Barista Cover Letter Example

A barista cover letter is read by a cafe manager or an owner who has one morning rush in mind and wants to know whether you can hold the bar through it. Chains rarely ask for a letter; independent cafes and roasters usually read one, because they are hiring a small crew and the letter is where you say which shop, which shifts and what you do at peak that the posting asked for.

The sample below goes with the barista resume example: Marisol Estrada, a lead barista at an independent espresso bar in Portland, Maine, applying for a lead barista position on the opening team of a local roaster's second cafe. It opens by answering the posting's three asks in order, spends one paragraph on her current bar with the drinks per hour, remakes and wait times her resume states, uses her earlier job at a roaster's cafe to show she can talk about coffee, and closes by asking for a bar shift.

Write a new letter for every cafe. A roaster wants brewing methods and coffee knowledge; a high-volume shop wants speed and early-shift reliability; lead with whichever this posting is for.

Updated . The person, the employer and the recipient in this sample letter are fictional. It goes with the barista resume example for the same person.

Barista sample cover letter

About 290 words, one page in the style of the Simple template.

Marisol Estrada

Lead Barista, Specialty Coffee

Portland, MEmarisol.estrada@example.com(207) 555-0119

Mr. Caleb TremblayCafe ManagerHarrow Street RoastersPortland, ME

Dear Mr. Tremblay,

Your posting for a lead barista to open your second cafe asks for someone who can run the bar at the morning peak, dial in the espresso every day and train a new crew to the standard of the original shop. That is what I do now at Wrenfield Espresso Bar, and I would like to do it for your opening.

At Wrenfield I run the bar during the 7 to 10 a.m. rush, making up to 80 drinks an hour alongside two other baristas. I dial in the espresso at every opening and log grind, dose and yield, which brought customer remakes down to a handful a week. When the morning line reached the door last winter, I moved pastry and drip coffee to a second station, and the average wait fell from nine minutes to five. I have trained eight new baristas on our drink standards, latte art and the opening and closing checklists, and I open the shop four days a week and handle the cash drawer and the deposits.

Before Wrenfield I spent two years at Larkhaven Coffee Co., the roaster's flagship cafe, serving about 300 customers a day across espresso, pour-over and cold brew, with no drawer shortages in that time. I helped run the weekend tastings for customers and wholesale accounts, explaining origins and brew methods, so talking about your coffee at the counter is something I enjoy rather than a script. My ServSafe food handler certificate is current.

My resume is attached with both cafes. I would welcome an interview, or a shift on the bar at your original location so you can see how I work through a rush, and I can be there any weekday afternoon. Thank you for your time.

Best regards,

Marisol Estrada

Start yours from this letter

Opens this letter in the editor, in one of the templates below. Swap in your details and the employer's, then fit it to each vacancy in about two minutes.

Use this letter

How this barista cover letter is built

  1. The opening answers the posting's three asks in order

    A cafe manager opening a second shop has a short list: someone to hold the bar at peak, keep the espresso right and train the crew. The first paragraph repeats those three things, says Marisol does them now and names the shop where she does them. There is no sentence about loving coffee, because the evidence makes the point without it.

  2. The second paragraph is her current bar, in the numbers a manager uses

    Drinks an hour, remakes a week, the wait before and after, baristas trained and days opened: every figure is on the barista resume, and the letter puts them in one paragraph a manager can read in thirty seconds. The second station story is the one to keep, because it shows she fixes a line rather than just surviving one, and that is what a lead does.

  3. The third paragraph adds the roaster experience the posting cares about

    Harrow Street is a roaster's cafe, so the tastings and wholesale accounts at Larkhaven earn a paragraph: they say she can talk about origins to a customer and to a wholesale buyer. The two years without a drawer shortage and the ServSafe card are short, checkable and the kind of thing a manager wants to know before handing over keys.

  4. The closing asks for a bar shift

    Cafes hire by putting you on bar during a rush, so the letter offers that at the shop the manager already runs. It names the resume, says when she is free and thanks the reader once. Nothing from the earlier paragraphs is repeated.

