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Rose van Asten (left) and Liesbeth Sleijster of Cocoon Coffee

Cocoon Coffee, a training and consultancy company in the Netherlands, is eightย years old, though it emerged from a far longer legacy. The devotion to the drink here is so professional and all-encompassing that it is donned not like an accessory or some seasonal ensemble, but a uniformโ€”day in, day out, a second skin to its two wearers. Liesbeth Sleijster and Rose van Asten have spent the past decade and a half working in the Dutch coffee industry, and for several of those years, competing: In 2008, Sleijster placed third in the World Barista Championship, making her the highest-ranking Dutch barista ever and the last woman on earth to have made the top three. In 2006, van Asten finishedย eighth at the WBC and, later, seventh at the World Latte Art Championship and fifth in the World Cup Tasters Championship.

โ€œIt would be hard to find a Dutch duo in the coffee business who have won more awards,โ€ writes Jasper Houtman in hisย Alfred Peet biography. โ€œPioneers,โ€ they are called by Henk Langkemper, a 30-year industry vet whose import and distribution company,ย Espresso Service West, has supported various Dutch WBC competitors, Sleijster and Van Asten included.

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On a late summer visit to their industrial-area headquarters in the southeastern city of Nijmegen, the two Cocoon halves haveย just recently become a whole again: Sleijster has returned afterย a 16-week maternity leave. Their current projects are impressive, though it is impossible not to review the decorated pastโ€”their combined CVs list 15 championship rankings of note.

cocoon coffee nijmegen netherlands holland dutch barista training consulting roasting sprudge
โ€œIn Holland, being competitive is already a strange thing,โ€ says van Asten. She moved to the Netherlands after growing up in Tanzania, but easily rattles off Dutch proverbs cautioning against individualism and overambition (for example: stand too tall in the cornfield and your head gets chopped off). โ€œBeing a champion and wanting to win is not a Dutch thing,โ€ she elaborates. โ€œAnd I guess thatโ€™s even more so the case for women than men here because,ย in the first place, competing and winning concerns men more than it does women.โ€

She and Sleijster met as employees of the Blonde Pater, a Nijmegen cafe whose co-founder, the late Louis Claus, and wife Nicky Maas coached the two women, among others. Van Asten never set out to compete. She describes herself as โ€œreally shyโ€ upon beginning at the Blonde Pater, hoping that if she made drinks better than the other server on shift, she would not have to talk to customers. โ€œI was like, if I can just stand at that coffee machine, I donโ€™t have to communicate,โ€ she says,ย laughing at the memory.

By the time Sleijster arrived at the Blonde Pater, after coffee jobs elsewhere, she wanted to competeโ€”though she recalls, โ€œI didnโ€™t dare to ask.โ€ Claus, however, did. During her final round at the WBC 2008, with milk pitcher in hand, Sleijster stated: โ€œIn my daily life, I want to take coffee to the people. I want to give people the experience of good coffee.โ€

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cocoon coffee nijmegen netherlands holland dutch barista training consulting roasting sprudge
Eight years later, she and her colleague do just that. Training is Cocoonโ€™s core business. They estimate that they teach 300 to 400 students annually, from professionals needing an SCAE-certified course to hobbyists seeking workshops. Consulting is their second major operation. Clients to whom they give technical expertise, such as on machine calibration and flavor profiling, includeย Brita, FrieslandCampina, and McDonaldโ€™s.ย The goal is to โ€œsee what kind of flavors we can get out of their coffee,โ€ and how โ€œclose they can get to barista-quality,โ€ says van Asten.

cocoon coffee nijmegen netherlands holland dutch barista training consulting roasting sprudge

cocoon coffee nijmegen netherlands holland dutch barista training consulting roasting sprudge
Entering Cocoonโ€™s capacious unit, visitors are met by a row of serious machinery. A two-group Spirit and a Speedster by Kees van der Westen and a La Marzocco two-group Linea PBย share space with five grinders: a Mahlkรถnig K30, one Mini, and two Kony models by Mazzer, plus a vintageย Macap manual. The premises feel corporateโ€”customized signs reserve parking spots outsideโ€”yet comfy. Shutter-like slats that wall a lofted office alcove can be closed for privacy, which provesย convenient when, for example, having to express milk for an infant.

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Van Asten, 37, has three children, and Sleijster, 35, has two. The way the women sometimes talk over each other ends up beingย conversational masonry: as one is laying down ideas, the other is mortaring in the details. Unsurprisingly, their self-reported reputation as instructors is โ€œreally good but theyโ€™re really strict,โ€ according to van Asten.

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This past fall, Cocoon started offering classes in brewing. Thisย year, the companyย hopes to expand itsย curriculum to include roastingโ€”something they do now in small batches on a Giesen W6A (Cocoon’s website offers an espresso-subscription service)โ€”and an entire program that awards participants an SCA Coffee Diploma.

Asked if they mightย compete again, the two are wistful but resolute. โ€œItโ€™s a lingering thought that we just push away most of the time,โ€ saysย van Asten. โ€œItโ€™s so much work, and Cocoon is so much work, and our family is so much work.โ€

โ€œItโ€™s not our focus anymore,โ€ Sleijster adds. โ€œSo itโ€™s a nice idea, and I would love to because I have so many ideas,ย butย Iโ€™m also curious in what place I would end upโ€”as a woman.โ€

Van Asten picks up the thread. โ€œMy reason would be for a female to win, and not [to be]ย the creator of the best coffees. And I feel if you want to be a world champion barista, you should be going as a barista, and not only to make a point, as a feminist thing…although itโ€™s still a very good reason.โ€

cocoon coffee nijmegen netherlands holland dutch barista training consulting roasting sprudge
Instead, they foresee another role. โ€œWe could be part of a team to help and support a female barista who gets to compete in the WBC,โ€ van Asten says. โ€œSo, hey, female baristas, if you really wanna winโ€ฆโ€

She does not finish the sentence, but the call to Cocoon is clear.

Cocoon Coffee is located at Binderskampweg 29, Unit 36a, Nijmegen, Netherlands. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Karina Hof is a Sprudge staff writer based in Amsterdam. Read moreย Karina Hof on Sprudge.

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