KOCHI: Keralite and software engineer Jaseem Abbas will represent India in the World Barista Championship which is considered as the Olympics of coffee makers. At the National Barista Championship held in Bengaluru last week, Jaseem's signature coffee beat 63 others to win the Best Signature Beverage award. This 30-year-old native of Kannur is the first Malayali to achieve this success. Any ingredients can be added to the signature coffee as per the coffee maker’s desire. Jasmeen added only organic ingredients.
Jaseem was not fond of coffee. Two years ago, he fell in love with its taste at a specialty coffee shop in Bengaluru. His efforts to make coffee with the same taste made Jaseem the best home barista in the country. He experimented on coffee. His brother Ajsal became the assistant. He did research on specialty coffee through YouTube for two years. Last year, he participated in the barista championship for the first time. This time he became the champion.
He has been running a software company called ClockIt in Bengaluru with his elder brother Basil Abbas for nine years after doing engineering in Mangalore and PG from BITS Pilani. Madayi natives Abbas and Abida are his parents.
3 types of coffee in the competition
The World Barista Championship is in June in Athens, Greece.
Three types of coffee should be made in the coffee machine. Only roasted coffee should be used. Italian style Espresso is a strong coffee made with just coffee and water.
In the milk beverage, only coffee powder and milk should be used. In the signature category, you can add whatever you like to the coffee. Jaseem has the upper hand in this.
Barista is an Italian word. A barista is a person who is well versed in different flavours of coffee and who prepares, decorates and serves coffee well.
“It happened by chance. There are many people behind the success, including those who roast the coffee.”, said Jaseem Abbas.