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S4E4: Coffee, Cocktails, and the Journey of Odi - Georgius Audrey Teja
194 Plays11 days ago
In this episode of the I'M NOT A BARISTA podcast, we sit down with Georgius Audrey Teja — or Odi, as most people know him — to chat about his incredible journey from behind the bar to the world stage.
Odi’s story is one of quiet perseverance. From serving iced lattes to confused customers in the early days of Indonesia’s specialty scene, to winning the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship 2025, he’s never lost touch with his purpose: making people happy through coffee.
We talk about his first time competing, the power of staying consistent, and how mentorship and community helped shape his path. Whether you’re a barista, a competitor, or just love a good origin story — this one will warm your heart.
🎙️ Available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms.
🔗 Read Odi's story on www.notabarist a.org here
If you enjoy our podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend — your support keeps us brewing!
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Transcript
Introduction of Audi, the Champion
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello, welcome back to I'm Not Veritas, a podcast. I'm your host, Mickey. And in this app episode, I sat that with Audi, the champion of World Coffee and Good Spirits 2025. So we know Audi for a while and he wasn't a champion by that time. But now look at him, a world champion. So it just makes sense to have this fun, day back and a good chat.
00:00:34
Speaker
One of the still here. so it's nice to finallyly see you you know i didn't expect that the first time we but we talk on instagram that was oh love this grinder and then yeah next time wait you become a champion yeah so you still have this feeling that you know ah becoming and the champion will be like a dream still i don't know how long it last this excitement still there
00:01:05
Speaker
But at the same time, um just me being me, I'm still not used to all of these people calling me a champ and being a newly crowned champ still feels surreal for me as a person.
00:01:19
Speaker
But it's settled down little bit. it feels It feels like you you won a lottery yeah and then you're so happy, but how long it will last? That's the question. That's question, yes.
Audi's Journey and Role in Coffee Industry
00:01:36
Speaker
Yeah, so my name is Girojis Audrey Teja, but people call me Odi. It's like ah like a nickname that people love to call me. And I work in Social Good Coffee Company and also Oma Cafe, which happened to be owned by World Barisies Champion, which is Mikhail Jasin.
00:01:56
Speaker
ah we've been working I've been working with Mikhail since 2021, so it's been like four and a half years-ish. And my main role in Omakape Soso Good is to, as a research and development specialist.
00:02:10
Speaker
So my day-to-day job is technically making a new recipes every day. In a normal month, I could make up to 20 to 30 recipes, but sometimes could be extended to 40 to 50 recipes.
00:02:25
Speaker
Really depends on wow on how many clients asking for the recipes. And that's pretty cool. That sounds not and not busy at all. Sounds not busy at all, sure.
00:02:38
Speaker
And I just crowned as a World Coffing Spirit Champion this year. m Well, at this point, it's a couple of months ago in Geneva, Switzerland.
00:02:49
Speaker
Yes, that's about it about me. right, great. So people call you Audi? yes, correct. Audi, all right. It's similar to the car, right? Yeah, similar to the car, but car is Audi.
00:03:02
Speaker
Mine is spelled O-D-I. Audi, okay. So thanks, Audi. well Thanks for having me, man. It's been a few months, but it just said that, the you know, the feeling or is still there, right? yeah um And it was your first time ah became a champ.
00:03:17
Speaker
Yes. So, well, first for a story, I was, I used to compete in Brewers Cup for three consecutive years. So 2022, 2023 and final at the national And then,
00:03:31
Speaker
but never got into the final at the nationalist stage
00:03:35
Speaker
and then In 2024, I sort of like decided to not compete in Brewers anymore because I felt like I needed a break.
00:03:48
Speaker
And during that period of time, I was helping Yesi, which happened to be last year's Coffee English Spirit champion and also fourth place in the world of Coffee English Spirit. And when she was competing in Copenhagen and I...
00:04:04
Speaker
made a promise to myself okay if yesi got into the final i'm competing in coffee because i was helping her to win her national as well just sort of like helping little stuff and then it happened and then last year i was competing for the first time in coffee with spirits and lucky i won And then I went to Geneva to compete in World Cup English Spears for the first time.
Switching Competitions and Winning
00:04:32
Speaker
That's literally my first world competitions. And I also win the World Cup of English Spears for the first time as well. Right. so So it was like a winning lottery. Yeah, winning a lottery like...
00:04:44
Speaker
happened because Because the world see you the first time. Yes. But it doesn't mean you, the day before that, you were not a barista or something. It took years. It took years for sure. Yeah, definitely. So can we consider this is like a career change or your strategy change because you used to compete in another competition? yeah Well, sort of.
