As an ambitious person you always have one or more goals in sight. If you’re a career person in the corporate world you might have your eyes set on that Marketing Manager role and if you’re a rising star musician you might be eying up that headline slot at your favourite festival. For a Barista it’s not uncommon to want to participate and win your country’s Barista Championships and if you win those, well then winning the World Barista Championships are as close as you’ll ever get to world domination.

To find out how a national Barista Champion prepares for the big event in Seattle this April 2015 and what it’s like to come home from the local competition, go back to your coffee bar the next morning (most likely hung over but feeling amazing), we caught up with Lex Wenneker of Headfirst Coffee Roasters and current Dutch Barista Champion. In about two weeks time Lex and his team will be on their way to the legendary US coffee city to have a go at bringing the World Barista Championship title to The Netherlands.

The Coffeevine (TC): Hello Lex, first of all, congratulations on becoming Dutch Barista World Champi… Um I mean. 

Lex Wenneker (LW): Ha ha ha! Thank you. Thank you!

TC: Jesus, I don’t want to jinx anything! So, how does it feel to be Dutch Barista Champion?

LW: It feels really good. It was kind of a last minute thing actually. I told myself a while I ago I was never going to compete again after my last attempt in 2011 but since then a lot has changed. We are now roasting our own coffee and I decided I wanted to have another go at it using coffee that I roasted here. Also, the general scenery has changed a lot and I feel more comfortable now. Keng Pereira (of CC Oosterdok) then came to me only days before the application deadline and jokingly encouraged me to sign up. And I thought: “Screw it. Why not?!” Keng then tried to make me change my mind when he realized I was serious, ha ha!

TC: Now the portafilter tattoo on your arm suddely has a new meaning, huh?

LW: Yea, I guess it does.

TC: Who knows, if you win the championships, maybe all the cool kids will get one – wink.

LW: Ha ha. Who knows indeed.

TC: Has anything changed for you since you brought the title home? Are people asking for their coffees to be made specifically by you? Are you a trending # on Instagram?

LW: I’m not really sure if it got any busier because of this, it’s already quite busy here as you can see. But of course people have noticed the trophy on the shelf and they ask about it, which is nice. Even in the weeks prior to the event people took notice of the activity here and they showed a real interest in the preparations I was making. Once they realized that there’s a whole serious world attached to specialty coffee, they suddenly saw it through different eyes.

“… things like the Amsterdam Coffee Festival and other initiatives are making great coffee more accessible to the masses and that’s what we’re all striving to do.”

But to be honest, I don’t think they started liking the coffee itself better because of it. I also don’t think that I am a better Barista than the guys who work here, it’s only that I competed and won. Nothing more and nothing less.

TC: Let’s talk about your preparations for the World Barista Championships in Seattle. You have less than a month to go before the big event. On a scale of 1 – 10, how nervous are you?

LW: Not very nervous now. But the pressure is growing and we’re finalizing a lot of things at the moment, like roasting and shipping our coffee and so on. There’s a lot of logistical stuff that needs to be done but I wouldn’t say I’m nervous. Of course, once I get to Seattle it will be a whole different ball game!

TC: Are you going to visit the first Starbucks?

LW: Wow, yes, I guess I might.

TC: Well I hate to say it but without Starbucks much of this whole coffee world probably wouldn’t exists.

LW: That’s true.

TC: Like at the Dutch Barista Championships you’ll have to prepare four Espressi, four Cappuccinos and four signature drinks. Which one gets you the most excited?

LW: Definitely the Espresso. The Cappuccino is in there, I think, because it’s probably the drink that gets ordered the most and the signature drink I always have a love / hate relationship with because as a coffee purist I hate adding things to my coffee. But in this competition you have to. I guess what I do like about it is how it allows you to share a story, your story. You can let the judges taste and experience that and I think we had a pretty good drink in the Dutch Championships. I might even order it if I was a customer here and we had it on the menu!

TC: One of the things you will be very much exposed to at the WBC is the richness and variety of the participants’ backgrounds. Everyone brings different techniques, traditions, flavours. Will you try and create something very exotic for your signature drink or will you offer something with a strong Dutch character?

