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C  Story / Kate Shantal









                                       Barista






                                           Meets





                                COVID-19










                                              ime-travelling back and it’s early spring of
                                              2020, Moscow, Russia. The attention of the
                                              local baristas is focused on the Russian
                                              Barista Days (RBD) — the most significant
                                     annual national coffee event. RBD holds a number of
                                     championships, a fair and a bunch of captivating lectures
                                     and  seminars.  The  coffee  shop I work at serves fer-
                                     mented Colombia Wush Wush Monteverde for a batch
                                     brew. It’s a rare coffee varietal, vibrant, tropical-fruity,
                                     complex, with hints of alcohol. And it also costs around
                                     125 dollars per kilo, which is way more expensive than
                                     your usual batch-brew beans here. Yet we sell it for a
                                     regular price, enabling our customers to experience how
                                     versatile coffee, and shifting their perception of what
                                     coffee can taste like. The pandemic agenda is far off the
                                     news feed. So, when the situation rapidly gets worse, and
                                     Moscow gets a lockdown on the 28th of March — it catch-
                                     es the community off-guard. The idle time is a luxury
                                     nobody can afford, even if it’s only a week. Yet one week
                                     of a lockdown turns into an endless chain of questions.
                                     What’s next? And how do we adapt to the new realms?















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