Kosta Kallivrousis. Courtesy picture. 

Pushed by a want to attach with extra folks and pushed partly by the 2008 monetary disaster, Kosta Kallivrousis left his father’s electrician enterprise to take a job at a Starbucks exterior 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 bear in mind doing my first tasting with my retailer supervisor. We tasted a black cup of espresso and he or she goes, ‘Now I would like 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 filth. 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 shifting 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 abilities behind espresso, in addition to its sensory facets. 

He went on to change into 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 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’ abilities 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 trusted the scores and market suggestions he was being requested to offer. In that second, Kallivrousis mentioned, he realized the business’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, changing 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 business, 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 quick response is having the ability to speak 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 essentially the most. The opposite facet is the truth that, for higher or for worse, it’s a international phenomenon and so it turns into a little bit of a launch pad to have the ability to examine and study completely different cultures in a manner that creates a way of familiarity, but additionally distance on the identical time. 

What about espresso troubles you most?

The largest 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 completely different people, and it’s primarily based on their subjective expertise. That’s fucking insane. 

What would you be doing if not for espresso?

One thing tutorial. It will completely be anthropology. There’s an anthropologist, Biao Xiang. He’s the pinnacle of a division in Germany, and his analysis is essentially the most attention-grabbing to me. It’s wildly experimental, coping with ideas like social alienation. What I like most about him is that he actually tries to grasp and analyze an issue. In case you can construct round this concept of a standard drawback, then you can begin to cope with social options at that time.

Feedback? Questions? Information to share? Contact DCN’s editors right here. For all the most recent espresso business information, subscribe to the DCN e-newsletter.