Meet Daniel Grinemaer, a beautifully geeky coffee professional from enchanting medieval Nuremberg in Germany. Daniel is currently a Barista, Trainer and involved in Quality Control at the highly acknowledged Rösttrommel.
This year Daniel won the German AeroPress Championship and represented his country during the World AeroPress Championship in Lisbon. His competition plans don’t end there and we can’t wait to see him on stage again. Daniel’s attention to all the details of brewing coffee is immaculate and we hope that Daniel will have a chance to share his know-how with a broader community soon.
Daniel, what is your first memory with coffee?
Non-specialty: watery black bitterness from a bean-to-cup machine.
Specialty: Very run-off-the-mill by now, but that one sweet Ethiopian first sip full of peach in my case! Very eye-opening.
What inspired you to pursue a career in the coffee industry, and how did you get started? What did you do before coffee?
It all fell into place in a funny way, I was studying Media Engineering at university and took a semester off for an internship at a marketing agency and close to the end of it I was slowly phasing out of my projects and covid restrictions lifted. The agency had a cafe inside a store location pre-COVID but was undecided on hiring people when times were unsure. So who else but the intern do you send to make coffee?
I wasn’t drinking coffee before, had a lot of time (due to no customers) and not a lot of training on the job, so I got bored and started looking for ways to make the coffee taste good and that kicked off a huge jump into rabbit holes through YouTube videos and books.
I got so fascinated by specialty coffee that I knew I’d have the best chance to dive deep when working in coffee and from there on it just started to get more interesting and fulfilling.
Tell us a bit about the place you work at. What is your role there?
I work at Rösttrommel, the place I had my first specialty experience, so they were definitely doing things right.
First I just worked a few hours a week during my studies but that quickly showed me how much fun I have working with coffee and trying to give people a similar experience I had and introduce them to great coffee.
It’s such an inspiring and beautiful place to start working in a cafe. Being a roastery, a big focus is coffee and quality in a diversified and exciting way. So after some time behind the bar, I had the opportunity to take part in the SCA Barista courses we offer in our coffee education department. Johannes Otto our AST and Head of Coffee was a crucial part in igniting my spark into a passion for coffee. So with more time and experience, I grew into my current responsibilities which include giving training to new hires and some courses in our coffee school as well as quality control.
What kind of experience do you want your customers to have when they visit you at the cafe?
I am trying to meet everyone coming in at the level they are at. It’s all about making you feel comfortable to express your wishes and me trying to guide the experience into an enjoyable time. I am a big fan of sharing knowledge but I also know this is not everyone’s favorite pastime. I have regulars who can order with a nod and others who can also talk for what feels like hours, enjoying both.
My favourite location to work at offers a lot of possibilities to dive deeper into the conversation with the customers and it is so fulfilling to take people quite new to specialty coffee and guide them alongside a mindful sensory experience at the bar. People tend to down their coffee without quite acknowledging the cup, but by adding focus to specific aspects of their cup the appreciation is a lot higher and people tend to leave with a new view of their coffee and often a big smile, even if they just had a “sour” coffee which maybe just opened their horizon to a complex acidity they were lacking in their usual old supermarket coffee.
The nerd will most definitely still have a great time coming in. I’m bringing my current obsession at the time to every shift, let it be a new grinder, brewer, or water minerals so there is always something new to talk about.
What is your favourite part of the day in your cafe, and why?
Talking about coffee while drinking it together with either customers or colleagues. I really enjoy the conversation about sensory experience and I feel this is one of the parts I can still learn a lot as finding the right lingo and actually transporting what I taste. I’m still amazed by some people that are incredibly spot-on with descriptions of coffee so I’m trying to pick up as much as I can during cuppings and tastings.
How do you stay motivated and inspired to keep improving your coffee-making skills?
