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S2E6: Meet I'M NOT A BARISTA volunteers Vasileia Fanarioti and Maximillian Wee
79 Plays2 years ago
In this episode, we're joined by two of our very own volunteer content writers - Vasileia and Maximillian. If you've been following us for awhile, you must've read one or more of their articles. On the podcast, we talk about coffee culture in both Greece and Singapore.
As ex-baristas, they still enjoy brewing coffee daily. Vasileia is currently working as a freelance content writer, her works include articles written for Barista Magazine (@baristamagazine), Perfect Daily Grind (@perfectdailygrind), and Coffee t&i (@coffeeteaimag). Max recently graduated and is working on a coffee project called the Singapore Coffee Collective (@coffeeinsg).
If you are travelling to Greece or Singapore in the near future, make sure to drop them a DM @the.wandering.bean or @messymerlion to get insider info on the best coffee spots in town!
Read more coffee stories on
https://notabarista.org/
Order Coffee Wristbands and support I'M NOT A BARISTA's charity work
https://notabarista.org/product/notabarista-coffee-wristbands-2023/
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
So.
Introduction to I'm Not A Barista Podcast
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to the I'm Not A Barista podcast. We're here to talk about all things coffee from industry careers, brewing tips, community support and more with some really incredible people who love coffee as much as you do. Because humanity runs on coffee and together we can empower all the people behind every cup. You guys ready? Yeah.
Meet the Guests: Vasilia and Maxi
00:00:37
Speaker
All right, so today we have two special guests, our two volunteers, Vasilia and Maxi. Hello. Hi, everyone. Really nice to be here.
00:00:51
Speaker
We have two volunteer writers, and we got to know you guys from the article Coffee Star you wrote for M. Barista, and especially Vasily, you have been with us for two years, long time. Maxi joined us this year, I guess, earlier this year or last year, and already wrote so many stars already. So thank you for that.
00:01:16
Speaker
So right today, you guys are here because we want to talk about the volunteers experience and our birthday. And then we want to use this opportunity to introduce you guys to our audience. And so let's get started and let's start with the facility. How about that?
00:01:36
Speaker
Let's do it.
Vasilia's Coffee Journey
00:01:38
Speaker
Okay. So I'm Vasilia, I come from Greece. And I was living in Dublin in Ireland for about four years up until 2020. And I got a job there as a barista back in 2018. Just it was like a
00:01:59
Speaker
were like a gut feeling because I used to go into coffee shops and I really liked the vibe and everything else. I was like, oh, it must be really cool to work here. I want to know more about what these people are doing with this like fancy V60s and so on. And so I quit my job. I was working in an office at the time and I decided to take a break away from my office life.
00:02:21
Speaker
and the classic 9 to 5, which was a bit stressful for me. So I decided to take a break and work as a barista for a while until I figured things out. It turns out it was the best job I've ever done. Well, it suited me anyway. I absolutely loved it. I loved that I was on my feet. I loved that I was talking to a lot of people, getting to know them at the same time I was making them
00:02:45
Speaker
this amazing drink that everybody loves and everybody really comes in with a good mood because they know they're going to have coffee so you didn't really feel like a job you know i would always go to work and i knew i would enjoy myself like i was already happy about going to work so that was in a small family coffee shop in w called coffee works and while i was working there i was learning a lot about coffee and i got
00:03:14
Speaker
I was super into it. All of a sudden I was reading articles about farms, processing, water for coffee, just crazy, crazy stuff that I had no idea about. And it was crazy to me at the time. And I got inspired to start like my own blog. I always enjoyed writing, but I found
00:03:35
Speaker
in coffee I found a topic I really like. So I started my own blog as a hobby and just started writing about all the different coffee shops I'd visit in Ireland as I was doing small road trips. And then I kind of felt comfortable enough to start
00:03:52
Speaker
writing for other people and turn it into a job. So I kept my blog as a hobby and then I started applying through Upwork to little gigs to get some money for my writing and see if I was any good at it. And then when I got feedback from clients that they liked my writing, I started improving a few things and then a few seminars.
00:04:17
Speaker
And now three years later, I'm doing it full time. But aside from having it as a job, I was also I'm also very interested in volunteering in general, like I volunteered before that in a museum, I volunteered in a kids camp. So volunteering has been a part of my life. And so when during the first pandemic, I
00:04:45
Speaker
I found out about Nara Brista and I saw the little like volunteer on their website. I just, I knew I wanted to be part of it. I thought it was a great initiative and it was really interesting for me to become a volunteer for something that's about coffee and about people because the community in coffee is what I love the most. It's not the drink, of course I love the drink, but it's the people really. So it would give me a chance to
00:05:14
Speaker
help from Nerberista and meet awesome people through it. It's been great. Yeah, it's been great so far. Am I talking too much? No, thank you. I found out we have so many things in common. And then, yeah, we all love coffee. We have three people here. We all love coffee so much. And then,
00:05:38
Speaker
I remember I had a guest, Maxi. He's also a coffee, a former barista. He used to be a barista and loves coffee, loves writing as well. So I think you guys have more comments than me and it will work as a barista. So Maxi, tell us about yourself, your barista experiences before, and then you like writing as well. Tell us more about it.
Maxi's Coffee Journey
00:06:05
Speaker
Hi, I'm Max. I'm from Singapore, born and raised. I spent all 26 years of my life here, but hopefully in the future I get more opportunities to travel, especially for work.
00:06:16
Speaker
I guess like anyone else, I started working as a barista part-time while I was studying for my diploma. I started at 18, which was about seven, eight years ago, more or less. At that time, coffee wasn't really, like the specialty industry wasn't really as evolved as it is now. And I guess as anyone else, most of us got into it because of latte art.
00:06:46
Speaker
And yeah, it was like all the rage in the past. We used to have like little throw downs and all those in cafes, which were really, really fun. And like Vasilier said, it was really some of the best times of my life, my working life.
00:07:01
Speaker
Yeah, I'm still a student now and I would say that coffee really grew into my life over the years. I slowly shifted away from the latte upfront as I got to work in more and more cafes, got some exposure.
00:07:17
Speaker
and started learning more and more about coffee. I started buying lots and lots of coffee books, actually, and got really deep into the technicals. But over the years, I realized that it's kind of boring after a while to read so much and all that and all the technicals. It just becomes part of daily life rather than as a hobby, as it being fun. And I realized soon enough that
00:07:46
Speaker
The fun part about coffee is really the people and really it was such a pity during the coronavirus with the lockdowns and all that we really lost touch, lost contact with a lot of people within the industry, especially since there are many that move back overseas to their hometown and all that.
