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CreativityTranscript
00:00Welcome back to the C-Morning Show everyone.
00:05Before we dive into our second discussion of the day, we have some exciting news from
00:09South Korea.
00:10Now, we do know that the Indonesian Under-23 AFC, Indonesian squad did not finish first
00:16and we came in second in Thomas in Uber Cup as well.
00:19But Indonesian barista Mikhail Jasin has been crowned the 2024 World Barista Champion.
00:27Jasin beat over 53 national champions from 50 countries during the four-day competition
00:39which took place from May 1st to 4th in Busan.
00:43In the final round, he outperformed his Australian, Japanese, New Zealand, South Korea, Ireland
00:49and the Netherlands.
00:51And for those who are unfamiliar, the World Barista Championship is the top international
00:56coffee competition held annually by World Coffee Events.
01:03It celebrates excellence in coffee, promotes the barista profession and engage a global
01:08audience with an annual championship that is the grand finale of regional events from
01:14around the world.
01:23And we are now going to connect live with the newly crowned 2024 World Barista Champion.
01:28If he's familiar to you, that's because he's a friend of the program, has been here before
01:31as well.
01:32Please welcome Mikhail Jasin who is joining us all the way from Busan, South Korea.
01:36He's still reveling in his success and he's going to share with us his journey and experiences
01:41during the competition.
01:42Good morning, Miki.
01:43Thank you for being here and congratulations on your win.
01:47Good morning.
01:48Thank you so much for having me.
01:50So how does it feel?
01:51Tell us about it when they, you know, called out your name to be the winner of this very
01:55prestigious coffee competition.
01:58It feels, it still feels surreal.
02:02I've been competing for 10 years and you work on it for so long, you visualize it for so
02:09long.
02:10I've had the picture of the trophy on my phone for, I don't know, the past 10, 8 years.
02:16It's still the old one.
02:17It's not even mine.
02:18But yeah, it feels surreal and it's great to finally get it.
02:22So can you start this discussion about how did you win this championship, especially
02:28this year?
02:29I don't know.
02:30I scored the highest, I guess.
02:36No, but the Barista Championship, you sort of alluded to it earlier, they score not only
02:44your coffee, but also the way you present it, the idea that you have around it.
02:51It's a bit like TED Talk where you have 15 minutes to present your ideas, but you have
02:56to make 12 drinks at the same time as well.
02:59So how long did you prepare for it?
03:04I won my national championship in December.
03:07So from national championship to now just under five months, but it's a year long thing
03:14where you have to do the regional scene and then you have to win your national and then
03:17you have to go and compete to the world stage.
03:20So yeah, it's been a full year for this competition season.
03:23It's a full year for this season, but you have been preparing for it for almost a decade,
03:27I would say, right?
03:29So I want to talk a little bit about your winning signature drink.
03:34So correct me if I'm wrong, but there was a signature drink and you had a final course.
03:38So you had what was called the Aji Espresso and then following that for the final course,
03:44you had switched to the Finca de Bora Geisha.
03:47Can you tell us a little bit about these drinks?
03:50Sure.
03:52So we had to serve three courses.
03:55You have an espresso course, a signature course, and a milk course.
03:59You can serve it in any order that you want.
04:04So I served my milk course first, a signature beverage and espresso last.
04:10My theme was about mindfulness and how we can apply mindfulness, just being aware of
04:16our own presence and remembering to stop and smell the flowers and, you know, taking a
04:21breath in before you do anything.
04:23So I presented the Aji Bourbon.
04:30It's a very crazy type of coffee, a lot of fruity flavors.
04:34So we had a lot of fun exploring flavors with that coffee.
04:39And with the signature course, I put in clarified milk, I put in cacao nibs, I put in Palo Santo,
04:44which is also used a lot in meditation.
04:48So the flavors are pretty out there.
04:51But for the espresso course, which was my last one, the Finca de Bora Geisha coffee
04:57that I use is very classic, very elegant, and that's a representation of the soul where
05:04when you get in touch with your soul, it's really bare, there's not much noise, like
05:09the soul is clean and bare, you don't put anything to it.
05:12So I think I use coffee as a medium to deliver the message, and thankfully it worked out.
05:18Nice.
05:19So this is your third competition, world competition, if I'm not mistaken.
05:24So I have to ask, among all these competitors, which one is the toughest one?
05:31Oh, it's tough, I think any world championship in any sports or any discipline is tough.
05:40And up there with me, everyone was great, and a lot of the other nations have been in
05:47the finals a lot more times.
05:51So I think, yeah, everyone was tough, everyone was a great competitor, but at the end of
05:55the day, you have to make your coffee great, you have to present it greatly, and then the
06:00judges just judge you on that presentation.
06:03It's a bit funny where you don't go head-to-head, you present your idea, you present your coffee,
06:08and then they score you, and then the other five would do the same.
