Coffee trainer - latte-art training SOP - four gated stages from milk texturing to rush-hour service, with a practice-milk cap and measurable pass criteria

You are the training lead of a coffee chain. Turn the
latte-art training SOP below into an archivable standards
document: keep the structure, leave every [ ] for me to
fill with this shop's numbers, and write everything else
complete and locked - no "depends on the situation" exits.

Scope of this SOP: from a new hire's first time holding a
milk pitcher to being allowed to independently serve
patterned lattes during rush. Out of scope: machine
operation, order flow.

[Stage 1: Milk]
- Texturing only, no pouring. Practice feel with cold
  water plus one drop of dish soap; move to real milk only
  after the motion is confirmed
- Teaching points: air intake timing, microfoam texture,
  pitcher temperature by feel
- Pass criteria (all shop numbers): measured milk temp
  [ ] to [ ] C, pours clean without clinging, no visible
  coarse bubbles, no separation within [ ] seconds after
  knocking out the air
- Practice quota: real milk capped at [ ] L per day,
  practice liquid unlimited; discarded milk goes in the
  log - over quota means training stops for the day and
  resumes tomorrow
- Promotion gate: all criteria met on [3] pitchers a day,
  two days running

[Stage 2: Heart]
- Integration and pour-stop: one pattern only, drilled to
  stability
- Pass criteria: pour volume at [ ]% of the shop's
  standard cup, pattern diameter within the [ ] zone of
  the cup face, clean cut-through with no trailing tail;
  [4] of [5] consecutive cups passing
- Waste rule: pattern failed but milk and espresso within
  spec may be downgraded to an unpatterned latte sale or
  a staff drink - not counted as waste; milk off-temp is
  discarded whole and logged

[Stage 3: Tulip and etching]
- Prerequisite: heart passed
- Pass criteria: wiggle count and rhythm demonstrated by
  the trainer, then set in-store at [ ] wiggles as the
  pass line; symmetric leaves, straight stem, [4] of [5]
  consecutive cups passing
- From this stage every pitcher's destination is logged
  (sold / staff drink / discarded), weekly total to the
  store manager

[Stage 4: Rush-hour service]
- The trainer stands beside and does not intervene: the
  trainee pulls [10] consecutive patterned drinks through
  morning rush, allowed at most [1] fallback to
  unpatterned
- Pass criteria: pace holds (per-cup time within [ ]
  seconds of the same-shift barista), pattern pass rate
  at or above [ ]%
- Passing certifies "independent service" and is recorded
  in the training file

[General rules]
- Two failed gate attempts send the trainee back to the
  previous stage for two days of practice before
  retesting - no skipping; a third send-back triggers a
  trainer-plus-manager review of moving to a non-bar
  position
- Every gate attempt is logged on the spot: date,
  pitcher count, pass count, assessor, trainee signature
- On trainer change, the new trainer picks up from the
  trainee's most recent gate record - never from zero

Formatting rules:
- Keep the four-level structure: stage title, pass
  criteria, quota, gate
- No "adjust to your store" hedges anywhere - either
  write it locked or leave a [ ] for me
- No unfollowable coaching phrases like "practice makes
  it click"

Why it is written this way

The four-stage order is reverse-engineered from consumption logic: milk texturing is the cheapest stage (practice liquid is nearly free), patterns are the most expensive (every pitcher is real milk), so the expensive motions are pushed behind stable fundamentals - total material cost lands at its minimum. Teaching stages out of order looks three days faster and actually stacks milk volume onto wrong motions that cost double to unlearn later. "No skipping" is written as a hard rule precisely to fence off the soft-hearted or schedule-pressed trainer.

The daily practice-milk cap and the discard log are the paragraphs most likely to get deleted and least affordable to: without a cap, training quietly becomes a material black hole, the month-end milk count comes up short by a chunk, and nobody owns it. With the log, waste has a number and downgrades (pattern failed but milk fine) have a number - material destinations close the loop. The dish-soap practice liquid is the industry-standard money saver; putting it in stage one means the first day's frustration doesn't burn real milk.

Pass criteria are all "measure it or it isn't a gate": temperature by thermometer, volume by percentage, pass rate by cups - because "pattern looks okay" is no gate at all. When trainee and trainer read "okay" one band apart, the promotion line is fiction. Every number stays a [ ] because milk-temp bands and cup volumes differ per recipe card; pre-fill one and it gets copied as authority, the standing red line for tool-type entries on this site.

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