00:08:05
Speaker
But slowly, we are trying to build back the community and all. So during my national service, I would say that I spent more and more time reading about international coffee, like blogs and videos. And really, I guess also because of the pandemic, it really helped people to come out of their shell. And they started posting more and more about their coffee communities. And I got really, really interested into that.
00:08:34
Speaker
So recently, I'm still doing my university, but during my free time, I hang out a lot in cafes and a lot of people think I don't work at all. I'm just hanging out in cafes drinking coffee because of that.
00:08:50
Speaker
But yeah, I like talking to all the local roasters and trying to get them together. And we are slowly working towards a coffee community, which we will be launching soon. We're trying to be all inclusive, not just the barista side of things, but we're trying to bring in more content creators and all of those.
00:09:12
Speaker
that do exist in Singapore, but we have a little barrier between the professional industry and the consumers. So we're trying to bridge that gap sort of. Yeah. So I joined, I'm not a barista sometime late last year, about six months ago, I guess.
00:09:30
Speaker
really been an eye opening experience. At the beginning, I kind of started because I was kind of interested in I'm not very star for a while because of my friend Betty, like she was featured. And I was like, Oh, cool. When I have more time, maybe I'll see like, how can I be part of this? And I saw that there was an opportunity for volunteer content writing. And I was like, Okay, I'll try and help out and give back to the community. So
00:09:56
Speaker
And in the beginning, I was more writing on Singapore coffee scene. But I got to know a lot more international people, thanks to Mickey. And recently as well, we do have a few international audiences or consumers coming into Singapore itself.
00:10:15
Speaker
And yeah, got the opportunity to talk more with them. I guess it helped me to open up
The Role of Tradition in Coffee Culture
00:10:20
Speaker
with them as well because I know more about the international coffee scene. So we have like common topics to talk about and all that sorts. So yeah, it's been really fun and hopefully things will start to get better soon enough.
00:10:36
Speaker
Thank you. How are you feeling today? I know that you recently got COVID. Are you fully recovered? Yeah. I guess it lasts for a while, but it's slowly going away. It's been about a month now. It's feeling much better. Yeah. So I guess when you drink coffee, you still can taste and smell, right? Yeah. Thank God. Losing our sense of smell and taste, I swear, is one of the worst things that can happen.
00:11:06
Speaker
It's the end of the world. So you guys have so many things in common. I love coffee so much and used to work as a barista and now we're writing articles for coffee community and the interest in people. I think you can call this a podcast episode. I'm not a barista anymore.
00:11:32
Speaker
I never work as a barista, but I think it's such a nice job. But I used to work as a waiter and then I was the kind of waiter, you press the button and the coffee is ready and they would give it to your customer. So I guess I would never get any certificate.
00:11:51
Speaker
So if anybody have ever drank coffee from me or remember my face, I don't want to talk to them because it's so shameful now that, you know, random number is the thing. So it's interesting. Max from Singapore and Vasilis from Greece. And you both have local coffee culture, very strong coffee cultures there. And Greek coffee is so famous. And then on the other side, we have a coffee coffee. Let's talk about the traditional coffee.
00:12:21
Speaker
And then we'll have to compare, we compare them a little bit to see if we can find some similarities between great coffee and coffee. And then we'll talk about what is going on right now in each country, especially the coffee community and in general. How about that? That sounds good.
00:12:40
Speaker
Okay, let's go with the Greek coffee first. Greek coffee first. So Greek coffee, yeah, it always used to be Greek. I hope Greek people won't mind me saying that. Well, actually, there's a lot of countries that I have this tradition of drinking Ibrich coffee, or otherwise in Turkey, it's called sesame coffee.
00:13:03
Speaker
So it's basically they use this little apricot where coffee grounds go in and they're this kind of like flour consistency and then they brew it so it's like a total immersion brewing and they usually drink it in really small demicascopes. Very strong brew, it has a very different taste to espresso or any other kind of coffee that you've tried probably. And so it used to be called in Greece up until I think the 1950s we were calling it Turkish coffee.
00:13:34
Speaker
In other countries, so like in Syria where they drink it or in Cyprus, they call it Syrian coffee or Cypriot coffee or I know in Croatia, they call it Croatian coffee. So everybody has their own kind of like country name for it. But we used to call it Turkish coffee. Yes, because to us, it was a tradition that came from there. And it's true, we came from there, Ottoman Empire, when they started drinking it. And it came to Greece because we were under the Ottoman siege for like 400 years.
00:14:02
Speaker
And so, yeah, that was just the name we had for it. But due to the conflict between the two countries regarding Cyprus, I don't know if you know that Cyprus is divided into half of it is Turkish half of it is Greek. So there was a big conflict back then. And out of spite for what the Turkish government was doing, Greek people started calling Turkish coffee, Greek coffee.
00:14:27
Speaker
We're like, we're like now it's ours, you know, no, it's our coffee. So yeah, that's just, you know, as a fun fact, not so fun, but then I suppose, but, um, uh, we have these traditional, uh, coffee shops called Cafe Neo, which, um, for most of the 20th century, they used to be places where usually men
00:14:50
Speaker
would gather, they would drink the Greek coffee and they would have politics, play cards, smoke. Usually women would then like gather in confectionary stores or bakeries.
00:15:02
Speaker
and they would drink probability. It was considered mostly like a man thing to do, you know, coffee and so on. But obviously as the time passed, this went away and this culture of drinking Greek coffee still exists today and we still have some of those old timey coffee shops. But of course there is the modern scene as well. We started I think around the
00:15:31
Speaker
80s, I would say, when a guy in a convention in the second biggest city of Greece accidentally, or so the story goes, accidentally invented frappe. I don't know if you're familiar with frappe coffee.
00:15:49
Speaker
Is that a coffee with lots of sugar? It's basically instant coffee, you know, the soluble Nestle type of Nest Cape coffee. But the story goes that he didn't have any hot water to make his coffee. So he decided to put cold water in it and then shake it. And that's how he invented frappe. So because we are a country that gets really hot in the summers as well, this became an instant
00:16:18
Speaker
Pun intended. Instant hit. So everybody loved it. And so we do have this kind of like thing that as Greeks that like, you know, we have a history in coffee because after Frappe became so famous in Greece during the 80s and the 90s, then we invented our own kind of like cold versions of espresso drinks. So we have Freddo Espresso and Freddo Cappuccino, which is basically
00:16:46
Speaker
shaken espresso with ice and the milk version is shaken espresso with ice and a lot of like thick milk foam and we I actually I've traveled a lot and I haven't seen these drinks in other countries like I've seen even even in Italy which they are actually like right next to us they would have like cold brews or they would have different types of iced coffees but not really what we have so
00:17:13
Speaker
Yeah, we like to think that we are very creative regarding coffee, and I suppose we are when it comes to these cold drinks at least. So yeah, that's as far as the drink goes. As far as the culture goes, it's like I suppose anywhere, with the exception that like, I don't know how it is in Singapore, but in Greece, coffee shops are open
00:17:35
Speaker
throughout the day and until late at night. It's not like I used to live in Ireland and we used to be, we close at five or have five, you know, and then the pubs open and everybody goes for a drink. Well, here it can take and be open all day long, every day.
