Nordic Coffee travels (5) Nordic baristas exercise themselves without being polluted by fame and wealth

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On the second day after returning to Norway from Gothenburg, we were invited to Kaffebrenneriet headquarters to design specialty drinks (signature drink) for two contestants preparing for the Norwegian barista competition.

The old red brick house, located in the Gr ø nland district of Oslo, was formerly a fire station. When the small and medium parts have been converted by the municipal government into museums for students to visit. The rest, including the ground floor, rear court and upstairs floors, are leased under long-term contracts. Here, the author noticed a new wonder: Norwegian women would drink coffee indoors in small groups and park their BB cars with babies in the snow-covered backyard. Eystein, the general manager, laughs that this is a local practice; the local law and order is so good that they are not worried about "kidnappers" and so on. He didn't notice it at all. In fact, what I was worried about was the problem that the baby would freeze.

The day of the visit was the monthly settlement day, so the managers of more than 20 branches gathered on the third floor to report their operating information to the accounting department. Such administrative work should be drudgery for the front-line coffee makers. But the Camilla I met in the hallway was eagerly looking forward to it. It turns out that everyone is competing for the qualification to represent the company as an observer at COE this year. The structure of this enterprise is very simple: from the general manager to the staff of the branch, they all love coffee. They all start with branches, and when they become managers, they will compete with other branches. Those with good performance will become regional managers, responsible for managing a group of stores, and so on. Although Eystein is a general manager, he also stipulates that he works at the bar for some time a week, not only to feel the pulse of the market, but also to relive his enthusiasm for coffee when he first joined the industry.

Internal competition to cultivate staff

Kaffebrenneriet's training reward for employees is also quite simple: those who are willing to make coffee and win from the company's internal competition can represent the company in the domestic barista competition. Those who are interested in the cup test will also be happy to participate in the weekly cup test training with COE award-winning beans. Because they see the opportunities and role models for upward promotion, employees actively contribute to the establishment of the company's brand. On the contrary, no matter how hard you work for some shops touted by your personal reputation, the glory will eventually be taken away by the "signboard". This is what an Australian female barista who went to the local internship said to the author.

The training room, located on the second floor, is full of competition equipment. The most amazing are bags of COE beans. As representatives of the company, the two baristas have the right to use all the beans in the company. No wonder they also laugh at themselves that other coffee shops in Norway regard them as imaginary enemies.

Baristas exercise themselves without being polluted by fame and fortune

Baristas are like Olympic gymnastics. In addition to completing the specified movements within a limited time, baristas have to design optional movements: the designated ones are several cups of Italian coffee, while the optional ones are special coffee drinks. During the chat, the author mentioned the recent popular bean grinder EK-43, and expected them to know the international trend like the back of their hand. But it turns out that they just want to enhance their confidence in performing in the store and communicating with customers through the pressure of the competition. It is very rare that the pure heart of a child has not been polluted by fame and wealth.

The author of this trip, there are many trivial and interesting things, due to space constraints, so did not mention. The greatest achievement is to realize the success of coffee enterprises and to confirm that the level of coffee in Hong Kong is not worse than that of any other country.

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