Interview with Nelson Phu, 2024 Canadian Barista Champion
After over eight years of hard work and dedication to learning about the craft of specialty coffee, Nelson Phu is this year's newly crowned Canadian Barista Champion! We had the pleasure of sitting down with him to chat all about his journey, from being your friendly neighbourhood barista to becoming the best barista in the country!
How did you first get into the world of specialty coffee?
Oh, boy! Well, I guess the short answer is that I needed a job and somehow ended up in coffee. But, the long answer is, not only did I need a job, but I wanted a job that I could really dive deep into. I stumbled upon an article about the World Barista Championships, and I thought it was really cool! I wanted to find out for myself what makes competition coffee so great, and how far I could go with it. So, I looked up the companies that were participating in competitions in Calgary, and that brought me to Rosso Coffee Roasters.
How long did it take for you to participate in your first competition?
The first year I worked in coffee, there was no competition for me to participate in, which was disappointing. So, I ended up just using that time for practice. I worked off the technical score sheet from the World Barista Championship and tried to perfect that day to day in the cafe. After a full year of practice, I jumped right into my first regional competition in 2017 and got disqualified for going overtime!
You’ve been competing for many years now! What’s been the motivating force keeping you going all this time?
I’ve been competing for seven or eight years now, but every year I feel more and more motivated. Preparing for competitions requires you to put a ton of pressure on yourself, so a lot of people don’t quite understand why I put myself through it, but it’s motivating for me. In the beginning, I was striving to be the best and thought that I had to beat everybody. But, I don’t really think like that anymore. Now, I just think of the competition platform as a place to share and bring new ideas to the community! I think what really keeps me going is that I want to inspire the community to keep pushing the boundaries of specialty coffee. I don’t know if I have an impact on coffee or can change the industry, but I think that the least I can do is inspire people.
What change do you want to see in the specialty coffee space?
Currently, I’d love to see specialty coffee become mainstream. It’s not super difficult to get a great cup of coffee these days, but a lot of people still don’t understand it. I’d love it if we could make specialty coffee even more approachable, accessible and popular in Canada!
What piece of advice would you offer to someone who is thinking of competing? What are the benefits of competing?
If you're thinking about competing, just sign up! You don't know if you're going to like it if you don't do it. Personally, what I've gotten out of competitions is a lot of self-discovery; I've learned a lot about myself. But, I think the connections you make along the way is big. There's a lot of people I never would have met if not for competition, and it's great to have them all in my life from this.
Now that you’ve accomplished another huge milestone in your coffee career, we’re curious, what’s next for you? Will you still be competing?
I have once said that I wanted to win one of each championship, and I have won three of five now. So, I don’t think I’m done with competing yet!