LW: I’m not sure it’s going to be typically Dutch but it certainly will be close to our roots. In the Dutch championships the theme had to do with the origins of our bar. Five years ago there was a massive gap between the coffee at the competition and the coffee actually served in the bars.

These days we roast our own coffee and that’s the one I worked with at the competition and the same coffee you can drink here. The judges liked it, our customers liked it and at the end of the day that brought our story together.

“… At the moment we’re mostly talking about how little time we have left to get things done!”

At the World Championships I am going to focus more on the roasting side of things because next to being a Barista I am also a Roaster and for some funny reason that is quite rare over there. Most serious US coffee businesses clearly seperate the roasting from the bar work even though the two work very closely together. I want to shed more light on what it’s like to be both, although I am sure it’s been done before. But at least it’s real.

TC: Your roasting space has changed a lot since my last visit. Looks like you’re trying to open another bar in here or something!

LW: No. This place is a total mess. A good mess though. Sorry you had to see it like this ha ha.

TC: So Lex, what does a typical practice day look like for you then? How many hours per day / week to do spend preparing and what do you do to prepare?

LW: Well, it starts in the morning when we open the shop and then we work our way through the day, pretty much every day. That’s our daily routine and of course we talk about things as we go. At the moment we’re mostly talking about how little time we have left to get things done!

And then after 6pm I start prepping the stage here. We recreated the stage to the exact specifications of what it will be like in Seattle. Same height, same machine, same grinder, everything has to be the same. This allows me to go through my routine in an environment that at least resembles Seattle in everything but the stage and the people itself. Also, this helps eliminate the possibility of something not being where you expected it to be and that then screwing up your entire routine.

We do a lot of runs here, making sure that everything is there. Jonatan (Co-founder of Headfirst) is my trusted coach and since he’s a SCAE approved judge he’s very well equipped to guide me along.

TC: Did you seek any tips or advice from previous contestants or previous World Champions?

LW: Yes totally. We watched a lot of recordings from previous years and I know a lot of the previous Dutch champions and they have been really forthcoming in giving me advice and useful tips. I have also followed the US and UK Championships to see if people in other countries are doing things differently to us and we then evaluated the performances to see if we could incorporate certain elements.

TC: What do you think judges pay special attention to when you’re on stage, except for your coffee? Body language? Facial expression? Spoken language?

LW: Well officially they are looking for an ambassador for coffee. Not only someone who can make a decent cup of coffee of course but someone who is able to explain how to make it. I think they’re looking for someone that other people can relate to and would like to see more of.

TC: So a bit like American Idol only for coffee?

LW: Ha ha! Yes I guess so.

TC: So for one year you’ll get all the glory until the next winner takes center stage. 

LW: Exactly! But of course in that year you get to do a lot of amazing things. Look at people like Tim Wendelboe for example. He won 10 years ago and is still a widely followed authority.

TC: Nice cue to my next question. Norway and Denmark have both taken the trophy home six times in total, sparking something of a coffee revolution in their capitals. In fact, when you visit Oslo or Copenhagen, the average coffee quality is much higher than in other cities. What do you think will be the potential effect of a Dutch person winning the Championships? 

LW: Actually that’s a very interesting point. Although Amsterdam and the rest of the country have made huge jumps in recent years, great coffee is not yet as common place as in other countries. But things like the Amsterdam Coffee Festival and other initiatives help to make great coffee more accessible to the masses and that’s what we’re all striving for at the end of the day.

TC:  Assuming that you did win, are there any things you would do differently or would you just continue with business as usual?

LW: I do hope that I can continue working and living my life as before but of course when you win a title like that you are also accepting a great deal of responsibility. There are people who say that if you win, you’ll be on the road all the time, giving demos and speeches and your life will never be the same again. I hope I can maybe find a nice mix between the old and new. But first I need to win of course!

TC: Thanks for your time Lex and we wish you all the best. Make us proud!

This interview was conducted by Alex Kitain, Co-founder of The Coffeevine. Photographs by Erica Armistead, Co-founder of The Coffeevine.

Read our review of Headfirst Coffee Roasters here.

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