I forrige uke fikk jeg besøk av Olga, den russiske baristamesteren.
Hun dro helt til Oslo for å få 2 dagers trening hos meg for å forberede seg til World Barista Championship (WBC)i Tokyo den 31. juli til 2. august i år.
Olga hadde vunnet det Russiske mesterskapet på ren rutine virket det som og hadde en avslappet holdning til WBC og hennes prestasjoner der. Det ble det fort slutt på etter at jeg hadde jobbet med henne i en time. Dermed fulgte 2 lange dager med hardt arbeid før hun dro videre til Solberg & Hansen for litt trening med Willy Hansen og Tone Elin Liavaag, begge pionerer i WBC. Fredagen var det duket for generalprøve og jeg må ærlig innrømme at det var vanvittige forbedringer fra det hun presanterte på tirsdagen i mitt testerom / kursrom til det jeg fikk se fredagen etter 4 dagers trening. Øvelse gjør mester heter det. Jeg er ikke så sikker på at Olga vinner, for det finnes mange sterke forhåndsfavoritter i årets vm, men at hun kan få en god plassering er helt sikkert. Men for å få det er hun selvfølgelig nødt til å jobbe enda hardere i uken fram mot vm. Det tror jeg hun har forstått også.
Alle hos Tim Wendelboe ønsker henne i allefall lykke til i WBC! Vi setter stor pris på at Olga velger å bruke Tim Wendelboe espresso i konkurransen.
Last week I got a visitor from Russia. Olga, the russian barista champion had come all the way from Moscow to do 2 days of hands on training with Willy Hansen and Tone Elin Liavaag (both WBC pioneers) at Solberg & Hansen and 2 days with me in my new shop and roastery. I think you all know by now that Olga will be competing in the coming World Barista Championship at the end of the month. Therefore I expected her to be 80% ready to go for the competition when she arrived Oslo.
But Olga surprised me having a more relaxed attitude towards the coming WBC than one would expect since it was only 3 weeks left to train for it. She was quite coinfident after winning the Russian championship and therefore optimistic about her chances in the WBC. Now, I tried to be mild and nice to her when we started the training ( I think I have become softer allready at the age of 28) but 1 hour later I think she realized that there was a lot of work that needed to be done if she would stand a chance in the WBC. As I saw it she was relying on her routine to perform in the WBC and to be honest, routine is not good enough in the WBC. There you need extraordinary skills to win these days as the competition is getting harder and harder every year.
After 2 long days with a lot of hard work, Olga headed for Solberg & Hansen for some more practice. On the following Friday she had a trial presentation for Willy, Tone, Gunvor and myself and I must say that she had allready improved a lot since the presentation she gave me on tuesday morning. Nevertheless, there is still alot of work to be done for Olga if she wants to be among the very best. I am sure she will not dissapoint any of us that has worked with her during the past week. I am confident that she can do quite well if she works hard for it.
It was a pleasure working with Olga again and all the staff at Tim Wendelboe wishes Olga the best and good luck in the WBC. We are honored and very proud that she chooses to use our espresso in the competition. Good luck Olga!