Hanna Teramoto

New Zealand National Barista Championships

NEW ZEALAND

MOJO COFFEE

 

THE JOURNEY LEADING UP TO WBRC

THE BEGINNING

When did you first get into coffee?

“I first got into coffee back in 2007 — the same year I moved to New Zealand. That’s really where my journey in the coffee world began.”

What was it that drew you to the industry and made you want to pursue specialty coffee as a career?

“It actually started quite naturally — my husband, Akio, and I loved café hopping back then (and we still do!), so we dreamed of opening our own café one day. When we moved to New Zealand, Akio was limited to working in IT, but I had the freedom to explore different paths. I decided to work in a café to gain experience, but quickly discovered I needed coffee skills even to apply, so I took a barista training class. That experience completely changed everything for me. I fell in love with coffee and the craft of making it, and my focus shifted from front-of-house work to becoming a barista. Ever since, I’ve been part of the coffee industry — and I honestly can’t imagine doing anything else.”

When you are brewing for yourself or friends, what is your favourite brew method and what do you like about it?

“To be completely honest, I rarely brew coffee for myself at home — I’m lucky enough to have a two-time New Zealand AeroPress Champion (my husband!) who’s always happy to brew for me. But when friends come over, I love making filter coffee. It’s a gentler, more relaxed brewing style, and I enjoy how it brings people together around the table. A well-brewed filter coffee reveals different flavours as it cools, so you can savour and explore it over time — it’s the perfect companion for good conversation with the people you love!”

What made you want to start competing in coffee? 

“To be honest, the emotion behind it was originally ‘revenge’ — in the most positive way! When I first started making coffee, I was facing a lot of frustration because very few café owners were willing to give me a chance on the machine. Competition for barista positions was tough, and I was always one step behind others who didn’t have visa restrictions.

At one café I worked at, the owner suddenly moved me to a front-of-house role because their barista refused to share time on the machine. I eventually moved on to another café as a barista, which happened to use coffee from the same roaster. One day, an accounts manager brought in a brochure for their in-house barista competition — and mentioned that the barista from my previous café was entering. That lit a fire in me! I didn’t care about where I placed; I just wanted to do better than them.

In the end, I won — and the prize was an entry to the New Zealand Barista Championship. I’ve been competing ever since!”

THE COFFEE

We would love to share as much information about the coffee/coffees that you took to WBC with our community, please tell us as much information about it as you can. We would love to know its varieties, altitude, processing, origin, density (if known), anything and everything that you can tell us. 

Origin: Pitalito, Huila, Colombia

Producer: Jhoan Vergara

Farm: Finca Las Flores

Altitude: 1,750 masl

Varietal: Java

Processing: Hybrid Honey

1. Cold water floatation
2. 12 hours oxidation
3. 48 hrs anaerobic mosto fermentation
4. Thermal shock (50 degrees for 30 mins then soaked in cold water)
5. 24 hours oxidation
6. Semi dried to 18-20% moisture by dehumidifier machine
7. Rehydrated in water
8. Fresh cherries mixed with rehydrated cherries at 50-50 ratio
9. Depulping
10. 60 hours mechanical drying
    

Density: 767g/ml

Moisture Content: 11.3%

Ratio of Hyrdro Honey Compontents: 2.1 part Anaerobic Natural : 1 part Washed

How did you find this coffee? 

“In February of this year, I traveled to Central America, exploring Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras to find the perfect competition coffee. During this trip, I visited several farms and tasted hundreds of different coffees. However, one unique coffee stood out from the rest and marked the end of my search for the perfect coffee.

It’s called Bernardina, a unique variety discovered in 2013 by Ruperto Bernardino, the manager of Finca Los Bellotos. Upon tasting the coffee fruit, Ruperto realized that it was unlike any other coffee he had tasted before. The Pacas family, the owner of the farm, identified 46 trees of this “mysterious” variety. The half sack of harvested coffee was pulped on December 16, 2013, and its heavenly aroma attracted all the farm workers.

