Project Description

Austria
Michael Prem
prem frischkaffee

 

Please tell us a little bit about yourself:

Last year I founded the roastery “prem frischkaffee”. My aim as a roaster is to source mostly organic coffees from cooperatives and small producers in a transparent way and to roast them to perfection. As a barista, my job is building a bridge between the specialty coffee industry and the consumer. Each day I am serving an eye-opening coffee to a new client is a good day for me!

What are you excited to do while you are in Seoul?:

Explore the culinary highlights

Please list the coffee competitions you have participated in, what year they took place, and your results:

Austrian Barista Championship 2017 – 1st Place
Austrian Aeropress Championship 2017 – 2nd Round

Is there anyone you would like to thank or recognize, or who helped you to prepare for the WBC?:

There are so many great people involved in this project. I am extremely grateful to all my friends and colleagues that supported me, shared their thoughts and helped me to prepare for this challenge!

How do you see the coffee industry changing in the future?:

I think specialty coffee will be accessible to more people and average coffee quality will rise. It will be essential to become more transparent, since terms like “direct trade” have become meaningless if they are not filled with content. The more knowledge we share among producers, roasters and baristas, the better we will get! This applies to each link of the supply chain.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?:

I want to keep up learning, but also share knowledge and contribute to more transparency in specialty coffee. My roastery “prem frischkaffee” is my tool to realize this goal.

What are your interests outside of coffee?:

My son and my girlfriend, disc golf, hiking, traveling and meeting the producers 🙂

 prem frischkaffee