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C

C aleb Cha is best known for to study more about the mechanics of

body movements. And he might use this
his victory during 2015
World Latte Art Champion-
the army. Military service in South Korea
ship, as well as his Insta- knowledge in the best place possible: in
gram following. But what cannot be seen is mandatory, so Caleb enrolled to the
from his prizes or his Instagram is the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).
impression he gives. If you have ever been After 2 years he I transferred the Marine
to All-Stars events or coffee events where Corps (ROKMC) where he was a platoon
Caleb is one of the guests, you would leader for another 2 years. “I really loved
never miss: smiling and being extremely military life and battle as a special force
warm and friendly to people around him, because it was so strategic and cooperative
he is the life and soul of the party. work. That’s why I wanted to be a marine
commander,” says Caleb.
Multipotentialite
Finding the Coffee Road
Originally from South Korea, grow-
ing up he had many dreams of what to Nevertheless, after serving his coun-
become like painter, writer, martial arts try he went to the thing he liked the most:
fighter, soldier etc. Starting from 6 years coffee. First time he ever tried it was when
old, Caleb trained martial arts and became he was 8 or 9 years old and his mom gave
so strong that he participated in arm-wres- him a sip, what left a big impression to last
tling competitions in school. At the same through the years. Over these years a lot
time, he has always enjoyed drawing, some has changed in South Korea: coffee culture
of his art works were selected for a grad- went from ‘Da-bang’ (technically tea
uate exhibition in his high school. Being rooms) to freshly opened Starbucks fran-
an artsy child, Caleb also enjoyed writing chises and then to the roaring third wave
and he even presented some of his writing of specialty coffee, when local Korean
to an audience in the university. companies started opening up indepen-
With all this experience, Caleb ma- dent coffee shops that developed Korean
jored in Kinesiology because he wanted coffee market.

I suppose I knew I’ll be
living overseas one day so

all of my plan was aimed

overseas, and you see me

where I am now.

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