Suleyman Rifat Yalcin
World Barista Championship Competitor
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World Barista Championship Competitor -
TURKEY
LOT COFFEE ROASTERY
Thank you to World Coffee Championships and the Specialty Coffee Association for providing us with the images.
Watch his set here
The journey leading up to WBC
The beginning
When did you first get into coffee?
“My adventure with coffee started in 2016 as a part-time barista at a branch of the second-generation coffee brand.”
What was it that drew you to the industry and made you want to pursue specialty coffee as a career?
“The fact that the quality coffee industry is constantly open to innovation excites me. I learn different things while experiencing each new coffee. This impressed me a lot and the new things I learned add to this excitement even more.”
When you are brewing for yourself or friends, what is your favourite brew method and what do you like about it?
“My favorite brewing method is filter coffee, the equipment I use the most is v60. But I can never give up espresso; in unique coffees, I love creating recipes with espresso and serving them.”
What made you want to start competing in coffee?
“You can improve yourself in competitions and always be more open to innovations. At the same time, you can test yourself and your coffee-related knowledge and skills in competitions. This competitive environment triggers my curiosity a lot.”
The coffee
We would love to share as much information about the coffee/coffees that you took to WBC with our community, please tell us as much information about it as you can. We would love to know its varieties, altitude, processing, origin, density (if known), anything and everything that you can tell us.
Origin: El Salvador
Producer: Maria Pacas in Finca Santa Juana
Altitude: 1,400masl
Varietal: Bernardina
Processing: Naturally processed
Density: 0.78g/ml
How did you find this coffee?
“In February of this year, I traveled to Central America, exploring Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras to find the perfect competition coffee. During this trip, I visited several farms and tasted hundreds of different coffees. However, one unique coffee stood out from the rest and marked the end of my search for the perfect coffee.
It’s called Bernardina, a unique variety discovered in 2013 by Ruperto Bernardino, the manager of Finca Los Bellotos. Upon tasting the coffee fruit, Ruperto realized that it was unlike any other coffee he had tasted before. The Pacas family, the owner of the farm, identified 46 trees of this “mysterious” variety. The half sack of harvested coffee was pulped on December 16, 2013, and its heavenly aroma attracted all the farm workers.
Although initially presumed to belong to the Geisha variety, the owner, Maria Pacas inspiring women, decided to take a scientific approach and sent some samples to DNA Analytica, an Italian company for analysis. The gene sequencing analyses revealed that this was a completely new species, unlike any previously classified coffee variety. While it shares similarities with varieties from the Agaro region of Ethiopia, it doesn’t resemble any Arabica species grown in Central and South America.
Before moving on to our milk beverage, I would like to tell you a little about the roasting and characteristics of this coffee. This naturally processed coffee comes from the Santa Juana farm located at 1400 meters in the Apaneca region of El Salvador. We roasted our coffee two days ago with the Kaffelogic sample roaster for this competition. Total roast time at 6 minutes and 45 seconds, and the development ratio was 8%. Our roasting ended at 212 degrees. The trees’ origins remain a mystery since their ages are around 70, and no one alive knows how they got there. Maria Pacas, the owner of the farm, used some of these beans for phenotype formation and planted them in Finca Santa Juana, a farm with super volcanic soil and a volcano inside.”
What drew you to this coffee?
“The fact that it was a new variety and the story of its discovery impressed me a lot. I wanted to present it to the judges and share entire story.”
The roasting
Roasting coffee for competition is usually a very tedious and nerve wracking process, how did you find the process of roasting your coffee?
“We experienced creating many different techniques and details, which was a complicated process. Competition-level coffees are expensive, and finding the perfect profile for our coffee needs some time. In such a process, a sample roaster like Kaffelogic greatly helped us.”
How did you approach this particular coffee?
“This was a unique variety, so none of our previous experiences were similar to this one. Last couple of months, during our search for the competition coffee, we became familiar with fermented coffees and quite different processes. But, our Bernardina is quite different from them. It is a naturally processed coffee, and we had some experience with it. We tried to reveal it’s full potential and floral notes with a lighter roast.”
How many different profiles/iterations did you have to go through before you got the flavour that you were after?
“We have roasted around 100 batches with five different profiles. But mostly, we have focused on a single profile and all of our iterations are around that.”
What batch sizes were you roasting?
“100 gram batches.”