06:12So yeah, I guess if you ask me who's the toughest competitor, it was me myself, because I had
06:20to overcome that nerve.
06:22Yeah, a lot of people say that, right?
06:23Because in a competition like this, it's not like you're getting to taste the other competitors'
06:27coffee, so your biggest opponent would be yourself.
06:29And speaking of which, you were your biggest opponent in previous times that you've competed
06:34at this World Barista Championship.
06:36If we're not mistaken, this was your third attempt, correct?
06:40Is that right?
06:41So what would you say that you learned the most, and what was it that really kind of
06:46put you over the top this time that you did differently in your previous less successful
06:51attempts?
06:53Yeah, great question.
06:55I think the past failures helped me come up with the idea of this year's competition.
07:08I talk about how after my last outing, I wasn't very successful.
07:12I was one ranking away from being in the final, and there was a lot of disappointment in that.
07:19And after that, I got burned out.
07:20I was training too hard.
07:22I forgot to balance my other aspects in life.
07:27And this year, I talk about that.
07:30And obviously, also applying the learning of making better coffee, making better signature
07:35drinks, things like that.
07:37But really, just to approach it more holistically from body preparation, mind preparation, coffee
07:43preparation, and just putting things together to present it the way I wanted to present
07:48it.
07:49And I would say then, it's safe to say that your theme of mindfulness probably comes from
07:54those previous experiences as well, right?
07:56In order for you to handle it better.
07:57Yeah, for sure.
07:59All right.
08:00So in terms of getting to your goal, how you handle pressure, and how do you maintain
08:07your focus in this year's competition?
08:12As Paul said earlier, because the theme was about mindfulness, you cannot talk about mindfulness
08:19and being present without actually practicing what you preach.
08:24And this year, I just did a lot of meditation.
08:28I did a lot of non-sleep deep rest.
08:31I did a lot of things in my head and within me to help me prepare for it.
08:37Obviously, I still had to do the coffee training.
08:40I still had to taste a lot of coffee.
08:42But I think internalizing it and trying to process it and approach it in a mindful way,
08:50an intentional way, really helped me balance it out pretty well.
08:56So now that you're kind of already being able to take your foot off the gas a little bit,
09:02if you, so to speak, have a little bit of rest and recovery.
09:06Now, looking ahead, what's next for you?
09:08I mean, you have many business ventures here in Indonesia as well to focus on.
09:13Will you be heading back to the World Barista Championship to try to get a back-to-back
09:17championships?
09:18What's in the near future for you?
09:20Historically, we don't really defend our championship in coffee.
09:25Once you win, that's kind of it.
09:28But we're excited because next year, we're the host for World of Coffee.
09:32So we will host a world championship in Jakarta in May 2025.
09:37So I think helping the Indonesian coffee industry getting ready to be a host for a
09:43world championship, it's a big thing.
09:44Obviously, a lot of preparation and planning.
09:47As a world champion, I have to do the ambassadorship duty for specialty coffee in general.
09:54So just trying to manage this and putting enough focus on downstream and upstream in
10:04coffee, Hulu and Hilir.
10:06So, yeah, let's see if we can balance that.
10:09Wow.
10:10Very fitting that we would be hosting a world championship now that we have our very own
10:13champion.
10:14Yeah, but this is a simple question to end this talk.
10:18So did you have a coffee this morning?
10:20And what kind of coffee did you have?
10:25I did.
10:25I am having a coffee.
10:27I don't know what's in this.
10:31They just say it's a fruity blend.
10:33But it's great.
10:35At the end of the day, you still need coffee to wake you up in the morning.
10:38It doesn't have to be great coffees all the time.
10:40This coffee was pretty good.
10:41But yeah, coffee is amazing.
10:44Okay, I think Miki has had enough of making coffees over the past week.
10:47He's just going to go out and buy one.
10:48Buy one.
10:49It's a simple one, standard one.
10:51I'm having a Brazilian Santos this morning and I love it.
10:53Thank you so much, Miki.
10:55Thank you.
10:55And congratulations once again.
10:56Thank you, folks.
10:57And I will hold you to that.
10:58You're definitely going to drop by our studio for another visit as soon as you get back.
11:02I will.
11:02I will.
11:03All right.
11:03And let's try that Aji.
11:05Oh, yeah.
11:05Aji Espresso.
11:06Aji Espresso.
11:07We're going to try that.
11:09Anyway, enjoy the rest of your time in Busan.
11:15All right.
11:15Ciao, folks.
11:16Take care.
11:17All right.
11:17Again, that was an amazing feat.
11:19Obviously, Indonesia is now on the map for yet another milestone accomplishment.
11:25Couldn't be more proud that we already had him here in our studio before.
11:28So yeah.
11:29Right.
11:29Anyway, we're going to take a short break here on the program,
11:31but we have more updates for you when we return only on The C Morning Show.
11:35Stay tuned.