To inspire and tell stories that matter. Veronika Galova Vesela’s 2017 performance in the World Brewers Cup, Budapest, Hungary.
Welcome judges.
I ́m Veronika, a barista from Slovakia. I’m here to share what I love about my job. Many of my friends are asking me a question: Veronika – why are you a barista? My answer is: Because a single cup of coffee allows me to meet new people – such as you, to create new and lifelong relationships with those who believe in the same things and share important stories that matter.
My mission is to make your day beautiful with a cup of coffee and to keep its consistency I came up with my recipe of 1 to 1 ratio that I´m here to present today. I will explain as follows.
The coffee I was presenting last year at the world stage in Dublin brought me to my producer Jamison. Impressed by his passion and to understand the beauty behind the coffee, I decided to travel to Finca Deborah in Panama, a place between heaven and earth, located at 2,000 MASL where my beautiful cherries of Geisha were grown. Only seven year old trees but ready to make Jamison feel proud. I remember when tasting the ripe coffee cherries on the farm, the sweetness and acidity were in harmony. To keep that harmony they were carefully dried during three weeks on layered beds in three different stages.
The top stage kills bacterial activity and keeps the delicate acidity. The middle stage provides shade and develop the precious sweetness. And the bottom stage ensures moisture content of 11%.
After the drying process beans were shipped to my roaster, trainer and friend Ivica Itchy Cvetanovski, who I also met during my journeys. He showed me the whole taste spectrum of our beans, in respect to not find the best roast profile for you today – but the natural one.
Together, we roasted the coffee which allowed me to understand the chemistry of roasting and its relation to the structured sweetness and acidity I experienced at the farm. Producer, roaster and barista – We are the perfect combination of the shortest path algorithm consisting three equal elements that bring harmony to the coffee value chain and to your cup.
1 to 1 ratio, you remember? One producer, roaster and barista. This algorithm we applied also in the roasting. We divided the roast into three equal parts of the roasting time.
During the first part, we generate an extensive temperature drop to stimulate development of acidity.
In the second part, we continue to develop the sweetness with a long drying phase.
For the final part, an equal amount of development time is applied to the overall roast time.
I´m a barista but I had a chance to became roaster. And thanks to the knowledge I got I found the correlation with the brewing. So I applied the 1 to 1 ratio also in my daily technique as a brewer. This makes it simple, easy to repeat and to understand for anyone in the world. Roasting ratio is now my brewing ratio.
I divided my brew to three equal pours of 100g water. Each dripped for 1 minute. Total brew is 300g for water for 20g of coffee in total brew time 3min.
The first 100g of the brew are responsible for the acidity.
Imagine my kettle being a fruit basket consisting of fruits. So with this first pour I´m adding blackberries to your cup. The brewing method I’m using is Hario V60. It enables me to visually present how the coffee extracts, control the flow and timing.
The coffee was hand ground today in order to aerate the grinds. Roasted 5 days ago and bagged after 12 hours, providing enough time to de-gas, develop and keep aromas and flavors intact.
The second 100g develops the sweetness in the brewed coffee. And now try to imagine I´m adding apricots to your cup.
I decided for a water from Sweden Its low mineral content helps me to highlight sweetness and the body and at 95 degrees boost the acidity. Together we achieve the harmony in the cup.
The third and final 100g balances the acidity and sweetness in the brewed coffee. This final and important pour harmonizes the cup.
Are you ready to hear how does the harmony taste like?
Aroma: Lavender, Toffee, Cinnamon
Flavor: Lavender, Orange, Spice
Aftertaste: Lavender, Chamomile, Long
Acidity: Vibrant, Tartaric, Malic, High
Body: Round, Sticky, Mid
Please asses the aroma and wait for me to pour you the coffee.
Being a barista, I have understood the important role of having a feedback loop open all the time between the producer, the roaster and me as a barista. As I´m growing and learning, my friends and students can grow and learn as well when I serve them my stories. This was my story I wished to tell you today and I hope that it will matter just as much to you as it did for me.
Please enjoy!
Thank you!
