Project Description

Germany
Benjamin Pozsgai
Moxxa Caffè

Please tell us a little bit about yourself:

Hi, I am Benjamin, my nickname for family and friends is Benson, so that’s why I use this name for all social media accounts. I’m 40 years old and I live in Cologne with my wife and my two kids. Cologne is one of the biggest cities in Germany and we have a growing coffee scene there.

How did you get started in coffee?

I used to be a full time musician so I started to get into coffee just as a tool to stay awake. Late night drives or late night recording studio sessions or rehearsals wouldn’t have worked without intense amounts of coffee. Mostly cheap discounter stuff so it was normal to add sugar and milk. Somehow I discovered there were very different qualitites of coffee out there and that caught my attention.

Please list the coffee competitions you have participated in, what year they took place, and your results:

2015 German National Roasting Competition – 3rd

2016 German National Roasting Competition – 1st

What roaster do you currently roast on?

I work with a Diedrich IR12 and Cropster at Moxxa Caffè in Cologne and a Probatone 12 and Artisan at Neues Schwarz in Dortmund.

How did you learn how to roast coffee?

I am passionate about coffee and I think that drove me to take my first steps—it made me start working in a roastery, even without having a clue in the very beginning. I just started off trying to roast the profiles my co-worker had already roasted. After a while my sensory skills developed and I started changing profiles a bit. At the time we did not have too many different green coffees, so I roasted them pretty much every day until I got to know these coffees quite well, and it helped me to recognize changes. I think being passionate is the best thing that can happen to you.

What are your interests outside of coffee?

I love music, I am interested in pretty much everything that has distorted guitars. Of course I love my family and I am really into food, especially baking, cookies, and stuff like that.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I guess I will still be working with coffee. I hope to be able to travel more frequently to Central America and Africa, and to be able to work more directly with local farmers and cooperatives. That would be great!

Is there anyone you would like to thank or recognise, or who helped you to prepare for the WCRC?

The whole German roasting community was very supportive, and it helped to be able to chat and share some insight. I would especially like to thank my colleagues Savvas at Moxxa Caffè and Benedikt at Neues Schwarz and Alec Pfuhl for coaching me.

What are you excited to do while you are in Guangzhou?

I hope to find some time to at least try some good local food. I would love to do some sightseeing or go to the ocean, but I don’t know if that will work out.

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