Nordic Barista Cup is one of the most innovative competition concepts one finds in the coffee world today. It’s a team competition that lasts for a few days, is packed with lectures by the best in their fields and competitions that measure how well the recently taught has been learned. More information on the competition can be found at www.nordicbaristacup.com.
The NBC organisers have decided to “improve” the concept with changes that in my opinion might threaten the whole competition.
There is also a dialogue/debate on the Nordic Barista Cup website with Lari and Jens at this link: Jens responds to Lari's concerns.
Where are you heading, Nordic Barista Cup?
Robert Paulig, one of the coffee connoisseurs in Finland, asked me after I won my first barista competition in 2001: ”Where do you see yourself in five years?” I answered him as I would answer today: “I only know, that I’ll be happy with my life.” “That’s a lot.” Mr. Paulig said.
The 4th of October 2006 was exactly five years from the day that I won the competition. I was teaching 45 waiter/waitress students in a hotel & restaurant school, having a two-day barista course, and as a part of the Barista Team Finland I had arrived from Copenhagen two days earlier. Nordic Barista Cup 2006 and more specifically seeing how we did in the competition was a moment no one of us forgets. It took a while to sink in, but after it did, you couldn’t erase the smile on our faces. Veni, Vidi, Vici. That’s how we still feel, though we didn’t win. We did better than anyone expected. On the 4th of October 2006, telling the students how we did, was a proud and happy moment. I had kept my promise. I was happy.
The Nordic Barista Cup to us equals to joy of learning, joy of finding skills you knew you might have but wasn’t really sure. The NBC is all about throwing oneself into the huge flood of information and absorbing as much as possible. And the competing – it only enhances the learning process. It’s not the winning, it’s being a part of it. Of course the winning is an easy-to-name goal. Everyone does the best they can in order to get as high rank as possible (and to beat that beloved enemy national team). But what you really get out of the experience – as corny as it may sound – everyone walks out being a winner.
What makes it so special? The positive atmosphere, the attitude one has when one arrives to the town for the competition. It all comes from within the competitors. The right persons with the eagerness of a five-year-old to learn about the thing they love – coffee.
Being a part of the national barista team is a challenge. It is as much learning to interact with each other as it is working hard to top all the other teams. But what makes the whole thing so special is the fun of it. The “not making it too serious”.
The future seems uncertain
The step the NBC organisation has taken demanding different things from the national barista teams is threatening the very soul of the NBC; the fun in learning. This year the teams need to have a professional sommelier and a professional coach in the team. Bringing a sommelier into the team is a great idea. It contradicts with the competition being the Nordic BARISTA Cup, but it certainly brings new aspects to the competition. The organisers really have read through the feedback and acted accordingly; alcohol is a part of baristas work. Barista IS Italian for bartender. But demanding that each team needs to have a professional coach or one that’s studying to be one – did anyone stop to think what this means?
The travelling party now consists of three coffee professionals, one wine specialist and a specialist in bringing the best performance out of people. That’s 40% non-coffee-people in the BARISTA team.
It’s not just the money…
A professional coach is not realistic in the scheme of daily life. A coffee bar cannot afford to hire an outsider to come in and reorganize the team and inspire increased sales. That is the job of the manager. And that is why there are numerous classes available for becoming more competent in specific job responsibilities. One has to look at reality and take what is learned/gained from NBC and then apply it to the actual daily grind.
What does it mean in terms of finance for the teams? Instead of having five people willing to work for the trip collecting money and being away from work for almost a week for the competition, we now have two persons travelling with the costs the three remaining or the organisation behind has to cover. No professional coach does the coaching for free. And in order to get the benefit of having a coach, the team has to train more and more together before the competition, which again adds to the costs. On behalf of the Barista Team Finland I can simply say: We can’t afford it.
When the competition is over, the coach has another line in the CV (assuming the competition turns out a success for the team) and the sommelier knows a vast amount of whatever the competition this year has included. The three baristi get the knowledge they need. But what if there was 66,7% more baristi that got the same knowledge and could take it into use in their everyday work, affecting directly to the very thing the competition is all about: coffee.
Why do we need a professional coach? It’s a – supposedly – three-day-competition that the team comes to compete. I certainly hope that the team members do not remain the same year after year, giving the great opportunity to more and more eager baristi. The NBC is always as rewarding as it has been, as long as the new baristi feel the same joy of learning. Bringing in a professional coach means starting to make it serious.
Trust me; the goal is clear to every barista in the house: absorb the information, make new social contacts, win the competition. But above all; learn in order to be a better barista. You don’t need a professional coach to tell you that. Everyone knows the goal and everyone makes it their own. What bringing in the coach just might do, is make it all too goal oriented. And that’s what takes out all the fun in learning, which makes the learning more difficult.
The vision within the Nordic Barista Cup is: “To create an environment in which knowledge about coffee and its sphere can be obtained”
Does making it more strictly goal oriented serve this purpose? Ask the people who have competed.
Another quote: Combined with personally absorption having the opportunity to see and experience countries, people, traditions etc. will always serve as a source of inspiration in our daily work.
How does making it all more controlled help this? How does bringing in a coach just to coach help this? And face it; a professional coach will not absorb the information in order to become a working barista. The pay’s not that good.
And yet another quote: The organization behind the Nordic Barista Cup see it as its main purpose to be a part of creating this forum in which people can meet, bond and achieve further knowledge.
You’re already making it. This is not a market-driven situation, where every non-progressing competitor-adapting move is a step back. You’ve got a good concept and no rivals. The effect is showing in better cup quality as time passes and the word gets around.
If you think of the articles Sarah Allen and Kenneth R. Olson of the Barista Magazine write during and after the competition, you immediately realize what it’s all about; a new kind of forum, where the people push it to the very limit of their learning capabilities and yet: having a blast! That’s the spirit of the NBC. It’s not about achieving the best possible performance in every measurable way and in good order and discipline.
What do you want to gain by making these changes? Is it the long term vision of this competition to be the ultimate competition uniting different kinds of craftsmanship? Don’t forget that the word in the middle of the competition name is BARISTA.
“Nordic Barista Cup, where do you see yourself in five years?”
Lari Järnefelt (
) Procoffee Member of the Barista Team Finland
Article Written and Submitted by:
