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Article/Photos: by Coffee t&i Thailand

Sudarat Changcharoen

2015 National Thailand Barista Champion (NTBC)
The National Thailand Barista Championship
(NTBC) 2015 successfully ended the search for the top
barista in Thailand who will continue on to the highly
anticipated World Barista Championship (WBC) 2015 in
Seattle, USA. CTI is proud to be interviewing the champion,
Ms. Sudarat Changcharoen (Fy), and get to know her story
that led her on the path to NTBC 2015 champ and her plan
to tackle the world stage.
Before she takes the barista career, she was just a
university student looking for a part-time job to do in free
time. Fortunately, The First Espresso was hiring a staff and
she took the opportunity. “I started learning about coffee
and beverages. It was fun and the love grew. I think barista
is a good career for coffee lovers. It’s very challenging,”
Fy expressed the passion that has been growing since she
started 4 years ago.

After deciding to participate in the competition, Fy
began her practice 2 months in advance. Her focus went to
perfecting brewing method and timing and she did it excel-
lently. “GiGi motivated me to do my best without raising
the hope too high. The goal is to experience the competi-
tion and make friends. I did my best and I was so happy to
make it to the semi-final. I’ve never thought I would win
the competition.” As the champion, Fy is planning to pro-
mote the quality of Thai coffee and push it towards world
recognition.
2015 World Barista Championship (WBC) will be
her next stop and she’s already preparing for it. “Currently,
I’m preparing everything and trying to correct the mistakes
I did in NTBC. I’ll practice as much as I can even though
there isn’t a lot of time. The experience from NTBC will
be very useful in the world championship.”
Looking back at the domestic coffee market, Fy is
seeing a lot of recognition from the people. More and more
people are jumping into coffee businesses because they
know Thai people are now accompanying their breakfast
with a cup of coffee, and the whole industry is very active
right now. “I want to see more Thai nationals in the world
stage in the future. I want them to be passionate and drink
more! As for Fy, she’s following GiGi’s path to success!
“I want to follow her path. The more she can teach
me, the more I can teach new baristas. I want to use my
experience and knowledge to push the next generation of
Fy began her championship move last year in the baristas to the world stage.”
NTBC qualification round. She didn’t do so well in her first Wrapping up the interview, Fy wants to advice
competition, but this year she won the champion title in baristas and those who want to participate in the NTBC
her second attempt! “The reason we chose NTBC is because that, “Barista is a great career. If you give it a try you’ll know
here instructor’s, GiGi (Benyapa Naowan), suggestion. I it’s very challenging. You’ll have fun exploring what coffee
was just a staff in a coffee shop, and I didn’t really know has in store for you. If you want to be in the NTBC, it’ll be
the big coffee community. GiGi filled in that part for me,” even more challenging as a lot of baristas want the same,
Fy said. but the experience will be fun, exciting, and invaluable!”
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