From judging at World Barista Championship events to looking after clients day by day, meet David Green
What is your earliest coffee related experience?
I always think back to big family gatherings – after dinner an old filter machine or percolator would come out and we’d have coffee with whipped cream layered on top. I remember the way the smell would fill the room and then the way the bitter coffee mixed with the sweet cream I was hooked.
When did you first get working in coffee?
I fell into coffee – It was 2000 and I got a job working as a delivery driver for Café Express
What led you to becoming a barista?
I was never employed as a barista! I started teaching myself how to make coffee on an old 4 group Carimali we had in our office. An opportunity came up for a sales role which would involve a lot of barista training – It all rolled from there
What is the best part of your job?
Training and educating Barista’s, I get a kick out of it when they suddenly ‘get it’
Talk us through a typical work day
I wish I had a typical day! Generally it involves customer visits, machine servicing and maintenance, Barista training and development.
What are your roles outside of making coffee?
Sales and Account Management, Barista Trainer, Equipment Technician. Anything and everything that needs to be done, to get the job done.
What is your favourite brew method and/or coffee origin and why?
I am and always will be an Espresso fan at heart. I have always been a big fan of Ethiopian coffee’s they are sweet and fruity – I’m very partial to a Harrar through my Chemex at the moment.
Tulip or rosetta? Rosetta – Tulips are the problem child in my latte art.
What would be your dream ‘coffee experience’?
I have two dream experiences – the first is like many others, a trip to origin, meeting the farmers, mixing with the locals eating the cuisine. I learnt so much on the Origin trip I took during WBC Bogota I can’t wait for the opportunity to do it again.
My second will make people who have done this laugh – but I would love to drink crapy Italian Espresso in a local espresso bar in Venice or Florence.
Do you have a ‘coffee crush’? So many people, so many ‘crushes’. I have maximum respect for those who developed the NZ coffee scene into what it now is.