00:17:49
Speaker
non-stop, you know, the closest through the night. And so, you know, it's really our kind of like our place to go to meet people, have a conversation, even have a meeting, a professional meeting, let's have a coffee. That's what we'll say. So thanks for sharing. Summing it up. Max, have you been to Greats before? Oh, no, I haven't, but definitely you should go there one day.
00:18:15
Speaker
Yeah, now we know that they have two typical Greek coffee there. One is the Turkish Hebrew coffee, and then we have this new modern with a lot of ice. I don't remember the name, called Frappe, right? Frappe, that's like, it's more like an 80s, 90s thing, but ever since we invented the cold version of espresso, so like Freddo espresso, we drink more, more people drink that one. But there are some people that still drink Frappe's, yeah. And it's very easy to make a home, actually.
00:18:46
Speaker
Cool. So let us hear the story from Maxi about the coffee coffee. What's the story about that? It's so interesting to hear that over in Greece, there's so many different types of coffee, traditionally. Because over here, mainly, our so-called traditional coffee, what we call kopi,
00:19:10
Speaker
I won't tread too much into the cultural origins of it because there's a whole debate going on for that. Basically, I don't want to get targeted by like proto-nationalists. It's like Turkish coffee and great coffee, right? Yeah. Everybody has their own opinion. We have to pay for the patent. It's just the name, the trademark.
00:19:34
Speaker
Basically, it's a Southeast Asian coffee, what we call copi. Copi is a Malay word for coffee. And actually, it's quite elegant because we are such diverse cultures over here, even not just in Singapore, but Malaysia and Indonesia, where copi is widely consumed. And it's strange because
00:20:00
Speaker
Ko-pi, like I said, is a Malay word, but when we go to a coffee shop, even the word, like the term coffee shop, we call it Ko-pi Tiam, but Tiam actually stands for shop in Hokkien, which is a Chinese dialect. And we see a lot of this even while we order our drinks. Like if I wanted a black coffee, I would order a Ko-pi Oh, and Oh is actually a,
00:20:26
Speaker
black in Hokkien. So there's a mixture of like Malay and Chinese dialects and all that, which is quite interesting. I guess it really shows the diversity in our culture, which is quite interesting. Before specialty became a thing, everyone only consumed kopi, which is traditionally made in a sock kind of thing. Not at home, but mostly in the coffee shops, they are made with sock. At home, we traditionally just
00:20:57
Speaker
let the coffee green settle at the bottom and then we pour it out hoping that nothing comes out. It's super ghetto. You're talking about the used sock, right? We don't use those at home.
00:21:11
Speaker
Yeah, okay. So I hope the new one. It's just too much trouble to use a sock at home because you have to wash it and all that. But I've seen socks being used in quite a few cultures, even in Japan, they do have sock coffee.
00:21:30
Speaker
But the way our coffee is prepared and roasted is slightly different in the sense that even during the roasting stage, yes, we roast super, super, super dark until it's black. And the coffee is basically sweating, like it's shimmering with oils and all that. And we not only roasted till it's dark, but they're also roasted with a lot of sugar and margarine to give it kind of like, I guess you can say umami kind of taste.
00:21:57
Speaker
And once the coffee is ground, the most basic drink I say everyone would go for is just a basic coffee, which would be just a coffee prepared with a sock and condensed milk. So it's kind of like sweet, bitter-ish, super intense cup of coffee. And even though a lot of us, as baristas, we work in specialty coffee shops, but we are not ashamed that we still love that taste.
00:22:27
Speaker
even though it's super unhealthy like there's sugar in the roasting stage and the preparation stage it's just a lot a lot of calories but I guess the good thing that specialty has brought now is that there's so many more flavors so we are slowly shifting to a healthier lifestyle but end of the day I don't think we can do without kopi because it's really like ingrained into our culture
00:22:58
Speaker
So we're in the middle of this transaction from the old traditional coffee, local coffee into the new specialty coffee. Is that correct?
00:23:07
Speaker
Yes, that's right. But I think most people were still like, even if a lot of people in the afternoons, they go to their usual cafe coffee shop, get a cup of specialty coffee, maybe they have two or three throughout the day. We normally start our mornings with traditional coffee. Like we need the caffeine kick also because the traditional coffee use almost 100% Robusta.
00:23:32
Speaker
So naturally they have a much higher caffeine. And we also have what I believe people call bulletproof coffee overseas. But over here we call it kopi guiyo. Guiyo is basically butter in Hokkien. Yeah, we throw a stick of butter directly into the coffee. We just stir it a little and we drink. And it's delicious. It sounds like Christmas. It's super sinful.
00:24:02
Speaker
I must say I'm not a big fan of bulletproof coffee. I got it once in the United States. I didn't know what it was, but if I ever see something on a coffee menu that's like I don't recognize, I order it. I'm curious.
00:24:16
Speaker
Most of the time, it's okay. Usually, I'm not hit with any really intense surprise, but that time, I couldn't even drink it. I took a sip and I just couldn't do it. Maybe you used different butter in Singapore than the US. I don't know. Is it made with espresso over there? I guess that one was with filter coffee, actually, because I had it in a big mug and it was filter coffee.
00:24:46
Speaker
I don't know. Maybe I thought it was very heavy and very kind of like fatty, you know? Probably some whiskey in it. No sugar. It was no sugar. So maybe that's the difference. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. You need a lot of condensed milk or sugar to like mask the bitterness and all. Anyway, well, one difference that I do notice,
00:25:14
Speaker
is I think between what Max was saying and what's going on in Greece right now is that I don't really see my generation having Greek coffee. You know, when I go out with my friends or when I meet people similar to mine, it would always be their filter or some form of espresso drink. But I have done for an article, I was doing some market research recently and I
00:25:41
Speaker
I learned that Greek coffee is still number one in sales, so like in supermarkets. So most households in Greece do drink Greek coffee. It's just a new generation because of the modern way, the way things are changing. They would prefer espresso, especially the cold versions, and filter coffee is coming up like third. Oh, and a lot of people still buy instant coffee. So we're still kind of like, you know,
00:26:09
Speaker
not letting go of some of the traditions but I think that's kind of like the older generation and then my generation is kind of like trying the new specialty stuff or focusing on espresso. I see. We talk about tradition and coffee and just reminds me the other side of the great coffee is Turkish half of it.
