The Moscow Coffee & Tea Expo always attracts some of the biggest names in specialty coffee, and this year will be no exception.
The Moscow Coffee and Tea Expo will be returning to IEC Crocus Expo Centre on September 23 “26. In 2013, MCTE hosted over 100 events on 6 stages: workshops and seminars from internationally recognized experts, business lectures, and endless networking events to meet the world’s top coffee personalities.
To get you ready for this year’s event, we wanted to bring some of the celebrated speakers to you up close and personal! Below, see our interviews with Rob Stephen, Gloria Pedroza, Asli Yaman, Christopher Tara-Browne, and Erik Rosendahl.
ASLI YAMAN
Asli oversees coffee buying, production and quality control for Soyuz Coffee Roasting’s specialty-coffee brands: Barista, Paretto, and Mon Ami. Ms. Yaman hails from Istanbul, where she began her career in coffee some 10 years ago as the Trainer and R&D Department Manager at wholesale roaster and retailer John’s Coffee, a pioneer of specialty coffee in the birthplace of Turkish coffee. Ms. Yaman earned an MBA from Istanbul Bilgi University, where her dissertation analyzed the international proliferation of Starbucks. In March 2014, she attended the National Brewers Cup Championship in Turkey where she took the first place for the second time in a row. Following the success in Turkey, Ms. Yaman represented her home country in Rimini, at World Brewers Cup Championship 2014 where she ended up with a historic 3rd place! Currently, she is allocating a lot of her professional time towards education – running official SCAE trainings in Green Coffee, Sensory Skills & Roasting modules in Russia, and preparing herself for becoming a licensed Q-Grader.
What is your favorite coffee?
My favorites are natural process coffees.
What brought you to the specialty-coffee industry?
I visited an espresso bar on my first visit to Venice, Italy, and I fell in love with the aroma of coffee there. I think that was the moment I said to myself that after graduating from university, I should work with coffee.
How many cups of coffee a day do you drink?
I drink usually 2 “3 cups of coffee. Definitely I don’t include the coffees that I taste for cupping purposes in that number!
What do you like most about the specialty-coffee industry?
The product itself and the people in the community.
Has coffee changed your life somehow?
Yes. After meeting with different people and visiting many coffee places, my chakra is more open.
If you could take 3 things on an uninhabited island, what would they be?
A friend, a huge bag of roasted coffee, and clean water.
What have you been dreaming of lately?
Summer has ended up in Kaliningrad, so I am dreaming of being on the seaside drinking my cold brew of some honey-process coffee served with almond milk.
