2013 TEAMS

We are proud to announce the 5 Nordic Teams which will compete for this year’s Nordic Barista Cup. These are some of the best baristas in the Nordic countries at the moment – and they will be serving coffee for all 200 attendees during NBC. Each of the Nordic teams have one Brazilian barista on the team. The Brazilian guests are featured first in the Team sections.

TEAM FINLAND


Helcio Junior, Team Finland
Brazilian, born and raised in the middle of the coffee plantations at Carmo de Minas, South of Minas Gerais State. A member of the fourth generation of a family group of coffee producers in Terroir named “Cafés da Mantiqueira de Minas” (Indication of Source – IP), co-founder and commercial Director of Unique Specialty Coffees and The Specialty Coffee Route. It`s mission is to educate brazilians and make the country recognized not only as the largest coffee producer in the world but also by their high quality coffees.

Kalle Frese, Team Finland 
Finnish Barista Champion 2013. My journey to the core of coffee started some four years ago in New Zealand. It’s taken me to Melbourne and back with many stops on the way, dramatically prolonged my journey to get any kind of a degree from university and led to a lot of dancing with certain coffee luminaries. To me, the best thing about coffee are the people I get meet and to enjoy coffee with. Perhaps you?

 

Noora Kahila, Team Finland

Finnish Brewers Cup Champion 2013. First Cappuccinos arrived to Finland around that time when I was born in 1990. When I reached age 13 it was the first time I got interested in coffee. For many years coffee for me was sharing important moments in life with my family. 

Couple years ago I learned about the SCAE and the competitions. I arranged a meeting with former Finnish Barista Champion, and since then it has been all about the coffee. I’ve worked in a couple of quality focused Helsinki Cafes, and nowadays at the Kaffa Roastery. I’ve experienced in training new baristas, further education and developing coffee quality within business.

Cafe culture in Finland is newly emerging, and it is inspiring for me to push forward the coffee quality. My coffee career is driven by seeing the results made by sharing knowledge and making others aware of the coffee quality.  Also discovering and learning new things is very rewarding for me.

 

Antti Mäkinen, Team Finland
Barista Trainer at Johan& Nyström, Helsinki. Coffee has been my friend for a long time, but there are two incidents, that have guided me to accompany specialty coffees. First was when I had my first real espresso. Don’t know was it technically perfect or even average, but it got me wondering about the drink, at same time it was different from what I have used to and at same time it tasted amazing.
Another case was discussion between friend and unintentional comment about coffee had – that it was not good. These two events have awoken my appetite for quality coffees.

TEAM DENMARK

Victor Souza, Team Denmark 
My history with coffee begins since I was a child, even with the preference in home for tea. I really can’t explain why coffee brings this unique sensation, if is the smell or the taste, or the talks that come along with so many different people. But the doors opened as I began to get a heavy interest about special coffees. So, from a simple waiter, I got to the point of a roasting apprentice in one of the most conceited coffee shops of Brazil. My trip to Norway will be the first trip to another part of the world, and the best of it, to talk about something that I love.
 So, I expect to explain, defend and most important, to learn about what others feel from this tiny thing, that we all understand, even if not with words, why is called “special”.

Rasmus Gamrath, Team Danmark
I work as bar manager/barista for The Coffee Collective at our location in Torvehallerne. In tough competition I was lucky enough to win the Danish barista championship 2013. I started working with coffee 3 years ago, before that I have been working in the service industry for about 15 years as kitchenhand, waiter and bartender. The reason why I ended up as a barista, is because coffee for me is probably the most awesome product to work with. You can take it in so many different directions depending what you want it to be like. And of course it helps that it always puts a smile on our guests faces.

Tobias Mosegaard Jensen, Team Danmark
I basically started my coffee career at Sigfred’s Kaffebar May 2012 and fell in love right away. Coming from a smaller background of waitering and bar tending – the experience and workflow behind a bar felt really natural and that combined with serving a product that you really love and want to share is bliss.

After a year at Sigfred’s Kaffebar I feel like I found my place in the crazy world with I can find myself just being happy and share that happiness with people who either are visiting for the coffees or the baristas working.
The only thing more complex and nuanced then coffee is people.

I am attending the Nordic Barista Cup thanks to becoming the 2013 Danish Brewers Cup Champion and 10th at the 2013 World Brewers Cup Championship in Melbourne.