00:26:31
Speaker
It seems Turkish coffee is never fading away because people still order a lot of Turkish coffee. I'm not... Why? Because if you go to a restaurant and go to some coffee, you want to try Turkish coffee. It just... For the eyes, it's beautiful, right? They make...
00:26:49
Speaker
with the hot sand and they came out freshly with lots of Roma there. But if you say great coffee and the Turkish coffee, they are similar. So I'm wondering what is the reason that, you know, same coffee, but then Turkish coffee is still very popular and great coffee is now that popular among young young people and
00:27:12
Speaker
The question goes to copy coffee. Is it still a thing among young people or they don't drink it? I would say for us, a lot of the youngsters do drink coffee, especially if it's iced. It's one of the most commonly ordered beverage at any coffee shop, especially since
00:27:41
Speaker
When I say coffee shop, I don't mean like a specialty coffee shop. I mean like we have, when we say coffee shops over here, we typically mean, it's kind of like a, how do I say this? There are probably about 10 stalls and nine of them sell food or snacks. And there'll be one stall that just sells drinks.
00:28:03
Speaker
And typically you can order your food from any store and then go to the drink store and normally people order kopi from there or ice kopi. I don't know much about Turkish coffee. I've had it before over here and overseas as well.
00:28:22
Speaker
I'm clearly not sure what the traditional flavor of it is supposed to be. I would say I've never tried a true blue Turkish coffee, but I'm okay with the taste. It's kind of like a watered down espresso. I'm going to get cute for saying this, aren't I?
00:28:43
Speaker
Well, you know what I think the difference is on why people in Singapore, for example, still like traditional Singaporean coffee, I think coffee, I think Turkish coffee is not easy.
00:28:57
Speaker
It's not easy to drink. It's what people had for so long, but in comparison to espresso or filter, Turkish coffee is a bit heavy. It's full immersion. It's short.
00:29:17
Speaker
You don't put milk in it, not traditionally. If you put milk, someone's going to look at you and be like, what are you doing? You're doing this wrong. It doesn't taste good with milk. There's not many things you can do with it. When you have so many other alternatives with espresso, you got your milky versions, you got your black versions, you have your cold brews, which is not just something else. But there's so many other things.
00:29:44
Speaker
was coffee. I mean, you guys could put condensed milk in it. I mean, who doesn't like that, you know? So I think it's a bit easier, you know? Yeah, definitely. And it's cheap. Yeah, earlier you talked about coffee take how much it costs 40 cents or something. And then especially coffee there in Singapore cost $4.
00:30:10
Speaker
Yeah, if we're talking USD, typical latte is about four USD. Traditional copy is about 50 cents, 60 cents around there. Very expensive. How about in Greece, like a regular, let's say latte? In Greece, Greek coffee would be the cheapest. So it would be between I say 150 and 250 depending where you're having it and how you're having it. It's a double shot or a
00:30:40
Speaker
single shot because Greek coffee does have that too. You can have more or less. But the interesting thing about Greece is that if you're like having, let's say, a latte and you're having it in the coffee shop, you might end up paying like around four euro right now. That not being specialty, just regular commodity coffee. But if you take it to go, it might be two euro cheaper.
00:31:12
Speaker
So like, if you take your coffee to go, you don't sit in the cafe, it's less money. And a lot of comfort businesses here work a lot with like deliveries and takeaway coffees. And people do prefer taking in the takeaway coffees is cheaper as well. You know, it makes sense. Well, in some way. So you guys, you both write coffee articles, and you know, the coffee industry very well, both local and international. Let me ask you guys, what is the new thing you see since 2020?
00:31:43
Speaker
2020 since pandemic. Have you seen anything new that is very, very different from before? Any trends? I mean, the number one thing since 2020, which we all know is pandemic time, it's all brewing.
00:31:59
Speaker
A lot of coffee businesses have shifted their marketing techniques to sell more coffee for brewing at home because people really got into that. And we know that as well because I'm not a barista, we started the whole brew at home campaign to get people together and we see how much people like it.
00:32:19
Speaker
And so it's definitely a trend. People got really into it. So I say that's the number one. There's a shift in the focus as well in more like gourmet coffee. Let's call it that. Let's not call it specialty yet because people are still trying to kind of like figure it out, but they are asking questions.
00:32:40
Speaker
You know, like all of a sudden everybody had time on their hands and you know, one of their favorite habits became that. And so a lot of people have started watching videos, reading articles, wanting to know about brewing techniques. And that's one of the things that my clients wanted me to write most about like how to brew this, why is this different to that?
00:33:01
Speaker
I mean, people are asking this question. Can I ask you, who are your clients in addition to another birthday? Yeah, of course. I mainly work through Upwork, which is like an online platform for freelancers. You can just basically, let's say,
00:33:21
Speaker
filter coffee blog or coffee writing and it will show you ads for people who are asking for copywriters who are writing about copy and know the copy niche and it could be anyone so like I've had clients from all over the world that have different kind of like target audiences or want different things so maybe they have a coffee blog
00:33:44
Speaker
And they want articles about teaching people how to brew coffee. But in the article, you optimize it for search engine optimization. And maybe their goal would be to sell coffee through the blog. Or others have a goal of sending people to other affiliate blogs to make money out of that. So that would be more marketing writing.
00:34:08
Speaker
So you are teaching essentially the reader something about coffee and if they're more interested there are links obviously that take them to other pages by equipment or to like
00:34:20
Speaker
I don't know, buy coffee. And so that's more like marketing focus. But then again, there are other clients who just want more like educative articles. And that's more interesting for me because it has to do with research and also with marketing. So I write for other publications that are more known in the community of coffee. And
00:34:45
Speaker
So like, like barista magazine, for example, for birthday grand, this is not, this is more like a research articles that I do about different topics that I discuss with the answers and it's a more community focused. Well, so there's like a balance between these two. So it really depends like with freelance writing, I don't know what Max's experience has been, but with my experience is like,
00:35:10
Speaker
You know, it's constantly, constantly rolling and like you get clients that you might have for like a few months and then someone else, someone drops you or like you will finish like a partnership and you start with someone else. And everybody has like a different kind of like idea of what their writing wants to be. So usually I divide it with marketing and research. When it's marketing, it's a bit less creative, but, um,
00:35:38
Speaker
Tino still serves a purpose for these people. It's their business. So it just depends what the client wants.
00:35:46
Speaker
Great. So you mostly about writing for a different magazine. We know the big names, Burson magazine, Perfect Daily Grind, and the Burson as well. And Max, what do you do except writing? I remember you had some cool school projects about those color meter for roasters.
00:36:08
Speaker
And then you also mentioned that you are building a platform to help local Singaporean roasters to reach out more international clients. Tell us more about that.
