Who would ever think that working in a small coffee shop in Oslo, Norway, would reveal itself as the path to Brazil? Ah, Brazil... land of sun, beautiful people and exotic atmosphere. Yes, it was all there ahead of us, but we were in store for much more than we expected as we prepared to depart Oslo for São Paolo, Brazil, in November, 2005.

It all started two months prior in September when, after months of practice, the four-person Norwegian Barista Team, led by me, the team coach, won the third annual Nordic Barista Cup. The unique event pits the best baristas from the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, and Sweden against each other in a series of events over the course of three days. Primarily, the Cup is meant to foster community between baristas, and it succeeds quite well at this. But it’s still always nice to come out on top, which is exactly what our team did.

In years past, the main prize for the winning team at the Nordic Barista Cup was an unending round of drinks at a great party at the close of the event. That and bragging rights, of course. But at the 2005 Nordic Barista Cup, the winning team had a particularly special treat in store: an all-expenses-paid, 10-day trip to Brazil for the entire team, including the coach, to visit coffee farms and explore this majestic authority in coffee. The trip was paid for by the NBC, but additionally sponsored by the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association. If not all free, this trip was easy on the wallet: our national team sponsor, Solberg & Hansen, took care of the stuff that was not covered!

We could hardly wait. It just seemed too good to be true. But I guess when you work hard for something, you often end up getting something back.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Oslo, Norway—São Paolo, Brazil—Pocos De Caldas, Brazil

All the members of the Norwegian Barista Team meet at the airport with great anticipation, already tired from not sleeping. It’s me, Gunhild Seljenes, Einar K. Holthe, Halvard Amble, Jonas Lippestad, and our tour leader, Andreas Hertzberg of Solberg & Hansen. We’ve all been involved in countless barista activities in the past— Gunhild is the 2005 Norwegian Barista Champion, she won sixth place at the World Barista Championship in Seattle, and she competed in the 2004 Nordic Barista Cup in Iceland.

Einar, who likes to think he’s the most handsome barista in Norway, won second place in the 2005 Norwegian Barista Championship and traveled to Seattle to support Gunhild at the WBC.

Hailing from the middle of Norway, the city of Trondheim, Halvard won third place in the 2005 Norwegian Barista Championship, after having won the latte art championship just one month before.

Jonas placed fourth in the Norwegian Barista Championship and was new to the Norwegian Barista Team at the NBC, but he certainly proved himself with, among other things, his experimental view on signature drinks.

But though all this may sound quite impressive, we all work with coffee because we love it and we have fun with it. And we are ready to take Brazil by storm! We wait for our plane to depart Oslo and ask each other, is this really happening? But soon enough, we land in Amsterdam and switch planes for São Paolo.

After a long 13 hours on the plane, we land safely in the largest city in South America—São Paolo has more than 20 million residents! Our feeling of safety, however, is shattered after about two hours in a car going 130 kilometers an hour when the driver changes lanes without checking his mirrors, and we go crashing into the side of a big trailer!

The world could have lost some good baristas in that crash, but I guess some sort of higher power kept us safe.

So our ever-capable tour leader, Andreas, takes over for the not-so-gifted driver and brings us to safety in the beautiful city of Pocos De Caldas. The city is surrounded by green hills and seems guarded by a statue of Jesus Christ towering above us. This year, the Brazilian Cup of Excellence is being held in this “small” city—there are 800,000 people here! In comparison, the Norwegian capital and largest city, Oslo is home to a mere 500,000.

Want to find out what happens next? Then order this back issue of Barista Magazine!