Barista Magazine

JUN-JUL 2013

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T hree years ago, Stefanos Domatiotis had his world rocked. It was June 25 in London on a blazingly beautiful summer day. Stefanos, along with 11 other national barista champions, had spent the morning inside the Olympia event space competing in the semifinal round of the World Barista Championship (WBC). At midday, the six baristas who would move on to the final round were announced, and Stefanos was among them. This was the sixth straight year that tenacious young Stefanos had competed, but his first trip to the finals round of the WBC; he nearly fell over with surprise when he heard his name called. By the close of the final round, Stefanos had earned sixth place. His accomplishments at that event—which was not only the WBC but also the annual Specialty Coffee Association of Europe's (SCAE) trade show— contributed to the great honor bestowed on his country's coffee artisans, with Greece's win of the SCAE's top European Coffee Country in 2010. For as overjoyed as then-29-year-old Stefanos was that day in London, it was a different story—in fact a different Stefanos—who stood among his fellow finalists at the 2012 WBC in Vienna, Austria. Just announced as the fifth-place finisher, the 32-year-old was crestfallen. The man he was in 2010 was talented and competitive, and in his off hours, he liked being social to the max. He was thrilled to take sixth place in 2010; it was a personal best for both his country and for him. In the years that followed, however, Stefanos changed: He grew up. The fourth of five siblings (sisters Mira and Gabriella, and brothers Stavros and Artemios), Stefanos grew up near the center of Athens in a neighborhood called Kaisariani. He started working from a young age, one of the sad results of the early death of his father, Stavros Sr., in 1989. His mother, Slavitsa, had her hands full raising five children. If you've ever met Stefanos, however, you know the guy excels at picking himself up again and again. He spent his teenage years playing basketball and soccer with friends, painting, and listening to the Cure. Chances are, in fact, that you have encountered Stefanos; he attends as many international coffee events as he can, from working a coffee farm with his fellow London finalists in Peru as part of the annual Let's Talk Coffee event, to dancing his way through coffee service at the Spasskaya Tower festival on Red Square in Moscow every fall at the coffee show hosted by Russian specialty roaster Soyuz Coffee Roasting. He was hired at Taf in Athens in 2009. The 25-year-old specialty-coffee company owned by Yiannis Taloumis and his family is known for its exceptional quality and service throughout Greece. In fact, when Barista Magazine publisher Kenneth R. Olson visited Athens in 2011—in the midst of the country's catastrophic economic woes—he was amazed to see throngs of patrons still lining up at Taf 's café. Taf coffee was good enough for them to splurge on. Yiannis (see sidebar) had supported Stefanos as well as his best friend and fellow barista luminary, Christos Loukakis, as they made their way through the competition ranks. (A competition celebrity in his own right, Christos is a former World Latte Art Champion and placed third in the 2012 World Brewers Cup Championship.) Stefanos was already a seasoned competitor when he started at Taf, having won the first of his nine consecutive Hellenic Barista Championships in 2004. When the excitement of what he'd accomplished in London in 2010 wore off, Stefanos set his sights on winning—or at least placing higher. He won the Hellenic Barista Championship again the next year, and traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, in 2011 to compete on the world stage; this time, he placed 10th. Now it was on: Stefanos wanted the gold. Upon winning the 2012 Hellenic Barista Championship, Stefanos left almost immediately for the United States www.baristamagazine.com 53

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