Coffee in Academia
00:36:22
Speaker
Yeah, so I've only started writing for, I'm not very star actually, after I started volunteering.
00:36:33
Speaker
But I mean, I've been writing my whole life for my, like my diploma. I'm currently still in my final year of university. And even like I said, coffee has grown into like a big part of my life. Most of my projects for universities are actually very, very coffee based. I guess it's easier. Like what Vasilias has mentioned, it's kind of like when you're doing like research writing is
00:37:00
Speaker
creative in a sense that you need to know really what topic you're writing about and where to find the resources. And it's really very different from content writing for a blog because like when you're writing for a blog, you need to know your
00:37:17
Speaker
You need to know your audience to a certain extent, but you really need to understand who you're interviewing. Whereas when I'm doing a research project, for example, I'm currently writing a dissertation thesis on a coffee rose color meter. Basically what it does is kind of like a lighthouse, what most roasters do.
00:37:40
Speaker
And they use it to measure the consistency of their roles based on the color, what is given by the SCA. They follow the electron color scale standards as well. And when I write my dissertation, I have to do a lot of research on color science, image analyzation technology, and a lot of other stuff, which is actually quite fun to do because I get to experience a whole other side of coffee that
00:38:10
Speaker
people don't really see on a daily basis which it just goes to show how much background work goes into a lot of coffee books out there when they get very deep into technicals but they don't really mention it on the surface.
00:38:26
Speaker
Yeah, aside from that, I yeah, as you mentioned, I'm currently working on a project is called coffee in SG coffee in Singapore, basically, we just opened an Instagram page today as we're talking and
00:38:42
Speaker
Basically what we're doing is we're trying to supplement our local roasters and try and help them to hit international markets. So we'll be trying to do maybe some box sets as such of just purely Singapore roasters like a tasting box.
00:38:58
Speaker
I believe during the pandemic, there have been a lot more subscription services that offer such tasting boxes. I believe the right roast is doing one. There are some other companies that are doing some great stuff, but we really, really want to get Singapore coffee out there. And yeah, we just want to have a box of maybe like eight roasters come together. People from overseas, international can buy and really, really taste what Singapore coffee is about.
00:39:28
Speaker
But from the roaster side of things, I believe he spoke to Aslan before, he actually runs a roaster forum SG, which he kind of, he's kind of like a spokesperson. I don't think he thinks of himself as one, but he really is. He really brings all the roasters together. We just had a mass cupping session at the community coffee recently, and we had some international people
00:39:53
Speaker
come over and cup some coffees with us, meet some friends, which was really, very fun. It was really nice to experience such events after two years of being cooked up at home. And I'm hoping that the coffee in SG, or what we are calling the Singapore Coffee Collective, will be able to create a more collaborative effort with people that are not working in coffee. So you were saying before that
00:40:24
Speaker
what's new in coffee recently in the past two years. And we've actually had a lot of smaller coffee shops open up over here, which is kind of strange. I guess a lot of people have a lot of time to think about what they're doing with their life and such.
00:40:40
Speaker
And they decided not to chase the corporate life. I've seen secondary school teachers coming out and opening their own cafes with a decent espresso machine inside, which was really very interesting. And
00:40:57
Speaker
We've actually had a lot more content creators pop up recently, actually. There are a few that are really, really, very good. Some of them specialize in videography, like there's this guy called Capture Offee on Instagram. And I've made friends with some of them. Yeah, I'm hoping that this new platform, Coffee and SG, will be a safe space for home brewers and all these content creators to come on and show what they're made of.
00:41:28
Speaker
And also, basically, we are trying to bridge the gap between professionals and home brewers or consumers, basically. That's a really cool project. And when you talk about this new account you launched today, it's called Singapore Coffee Collective, right? And I just follow, and you guys, I became number six on that burst. It's a number six followers on your platform. And you're welcome.
00:41:58
Speaker
Hey, you're welcome. Well, you talk about coffee roasted in Singapore, right? Remember Vasilia said that you are drinking coffee from Betty today. She's a local roaster. And tell us about the coffee you're drinking right now. Because we earlier, we helped Betty to build her website, rebrand her little business. Tell us about the coffee you're drinking. How do you like it?
00:42:24
Speaker
And so, Betty sent me some amazing coffee. The one I had this morning was Pan Am I Giza by Jose Quintero and she roasted it and it comes in this like amazing pink bag that she has. I love Betty's aesthetics on Instagram and in general how she brings together her design ideas and aesthetics into a
00:42:50
Speaker
coffee business and it was amazing. It was very delicate and clean. I did a V60 with it. It's my classic recipe, always works, never fails. And yeah, I've been having it for the past three days and I'm afraid to say the day is finally over. I finished it off.
00:43:16
Speaker
And yeah, it was it was amazing. And I've actually had another one of her samples because he sent me some like one single portion coffee bean samples in the vacuum sealed bags. And that was also great. It was very unique. It was a coffee from Indonesia.
00:43:32
Speaker
I can't remember the name right now but I thought it was brilliant the flavors like it was very um kind of like tea like kind of like very floral a bit fruity and I was very impressed in general like via the way she roasted it both coffees actually and she's very talented
00:43:55
Speaker
I don't know, I just felt like I said earlier, I just felt a bit privileged like having getting to try a coffee roasted in Singapore in my apartment in Greece. I think it's really great and I hope to see a more Singaporean coffee roasters getting their coffees here and other places in the world. So I think this Singapore Coffee Collective is a brilliant way of doing it.
00:44:20
Speaker
And I wanted to say that I love the project that they have going on there with the communal spaces. So I know belly roasts in a space where there's a lot of roasts machines and you guys all get together. We don't have that here in Greece. Not yet anyway. No? No. Everybody has their own roaster?
00:44:41
Speaker
Oh, yeah, there's micro roasters and there's bigger roasters. Yeah, but like nobody has done this kind of like a shared space initiative, which I think is great because it gives it gives a chance to
00:44:53
Speaker
You know, it's a small time, people, like, that they're just starting not to have, like, this huge, decent bot, which costs, like, I don't know, 10 grand for a small one. That is insane money, you know? And then how are you going to learn when you already need so much money to get your own machine, you know? Like, money is great. It's a great initiative. Maybe I should open up a shared space here and, you know, make a business out of it.
00:45:16
Speaker
That's a great idea. You should call it, I'm not roaster. Yeah, you just ran out of the machines and build up the community there. We'll be our sponsor. So talking about coffee, roast in Singapore, the question goes to Max, does Singapore grow any coffee at all?
Local Roasting and International Markets
00:45:37
Speaker
Uh, I mean, we have coffee plants for show for this play, but we don't grow our own coffees.
