Baristas across London have been trained in the same martial art as Bruce Lee to help speed up their hands so they can serve coffee faster.
Healthy fast food chain Leon confirmed it has sent its baristas on a six week intensive course in Wing Chun – a type of kung fu mastered by the martial arts superstar.
The company, which has branches all over London, said they have seen speed of service and quality of their coffee improve after baristers took on the training.
They are also less stressed, the firm claims.
Some of the workers had even decided to continue with the martial art technique in their free time because of the benefits they experienced.
Orla Delargy, who works for the company, said: “We noticed that the baristas, some of them were feeling quite stressed. It’s quite a stressful job.
“We tested their heart rate and their confidence levels then we did six weeks’ intensive Wing Tsun training.
"We found the quality had gone up and heart rates had gone down.”
Ancient martial art Wing Tsun helps to increase spatial awareness and a better relationship between body and mind.
The trial was started by co-founder of Leon, John Vincent, in March this year. The aim of pilot scheme was to improve performance, reduce wastage and promote staff wellbeing.
After the initial experiment on six workers, 30 seconds had been knocked off the time it took them to make a coffee.
Not all baristas in London have yet been trained, Leon said.