A lot of things have gotten a lot more accessible by some great people and innovators in the community. So the ease of getting information and inspiration is a big factor. Youtubers, books, articles, studies etc. It also helps that coffee is so widespread and diverse in the fields you can develop your own skills.
If your brain is fried by water mineral compositions and chemistry you can just go back to some latte art and try to improve your symmetry for example. The fields open up to so much depth and I haven’t even dipped my feet in all of them… I’m almost dreading the day I source, roast and brew my coffee completely on my own including custom water composition and then not knowing which part is actually the right parameter to adjust.
Maybe simplicity and ignorance is a blessing in disguise sometimes, but for now, I just know I can and want to acquire more knowledge and keep at it. I think there are a lot of advancements to be made in many aspects of the coffee chain and I’m here for it.
What are the current trends in cafes in your region? Are there any trends you promote yourself and would like to see more often in other places?
I have never really looked for trends on a local level but one thing I recognized was the increase in love given to decaf – good coffee roasted nicely and with more attention. Oh, and matcha definitely found itself on a lot of menus.
For trends I try to push – it is water. Looking to get everyone on board with the whole water topic but for now, it’s still a lot of “crazy chemist” vibes it gives off so there is some work needed to get more people excited. Besides that, I think fondly of a freezer menu of coffees to give a very high-end experience with high repeatability. Maybe look at the whole thing almost like a Brewers Cup experience, highly curated with sensory cups and a crafted approach, with high hopes for the future to make something like that happen.
You have some amazing achievements in championships. Can you tell us more about them? What are the next championships you’d like to compete in?
Winning the German Aeropress Championship 2024 caught me a bit by surprise. After all, it was my first time competing and I had low expectations of progressing far. Still, every round they called out my name and I only really started processing how far I had already come when I talked with the other finalists, both with our big boxes full of equipment and everything needed for competition and I knew that I was at least going home with a silver trophy.
For future championships, I am looking to compete at the Brewers Cup, probably in the coming year. Looking to kick off brainstorming soon. If time and circumstances allow for it I would also really like to do AeroPress again, it is such a fun competition that doesn’t require intense preparation and you get to meet great people and the community. Also wouldn’t say no to another chance to try and grab the Golden World trophy!
How did it feel to compete on the World AeroPress Championship stage?
Quite surreal if I am being honest, took some time to process and take in what was going on. Was really enjoying myself on stage. The vibe was amazing and inspiring. Rarely do you get so many like-minded people so deep into coffee in one place.
Is AeroPress your favourite brewing method?
AeroPress is a great competition format but with the amount of cone drippers I have it’s hard to hide. The Hario v60 will always have the biggest soft spot in my heart, but a rotation of different brewers challenges my thoughts and helps keep me experimenting to deepen my knowledge.
What is in your opinion the most important thing to have in mind when you start to compete in coffee championships?
Having a great team of people that support you, whatever it may be. Giving advice, another perspective, moral support, a hug, a non-fatigued tongue, the list goes on. So they can also be another additional purpose for who and why you compete.
What coffee challenges are you looking forward to? Any new projects or collaborations?
The one I am going to focus on now is mineral composition in water. I had great opportunities to talk with very inspiring people about water thanks to the World AeroPress Championship and I am looking to get a deep understanding and sensory repertoire so I can “season” my coffee as if it was cooking. That goes hand in hand with the big goal – German Brewers Cup.
Quick Fire Questions for Daniel Grinemaer
Would you serve filter coffee with milk if asked for it?
Yes, but I would suggest trying black.
Do you ever take sugar with your coffee?
No.
Espresso or Filter coffee?
Filter coffee.
Milky or Black?
Black.
Do you aim for Sweetness, Acidity, or Body?
Sweetness with a tendency for acidity.
Slurp or Spit?
Depends on time, mostly slurp.
Cake or Pastry with your coffee?
Cake but after coffee.
Favourite piece of barista equipment?
Tough one, I am obsessed with equipment. Grinders at the moment.