Barista Camp, Estonia 2016

I’m just back from the Barista Camp of Europe 2016, and I still feel such joy from this amazing experience. This is the third year that the incredible team from the Barista Guild of Europe (BGE), along with the support of SCAE, EventHaus and others, made it happen. This time it was held in a cute little town called Parnu in Estonia.

I’ve been involved helping as an Authorised SCAE Trainer since the very first year of the camp, but this time it was different because I was invited to lead one of the busiest courses-the Barista Intermediate course! What a challenge! I have delivered the same course many times throughout my career as an AST, but never for such a big group of students at the same time. (There were 43 students in total for this course! But this picture is only half the class!).

After spending a whole day planning, drafting, thinking, dividing, and more planning…we came up with a master plan! It was crucial to effectively manage all of the students, content and time!

Without the help of my great team of AST assistants (Dan Lacey and Raivis Vaitekuns) and volunteers (Heather and Bart), (all pictued on the left), it wouldn’t have been possible for me to deliver this course. Thank you so much guys!

I can only compare the excitement I felt right before the first class at Barista Camp to the excitement I feel every time I am on the Barista Championship stage. You know what you have to do, it is all ready and prepared…you just have to go out there and do it!

As soon as students entered through the classroom door I welcomed them and directed them to their seats. Although not everyone fully understood everything we were going to cover, it all began to make sense for the students once the cuppings and practice started, and I watched them develop their skill and knowledge. As a trainer, you have to understand that delivering a course in Camp conditions is not the same as having a small group in your own coffee academy. You must do your best with what you’ve got!

The BGE team did their best to support us in everything, and also many thanks to the sponsors. We really got the best espresso machines and grinders (La Marzocco, Nuova Simonelli, Wega), and scales (Acaia), etc. We received the best coffees from well-known roasters like The Barn, Five Elephant, Cuperus, The Rocket Bean, and others (sorry if I missed anyone), which challenged my students in their practice during our course.

In the end, everything went very smoothly. All the content was covered and everyone received a fair amount of time to practice before their exams. It never felt messy or crowded, even with 43 students!  The students seemed to enjoy it, and the 99% pass rate certainly reflects the success of the camp. Our hard work paid off! All of us really did work relentlessly to ensure we delivered the highest standard of coffee education in Europe, which I definitely think we achieved!

I’m already missing my coffee family and am really looking forward to a new adventure at the next Barista Camp. I would need an entire other blog post just to name all of the beautiful people involved in this event.

Thank you so much again everyone for everything!!

Until next time,

Vini