Did you run into any challenges roasting this coffee?
“No, I didn’t encounter any difficulties. Other than delivering the green coffee :) Transporting this type of coffee beans to Turkey could be quite complex and complicated.”
What did you enjoy about roasting on the Kaffelogic?
“Unlike a standard sample coffee roaster, you can create a huge amount of data and you can manipulate them according to your preference. If you completely understand the entire process of Kaffelogic, it will create a perfect cup of coffee. You can easily reach the full potential of the beans and repeat that profile infinitely.”
Do you have any tips or tricks that you used when roasting your coffee?
“My most important advice is to try as many profile variations on a single coffee. Through this way, you can understand the full potential of the bean. Then according to your cupping results, you may eliminate a couple of profiles and continue with the remaining.”
The brewing
What was your process when dialing in your coffee?
“This is my recipe; 20 grams in / 40 grams out in 28 seconds. Water temperature is 92 degrees Celsius.”
Did you use anything unique in your process and what did it change in your brew?
“I followed the general standards. The most important thing I pay attention to is serving the coffee chilled.”
With the introduction of alternative milks, what opportunities/challenges did this create for you and how did you go about choosing what to use for your milk course and why?
“This year, alternative milk options will be used for the first time. Because of the National Championship date, I had only one month before the competition. That’s why I did not want to take risk by using an alternative milk. But I support this a lot and could be fan in the future. I’ve created a unique blend using two different types of milk. Firstly, I sourced Simmental cow’s milk from a private farm, kept it and freeze it in a vacuum-sealed bag for twenty-four hours, and allowed it to drain for four hours at room temperature to reach more intense milk. Additionally, I’ve combined this condensed milk with lactose-free milk at a ratio of fifty percent. I did this because the Lactase, the enzyme added to lactose-free milk, breaks lactose down into two simple sugars: glucose and galactose. Because your taste buds perceive these simple sugars as sweeter than complex sugars, the final lactose-free product has a sweeter flavor than regular milk. I would like to use this natural sweetness to create a synergy in my milk beverage.”
The preparation
To get to the World Coffee Championships, you first need to win a few local competitions. Some countries have regional and national competitions, whilst some only have national competitions. What was your journey like working your way up to becoming the champion of Turkey?
“There are no regional competitions in my country. There was only one national competition. I won the national competition in my country with 570 points and qualified to participate in the world barista championship. My journey was quite adventurous because of my trip to Central America in February. During that trip, I have tasted hundreds of different coffee varieties and found my competition coffee. But before and after that trip, we requested and ordered many competition-level coffees from different farms and suppliers.”
What gave you the idea around your routine? What was the motivation behind the message that you shared on stage?
“While I was tasting coffee during my trip to Central America, I was very excited to discover my competition coffee and bring it to the world stage. At the same time, the fact that this coffee was a type of coffee that has never been served before made the story even more impressive. That’s why my routine mainly focuses on this unique coffee’s discovery and it’s journey until the world stage.”
What did you enjoy most about preparation and what did you dislike about it?
“Having the chance to experience this presentation on the world stage and the competitive environment of the competition motivated me a lot. And I also enjoyed the friendly environment at the World Barista Championship. All of the competitors that I met were great coffee people. Finding the recipe for the signature beverage is the hardest part of this preparation. Because you know judges are from different countries with different tasting palates that you need to attract.”
Was there anything in particular that you struggled with in preparation for competition?
“I had couple of problems getting coffee from Central America to Turkey. Customs may treat differently to the same product on different times. Because of this problem, I have received the competition coffee quite late which cause some negative outcomes.”
What was the inspiration around your signature beverage?
“I wanted to create textures and flavors that will surprise judges palate when they drink it. And also Bernardina has floral notes. I would like to boost the floral notes by combining some herbs and fruits by supporting it with fruity sweetness.”
Looking back and towards the future
Looking back at WBC this past year and your experience through it, what has been the biggest takeaway from it all?
“Create a much more detailed presentation and content. Get more inspiration and be more creative! And I understand that I must prepare for the national competition that I will be competing at the world championship.”
What has been the biggest challenge that you have had to overcome?
“Creating a budget for the competition. Also, the short time of the competition made it hard for me. (1 month)”
Are we going to see you on stage again next year?
“Certainly! I’m already preparing to compete in the world championship finals!”