00:45:43
Speaker
Okay, so you were talking about this platform, Singapore Coffee Collective, you want to help the roaster to reach our international audience. So we're talking about the coffee from some other countries roasted in Singapore, right? What is your plan to market this?
00:46:01
Speaker
because you are not growing coffee there in the roast. I mean, you're kind of like branding the roasters there. And how do you defer those roaster in Singapore, let's say from from roasters from Italy, because you basically have the same coffee, most of the time, I guess. I think
00:46:23
Speaker
What we have here is quite interesting in the sense that we get a lot of South Asian farmers from Indonesia, like what Vasily I was saying, Betty had this Indonesian. I know what coffee is. That is actually the Kamala Flores. It's a Kartika variety, which Michael Yasin actually used for his World Race Star Championships recently. Yeah, we do get all these interesting coffees because we are so close
00:46:53
Speaker
to the farms and Singapore is kind of like a trading hub. We have one of the biggest and most active pots in the world.
00:47:04
Speaker
So it's easy for us to bring in all these coffees and to send it overseas. We've recently been working, a few of the roasters have been working quite closely with some Thai coffee farmers, which is really, very, very interesting. I mean, Thai coffee literally tastes like Thai food. And I'm sure that
00:47:25
Speaker
Yeah, I guess it's because we are so close with them that we really can feature all these coffees, which I think what international audiences will feel is unique about us in that sense, which is why I suggested rather than
00:47:41
Speaker
I mean, I'm more of a business kind of guy because that's what I study, basically. I told them rather than trying to individually get international sales, why not we work together, try and build a platform that we can promote Singapore Coffee on. Because we've spoke about before, if you ask most people or you tell them about Singapore Coffee, then they're like, huh, Singapore? Which part of China is that?
00:48:08
Speaker
But we're literally like below Malaysia, which is quite a ways away from China. Honestly, we actually traditionally we are a Malay country. We are founded as a Malay country. Like our national anthem is even in Malay. Yeah. So by building a platform and allowing more and more people to contribute to it, I'm hoping that it will help us to get more attention from international audiences.
00:48:35
Speaker
And we are actually working with some importers or exporters overseas that I'm hoping they'll take our coffees. Like recently we had Shivansh from India that came down to Singapore.
00:48:49
Speaker
And he was just hanging out at a cafe and he was really, really interested in coffee. So we got talking to him and he's actually a roaster in India. And he got so interested in our coffees and he was so impressed that he actually straight out bought like four kgs worth. Like he did a pre-order with people back in India and he sold out immediately and he's emptying his luggage bag just to make space to bring coffees back.
00:49:16
Speaker
So I'm hoping to see more of these collaborations with international people as well to try and make a name for ourselves. That's a great strategy, I believe, because you guys are really close to the source, to the farmers and even you don't produce coffee beans there, but you can work closely with the farmers directly, right? Yeah. It's just so close. From Thailand, people really don't hear much about coffee from Thailand. Have you tried coffee from Thailand, Vasilya? I can't say that I have. I can't remember.
00:49:44
Speaker
I think I would remember it because it's just something that you don't pass by. It's not an origin that you are.
00:49:52
Speaker
Thank you very often. Exactly. So Singapore definitely has a chance to work with those farmers from Thailand, from India, from Philippines. I think this is a great opportunity for those countries to work together, collaborate and build a new brand image about coffee from South Asia. It's very interesting. Is there anything that you have similar in grace?
00:50:19
Speaker
Well, no, I think we are kind of like already known to an extent in the speciality of the coffee world. It's just what we're talking about. Because, okay, so I've been away from Greece for like six years. And when I got interested in coffee, I was in Ireland. So I didn't know much about it here. But the past year and a half that I've been back, throughout Jesus, two years and a half now, it's been,
00:50:50
Speaker
It's been kind of like me getting to know the Greek coffee scene a little bit and definitely the speciality one. I've noticed that we have had an interest in the speciality coffee world from the 2000s. So it started kind of like two decades ago for us. It was small scale back then, but it was in bigger and bigger and then there's a boom in the 10s to the 20s.
00:51:14
Speaker
for this past decade. And I've noticed going around the world and traveling and visiting coffee festivals that people are aware already of Greek coffee roasters. And we do have some big names in the specialty world that we have a lot of competitors in championships and so on. And so
00:51:34
Speaker
you know, people know us in a roasting sense, obviously, because we're not like a producer, we're not a producing country. And we do have some good titles in the competitions as well. So there's a bit of a difference there as opposed to like an upcoming origins in Asia or Southeast Asia to Greece, because we're not like a producing country of coffee. But
00:52:02
Speaker
The feedback is always good. You know, when I say I'm from Greece, they would name a few roasters that they know. And usually I'd meet other Greek people in coffee festivals and I had to work there. So like Greece is a little bit like young people here.
00:52:17
Speaker
They're very small business-oriented and small business-minded, let's say. So we're not afraid to open up a small coffee shop or a small grocery and start experimenting with stuff. Hospitality is big for us, so we rely on tourism. So we always innovate in that kind of area of our country's industries in general.
00:52:42
Speaker
is we're interested to see two countries have different strategy. And of course, you guys in the different stage, and the coffee community. So we talk about the Singaporean roasters, they use coffee directly, once through direct trade, or because they're so close, you don't have to go to some special traders for that, you can talk to farmers directly, is it? Is there correct?
00:53:09
Speaker
We do have a lot of importers over here, quite a few actually, especially for coffees from like Colombia and Panama. But for the closer countries, we do see a lot of direct trade. But because we're such a small country and it's so easy to move stuff about, we do a lot of sharing for delivery.
00:53:34
Speaker
Especially we ship by sea because those have to come in like big pallets, multiple bags and like over three tons of coffee kind of stuff. Yeah. So a lot of the roasters actually talk to each other and like, Hey, can I grab? I heard you're bringing like this coffee from Thailand. Can I grab like 30 kilos from you? I just want to try it out kind of stuff. And they are more than happy to share the shipping, honestly.
00:53:58
Speaker
That's good. You guys think the rainforest or those, you know, certificates for farmers are also important in South Asia?
00:54:10
Speaker
Like, Basilia probably knows that a lot of farmers, they have to invest in those certificates, like green forest, direct trade, and some other things. It seems very important for farmers in Brazil and Mexico, somewhere else. How about a situation in Asia? Do farmers like trying to get those? Actually, it's kind of very depending on the state.
00:54:38
Speaker
because Asian countries tend to be really, really very big and we have different, I won't say governments, but
00:54:47
Speaker
We still have, especially in some countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, we have different sultans for each state, so the rules vary and change. Not everything is black and white. There's a lot of under-the-table stuff going around and such. I guess I can't say too much about these either. Some people will get in trouble. Who gets in trouble? Not me. I'm not doing anything.
