For competition baristas around the globe, the long road to the World Brewers Cup has begun, leading up to the championship event next June in Dublin, Ireland. On the road to Dublin we'll be interviewing newly crowned national Brewers Cup champions along the way. And at the recent Japan Brewers Cup in Tokyo, Sprudge staff writer Hengtee Lim sat down with newly-crowned JBrC winner Tetsu Kasuya of COFFEE FACTORY.

Congratulations! Give us your thoughts on the victory.

Thank you! I’m just really glad to be a COFFEE FACTORY barista. On the day, I was overwhelmed, and I was all, “I did it! I won!”—but I couldn’t have won this on my own.

What was your winning recipe?

– Inverted AeroPress

– 30 grams of beans (coarse grind)

– 120 grams of water (at 81 degrees Celsius)

– Stir for 10 seconds

– Set the filter (paper) and set the AeroPress on the pourer

– Wait 40 seconds

– Press for 20 seconds

– Add 110 grams of water (or whatever best fits your preference)

It’s a very simple method. The concept was to extract the most delicious part of the coffee.

No matter what the beans are, as long as you follow all the figures, this is a magic recipe for brewing delicious coffee. I hope people will try it out!

You can see the whole process on YouTube!

Your recipe was surprisingly simple, and something anyone can easily do at home. Can you tell us why you decided on this particular brewing method?

I researched the brewing methods of top competitors, and I thought a lot about trying them out. The problem was there were a lot that I didn’t think I could do, and there were a lot of difficult methods.

A method that can’t be reproduced, or a brewing style that a regular customer can’t try at home…in my everyday work I felt there wasn’t much meaning to it. I also thought that if I couldn’t recreate the experience for customers that visited my store, there wasn’t any meaning in that, either.

From this line of thought, I decided to focus on “a method anyone can use to easily brew delicious coffee” and “a method that doesn’t use any special equipment.”

It was a theme I decided on before the Japan Brewers Cup qualifiers.

Can you tell us about your choice of beans, Kenya Kiamariga? When did you first encounter them? What makes them unique?

I chose these beans because in a clean cup, they bring out a very clear, Kenyan flavor. I like the depth of acidity in Kenyan coffee, and Kiamariga offers a clean cup, without any loss in flavor.

I first encountered these beans at the start of 2015. I remember being surprised at how clean the cup was. There were other candidates, like a Costa Rica natural and an Esmeralda Geisha, but I decided on Kiamariga because I thought there were no other beans like them; beans that so beautifully displayed the character of Kenyan coffee.

You won the Japan AeroPress Competition earlier this year, and at the Brewers Cup, too, the AeroPress was your weapon of choice. Can you tell us what you like about it?

What I like about the AeroPress is in the main theme of my presentation; you don’t need skill to use it. I also think that it suits specialty coffee, which is rich in high-quality constituents. The air pressure extraction forces these out.

How do you want to prepare for the World Championships?

I think to win at the world level, I have to know the world standard for “delicious”. To that end, I’ll be doing a lot of cafe hopping, and checking sites like Sprudge for the latest information. I’m also going to start putting serious effort into my English so I can express my thoughts and feelings clearly.

Any last words to our readers?

I just want to say I’m grateful to coffee for changing my life. Until two years ago, I was an IT consultant. And though you can never truly master it, I want to stay honest and sincere in my approach to coffee.

Hengtee Lim (@Hent03) is a Sprudge.com staff writer based in Tokyo. Read more Hengtee Lim on Sprudge.