How Not Planning to Win Won Me Everything

It’s early 2020. The air inside the venue is thick with the smell of freshly ground coffee and a low buzz of conversation. Then, over the speakers, comes a name that makes one man freeze for half a second.

“Ole Kristian Bøen.”

For Ole, everything goes a little blurry. He’s just been crowned Norwegian Brewers Cup Champion, something he hadn’t even allowed himself to imagine.

“I honestly had no thoughts about winning,” he says. “As a home brewer, just being there felt huge.” He’d shown up with 125 grams of coffee and one recipe, the exact same one he’d been brewing at home. No fancy backup plans, no endless variations. Just a cup he loved. And somehow, it worked. 

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Ole’s coffee journey start without competition. It starts with a walk down the street to a little café called Mocca, right near his first digital marketing job in Oslo. One afternoon, he ordered a V60.

The first sip was a revelation, sweet, clean, layered with flavors he didn’t know coffee could have. It made the bitter office brew seem like a different drink entirely. “I just got curious,” he says. “How could coffee taste so much better than what I was drinking every day?”

He went out and bought his own gear: a glass V60. He didn’t really know what he was doing yet, but it was fun. And that fun quickly snowballed into an obsession.

Cycling, Espresso Stops, and Ritual

Somewhere in between coffee experiments, Ole was also deep into cycling. In cycling culture, stopping mid-ride for an espresso is almost sacred. It’s a little ritual that binds people together on the road.

“I can’t point to one specific ride that started it all,” he says, “but coffee and cycling have always gone hand in hand for me.” He’d seen videos of pro cyclists casually pulling over for a quick shot before hitting the road again. It stuck with him.

When Ole walked into the Norwegian Brewers Cup in 2020, it was his first national competition. When he walked out, he was champion. it was a before-and-after moment in his coffee life.

To make it even more surreal, this all happened days before the world shut down. At the time, COVID was just starting to pop up in the news. There were headlines, sure, but during the expo, nobody seemed too worried. The place was packed. The afterparty had that special, electric energy you only notice in hindsight.

A week later, Norway went into lockdown. “That night ended up being the last big gathering before the pandemic,” Ole says. “It makes it even more special now.”

When it came time for the World Championships in Milan, Ole had a plan, until customs got in the way. The coffee he’d ordered never made it past the border.

So, he turned to Kaffa, a roastery he loved. They had one last kilo of Esmeralda Geisha natural blend, a mix of two lots from the Cañas Verdes farm. It wasn’t even supposed to exist, Kaffa had blended the lots simply to make a big enough batch for their roaster. But the flavor was unreal.

“That coffee is still one of the best I’ve ever had,” Ole says. It also introduced him to Rachel Peterson and her family in Panama, friendships that outlast any single competition.

The gear choice was equally serendipitous. Lise Rømo from Kaffa had handed him a brand-new Hario Switch just before the 2020 nationals. Inspired by 2018 World Brewers Cup Champion Emi Fukahori, Ole started playing with a mix of immersion and percolation. The sweetness blew him away.

Milan itself was a mix of joy and heartbreak. In the Open Service round, he forgot to turn on his kettle, an almost comical mistake that led to going way over time and getting disqualified. But in the Compulsory Round, he came out on top. “I actually think I had a good shot at the finals,” he says. “But mistakes happen. You live and learn.”

Fitting It All In

He’s got three young kids now, a full-time job outside the industry, and hobbies like skiing and cycling.

“With that schedule, you just have to find little pockets of time,” he says. He doesn’t get hours a day to practice for competitions, but he does make time to serve great coffee to his wife “the most important judge I have,” he jokes.

If you’re a home brewer feeling intimidated by the world of specialty coffee, Ole’s advice is straightforward: keep it simple, change one thing at a time. The biggest flavor jump he’s ever had? Water.

“Coffee is 98% water, so of course it matters,” he says. “A few drops of minerals can completely change a cup.” He uses Apax Lab minerals for ease, but the point is: don’t overlook it.

If he had to name one person who’s made the biggest impact in his coffee journey, it’s Adrian Seligman of Scandinavian Alps Roastery. “We’ve done a lot of fun stuff together. He’s one of those people who connects with everyone and is always full of ideas. A good friend and a humbling person to be around."

Since 2020, Ole has made it to the Norwegian Brewers Cup finals every single year. He hasn’t claimed another national title yet, but the fire is still there, if not forever, at least for now.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever work full-time in coffee,” he says. “But I do know I’ll never stop loving it.” (Hudes Magazine)

-Image by Ole for Hudes Magazine