1.    Having the chance to train with one the best barista trainer in the world, was one of the biggest sources of inspiration and knowledge the last 2 years.

Thank you Fritz, your help was precious!

2.    Cooperating with Johan E. and David H. was probably the best part in the whole story. Having two of the best roasters we have in Sweden, roasting my coffee, is the best a barista could get. What an honour!

3.    Being at Oaxen for 3 days getting inspired from one of Sweden’s best chefs, Magnus Ek, and experience some things that I haven’t even dreamed about, is something that doesn’t happen often. Believe me.

Thank you Magnus and Agneta I owe you!

4.    Getting technical support from Jens B.  was critically important because some of the parts in my program would never have become possible without some “patents”. You are genius!

5.    Getting precious advices from Mats J. from time to time, not many people have this opportunity. He is wise!

6.    Having the economical support from those sponsors on the right side of this page. Nothing would be possible without them.

Thank you so much! You mean a lot to me and to the Specialty Coffee industry!

7.    To be able to train at Sthlm Coffee Academy, was more than any barista would ever dream of. Having access to everything I needed and support from someone that really knows what leadership is all about. Thank you Magnus A. you are a real friend!

8.    Having a team of people back in Umeå, that has probably spent hundreds and hundreds of hours helping me, tasting my drinks and stayed calm when I was almost getting crazy!!(sometimes)

Tove, Malin, Jakob, Anders, Nicke, Christofer, Stefan, Lars and specially Per , what you did, not many people can do or are willing to do! You are the best !!!

9.    The best of the whole story is that most of those people, plus Gunila S., were with me in Japan. Could somebody get more?

10.                  And finally having someone next to you 24 hours per day, sharing the same passion, dreams and goals, being a friend both when things goes well or bad, being stable like a rock from the beginning of this journey to the end of it! This is happiness!! Thank you Linda.

There are more people that more or less had contributed to this project.

So as you can understand, when you see someone competing, he/she is just the top of the iceberg. There is a network of people around them that are equally important or more!

My job was to perform in the best possible way. To really show that it was worthing all this work and effort from all those people.

This is a very big responsibility. This is more serious than wining or losing. This is showing your appreciation and what those people mean to you. This is very serious!!

And that is why when I compete, I don’t want to have judges opposite of me that maybe do not understand  English or maybe are tired or didn’t sleep well or didn’t see everything  I did or missed something or maybe it went to fast for them or didn’t understand why I did something even if explained it 10 times or don’t know how a la Marzocco is working or say to me: don’t do this! Because no one have done it before, so it is not right! or …..

This is unacceptable! The judges are human beings and not robots, I know, but there are limits!

to be continued!

It´s almost one month since we came back from Japan and people is still asking me, how did it go? what happened? how do you feel? are you going to compete again?

 Lots of questions that shows to me, that there are many people who are interested to find out what really happened at the other side of earth.

Well, to be honest, it still feels like a bad joke to me!

After all those dreams and goals and investment of time, work, money, energy and much more, what is really the result? Did all those people that were around helping me, did it for nothing?

For me, it seems that we have two options here. Either forget about everything, like this never happened or…talk about it, find answers and understand if the result is really the mirror or the true facts.

Because I believe that life is 10% what happens and 90% how we react to it.

So, lets me tell you what happened and how I am thinking to react to it.

Although all of us are back to their daily routines and for sure do not think about the WBC 2007 any more(soon is another competition, NBC Gothenburg 2007) I want to take you back to the past for a while, because it is important to find out if what we did  was right or wrong. Should we continue doing it and developing towards this direction or should we start doing something else instead?

Here is where we started from:

                   WHAT IS THE JUDGES LOOKING FOR IN A WORLD CHAMPION?

            1. The judges are looking for a Champion who has a mastery of technical skills, craftsmanship, who has service and communication skills, and who is passionate about the barista profession.

            2. The judges are looking for a Champion who has a broad knowledge of coffee and serves high quality beverages.

            3. The judges are looking for a Champion who may serve as a role model and will be an inspiration to others.

So by having those things in mind, I started competing for some years ago and this year finally won the national barista cup.

This is what I felt I wanted to do before the WBC in Tokyo:

·        Put all the experience I have got the last 15 years working with coffee

·        Go through in my mind, all the inspiration I have got from those baristas I have seen competing the last 4 years and especially from the Swedish barista cup 2007.

·        Choose the right people that would help me on the way to Tokyo

·        Put in action and make reality some of the things that, according to me, can take coffee and baristas to a higher level

·        be myself, make the persons that are close to me proud and finally show to the whole world that Sweden is on the way to the top

·        Make a difference…

How we planned the whole preparation and training you have already read in this blogg.But let me write again the key points and what all that meant to me:

To be continued…

after a short holiday in Crete.

It was excactly what i needed after the WBC ,to put myself together, relax, think and see things from another point of view. It feels like it has happened so many things in my (coffee)life the last 3 months(especially) that i really need some time to put it in words.

I will try to write as much as possible about the preparation before the competition, the competition itself and the time after.My(our) efford, goals, discoveries, risks, feellings, work, fokus and facts.

Be online....

Costas.

Det var en vecka sen jag fick en av mitt livs värsta chock.

Blodet kokar fortförande i min krop efter vad som hänt i Tokyo.Jag ser ganska lungt ut men inuti brinner jag!

Jag tänker vanta några dagar till ,lungna ner och sen skriva min onsikt av det hela.

I´ll be back...

Costas.

Det finns några som förtjänar ett speciellt tack.

Master Johan som följt oss sen vi flyttade hem till sverige. Du har alltid varit en "snällis" och ställt upp för oss och som blivit en god vän. Tack!

Magnus, du har också hängt med oss ett bra tag nu och är en bra lyssnare som också funnits där och ställt upp för oss. Tack!

David, för att du alltid kommer att vara mr grymmm och din rostning.

Tove, det skär i mitt hjärta att du ska lämna oss och att ni var med oss i tokyo är helt galet. Det finns inte ord för det! Du kommer alltid att vara speciell för oss.

Jacke, du är glimten i ögat som alltid får hjärtat att bli varmt. Tack!

Per och Sara, dina timmar Per som du lagt ner på Costas träning inför VM är inte annat än ett bevis på vilket god och fin vän du är, tusen tack! Tack för att ni styrde om eran resa så att ni kunde vara med oss. Tack!

Gunilla, för att du alltid diggar Costas!

Fritz Storm och Våra familjer samt övriga vänner som stöttat oss.

Linda