The best cup of coffee, according to the 2024 world barista champion

Coffee as a lifeline

Over a billion people in the world drink coffee every day; a fraction of that take the time to prepare specialty brews and enjoy various tasting notes. But only a handful make coffee their life’s work, and only one person becomes a world barista champion every year. 

Indonesia’s Mikael Jasin checks all of the boxes: an avid coffee drinker since childhood; a barista who eventually became a coffee roaster, manager, and company founder; and a three-time national champion who recently became the world’s best at the 2024 World Barista Championship in Busan, South Korea. 

And while his journey is rooted in this deep desire for coffee, it all began with a universally understandable predicament: survival.

“Like most baristas, I started working in coffee because of university—I needed a part-time job,” Mikael recalls. At 22, he was finishing the last year of his bachelor’s degree in Melbourne when he started working behind the counter. He returned to university for his master’s degree years later while keeping at it in the coffee industry. 

At 27, Mikael had just finished his studies when he took a deeper look at what he wanted to do in life. He resorted to the Japanese practice of ikigai, where one figures out their reason for being. And as Mikael figured out what he loves, what he’s good at, what he can pursue as a vocation, and what the world needs, only one answer came to mind: coffee. 

But there was also another thing that kept Mikael going: the spirit of competition. “I was already competing in 2015, so when I considered pursuing coffee because it was my ikigai, I thought that I should also pursue [the competitive scene] seriously.”

Mikael quips that Asian parenting had some influence in this decision. “My parents were both lawyers. And they gave me a little bit of freedom—they told me, ‘you can do whatever you want to do, but you have to make sure that you’re good at it, as if you’re the best in the world at that job.’ Of course, they didn’t mean it literally, but I took it that way: that if there’s a coffee competition where I can be the best in the world, then I should pursue that.”

But Mikael notes that competing in coffee isn’t like a professional sport where you get paid to play—it had to be part of his job. So, he moved back to Jakarta to join Common Grounds Coffee Roasters, which then had already a team that housed former barista champions, to make a living and work toward his goal. “It was better than what I could get my hands on in Australia. I moved back in the hopes of being the World Barista Champion one day,” he admits. 

However, this meant leaving a lucrative environment for Mikael. “Baristas get a good salary in Melbourne. A head barista can earn as much as someone who has a law degree. It’s quite a unique setup in Australia; it can definitely happen. But in Indonesia, jobs in hospitality aren’t as paid well,” he admits. 

“I knew my ikigai was coffee, but how do I make it livable for me? I know being a barista or a café manager wasn’t enough, at least for me, or in Indonesia. So, I got motivated to win at a national level in Indonesia. I wanted to win, because I wanted to change my life.” 

And winning indeed changed his life—when Mikael won at nationals in 2019, he started getting more chances to improve his craft, from endorsements to better job opportunities. The world championship still remained the goal, but as he worked toward that, Mikael realized something bigger than winning.

“I started co-founding coffee companies, managing employees and working with coffee farmers. I saw that I had platforms where I could change the lives of the people around me. I started finding more meaning—it’s not just about me anymore. There are so many people that my work touches, and that became the driving force in the years leading up to when I won.”

The perfect brew

While it’s logical to think that Mikael won in 2024 by brewing the “perfect” cup of coffee (or, at least, the best of the best), he doesn’t think that such an idea exists.

“There’s a maximum score in a competition setting, but nobody has achieved that, and I don’t think it will ever happen. Even as a world champion, or someone who makes coffee at a high level, there’s always room for improvement,” he stresses.  

“Many times, I’ve had amazing experiences with a cup of coffee, even if that particular brew wasn’t up to par with what I’ve served at competition. What made it good was the experience: maybe I had it at a very nice location, like in a farm or in front of a lake, with people who are close to me.”

“Coffee is just a tool, really—the idea of a ‘perfect brew’ is more about how you consume that cup, rather than the brew itself.”

This philosophy was the backbone of Mikael’s victory at the 2024 World Barista Championship, where he placed mindfulness at the center of his presentation. Beyond the flavor profiles, proportions, and tools used, he invited the panel to take deep breaths, take their movements slowly, and be fully present as he served them his winning brew.

“You can have the best cup of coffee in the world, but when you’re distracted and don’t pay attention to the experience, then the brew won’t be that great. When you take that moment to breathe, close your eyes, and prepare for what’s coming, then it becomes really good.” 

Fostering a thriving coffee culture

What Mikael has realized after being the champion is that he’s being given a platform that’s way too big for just one person; it’s an opportunity to lift others—or even a whole industry—with him. “Currently, I mentor other baristas at varying levels. Some are young, while others are already preparing for the next world championships. This is my goal now: to guide others until the next champion takes over.”

Mikael sees that mentorship is crucial for baristas and other people within the coffee industry in Indonesia and Southeast Asia as a whole, since the region is ripe for movements that can affect the global coffee chain.  

“Indonesia’s long been exporting coffee, but in recent years it has grown to become one of the biggest consuming markets globally. You’ll see very interesting developments from high speciality coffee, middle-upper class markets, mass market chains, down to instant coffee. In a way, it’s good that we consume more of what we produce now, since we won’t have to always export—but also, as demand grows domestically, prices go up.”

Mikael also observes this development across Southeast Asia, and what this tells him is that the region is emerging as a more lucrative and influential coffee market. “We’re really an important region globally, but unless you work in coffee, you don’t always see or realize this. We’re often wired to look at the United States, Scandinavia, or Australia, but more people need to realize that Southeast Asia has the power to set trends.”

On a recent trip to London, Mikael was pleasantly surprised when he saw gula melaka—Malaysian for “palm sugar”—in a specialty café he visited. “Iced milk coffee—a mix of coffee, milk, and sugar—really became a huge trend not just in Indonesia, but also across the region. And that café I went to had gula melaka not because the owners were Asian; they just wanted to offer it. It’s interesting to see our brews bleed out from Southeast Asia and make their way overseas.”

As such, Mikael believes that it becomes crucial to foster greater talent in the Southeast Asian coffee industry. It then becomes a mutually beneficial affair—a thriving industry gets to host better talents, who in turn enrich the coffee ecosystem even further. 

The best cup of coffee, then, goes beyond savoring great taste and enjoying it with mindfulness—it’s a brew that gets to uplift others and change their lives. And Mikael’s just one of many Southeast Asians who are doing just that.

Photos courtesy Mikael Jasin