Barista Simulator: Tips & Tricks (V1.0 Release)

Pouring should not be time consuming, make sure you are holding shift whenever pouring for a long time. Most recipes (excluding the espresso, doppio, tripplo, and some others) will require the cup to be filled completely, so you do not need to be careful with how much you are pouring because it will stop you when the cup is full (likewise, it will stop you when the shot glass is empty when pouring espresso).

The temperature of the drinks does not affect customer satisfaction. The devs have said that they may add a game mode where it does, but as of the 1.0 release update you do not need to worry about coffee getting cold or heating up milk.
The temperature of the cafe seems to be comfortable by default, so AC and heating units are unnecessary, though they may be aesthetically pleasing.

Saving is done at your bed (as seen in the tutorial) and will make all current customers leave and new ones come in (essentially refreshing your cafe). To avoid this, save after you sleep each day. Saving once per day is plenty as you won’t lose much progress if you close the game abruptly. It is definitely better to save after sleeping, as you will not have to sleep after loading the game.

When you buy a new machine, pick up the old one and use the escape (esc) key to put it in your inventory. Then use the tab key to open your inventory and sell it for a bit of money. You may occasionally want to have more than one of a machine, especially early-game, so make sure you don’t want to use the old machine anymore before selling it. Also, leave the portafilters in the espresso machines when moving or selling them, as they will be duplicated and cannot be sold if you move the machines without their portafilters in them.

Running out of ingredients is very annoying, especially coffee. I recommend having four coffee (and four milk if you’ve gotten to that point) in stock, even in the early-game. If you do this, you will only have to restock at the end of each day (deliveries can happen overnight so you don’t have to wait if you order them the night before). For syrups, I recommend one in the stand and one in storage (except sugar, you should have four of those because they run out quickly). For cream, you only need two on the shelf and recipes call for very little whipped cream.

The first things you want are an automatic coffee grinder (big difference), the second espresso machine (buy two if you can), and the advanced knockbox. I would buy the knockbox before doubling up on espresso machines. Later, you can buy a machine that can make two or three shots at once, but buying two of the second-level espresso machines will carry you through the early game pretty well.

What to sell

• Filter coffee: Filter coffee is very lucrative early-game because it does not require much equipment or ingredients and is quick to make.
• Americano: The water for Americanos does not need to be hot, but you will need to buy a kettle to add it to the menu (just buy the cheapest one and get water straight from the tap instead).
• Milk drinks: Buying a manual milk frother will unlock a whole plethora of drinks– don’t worry, most of them are just espresso and then filling the rest of the cup with milk or milk froth. When you do this, it will unlock the mocha which you may want to take off the menu (see syrup recipes in what not to sell)

What not to sell

• Syrup Recipes: Adding syrups early on is a bad idea because those recipes take longer to make (note that the game does not check whether you have bought the syrup before adding a relevant item to the menu, so you may need to click the “for sale” button to take them off).
• Shaker & Mixer recipes: These are complicated and require many ingredients, so they may be very confusing and time consuming in the early-game.

The reason you should not sell these complicated drinks early-game is because you will serve less customers in a day and be buying potentially expensive ingredients when you should be mastering the basics. It can cause an unnecessarily bad experience to try to jump into the very complicated drinks right away.

The first filter coffee and ice machines take a long time to fill up. It is best to take the correlated drinks off the menu for the first day after you purchase these (note that they do not fill up as you sleep). It doesn’t take very long to buy the second filter coffee machine, which is much faster. It does take a while to get the second ice machine, so you may want to invest in doubling up on ice machines until you can buy it. Also make sure to buy cups before putting the filter coffee and ice coffee drinks on the menu (filter coffees come in all sizes, ice coffees come in ice coffee cups from small to large).

To unlock milk recipes, you must buy the manual milk frother. After this, I recommend buying an espresso machine with a built-in milk frother and a jug. Make sure to use the f key to put the milk at the frother on the espresso machine or it will heat up the milk instead when you pull the lever (which is useless). The advanced (second) jug is available early-game and holds 350 ml of milk or milk froth, which is over double the basic automatic milk frother.

I can’t recommend the price- and tip-increasing skills enough. You can find them in the skill tab of the computer. These will increase profits as you save up for the better espresso and filter coffee machines. I also recommend buying the industrial knockbox and automatic milk frother at this point. The better coffee grinders become irrelivent as the high-level espresso machines and second- and third-level filter coffee machines have built-in coffee machines. This is also a good time to add syrups to your menu and buy a mini-fridge stocked with sandwiches (super easy extra money).

Don’t get employees before reaching popularity level 8 and unlocking the professional employees. Your popularity will steadily increase each day, and you should be making enough money to afford a cleaning staff and one barista staff once you reach this point. Make sure to have enough ingredients for your barista employee to make the drinks on the menu (they will decrease your supply when making drinks, and they will also get all up in your business so keep that in mind).

At a certain point you will be buying all the highest quality ingredients and should be getting working on buying the best machines and adding every drink to your menu. Having more drinks on the menu keeps the game from getting monotonous. I would also recommend buying decorations for this purpose.