  5. The greeting is to the cafe manager by name

    Independent cafes are small enough that the manager's name is easy to find: the website, the shop's social accounts or a visit at a quiet hour. "Dear Mr. Tremblay" and "Best regards" fit a cafe. A letter to a chain's district manager would be more formal, and "Dear Hiring Team" is fine for an online form.

Templates for the barista cover letter

All cover letter templates

Each one matches a resume template of the same name, so the letter and the resume go out in one look.

Mistakes that cost barista interviews

  1. Opening with how much you love coffee

    The manager loves coffee too, and it does not tell them whether you can hold the bar at 8 a.m. Open with the job, the shop and the one thing you do that the posting asked for. Enthusiasm shows up in the specifics, such as logging grind and yield at every opening, not in the adjectives.

  2. No numbers for the rush

    Fast-paced and high-volume mean nothing without a figure. Say the drinks an hour, the customers a day or the tickets per shift, and give an estimate from your own shifts if the shop never measured it. One number makes the whole letter believable.

  3. Sending the same letter to a roaster and a chain

    A roaster's cafe reads for brewing methods, dialing in, latte art and how you talk about origins; a high-volume chain reads for speed, accuracy and showing up for the 5 a.m. open. Lead with whichever the posting is for. The sample leads with the bar at peak and then the tastings, because the posting is from a roaster opening a second shop.

  4. Leaving out opening, keys and cash

    Being trusted to open and to count the drawer is the clearest sign of reliability a cafe can read, and it is what separates a lead barista from a barista. Say how many days you open, that you handle deposits and how long the drawer has balanced.

  5. Jargon with no result

    Extraction, TDS and channeling are fine words if they end in something a customer felt: fewer remakes, a shorter line, a drink that tastes the same at 7 and at 10. Pair each technical term with its result or leave it out of the letter.

  6. A letter longer than the shift notes

    Three or four short paragraphs, under 320 words. A cafe manager reads applications on a phone between deliveries, and a letter that scrolls twice is the one that gets skimmed or skipped. If a sentence is on the resume already, it does not need to be here.

Questions about the barista cover letter

Do baristas need a cover letter?

For a chain with an online form, rarely; for an independent cafe or a roaster, usually, because the owner or manager is choosing a small crew and reads what you wrote. When the posting asks for one, send it. When it does not, a short one with your availability and one number from your current bar still helps.

How long should a barista cover letter be?

Three or four short paragraphs, around 300 words; the sample above is about 290. The first paragraph says which job and why you fit, the middle gives the numbers, the last asks for a bar shift. If the application has only a message box, paste the first and last paragraphs into it.

Who do I address a cafe cover letter to?

The cafe manager or the owner, by name. Independent shops are small enough that a visit at a quiet hour or a look at the website will give you one. "Dear Hiring Team" works for a chain's online form; "To whom it may concern" reads as if you never looked.

How do I write a barista cover letter with no cafe experience?

Lead with customer service and cash handling from any job, your availability for early mornings and weekends, and anything you know about coffee, even if you learned it at home. Say that you want to learn the bar and that you are reliable, and offer to come in for a trial. Cafes hire first-time baristas when the availability and the attitude are right.

Should I mention latte art?

If the shop serves specialty drinks and you pour well, yes, in a clause with the other skills. For a high-volume shop, speed and consistency matter more, so put them first. Never make latte art the main claim; a manager wants to know you can pour it at 8 a.m. with a line out the door, not on a quiet afternoon.

How do I ask for a lead or shift lead role?

Say what you already do that a lead does: opening, training, the drawer, fixing the line when it backs up. The sample makes that case through the duties rather than by repeating the word lead. If you have not done those things yet, apply for the barista role and say you want to grow into opening and training.

Related cover letter examples

All cover letter examples

Every application goes out fitting the vacancy.

Paste a vacancy, get a resume and a cover letter rewritten for it in about two minutes.

Tailor your resume — free

Free to start. No card. Same price on web, iOS and Android.