, in fact I was thinking of growing my beard, adding the Brylcream and combing my hair to my favourite right side.

When I first started out more than 20 years ago, (mid 1990's) the "stereotype" Barista was very much a European male with the mullet hair cut, tight, tight t-shirt and baggy jeans.

As we moved in to the new century, (2000's) the "stereotype" the Barista was very much still European, but we also started to see the Asian and South American Barista emerging but the fashion back then was spiky hair, really colourful clothes and bad shoes.

Today's Barista is very much focused on the rugged 3 week beard, with grandpa golf hats, dusty old looking cargo pants or cropped jeans and shorts (any colour!) and still bad shoes :)

The question is, are we stereotyping the profession too much or should we be looking for the hard working, committed, passionate Barista no matter what race, colour or fashion??