00:05:04
Speaker
Because everyone, like a lot of my friends, saying that, okay, Odi, I think your element is called Bingo Spears because... you've been doing this entire R&D stuff for years.
00:05:17
Speaker
I think you can you can make it at the World Stage and also in in the National Round. well People keep saying me that. But I was super stubborn because I felt like, okay, I haven't finished with Brewers' Cup. Why would I compete in other discipline?
00:05:34
Speaker
And my mind changed after very last Brewers Cup. It hit me quite hard. So i was like, okay, let's stop for a bit and then um maybe we can try Coffee with Spears. And then it changed my entire life.
00:05:46
Speaker
Okay. So I know this is going to be a hard question. Like you say in the end, you changed your mind. Like what was that moment like? Was there a special moment? Like, no, I just cannot do this.
00:05:59
Speaker
Or somebody told you something else because you said you're pretty stubborn, right?
00:06:06
Speaker
So, you know NGL, right? Like the anonymous texting apps. So, after my competitions, I... And then some random guy told me, oh, you know, you should stop competing.
00:06:20
Speaker
Literally said, you had the best team in the world because our ecosystem is like common grounds where we have a lot of national champions and happen to be having the world champion as as well.
00:06:34
Speaker
And then I just stopped competing in Brewer's Cup because just be Mikhail Jacin's sidekick. And that sort of like started fire inside me like, okay, fuck this. i I'm going to compete in another discipline.
00:06:47
Speaker
Yeah. So after becoming champ, did you go back and talk to him like, thank you No, the point is, and the thing is, it's anonymous. So I don't know who's sending this.
00:06:58
Speaker
But if I meet him or her, I will say thank you. Well, could be someone very close to me, but I don't need to the give a ghost. Yes. Yeah. But it's good that you did make some change and that change led to something good,
Impact of Winning and Opportunities
00:07:13
Speaker
right?
00:07:13
Speaker
um Back to the question, what it's like to be a champion? I mean, we know this is a huge thing for you, yeah for for people outside of this coffee community. Like, they don't even know there's championship in coffee. Like, you just make coffee or press a button. What?
00:07:29
Speaker
Yeah. I never heard about it. but if you If you work or work on a straight and then people ask you, like, oh, what do you do And you're like, oh, do this, do this. And then I... I compete on a one last champion ship and And then like, what is it? How how do you explain to them?
00:07:44
Speaker
Well, normally what I explain to everyone about competition, I would explain the ACA and also the seven disciplines that we have in the World Coffee Competitions. And then it's sort of like slowing, like explaining what a competition is and how does it does to a barista out there.
00:08:03
Speaker
But for me personally, Winning competitions really changed my life because um back in the days, and like six years ago, when I started my getting exposed with this competition because that was the first time I know that there is coffee competitions, six years ago.
00:08:27
Speaker
When I was volunteering for as stage manager for Brewers Cup, And then I see a lot of people change their life because of these competitions. I was like, oh, maybe I can change my life as well.
00:08:40
Speaker
So the very first thing that the very first reason when people ask me, why do you compete is I want to change my life. And by changing my life, I can change the life of people surrounding me as well, like helping them to to following my footsteps as well, because I was also following my a mentor footsteps, which is Mikhail Chasyun. So it means a lot to me because it changed my life in a way.
00:09:07
Speaker
And at the same time, it is a opportunity for me to represent not only the brand, not only Oma Cafe and Social Good Coffee Company, but also the coffee industry with into a lot of people that doesn't know that this competition exists.
Financial Struggles and Support in Indonesia
00:09:24
Speaker
I got to ask a very shadow question because you know you mentioned that you changed your life. ah Is like to change of life by a new car? or yeah Well, not yet.
00:09:40
Speaker
But I have a lot of chance to meet a lot of new people and getting invited to all of this coffee event and get a chance to share with a lot of people and It means a lot to me. Like a lot of opportunities is coming to me.
00:09:58
Speaker
Like a lot of friends wanting to work with me. And hers is lovely. Yeah, hers is so lovely. And also these days people would hear me more. Because I have the ability after becoming a champion. So when I say, oh, your coffee tastes like this. And people go, oh, really?
00:10:13
Speaker
sort of like that. Oh, man. Thinking about becoming a champion in, let's say, in all sports events means a lot of sponsorship, endorsement, and stuff. and and But people sometimes to think about um being a champion is like, oh, one day you you you you can update from an Audi to a Lamborghini or something like that. But it's not, it's not right? Because I know the situation Indonesia is not that that good, like farmers, baristas, etc. is a very bad if you compare with Australia or somewhere else.
