This summer, Shavi Coffee travelled to Brussels for World of Coffee — one of the main meeting points for the international specialty coffee industry. The programme for our team was packed: meetings with current and potential partners, a pop-up at Rocket Coffee Milano’s stand, conversations with producers and roasters, new equipment and technologies to explore, and a roasting competition for our Head Roaster, Ruslan.
The trip also coincided with an important moment for Shavi. During the World of Coffee Gala, the first-ever list of Europe’s 100 Best Coffee Shops was announced, and Shavi Coffee ranked #33 in Europe.
More than 5,300 coffee shops were considered for the ranking, with over 250 expert judges evaluating coffee quality, barista skills, atmosphere, innovation and community. Expert evaluation made up 70% of the final score, with the remaining 30% coming from public voting.
For us, the result matters for several reasons. It is an international recognition of the work our team has been doing in Georgia, but it is also a useful measure of where that work stands outside our own market. Being included among Europe’s best coffee shops — and entering the list at #33 — tells us that the standards we have been building at Shavi are relevant well beyond Tbilisi.
Three members of our team travelled to Brussels: Country Manager Levan, Coffee Ambassador Nika and Head Roaster Ruslan. They went with different responsibilities and, perhaps more importantly, paid attention to completely different things. We asked each of them what actually mattered during the trip, what they learned and what, after several days inside the international coffee community, felt worth bringing back to Shavi.
LEVAN: Partnerships, technology and where Shavi goes next
For Shavi Country Manager Levan, World of Coffee was primarily a working trip. Several B2B meetings had been arranged in advance, including conversations around partnerships that could bring products and technologies to Georgia for the first time. There were meetings with the ROA team, conversations with Brewers Cup champions about current trends and standards, discussions with roasters around green coffee sourcing and roasting profiles, and finally a face-to-face meeting with BOO Coffee Roasters after a long relationship that until then had existed mostly online.
“This was a big year for us,” Levan says. “We had several B2B meetings to secure interesting partnerships that would again make us first in Georgia to bring in certain products, as well as popping up on our partner Rocket Coffee Milano’s stand, participating in Europe’s Top 100 Coffeeshops, and building relationships with the local community.”
The Rocket Coffee Milano pop-up was a particularly personal point on that list. Levan calls it one of his “professional mini-dreams” and admits that it did not quite feel real until the team started working.
“I couldn’t quite believe it until we pulled our first espresso shot.”
The interest around Shavi was immediate, and our Churchkhela Blend became one of the favourites at the stand. There is something particularly satisfying about seeing a coffee inspired so directly by Georgia work in a completely different context: people who knew little about Shavi — and, in some cases, little about the Georgian specialty scene — were asking questions and coming back to taste.
“Everyone was genuinely interested, and especially loved our signature Churchkhela Blend,” Levan says. “Huge thanks to the Rocket team for hosting us and being by our side throughout.”
World of Coffee is also a good place to understand which technologies have quietly moved from being novelties to becoming part of normal café operations. Levan points to Ubermilk and Six Simple Machines as two examples. Neither is particularly new internationally, and that is precisely what makes them interesting: they are already widely used across European and CIS markets while remaining largely absent from Georgia.
“At this point they’re used almost everywhere in the EU and CIS regions, so I’m hoping we can be the ones to introduce them to Georgia first.”
There were other products the team saw in Brussels that may eventually appear at Shavi, although Levan is deliberately keeping those conversations private for now.
When it comes to coffee itself, one trend was difficult to ignore: co-fermentation. Levan’s reaction to its sudden ubiquity was characteristically straightforward: “Either I missed the day they became this popular, or the industry has genuinely grown more committed to these experiments.”
He came home with an even less diplomatic coffee opinion — “Geishas are overrated” — which we will leave here without attempting to resolve the argument.
Behind the jokes, however, his main takeaway from Brussels was a serious one. Meeting companies Shavi is interested in working with, serving our coffee alongside established international brands and seeing Shavi enter Europe’s Top 100 gave him a clearer idea of the scale at which the company should be thinking.
“We want to be on the global stage, and we already have every tool we need to be the ones setting standards.”
He is equally honest about the other half of that ambition. Asked whether Shavi is capable of reaching the top of the international specialty industry, his answer is yes — but not automatically.
“I feel like we’re definitely capable of being at the top, but it will take even more focus and dedication from every part of our big family.”
