Kosta Kallivrousis. Courtesy photograph.
Pushed by a need to attach with extra folks and pushed partially by the 2008 monetary disaster, Kosta Kallivrousis left his father’s electrician enterprise to take a job at a Starbucks outdoors Tampa.
Kallivrousis, who’s now the senior provide chain advisor at Age of Espresso, mentioned his go-to drink on the time was a chocolate chip Frappuccino.
“I keep in mind doing my first tasting with my retailer supervisor. We tasted a black cup of espresso and he or she goes, ‘Now I need you to explain this espresso.’ It was the primary time I’d ever been requested this,” Kallivrousis instructed Every day Espresso Information. “I tasted it and mentioned it tasted like grime. She checked out me and mentioned, ‘earthy, nice.’”
Raised in a Greek American household that additionally owned three diners, Kallivrousis grew up immersed in meals and hospitality. Espresso felt like a pure transition.
“However espresso had its personal lexicon, its personal rhythm,” he mentioned. “You needed to be fast, however you additionally needed to know when to decelerate and chat with folks.”
After transferring to Kansas Metropolis, Kallivrousis landed his first specialty espresso job at The Roasterie, the place he started to take extra of an curiosity within the craft and expertise behind espresso, in addition to its sensory facets.
He went on to grow to be a barista coach, developed an obsession with latte artwork, competed at Espresso Fest in Chicago and was ultimately employed at Parisi Espresso, the place he labored alongside 2013 U.S. and World Barista Champion Pete Licata.
“I realized loads from him — what it means to compete, the best way to brew espresso, what judges search for and what it means to be a barista,” Kallivrousis mentioned. “Pete was at all times the primary to throw an apron on and head to the again to do dishes. He actually set an instance.”
As Kallivrousis’ expertise deepened, so did his curiosity in cupping inexperienced espresso. A visit to Guatemala grew to become a turning level in his profession. A gathering with a dealer led to a gathering with producers in Guatemala, the place Kallivrousis toured a moist mill, a dry mill, nursery and farm earlier than collaborating in a cupping.
What started as a relaxed go to turned critical as soon as the cupping began, underscoring how a lot relied on the scores and market suggestions he was being requested to offer. In that second, Kallivrousis mentioned, he realized the trade’s idealized story about high quality and reward didn’t match the lived actuality of many producers. Kallivrousis described the belief as “shattering,” and it led him to redirect his profession.
Not lengthy after that go to, Kallivrousis moved into inexperienced espresso gross sales and provide chain work, turning into a Q Grader and dealing with inexperienced espresso dealer Ally Espresso and inexperienced espresso platform Algrano.
In his new function at Age of Espresso — a small consultancy and provide chain companies supplier — Kallivrousis mentioned he’s constructing on these experiences to advertise a extra equitable and clear espresso trade, one rooted in direct relationships between producers and roasters.
Right here’s extra from DCN’s interview with Kosta Kallivrousis…
What about espresso excites you most?
My instant response is having the ability to discuss with folks. I discover the area I’m in permits me to have actually long-form conversations, and actually get to know folks. That’s the factor that genuinely excites me probably the most. The opposite side is the truth that, for higher or for worse, it’s a world phenomenon and so it turns into a little bit of a launch pad to have the ability to examine and be taught totally different cultures in a means that creates a way of familiarity, but additionally distance on the similar time.
What about espresso troubles you most?
The most important factor that makes it the toughest to create change is that this obsession with style and high quality. It’s about management. It’s concerning the particular person controlling the outcomes of so many various lives. One sip can decide the end result of 20,000 totally different people, and it’s based mostly on their subjective expertise. That’s fucking insane.
What would you be doing if not for espresso?
One thing tutorial. It might completely be anthropology. There’s an anthropologist, Biao Xiang. He’s the pinnacle of a division in Germany, and his analysis is probably the most attention-grabbing to me. It’s wildly experimental, coping with ideas like social alienation. What I really like most about him is that he actually tries to know and analyze an issue. For those who can construct round this concept of a typical downside, then you can begin to cope with social options at that time.
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Jen Roberts
Jen Roberts is a Paris, France-based author and avid espresso drinker. She’s at the moment writing a ebook on girls in espresso.