00:10:48
Speaker
But like, what is the situation if you still, you know, got friends who are struggling being a barista, being, you know, working at a bar, what's the situation for them right now?
00:10:59
Speaker
The situation in bar industries, like in baristas and also like with 3D cocktail bar industry. is that lot of baristas are paid below the minimum wage.
00:11:15
Speaker
Like for a month- That's like less than $300 or- Less than $300. Because um in Indonesia, we don't really have the regulations where like everyone you should pay with the minimum wage.
00:11:30
Speaker
For the bigger company, they weren't there to pay like a very below the minimum wage, but some of the smaller jobs, they tend to, oh, this is much money that I can afford to pay you, which is like the minimum, lower than minimum wage. So lot of people are struggling being a barista.
00:11:51
Speaker
And yeah, it's it's been hard. It's been going on for quite a bit. Because you entered the coffee industry since 2007 or something, quite a long time. So and the situation for you changed step by step or still, you know, it only changed after you became a champion?
00:12:11
Speaker
Well, financially, because um back in the days where I was still working at the coffee shop, I got paid very, very low. there There was one time in five years ago, I get paid around 200 USD per month, which is super low.
00:12:30
Speaker
And then when I joined um this company, which is also a good coffee company, mi car because he, he know how hard it is to get the minimum wage. And he really appreciate people that,
00:12:43
Speaker
that wants to work and will have the highest, higher willingness to work. So he give me a really good salary and is progressing as I progress as well as a person. So he's been, he's been very fair to me.
00:12:58
Speaker
Well, big shout out to Mikael. We had a chat with him ah many, many years before he became the world champ. And yeah, because I hope one day our show become that lucky star. You know, you talk to us, become champ.
00:13:14
Speaker
That would be so cool. I just remember he was very smart. He was very smart as a businessman. And he is very wise in all those you know strategies, et etc. So I could only see that, you know, he could see potential in people. he could see the business, you know, coffee business, needs more talented people to get in, but you have to pay more. It's good.
00:13:35
Speaker
We hope like more people will be you know willing to pay for more. yeah That's important. isn't yeah So you're working with him directly right now, right? Yeah. like yeah that So how's your boss? He's doing very great.
00:13:47
Speaker
And after winning World of English Spears, he, how do I say it? He support me in a way so I can get all of these opportunities of going overseas, going to some random places for like weeks and then still able to get to work flexibility.
00:14:09
Speaker
I got the flexibility of, in terms of the working hours because he know how hard it is um to become a champion and having these opportunities. And at the same time, you're still working for someone.
00:14:25
Speaker
Like you in yeah you still need to deliver the job, but at the same time you need to grab of these opportunities before there will be another champion next year. Yeah, exactly. it it very It's very fair and honest with me. Like I know how it's like to become an employee.
00:14:44
Speaker
And I don't how it feels like to become a world champion at the same time. So I give you this flexibility. You can go anywhere you want to go. It's good that you have him because he has been through that already and he knows. Yes.
00:14:57
Speaker
And he could be like a good boss and mentor as well. Yes. So it's good.
Sharing Knowledge Globally
00:15:02
Speaker
So and after becoming the champion after your title, you um you said you had more opportunities, right, to visit different cities, meet different people.
00:15:12
Speaker
So maybe you can tell us more about the the trips you have you know since then. like Where have you been? and and anything interesting good stories to share can't remember how many series i went after straight after winning world cup ingu's pierce after i landed the next day i and i went to a lot of different series i went to five different series in indonesia within two weeks and then it was for this brand
00:15:45
Speaker
there supplier of VA in Indonesia. They want me to have a masterclass and share my about coffee with spirits, like the competition itself and teaching them how to balancing flavors, something like that.
00:16:03
Speaker
And then I went to and remember south africa for also sharing with the with the coffee community there it's very nice it was very nice and also i was doing like an omaka setting like all of this trip i've been trying to introduce omakafe as a brand and how you can build experience through beverages like one single ingredients like one single coffee you can make into
00:16:35
Speaker
ah different beverages and you can sort of like build the experience to guess as well i think that's that's what i've been doing and also sharing with a lot of people like the trick tips and trick on how do i approach my competitions which i found that a lot of people people a lot of people find it very helpful like back in the before they So my presentation, they didn't know what to do with competition. So such as, oh, which should ah which should come first?