That distinction matters. Brussels gave us recognition, but recognition is useful only when it becomes motivation for the work that follows.
NIKA: Representing Shavi — and Georgian specialty coffee
Coffee Ambassador Nika went to Brussels with a different responsibility. His work is built around the point where coffee meets people: communicating what we do, creating a culture around it and making technical knowledge accessible without stripping coffee of its complexity.
At World of Coffee, that role took on another dimension. He was not only introducing Shavi to an international audience, but also representing a specialty coffee scene that many people in the room knew very little about.
“Being a Shavi Coffee Ambassador meant taking everything we build back home — our standards, our energy, our approach to hospitality — and putting it on a global stage. It wasn’t just about representing a brand, it was about representing the growing dynamic specialty coffee scene in Georgia.”
One of Nika’s clearest memories from Brussels is the small pause that often followed telling someone where the team had travelled from. Georgia was not necessarily the answer people expected, and that surprise usually became curiosity. The important part came afterwards, when they tasted the coffee.
“Sharing our coffees with people who had never tried specialty coffee from our region and watching their reaction when they tasted the cup quality” was one of the most satisfying parts of the trip for him. “That immediate shift from curiosity to genuine respect was incredibly satisfying. It proved that our quality control and roasting approach stand toe-to-toe with international standards.”
This is perhaps one of the more valuable results of taking Shavi outside Georgia. At home, we understand the context in which the company has developed. Abroad, none of that context can be taken for granted. The coffee, the service and the people representing it have to make the case for themselves.
Nika also spent much of the conference doing what a Coffee Ambassador should probably do at an event full of coffee people: talking to everyone.
One of the most memorable encounters was a reunion with Costa Rican farmer Ivan Riviera, whose coffee and approach the Shavi team has followed and admired. More generally, Nika was struck by the attitude of producers and roasters who had been working in coffee for decades. The people with the deepest technical knowledge were often also among the most curious and least interested in proving how much they knew.
“Meeting people who balance high-level technical precision with genuine warmth reminded me that at the end of the day, specialty coffee is a human-first industry.”
Another conversation, with a fellow roaster, centred on a question we often think about at Shavi: how do you bridge the gap between highly technical specialty coffee and an everyday guest without becoming pretentious?
Their discussion eventually came back to hospitality. A perfect extraction can make a great cup, but it does not automatically make a place somewhere people want to return to.
“Hospitality and culture are what ultimately keep people coming back, not just numbers on a brew chart.”
Nika noticed the same thinking in how international coffee brands are beginning to communicate. Experimental processing is becoming more transparent, while clean, classic origin profiles are receiving renewed attention. At the same time, consumers are becoming more knowledgeable. An exotic process or unusual tasting note is no longer enough on its own.
“People are looking for authentic stories and consistency. The novelty of ‘exotic’ processing alone isn’t enough anymore. Coffee drinkers are becoming smarter and more discerning.”
For Shavi, the communication side of that shift was particularly relevant. The strongest brands at the event were not necessarily the ones saying the most. They were often the ones able to explain what they do clearly, build a recognisable visual world around their coffee and put real people at the centre of the story.
“The strongest brands don’t just sell great coffee,” Nika says. “They build a distinct visual language and culture around it.”
He returned to Tbilisi with new professional connections and ideas around training, communication and community, but also with renewed confidence about where Shavi fits internationally.
“Shavi isn’t just an observer in the global specialty scene, we belong right in the middle of it. We have a distinct voice, high standards and a unique cultural perspective. Seeing how well our coffee and brand resonated internationally proved that what we’re building in Georgia has true global relevance.”
RUSLAN: Winning the Stronghold Roasting Competition
For Head Roaster Ruslan, the central event of the trip was the Stronghold Roasting Competition — which he won.
The result is significant for Shavi, but Ruslan’s own account of it is interesting precisely because he does not frame the competition around winning. He entered because he wanted access to a different roasting technology and an opportunity to understand how it behaved.
“Honestly, winning was not my primary goal when I entered the competition. My main motivation was to explore new roasting technologies and understand what the Stronghold machine could do.”
Stronghold differs considerably from the equipment Ruslan normally works with at Shavi. On a conventional roaster, he primarily controls the relationship between convective heat from the air and conductive heat from the drum. Stronghold adds halogen lamps, introducing thermal radiation that transfers energy directly to the surface of the beans.
