Competing in specialty coffee without compromise

When it comes to serving specialty, compromise is strictly off the menu for the caffeine heads at Coffee Proficiency. It is this motto that sets the scene for the collective vision at the roastery and coffee bar based in Kraków, Poland. Above all, their desire to compete at a national and international level has helped to consistently offer a high quality product for their customers.

Head of Quality at Coffee Proficiency, Lukasz Jura, explains how his first steps towards competing at the highest level took him on a path that led him quit his international studies and pursue a full time career in coffee: “During my studies, I was looking for a job and got hired as a barista at Coffee Heaven. I learned how to work efficiently, follow hygienic procedures and after eight months I managed to pour my first rosetta. Luckily for me, my manager was the first Polish Barista Champion. He asked if I wanted to compete for the national Barista Championship in 2006,” before recalling: “My first presentation was a total disaster, but the important thing was that I met many different people”.

“Back then, only a few people knew about specialty coffee and they started to invite me to trainings and lectures. It gave me the extra boost that I needed the following year and I went on to become the Polish Barista Champion. Then I competed in Tokyo for the World Championships and finished in tenth place,” he adds.

The experience brought Lukasz into contact with the wider specialty coffee community, particularly in Scandinavia. He began to spend more time with leading coffee professionals such as Einar K. Holthe of Stockfleths  – partly owned by Solberg & Hansen, Norway’s largest specialty coffee roaster – and was invited to work at their internationally renowned coffee house in Oslo. Spurred on by the enriching experience and exposure to new ideas, Lukasz went on to compete in 2009 where he was crowned World Aeropress Champion. His three-year stay in Oslo also saw him working with the Norwegian barista team for the Nordic Barista Cup.

But the call to return to Poland was too strong and the 33 year-old decided to move back where he devoted himself to barista training at the Warsaw School of Coffee. Although he still continues to train and run workshops, Lukasz has been working full time on all aspects of quality at Coffee Proficiency for four years now. He highlights how transparency guides the green bean sourcing in the roastery: “It’s not only about the business, but also about the taste. We try to pick unique coffees every time – especially if it has something rare and unusual that highlights the terroir,” before adding, “we are looking for the ‘wow’ effect”.

Roasting on a 30kg Coffee Tool made in Greece, the nine-strong team supply their own coffee bar as well as independent coffee shops, high-end hotels and for retail. They try to rotate their coffees frequently to ensure their green beans are as fresh as possible.

Lukasz does look back at his early days with fondness, adding that although he is now much more discerning, specialty coffee never fails to surprise him: “I’m much harder to impress now. I remember my first experience with naturals and it was the first time I tasted strawberries in coffee. But when I’m judging in championships, I still sometimes have this feeling of surprise again”.

This article was commissioned by algrano for the blog series Demystifying the Coffee Value Chain