00:17:10
Speaker
Is it the coffee? Is it the spirits? Is it the other things or what? So I sort of like make a guideline on how you can approach, well, how did I approach my competitions? And maybe you can use the same step as well, which I find it very lovely because finally I get to share this to a lot of people and helping them in a way so they can approach the competition easily.
00:17:39
Speaker
That's nice. Um, so after South Africa, where have you been after that? South Africa and then Seoul and then Dubai. And then last week I went to Malaysia and after this going to China, Japan, Seoul again, Hong Kong, can't remember.
00:18:00
Speaker
Bangkok. Wow. So do you still enjoy the life? i do enjoy the life because ah love traveling. I love meeting new people. I love meeting a new community as well.
00:18:17
Speaker
So by traveling with a lot of different series, lot of different countries also help me to and get closer and look closer about their coffee communities and also the coffee trends and also the bar trend as well, because me and Mikael, we love to go to the bars whenever we go to different cities and different countries.
00:18:39
Speaker
The first thing that I was looking for is a coffee shop, but like a top 50 best bar in in that specific city. Yeah. Coffee during the day, cocktail in the evening. but was like that That's like good travel plan.
00:18:54
Speaker
Really good. Next, you have some tours in Asia, that like you go to Hong Kong, China, Thailand. Do you handle those incoming invitations yourself or you have ah assistant right now or they go through the company? does work?
00:19:08
Speaker
Everything is still handled by myself. Wow. Some preparation on the ingredients, because normally when we do this kind of events, I always bring my own ingredients.
00:19:22
Speaker
Like inside my luggage, normally the 10 kilograms up to 50 kilograms is totally liquid. Like the ingredients that I get to. All right. Either for the omakase or for the like a sharing sessions, like explaining the people, or you can make this, you can make this.
00:19:40
Speaker
And you can taste the beverage as well. So for you as a regular ah for you as a regular traveler with lots of liquid in your suitcase, you know, the custom or whatever, they never stop you, right? Like, what do you have in your suitcase? do you have so much liquid there?
00:19:56
Speaker
Well, lucky we we never had those problems before. Okay. Because we we pack it inside a vacuum silk bag, not inside a bottle. So people wouldn't suspect what you're handling. So maybe.
00:20:11
Speaker
All right. that's That's a good tip, right? oo That's a good tip. Cheers. Cheers, man. Since we talk about coffee, I found the roots, right? That's your competition what story.
00:20:25
Speaker
And you refer it to the community.
Educational Efforts and Inspirations
00:20:28
Speaker
So what do you think the best way to support the Indonesian coffee community? Well, definitely there are a lot of ways to...
00:20:39
Speaker
help the coffee community in Indonesia. One of the ways that we have now is Oma Cafe. So Oma Cafe, we, me and Mikael, and with our team, we built Oma Cafe because we want a lot of people to get inspired as well.
00:20:59
Speaker
Because Oma Cafe as a company and as a coffee shop, like the Befra Center, we get inspired by a lot of different industries like food industries, beverage like focal industries, and maybe some other industries as well.
00:21:17
Speaker
And we don't only want to take from them. We want to share it with a lot of new people or the community surrounding us. So that's why we built Omakafe in the first place.
00:21:30
Speaker
It is to, well, hopefully people when come to Oma Cafe, they tried the experience and then after that they got inspired. Oh, you can do this with these ingredients.
00:21:41
Speaker
As simple as some random pine needles or some random woods that you turn into a drink. Or these flavors can combine with this coffee like very well.
00:21:53
Speaker
How they find the flavor balance and... lot of new technique that they can implement in their life competitions maybe coffee shops that's one and secondly we as a company we have a youtube channel where i have a segment to teach not teach just share um how can you make certain ingredients like oh you know you can make this ingredients by using abcdfg and this is how you make it like
00:22:24
Speaker
people Indonesia they really have a limited informations of source of information to learn a lot of these things and not a lot of Indonesian can speak in English so having YouTube channel in Bahasa actually helps a lot of baristas and people to oh now I have someone to to tell me how can I make this space and lastly is by traveling actually like traveling to different series and then having some event there and people would come to me and ask like oh how can you make this how can you make this base how can you combine this element with this element and that's the how i connect with these people is
00:23:18
Speaker
and I can explain to them how can they um do some similar approach that I did in my daily life. Something like that.
00:23:29
Speaker
All right, that's lovely. Nice to hear. Nice to hear. the The second YouTube channel in the local language, that's that's great. because yeah And you you can teach now because you're a champ. You're allowed to say that.
