The Story of opening a Store for High School graduates

Tim Wendelboe is now a star barista, but I was impressed by the story of his entry into the coffee industry.

After graduating from high school, he decided not to go to school, wanted to start work, and moved from his hometown to Oslo. But he doesn't have much work experience and it's not easy to find a job. It happened that Stockfleths needed help at that time, so he ran to apply. He was interviewed by an Arvid Skovli who told him that there were two full-time vacancies in the store, and they happened to apply, so they were both accepted.

At that time, he didn't drink coffee at all. He not only smoked, but also drank three liters of Coca-Cola a day. The only thing he drank was the terrible coffee sold in the supermarket. During the interview, Arvid Skovli bought him a Monsooned Malabar, which surprised him why it tasted so good! That Malaba is baked by Solberg & Hansen, the parent company of Stockfelths. Tim Wendelboe, who comes from the countryside, not only has no idea about coffee, but has never even seen a coffee shop!

The coffee newcomer got a job at the Lille Grensen branch of the Stockflechs chain at the end of August 1998 and started work on September 1, when he was 18 years old, after a three-hour Italian enrichment class. A few months later, Arvid Skovli asked him to take part in the 1999 Norwegian Coffee Masters. The newborn calf was not afraid of tigers. The night before the game, he was still watching the videotape and learning to pull flowers, and no one thought he would win the fourth place in Norway.

He thought the game was so much fun that he made a comeback in 2000 to condense the challenge of Italian style in a single producing area. He did even better this time, losing only to Java / Mocca's boss Robert Thoresen in the final and won second place in Norway. When the first World Cup Masters (WBC) was held in Monte Carlo, Thorensen won the championship, and all of a sudden, the whole world set their sights on Oslo, believing that Norway is the country with the highest standard of coffee in the world. In fact, WBC's rules are born in Norway. Looking back at the WBC tournament from 2000 to 2006, Nordic won six championships in seven times, Denmark four times and Norway twice.

Tim won the Norwegian championship for the first time in 2001, but lost to the strong opponent Denmark in the World Cup, and he was convinced. In 2002, he represented Norway for the second time. The World Cup was held in Oslo and had a home-court advantage. He felt that the world champion was in his bag, but he was completely surprised when he lost to Denmark's Fritz Storm in the end. The failure made him very desperate. "the whole world almost collapsed!" "the frustration was so great that it even made him think of giving up coffee!

Fortunately, he then traveled to Italy, where Tim Wendelboe was greatly inspired by the Italian concentrate. After returning to Norway, he decided to start baking beans. He found all the coffee from Solberg & Hansen and tested it one by one, trying to find out the flavor he wanted to bake. Six months later, he developed an Italian concentrate that was shallower than the Simplh at the time.

At the same time, he decided to revise the original way of playing from scratch. When he reviewed the 2002 video of the game, he found that there was too much room for improvement. Compared with Storm, he did not dutifully introduce his coffee and did not regard the judges as guests to take care of. On the one hand, he is more serious when making coffee in his own shop, on the other hand, he takes pictures of all his actions during practice, and doesn't let go of every detail. He didn't play in 2003 and took a year off, then he spent six months preparing for the World Cup and finally won the 2004 championship.

But he was still an employee of Stockfleths and managed six branches. After winning the championship, there was a lot of invitations from all parties, and in order to concentrate on coffee consultation, he quit his job as Stockfleths in early 2006. In mid-2006, he was suddenly faced with a big choice.

One of Solberg & Hansen's competitors went to Tim Wendelboe to use the Italian recipe he developed and put up his signature. The proposal made Tim hesitant. Although he has left Stockfleths, his old employer has supported him for many years and even lent him the training room of Solberg & Hansen while he was working as a personal coffee consultant. In the end, he decided to talk to the CEO of Solberg & Hansen to explain the situation. Not long after, Sweeh invested in Tim Wendlboe to open a coffee shop of its own!

It's a dream come true. "for the rest of the summer, I lay on the couch, smoking cigars and drinking beer, planning a new bakery and espresso. "in June 2007, a new Tim Wendelboe store opened!

The episode was revealed by Tim Wendelboe himself in an exclusive interview published in the last issue of the May issue of Barista Magazine. This article is the most detailed article I have ever read in the Tim interview. If you are interested, you must read it!

In order to prepare for the cafe, he detailed his equipment and coffee in his 2007 blog:

Ordered a La Marzocco GS3 for the coffee lab.

Another double-hole La Marzocco FB80 has been ordered for coffee shop and teaching.

A year ago, when I left Stockfleth's Cafe, they gave me a three-hole Mirage as a gift, which would also be used in the store.

Pre-order a refreshed used 15kg Probat with IMS in Germany, and I will post the different stages of the finishing process until the machine is shipped to Norway

If you rent the first car in your life, you will print logo on it.

Bought a batch of tanning coffee from Santa Alina Farm in Brazil.

The Italian concentrated formula has finally been finalized, using the above Brazil as the base.

Found the storefront! It will be rented in April, and the coffee shop is scheduled to open in June.

To some extent, the Tim Wendelboe Cafe established the special style of Nordic coffee:

There is only coffee, no food, no coffee chocolates.

Italian concentrate is no longer 60ml, but 30ml, but the price is the same, not halved.

The coffee sold in the store no longer has the name "Columbia", but a specific estate or place of origin.

At first, it sold spaghetti, but later it only sold Italian concentration in a single producing area.

The cafe is already small and has even less space with a Probat bean dryer, but his shop is another important self-baking shop in Norway after Thoresen's Mocca.