00:55:13
Speaker
As rules and partners need to look at their situation and what they can afford and the benefits of it, because there's so many certifications right out there these days, like there's organic, there's fur trade, there's fur friendly. There's a few of them and we have to see if they're far, we can follow the guidelines of one of these certifications and then what will this organization that certifies them is going to offer them.
00:55:42
Speaker
Like when you get that certification, usually the organization offers help with farm construction to make it more organic or they will help you build
00:55:55
Speaker
water specific watering systems or like minded that biodiversity around you so you're not like contaminating any water and so on. So it's very, I think it's a very individualistic approach. But it definitely is the benefit of coffee farms to do this because they'll only receive help and help and people these days are
00:56:19
Speaker
They're interested in this stuff. You know, they want to know if their coffee is organic or fair trade. They might not understand what it means, but they like the word. Yeah, I mean, everybody loves this certificate mark, right? Yeah. On Instagram, you have this blue badge, certificated or verified mark. Yes, certified, supported, and so on. Yeah, exactly. So when we talk about all this
00:56:43
Speaker
Let's say fancy names. I guess farmers somehow have to pay for them or have to invest their processing methods to get new equipment to get those to reach that level. And it reminds me baristas. You guys are a word baristas. And did you ever try to get this SCA certificate to be a pro approved barista?
Impact of SCA Certifications
00:57:07
Speaker
So when I started
00:57:10
Speaker
I took just a regular barista course, it was an SCA certified, just to have a certificate before going to work as a barista and to have some practice so I don't slow my colleagues down by having them show me absolutely everything.
00:57:28
Speaker
But then I found out about the SCA and I read their modules and I thought it was very interesting. I was like, okay, they offer certifications, yada, yada, yada. That's really cool. You know, I was reading their curriculum and so on. I did the SCA Bruin Foundation and I wanted my mind to kind of like do all of it. Like if not all of their course curriculum, just at least like finish one up to the, I think there's foundation, intermediate and professional.
00:57:57
Speaker
I wanted to finish one at this professional level. But the more I was getting into kind of like the coffee world, the more I was reading and learning, I just might not sound very nice. But I sort of like realized their business still, you know, and like I found the whole module and curriculum way too expensive for and unnecessary, at least for me, because I realized that I wasn't going to have a career as a barista.
00:58:27
Speaker
the more I got into writing. I enjoyed that aspect a lot, the writing about coffee. I guess it's good to have an education body that organizes a lot of events and so on and gets the community together, but I find the whole curriculum and the idea behind it's very expensive and I just view them more as a business thing now, if I may say so.
00:58:54
Speaker
Of course you may. We questioned about this earlier. We made a story post on Instagram asking people their opinions about barista should have this certificate SEA or not. 95% of people said, no, you don't need it to be a good barista.
00:59:11
Speaker
And especially in all days, you can learn almost everything. And you mentioned that it's very expensive to get those advanced courses. Maybe you can tell us how much. Because you work in Ireland and you're supposed to get higher salary than Paris in India. I'm just wondering, what is the price? Oh God, that was like three years ago. I can't say I remember very well. I think it was nearly 300 for one course.
00:59:40
Speaker
maybe either a little more or a little less, but somewhere around there. However, if you want to do a whole module, I think you spend nearly a grant, nevermind the whole curriculum thing. But you know, some people see it as an investment and they think like the certificates matter and so on. But you know, if you want to be certified, you have that idea in your mind and you think it's worth the investment time and money.
01:00:07
Speaker
Like, you know, it's fine, but you definitely don't need it to be a good barista. I'm good at anything. Practice will make you a good barista, you know? Exactly. I'm just wondering if you want to be a barista champion, right? You compete on the stage. Is necessary a requirement for you to have that, you know, as a course? Because they organize that thing, right? Is it?
01:00:36
Speaker
Definitely not a competition. No, no, they're not related. No, no, no. They have events. I guess they would get bad records if they did that, you know. This competition should not be about them trying to make money through selling modules or curriculum or classes. It should be just about, you know,
01:00:59
Speaker
I mean, what's going on in Singapore? Like the SEA community, what is going on there and what is your opinion about, you know, Baristas or Rooster have those SEA?
01:01:09
Speaker
I mean, similarly, it's really expensive to get a SCA certification over here. SCA doesn't actually do it themselves. They kind of outsource the rights to training and certification to some other coffee companies that are licensed to do so and such. There's still a certain standard to it, I guess.
01:01:32
Speaker
I don't really recommend baristas to get a certification. I mean, if they want, then they can go ahead and do so. But the certifications over here are kind of basic, like basic brewing, basic barista course, how to make coffee, how to use your espresso machine, so and so. But I would say like Veselia has said,
01:01:58
Speaker
All these things come with practice and experience and most cafes, they actually have quite a solid training curriculum. Maybe because we have a lot of small cafes and the owners are really in touch with the business itself.
01:02:14
Speaker
either have a really good hit barista or usually the owner is kind of working behind the bar as well so they do ensure that their staff are well trained. It's definitely not necessary to have a certification to take part in competitions. I'm pretty sure 99% do not, especially the champions, but
01:02:37
Speaker
We do have some like government support, like a training scheme, I believe. If you're above 25 ish, you do get $500 from the government and you can use these credits to offset the cost of these workshops and stuff. Yeah, but what I would say, I wouldn't suggest
01:03:00
Speaker
people to really really pursue the certification because at the end of the day I always tell people that I hope they do stay in coffee but in the long run I feel that
01:03:13
Speaker
especially in such a first world economy, like it's not really a sustainable job, especially if you want to have a family and all that stuff, because everything is getting super expensive. But a barista is a good starting point. And we do have a lot of people that move on to become head baristas, roasters, even like they still work in coffee, but maybe they've moved up to like office positions and all that. Yeah. So barista is kind of like entry point job into that.
01:03:44
Speaker
Yeah, so when we talk about SCA just always reminds me what happened in Ukraine and then as they, you know, are we allowed to talk about this?
The Coffee Industry and Global Events
01:03:57
Speaker
Because as he suspended Russian competitors. Yeah, I interviewed a few Russian baristas to talk about that, you know, they, they are against the war, right?
01:04:15
Speaker
they don't like the war happening in Ukraine and their barista, they have been training for, for years too. And as you may know, that's be to compete on the international stage. Uh, and you are now from an English speaking country like America or the UK or Ireland, and you have to learn English to compete. That's just another level of suffering for those guys. And then they feel,
01:04:42
Speaker
be treated when they know that I see suspend all Russian competitors from the international stage. And then I think it's just not fair. And I cannot. Yeah, I'm happy about that. Yeah, that was just my thought about ICA. I didn't like it either. I have to say, because there's a big part about coffee, then some complications and everything. I mean, what's the number one word you put next coffee to the community?
