Barista Magazine is your home for the worldwide community of coffee and the people who make it.
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/131903
IRAN traveling, so I didn't fully appreciate everything the country had to offer. On my recent return visit, I was prepared to embrace my heritage and learn more about myself. What I didn't expect to find was a burgeoning coffee community and a group of passionate baristas. It took me a few days to recuperate from the cripplingly long flight and 12-hour time change. After settling in and catching up with family, my father took me out for a coffee that would change my life. Inside a high-end mall in Tehran, we visited Sam Café, a very swanky coffee shop with table service. We were greeted and given sweets and as we waited for coffee. I glanced behind the bar to see the baristas working intently to make my espresso. I had the feeling they looked like I must when I'm competing, and the comparison 38 barista magazine made me smile. A young barista named Mohammad sat down with us a few minutes later. He and my dad dove into conversation in Farsi while I sat and pretended to understand. Occasionally something familiar like "WBC," "BGA," or "La Marzocco" would clue me along. Then he said, "Barista Magazine," and I decided it was time to cut in and get caught up. Mohammad turned toward me and proceeded—in English!—to tell me about how seeing me, an Iranian, on the cover of Barista Magazine [April+May 2012 issue] gave the baristas in Iran hope for their future to excel in specialty coffee. I was shocked and humbled. We kept talking, and Mohammad's passion continued to pour out as he went on to detail his hopes for Iran's future in coffee. He told me he's a