00:23:44
Speaker
Um, you mentioned that five years ago, there was, there was a time that you only earned $200, right? If you could look back and have a chance to talk to the the version of you five years ago, what would you like to tell him?
00:24:02
Speaker
Well, I would like to tell him that things will get better eventually. Like trust whatever you're doing right now. If you really want to learn about this industry as in coffee industry this freaking go freaking go to wherever for you believe in okay well that sounds inspiring okay let's be more realistic
00:24:30
Speaker
That is true, you know, like, yeah, because it's not going to happen, right? You cannot talk to the the younger you, but you definitely can talk to other birds who struggling right at moment, right? I still believe there are people ah earning very minimum salary right now, and they are thinking about maybe quitting and their bird's job or quitting their de bartender job or quitting being a farmer. What are you going to tell them?
00:24:54
Speaker
Well, the I think the more realistic thing that they can do is to go to this bigger brands where they can give you a higher salary, first of all, and find the company that allows you to compete.
00:25:15
Speaker
Because for me, competing changed my life. Not only winning the title, but also the journey alongside the competitions.
00:25:27
Speaker
Like through throughout competitions, I learned how to talk in English. I learned how to present. I learned how to make a better cup of coffee. I learned about the flavor balance and lot of this stuff that can improve yourself to becoming a better brista or a better person as well.
00:25:45
Speaker
So I think that's the more realistic path that you can take. and Okay, so you need to look for a better boss. I guess later you you have so many new job applications. Everybody wants to join you. Wonderful.
00:26:05
Speaker
it's ah It's hard to to help everyone, but somehow if you could inspire a few and then you expect those guys could continue doing what you're doing and inspiring others, there could be a better impact on the coffee
Home Coffee Cocktail Recipes
00:26:17
Speaker
world.
00:26:17
Speaker
So ah um let's let's share some of your special tips of making coffee spirit at home. How about that?
00:26:29
Speaker
Well, I think the easiest one is Irish coffee because the preparation is quite simple. just need coffee you can use filter their coffee you can use espresso if you have espresso machine at home that's great because you can make espresso and then you only k need whiskey any kind of whiskey will do but sometimes i love the fruitier one and then sugars any kind of sugars that you can find like honey raw sugars coconut palm sugars anything that can suit your coffee
00:27:00
Speaker
And then the cream on the top, which is you can you only need to shake the cream and then you can just put it on the top. So that's a very, very, very easy coffee cocktail to start with.
00:27:14
Speaker
And secondly, it's actually espresso martini, but only if you have an espresso martini at home, because all you need is just espresso, spirit, you can use vodka, like a natural spirit.
00:27:28
Speaker
And then lastly, just sugar. You can combine everything together and and you can just shake it and that's it. You have a very nice espresso martini to enjoy in the summer.
00:27:40
Speaker
All right. So how do you feel like today? Would you make some some special for yourself? um Maybe later on. Up to 6 p.m.
00:27:52
Speaker
Not in 10 a.m. in the morning. Right, right. Yeah. When I travel, i i usually drink a beer in the morning. So I feel good when I go. I'm just relaxed, you know, like the the color is vivid and the sound is better.
00:28:06
Speaker
feel happier. Yeah. But you have to control the amount of alcohol you have in morning. For sure.
Future Aspirations and Vision
00:28:12
Speaker
Definitely this year has been a big milestone for you. lot of things happen and it's still happening.
00:28:18
Speaker
So could you see yourself in two, three years, you know do you have a specific plan? Maybe you can share some plans with us. Well, me as a person, I don't know yet what I'm going to do.
00:28:34
Speaker
I guess it will come along the way when i'm when I'm traveling or when I'm continuing doing a lot of these things. But, um, I would love to help our teammates because in our ecosystem, we have a lot of competitors that wanting to compete and wanting to become a champion as well. So I'll, I'll try to help as many as I can, even though I wasn't around quite much these days, because I've been traveling quite a lot, but I would love to help these people, um achieving their dreams.
00:29:12
Speaker
and also as a company as omakafe i want to introduce omakafe in a lot of different series because it is a really good concept and since people really can go togarra to to go to omakafe These days, me and Mikael, we travel separately and we have some Omakase session in different series.
00:29:43
Speaker
So a lot of people can try this experience. We are going to Jakara. So I think it is nicer for them as well. I think that's the that's a game plan for next one or couple of years or so.
00:30:01
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to this I'm Not A Barista episode. Subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram at IamNotABarista for more empowering vibes and true coffee stories that connect you with coffee lovers around the world.