Sarah Elisabeth Kall Lindqvist, Team Denmark
For the last three years I have been working with specialty coffee at Estate Coffee, Copenhagen.  I have been a full-time and part-time barista at Estate Coffee and worked there as a manager for 1/2 a year as well. Currently I am working at Estate Coffee full-time and is in charge of all coffee production, staff training, developing brewing profiles etc. This was my first competing year and it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. I learned so much about myself and from others. I love the time around competing because even though it’s a competition it brings all the coffee geeks closer together and I guess that’s where you really lean something new. Winning Cup tasters was a real rush and I can’t wait to go to Nice, France in end June.

It seems to me that every time I think I know just a little bit more about coffee there is something new to discover. That is what I love about coffee. And the smell of freshly grounded coffee in the morning. And afternoon. And evening.

TEAM SWEDEN

Daniela Capuano
Having passed all my summer vacations as a child at the coffee farm of my Grandparents in the south of Minas Gerais, I feel confident in saying that I have grown up with coffee. This doesn’t mean coffee and I have always been on the same level with each other.

You know, there was a long time for me where a person’s love affair people for their morning cup of coffee was just plain odd, I mean to me it was a just cup of dirty sweetened water, so why were people clinging to it as if morning happiness was assured with each sip?

However once I turned 18 this all changed and my eyes were opened. I got a job at a specialty coffee shop, which not only help me to get through university but also set of a spark in me to uncover the properties a good cup of coffee can provide, it doesn’t hurt either that I travel the world in its pursuit.

Oskar Alvérus, Team Sweden
I started of as a bartender, got tired of late nights and drunk people. I met up Alexander Ruas and Alexander Sjödin, two coffee persons that worked in the specialty coffee underground scene a few years back. They introduced me to coffee and all the things that i missed in an regular bad cup of coffee. 

We started experiment and opened up a small shop near Mariatorget. One year later we got our hands on the space thats now called Drop Coffee. That was about 5 years ago.

Now Drop Coffee has grown to a full scale roastery. A 25kg diedrich roaster represent the heart of the company. Whole sale, courses, events and our espresso bar are things that we focus a lot on nowadays. 

To be a part of the Swedish National Team is something I´ve been looking forward to for a long time.

Anna Nordström, Team Sweden
Educator, cupper and speciality coffee manager at Löfbergs in Karlstad, in my work I like to inspire and give more people the possibility to discover the wonderful world of speciality coffee.
As a board member of SCAE Swedish chapter I have been planning and arranging different coffee competitions  the last years,  I am a certified taste judge so I have also done some judging.
In 2008 I won the Swedish cupping championship and became no 3 in the world cupping championship the same year. After almost 10 years of cupping coffee I still get fascinated and inspired every day by all the people, processes and techniques that each single one contributes to make that really nice cup of coffee.

Tobias Palm, Team Sweden

I´m the barmanager at Johan&Nyström concept store. I have been working as a barista for almost 2 years but coffee have been my passion for a longer time them that. 2010 did me and my friend Max start a coffee blog together. Our goal with the blog was to learn more about coffe and in the same time we dreamed about starting our own coffeebar. The dream came true and we started  Alla tiders in Orebro. I learnd so much that year and that gave me the oppurtunity to move to Stockholm and join the crew at Johan&Nyström.

This year have been a great year for me. Not only did I won Taster Championship but I also came second place in Barista cup, that was more then I ever could have dreamed about. I think that this is all because of amazing colleagues, great customers and friends that always inspire me to get better at what I do. It’s the greatest honour for me to be representing Sweden in our national team.
I am brave enough to say that this year we are taking back the gold to Sweden! 

TEAM NORWAY

Allan Botrel, Team Norway

I have been lucky enough to be born in Sul de Minas, in the heart of the coffee producing region, so in one way or another my life has always evolved around the coffee plant. This off course gave me a free ticket to coffee world.

What I like the most in coffee is the bunch of crazy people (I still think it could be a side effect from caffeine, yet to be proven) we meet along the way and the fact that we are constantly learning something new. Back to real life, I currently work as a market agent for BSCA in Europe.

Madeleine Solheim Johnsen, Team Norway
My dad introduced me to coffee in early age, but I started my coffee career through my first job as one of the last Freia Chocolate girls at Konserthuset and The Opera house in Oslo. With that background I developed a real passion for coffee when I worked fulltime under Stine Bang, as a member of the original team at United Bakeries Majorstuen after High School.

