Children’s toys are getting more and more realistic these days and I don’t know about you but I find that my kids definitely prefer the toys that let them make something physical or emulate an everyday act in a more realistic way, so we were delighted to be asked to review the Creative Cafe Barista Bar from Cra-Z-art earlier this week.
What is the Creative Cafe Barista Bar?
The Creative Cafe Barista Bar is a working toy that lets kids create actual drinks. They can practise their barista skills as well as their latte art as they serve you up a treat to enjoy together.
The set contains
- the mixer,
- jug,
- 4 cups,
- teaspoons,
- a shaker,
- 3 stencils
- two sachets of the drink mixture, one strawberry flavour and the other chocolate
- recipe cards
The only things you will need to add yourself are three AA batteries and the milk. It is aimed at children aged 6 and over, however I feel with adult supervision those from 3 would enjoy it just as much.
Creative Cafe Barista Bar Review
The Creative Cafe Barista Bar is really easy to assemble. You just need to insert the batteries and connect the handle. That’s it, job done. Ready to use in under two minutes.
The set contains recipe/instruction cards for the children to follow so they can make different flavoured drinks. Again, these instructions are super easy to follow and apart from maybe pouring the milk into the measuring jug it is unlikely they will need any help. It is also important to note that these drinks are cold, so although they look like coffees your child will not burn themselves at all as nothing is heated.
How to use the Creative Cafe Barista Bar
To make the drinks all your child needs to do is
- add two teaspoons of the powder to a cup
- mix in 88ml of milk
- put the jug under the whisk
- pull the leave down and press the button
- once it is done pour the now flavoured milk into a cup
- pour another 88ml of milk into the jug and whisk it again, this time for a little longer so it creates a frothy mixture
- spoon the froth on to your drink
- place the stencil of choice over the top of the cup and sprinkle on some of the mixture
- remove the stencil to reveal your latte art
- enjoy the drink
Creative Care Barista Bar Review
The Creative Cafe Barista Bar was a huge success in our house. My kids played cafes together for ages and wanted to make everyone drinks and practice their latte art skills using the stencils and then going freehand and getting creative too.
They also loved the fact that the jug is clear meaning they get to see the whisk at work and on the first drink they can watch it turn from white to pink or brown and on the second they can see it getting frothier and bigger, which added to the excitement. It also helped add to the feeling of being in a real coffee shop like the ones they have been in many times before and ordered their own babyccinos, only this time they are the baristas.
Not only is this easy to use and loads of fun but the drinks are actually really nice too. Next time I want to sit and enjoy a coffee I am definitely going to get the kids to make themselves a babyccino first and then join me.
The Creative Cafe Barista Bar is aimed at those over 6 but both my 10-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter loved it and I think if you want them to use it on their own then stick to 6 but if you plan on using it with them then younger children will really love the imaginative play side of it too.
Some food and drink toys are mainly geared towards girls but this one is blue in colour with both a boy and a girl modeling on the box which helps to make it look more unisex and it was definitely enjoyed by my son so don’t let that typical stereotype put you off buying it for a boy, we highly recommend it.
The Creative Cafe Barista Bars are available now from Smyths for £21.99.
Where can you get the Creative Cafe Barista Bar refills?
If your kids have loved the Creative Cafe Barista Bar as much as mine did then you may need to grab some refill’s from Amazon so the fun can last longer.
If you have loved used