That difference forced him to reconsider something he normally understands almost instinctively: how energy is entering the coffee at every stage of a roast.
“For me, that was one of the most interesting parts of the competition: learning to separate the roasting process itself from the specific behaviour of the machine I am used to working with.”
Ruslan is careful not to turn the experience into a story about discovering a magic new roasting method. In fact, one of his conclusions is almost the opposite.
Roasting profiles cannot simply be transferred between machines. Even two identical roasters can behave differently because of airflow, exhaust systems, installation and pipe configuration. A profile therefore cannot be reduced to a neat sequence of temperatures and timings.
“You have to understand how the particular machine responds to energy and learn to build the profile around that machine.”
That approach became especially important under competition conditions. Unlike some coffee championships, roasting is not particularly theatrical. A large amount of the work happens behind the scenes: competitors evaluate green coffee, identify defects, sample roast, practise, analyse the coffee, plan a profile and eventually produce the final roast for evaluation.
Ruslan is refreshingly honest about this too: as a spectator, he considers roasting competitions “one of the less exciting coffee competitions to watch.”
For the person competing, however, the challenge is complex. Producing a delicious coffee is only part of it. Competitors have to analyse what they have been given, communicate what they expect from it and then roast consistently enough for the final result to correspond with that analysis.
“I think the strategy is often less about trying to collect as many points as possible and more about not losing points unnecessarily.”
This is where Ruslan sees the real value of competition. Even without a win, a roaster has to work under pressure, make decisions with limited time and compare their thinking with that of other professionals. That experience is difficult to recreate in normal daily production.
Winning nevertheless carries weight for him.
“For me, it is mainly a matter of honour and respect. Winning a competition like this is a great recognition of the work I have been doing as a roaster.”
The prize also happened to be practical: Ruslan received a colourimeter, which will now become part of his work at Shavi, helping with more precise analysis of roast development and consistency.
Away from the competition, he paid particular attention to Cold Brew and ready-to-drink coffee. Canned coffees and other RTD products were widely represented in Brussels, and Ruslan sees real potential for Shavi to develop this category rather than treating it simply as a passing trend.
The idea he brought home is straightforward: if someone discovers a flavour they like at Shavi, why should that experience end when they leave the café?
Cold Brew, canned coffee and Bag-in-Box formats could allow the same product to travel beyond the bar while maintaining the quality and character associated with it.
Another product that caught his attention came from Andercacao, which presented cacao designed for pour-over brewing alongside sachets for cold brewing. Ruslan liked the thinking behind it: rather than inventing a completely new product, they changed the way a familiar one could be prepared and experienced.
Now back in Tbilisi, his immediate focus is closer to home. Shavi is commissioning a new 15 kg roaster, and Ruslan wants to spend more time on quality control and developing the roasting process around the new equipment.
The Stronghold competition gave him another machine to understand, another perspective on heat transfer and, of course, a win. The next tests are already approaching: Shavi will participate in the Global Coffee Awards Europe, while Ruslan is also hoping to make it to the next exhibition in Tokyo.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” he says. “And, of course, I want to keep working hard and hopefully make it to Tokyo for the next exhibition — and maybe win something again.”
Brussels was a result — and a useful benchmark
It is tempting to sum up a trip like this through its awards. There are good reasons to do so: #33 among Europe’s 100 Best Coffee Shops and a win at the Stronghold Roasting Competition are two results we are genuinely proud to bring home to Georgia.
But the conversations with Levan, Nika and Ruslan also make clear why the trip mattered beyond the awards.
Levan returned with potential partnerships and a clearer understanding of which technologies could be relevant for Georgia.
Nika came back having tested Shavi’s coffee, hospitality and identity in front of an international audience and seeing that they translated without losing their character.
Ruslan tested his knowledge on unfamiliar equipment, won the competition and returned with ideas that can be applied directly to Shavi’s roasting and future products.
Perhaps the most valuable thing about Brussels was the opportunity to compare what we are building every day in Tbilisi with what is happening elsewhere — without either underestimating ourselves or pretending there is nothing left to learn.
There is plenty left to learn.
There is also plenty that we already do very well.
Being ranked #33 in Europe gives us a reason to celebrate. What we brought back from Brussels gives us a reason to keep working.
Article prepared by Eleonora Tsiteladze, Brand Manager at Shavi Coffee Roasters.
