This is Your Brain on Barista Vlogs

I have recently gotten into watching so-called "barista vlogs" on youtube. There's some range in the videos, but basically they consist of people filming themselves making drinks while at work at a cafe, with little commentaries running simultaneously. I only watch ones with subtitled commentary only (no speech), but ones with talking probably exist too.

I started watching these via watching general coffee youtubers whose channels consisted mostly of reviews of coffee and coffee peripherals and recipes. This was interesting, but only for about a week or so. I really have no interest in spending hundreds of dollars on coffee equipment, and I don't have a particular enjoyment of espresso drinks, which these channels tend to focus on, so there wasn't much for me to enjoy after the most interesting videos on each channel were watched.

Somehow this led me to the "barista vlogs" as mentioned above, which are more in the ASMR/"One Hour of Relaxing Rain and Jazz Music" category than a traditional vlog is. I've never been interested in ASMR before...I "get it", but don't enjoy the sound of people whispering/crinkling or rustling things/etc, so it was a bit of a surprise to me how much I enjoyed these. The ones I like the most are basically focused only on the sounds of drink-making, so sounds of pouring ice, liquid spilling, cups being placed, things being stirred, etc. This is obvious in hindsight but these sounds are so relaxing to me!

Another aspect of this which I think deserves more introspection is that, I think it's fun or interesting to watch people do work? Like, I don't like them nearly as much, but watching these has led me to other "pseudo vlog" style videos with like, people just doing their jobs and filming it (like roofing, sewing things, cleaning rugs, etc). All these jobs have an aspect of like "satisfyingly completing a nice task" which is also something that people in general like to watch, so that part makes sense to me. I think watching people do aesthetically pleasing *work* is satisfying beyond just the ASMR or "Weirdly Satisfying" aspect...but I have to think more about this. At any rate I think the aspect of it being like, a job? makes it more satisfying.

I'll recommend some of my personal favorites to you :^) A lot of them are Korean and I speak/read zero Korean so apologies if some names get messed up while I'm copy+pasting.

• 나징NAJING This is probably my favorite of the cafe vlogs that I watch. It's very simplistic, just a forward camera angle of the barista making iced drinks. I think it's tightly edited in a way that makes it just nice to watch, and I think she's very deliberate and skillful with her movements which also adds to the "satisfying" factor. I like her little subbed commentary too! I thank her for translating it into English every time.


• 최블리choively These are very similar to Najing's, and I like them a lot too. I want to drink some...


• Zoe's Zoe has more of a traditional vlog, but 80% of them are set in the cafe where she works. This is also a speech-less vlog with subs, which I enjoy a lot. I think Zoe is really funny and enjoy these videos a lot. I think she might be really popular? When she is finishing work Zoe sometimes writes "Zobby is free~" in the subs which always makes me crack up.


• 한세HANSE These videos are called "home cafe" and they're more obviously like, pure ASMR content (so just filmed in a studio, not in a cafe). I like them, and they're definitely very satisfying (they do a good job with the sound), but I like them a little less because they feel overly manufactured or wasteful. Plus they don't have fun running commentary either.


• Laura Angelia These are also a little more like traditional vlogs, but about 90% of them are set in the cafe where she works. These are also less...aesthetic? And more like "I literally just filmed myself at my job". This was my gateway into barista vlogs.