To connect coffee lovers and professionals from all around the world, to inspire others, to make new friends.
Today we feature the story of :
MICHALIS KATSIAVOS
Please tell us about yourself.
My name is Michalis Katsiavos and I am based in Athens Greece. I have been involved within the specialty coffee industry for 9 years, now.
In 2018 I became the Greek barista champion and 4th place in W.B.C in Amsterdam the same year. My role within the coffee industry is to improve coffee quality and promote specialty coffee. It is an endless effort from the producers, roasters and baristas to produce and offer specialty coffee to the market. This is not just a cup of coffee.
What is your vision and goal?
I am currently working for the Greek roasting company ‘’Samba Coffee Roasters’’ and I am at the department of Research and Development and at the Quality control. My vision and goal, is one day to buy a coffee farm and produce my own coffee and roast it at Samba Coffee Roasters.
How did you get started in coffee, what made you fallen in love with it?
I started working temporary in coffee, but I soon realised there were many variables affecting a well brewed cup of coffee. Trying to understand all these variables and taking control of them I started falling in love with coffee. From that time I started working in high professionalism environments, serving always delicious cups of coffee.
If you weren't a coffee lover or professional what would you have done instead?
I can not imagine myself being out of coffee.
What is your favourite coffee beverage ?
I can not decide what is my favorite beverage. I like drinking espresso and filter coffee. In filter coffee It doesn’t matter for me if it is made on Aeropress or V60 since it tastes delicious. All brew devices offer delicious cups as far as you adapt your recipe to the coffee. It is all about the variables that affect the final cup as I told before.
What do you see as the major challenges facing the coffee industry?
Changing weather patterns, increased temperatures and new disease and insect prevalence are some of the majors challenges that coffee world is facing. Also, The land available to grow Arabica coffee is expected to dramatically shrink in coming years, meaning that coffee trees must become more productive to meet increasing demand.
One tip to improve the coffee industry ?
New varieties are needed and needed quickly to meet the challanges of the 21st century. Without better planting material the coffee industry faces a disastrous decline in Arabica supply in the coming decades. So, the selection of new Arabica plant varieties is one of the lines of defence from the damages of temperatures and rainfall increase.
What is your favourite quote ?
“We have to move coffee forward”