I continued as a part-time bartender and barista throughout my bachelor degree at BI in Oslo, and was hired by Gabriel Waters as manager at Kaffebrenneriet.  After a year in my first store at Spikersuppa, I was transferred to Kaffebrenneriet Ullevållsveien. This store is actually the place where I tasted my first cup of coffee with my dad.

I signed up for the National Championship in Coffee in Good Spirits 2013 for fun, just to combine my knowledge as a bartender and barista, and was placed 1st as the national Champion of 2013. Soon I’m going to Nice in France to compete in the World Championship 2013. I have learned a lot from all of my present and previous mentors throughout the years, not to mention all the Barista I work with every day – so thank you so much!

Nikolai Aunbakk, Team Norway
I’m a barista and student based in Oslo. For the last year I’ve had the pleasure to work with the fantastic crew at Solberg & Hansen’s Concept Store, where we’ve specialized in hand brews and black coffee. In the store we have an “all black” coffee bar and we also do cupping and brewing courses.  We are constantly trying to share knowledge and love of the fantastic coffee we get from our friends at the farms.

For the last four years I’ve been working as a barista in Oslo, in between travelling and studying natural sciences. This year I won the Norwegian Cup Tasting Championship and I was also judging in Norway’s first Roasting Championship.

Alexander Hansen, Team Norway

2011 january – august Assistent manager united bakeries ccvest
2011 november – 2012 june barista at Stockfleths Sandvika
Norwegian championships 2012: 12th place in barista competition and 3rd place in cupping
2012 June – 2012 September assistant manager stockfleths in the old city
2012 september – 2013 february Barista at stockfleths in the old city
2013 until now Barista at mocca kaffebar og brenneri
Norwegian brewers cup champion 2013
15th place in the world brewers cup championships.

TEAM ICELAND

Carolina Franco, Team Iceland
My name is Carolina Franco, in a way I was born into coffee, being enthusiastic about it since an early age; although its been till recent years that I’ve started discovering new and better ways to brew coffees and to show people that Brazil can produce amazing specialty coffees that are different and unique from any other around the world.
My experience in championships goes all the way back since I was 12. Ether competing indifferent categories, as Cup Tasters, Brewers Cup, Barista championship or Coffee in Good Spirits, or helping to train my colleagues, been around competition is a great way to learn en improve skills.
My last achievement in competition was 5th place on Worlds Brewers Cup, that happened in Melbourne last May.

Torfi Þór Torfason, Team Iceland
2006 Sept – 2007 Mar: Restaurant Ensemble: Chefs apprentice
2007 May – 2009 Aug: Hilton Nordica Hotel Reykjavík: Chefs apprentice and chef
2009 Aug – 2010 Aug: Grillið @ Hotel Saga Radison blu: Chef
2010 Sept. – 2010 Nov: Restaurant Umami Copenhagen: Chef
2010 Nov – 2012 Oct: The Coffee Collective: Barista, roaster, macchinesto

Coffee competitions and results:
2011 Danish Brewers Cup Champion
2012 Danish Barista Champion
2012 2.place Danish Cup Tasters Championship
2012 2.place Danish Brewers Cup
2013 Icelandic Barista Champion

Kristín Þóra Jökulsdóttir, Team Iceland
I am the Icelandic Cup Taster champion for 2013. I love everything about coffee. I love the smell and the taste; the culture behind it – from the farmer who grows it, to the barista that brews it; as well as the social aspect of it, that is sitting down with a friend over a cup of good coffee.
I do other things besides tasting and brewing coffee. I love singing and am studying to become a classical soprano, I play the violin, dance Lindy hop and have been a ranger in an Icelandic National Park for the last few summers. I care about the environment and would like to look more thoroughly into the environmental and sustainability aspects of the coffee industry.

Vala Stéfansdóttir, Team Iceland

2008 – 2012 : Te & Kaffi: Barista, Manager, Trainer
2007 – 2009 : Margmiðlunarskólinn: Diploma in Multimedia and 3D Animation
2011 – 2012 : Trúnó: Barista & Bartender
2012 – 2012 : Java & Mocca kaffebar: Barista
2012 – 2012 : Pallett Kaffikompaní: Barista
2012 – now : Slippbarinn: Barista & Bartender
2013 – now : Kaffismiðja Íslands: Barista  

Coffee competitions and results:

2013 :    Icelandic Coffee in Good Spirits Champion
2013 :     2.place Icelandic Cup Tasters Championship
2013 :    2.place Icelandic Barista Championship
2012 :    2.place Icelandic Brewers Cup Championship
2011 :    Icelandic Latte Art Champion