01:05:10
Speaker
And I have to say, I didn't like it either, that they have suspended them. But it's like I said before, it's a business. It's an organization that does business and all businesses in these situations. All they want to do is being seen doing something about it. It wasn't a surprise for me either.
01:05:33
Speaker
Yeah, makes sense. And they talk about their value and mission is about the coffee community and connection. But I think in this case, they really didn't do anything about that. They go the opposite direction, which very disappointing. Anyway, I never
01:05:48
Speaker
I was never a barista or I would never get any SCA courses for sure. I think I will learn coffee from, let's say Morgan drinks coffee, Morgan, right? She's pretty good at teaching and she's the new champion there.
01:06:07
Speaker
And then we have so many awesome people that world champions and they share the knowledge for free online. You can always learn a lot actually. And I also believe that a lot of home brewers, especially after pandemic, they become very professional. I think men of them probably are better than buries to work in the shop. Anything else you want to share with the audience today?
Learning Coffee through YouTube
01:06:27
Speaker
I think like you mentioned, YouTube is a really great resource for people to learn about coffee.
01:06:36
Speaker
I believe once you're of a certain caliber, like when you've learned everything, you can dial in shots like a pro, some people can do it in like one try, just looking at their grinder every day. But yeah, of course, a lot of people on YouTube, not only are they good content creators, but they're actually very, very nerdy about coffee. And most of them actually are very highly educated and they can go really in depth on some stuff which
01:07:03
Speaker
They produce very interesting and complex content, I would say, especially people like Lance Hendry, James Hoffman, almost entertaining coffee guy with internet. He recently had a podcast with a fairly large YouTuber that normally posts about productivity advice, Ali Abdaal.
01:07:28
Speaker
Yeah, that was a really interesting conversation, especially for anybody that aspires to open a coffee shop in the future. And what something he said was that a lot of people like the idea of opening a business but don't like the idea of running a business or they're ignorant to it because they've never tried it before. But opening a business is really interesting. It opens your eyes to the world, I would say.
01:07:55
Speaker
I think I'd be one of those people that's afraid of opening a business. The idea sounds amazing, right? You can be a business owner, you have your coffee shops, but then you really start running it. You feel like, hmm, this is not what I thought. I think for me, maybe down the line I have in my mind, but right now I feel I can, the idea of it only seems restrictive to me because I'd have to be 100% there, like, uh, and, uh,
01:08:23
Speaker
give my time to that as would be like my business baby or something. Whereas right now I'm not in that stage in my life. I like to travel and I like to not have too many responsibilities. And I don't know when that's going to go away. I remember you said you had a plan, make a coffee trip. Yeah. How's that going?
Vasilia's Coffee Travel Plans
01:08:47
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I'm still here. I haven't started yet.
01:08:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's still in Greece, you know, I'm traveling. Well, actually, you know, it was supposed to happen and then there's a lot of things that kind of like hindered that, including the pandemic and the third, I think, lockdown was at the time. Anyway, so it's still in my mind. I think I'm still going to do it, but I need more time to organize it.
01:09:17
Speaker
Because I'm not alone in this, of course. And so we just need a little bit more time to get things started because having a little band and going around takes a bit more planning than we thought it would actually. But I have one idea right now.
01:09:35
Speaker
that I think might come into fruition, if not this year, maybe next year. I'm checking out coffee farms in Workaway to maybe take a trip there for a month or two to volunteer and work there. That sounds a great idea. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the Workaway platform. Nope. It's like Workaway.
01:10:01
Speaker
Anyway, work away and then you can just find volunteer opportunities everywhere in the world. So some people want you to volunteer at the coffee farm or they might want you to babysit their kids in Japan or something.
01:10:14
Speaker
or they want you to help them build an ecological campsite in Denmark. Most of the time they give you accommodation and food and then you just stay with them for a while and get to know them, help them, get to know the culture, get to travel, stay somewhere for free in exchange for volunteer work. I'm thinking of doing that because one of my goals is one day to visit origin and
01:10:44
Speaker
learn more about the whole process there and actually do the things I write about. I know a lot of the things, but it would be interesting to actually do them myself. I think that would help my writing as well. That's cool.
01:11:04
Speaker
That's a good idea. I think we definitely can help you. I'm the bird cell plant farmer. We know many roasters. We know many coffee friends and such as Pac from Thailand. He's working with the farmers directly and he usually travels there, pick up cherries and stuff. Maybe you want to go to Thailand, right? Yeah, I want to go to Thailand. Nice food. I was talking about this today. Thailand. Yeah. Let's make you a trip. Let's make you a trip. We were actually talking about going to Thailand.
01:11:32
Speaker
Mike, let's go to Thailand and volunteer. Mike might be going to Thailand at the end of the year, like a few of us, like the roasters and such to help out at a farm in Chiang Rai or just check things out. Yeah. Well, that's great. Add one more person to this trip. You know, it's a little Greek lady. Come to Singapore, we'll bring you around. Make it happen. Coffee can act. Yeah.
01:12:01
Speaker
Definitely. Wonderful. You guys definitely shouldn't make it happen, you know? And then I will sponsor some free t-shirts. I like it. That would be cool, yeah. I like it. And the cap. I will not brace the hat. I just want to add something. Of course. If anybody is listening to this and is intending to come to Singapore, please get in touch. We'll bring you around for some great coffee. Well, now I have to say something about Greece.
01:12:34
Speaker
Okay, guys, you can contact me. So guys, how we can find you on Instagram, if you're really interested in, you know, going to Singapore or go to grace and meet you guys.
01:12:46
Speaker
If you're intending to come to Singapore, you can drop me a DM on Instagram. It's messymalayan. I think we'll probably add a tag in our Instagram post on the website, or you can even drop us a DM at coffee and SG and we'll definitely bring you around. Or if we have time, otherwise we can just trade coffees or something. How are we going to find you, Vasiliam?
01:13:12
Speaker
My Instagram is b.wandering.beam, which is also my blog, thewanderingbeam.com. And you can contact me through the blogs, through my Instagram.
01:13:23
Speaker
anywhere you like. And yeah, I'm always open to give a tour. I also have built a little map of all the speciality concerts I've been to, which includes Greece, of course. But if you're ever looking for any other recommendation about where to visit, you can check out the maps on my blog and just see my recommendations. I've been to a few countries already. And yeah, and I'm always happy to talk off, you know, hang out. It'll be fun.
01:13:54
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to this I'm Not A Barista episode. Subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram at I Am Not A Barista for more empowering vibes and true coffee stories that connect you with coffee lovers around the world.