Although initially presumed to belong to the Geisha variety, the owner, Maria Pacas inspiring women, decided to take a scientific approach and sent some samples to DNA Analytica, an Italian company for analysis. The gene sequencing analyses revealed that this was a completely new species, unlike any previously classified coffee variety. While it shares similarities with varieties from the Agaro region of Ethiopia, it doesn’t resemble any Arabica species grown in Central and South America.

Before moving on to our milk beverage, I would like to tell you a little about the roasting and characteristics of this coffee. This naturally processed coffee comes from the Santa Juana farm located at 1400 meters in the Apaneca region of El Salvador. We roasted our coffee two days ago with the Kaffelogic sample roaster for this competition. Total roast time at 6 minutes and 45 seconds, and the development ratio was 8%. Our roasting ended at 212 degrees. The trees’ origins remain a mystery since their ages are around 70, and no one alive knows how they got there. Maria Pacas, the owner of the farm, used some of these beans for phenotype formation and planted them in Finca Santa Juana, a farm with super volcanic soil and a volcano inside.”

What drew you to this coffee? 

“The fact that it was a new variety and the story of its discovery impressed me a lot. I wanted to present it to the judges and share entire story.”

THE ROASTING

(Roasted by Sean, Kaffelogic Head of Coffee)

Roasting coffee for competition is usually a very tedious and nerve wracking process, how did you find the process of roasting your coffee?

“Over the years we have developed a pretty decent formula for how we approach competition coffees. Fun fact, most of our new altitude profiles are created out of competition profiles that are then adapted for daily drinking coffees. Hannas coffee and roast profiles were no exception, they are what formed the basis of the altitude natural profiles.”

How did you approach this particular coffee?

“This particular coffee was a Hydro Honey, but it was a mix of the exact same coffee processed 2 different ways. We hand sorted the coffee Hydro Honey into 2 parts, Anaerobic Natural and Washed. It was quite easy to see the difference in the coffee based on their colours. I then profiled them as individual coffees, before adjustem them for more synergy when re-blended together.”

How many different profiles/iterations did you have to go through before you got the flavour that you were after?

“We managed to find it pretty quickly, I think it was around 20 roasts before we had a dialled profile ready for the stage.”

What batch sizes were you roasting? 

“150 gram batches for the Anaerobic Natural component and 70g for the Washed component.”

Did you run into any challenges roasting this coffee?

“Sorting was definitely the most time consuming and labour intesive part!”

What did you enjoy about roasting on the Kaffelogic?

“I roast on it every single day, and every day I feel as if I learn something new, refine something more, or challenge myself to improve my roasting.”

Do you have any tips or tricks that you used when roasting your coffee?

“Explore! Try weird and whacky things, sometimes they pay off. Don't be afraid to think out of the box. With this coffee we were focussing on ultimate control, so we broke that down into something that we could achieve that.”

THE BREWING

What was your process when dialing in your coffee?

“I was aiming to highlight the sweet, juicy tropical notes in my coffee, so we focused on flavour first before finalising the recipe. For the New Zealand Barista Championship, the basket size was a 17g La Marzocco, so I ended up dosing 17g and extracting 42g of espresso in 17 seconds.”

Did you use anything unique in your process and what did it change in your brew?

“Since I was only dosing 17 g, my coffee bed was quite thin. And because the machine didn’t have pre-infusion, I decided to use the Barista Hustle AutoComb, along with the AD Coffee x Pesado self-levelling spring-loaded tamper. The AutoComb helped minimise the risk of channeling, while the tamper ensured a levelled coffee bed and reduced the vacuum effect that some spring-loaded tampers can create. Together, they improved consistency and overall extraction quality.”

With the introduction of alternative milks, what opportunities/challenges did this create for you and how did you go about choosing what to use for your milk course and why?

“The introduction of alternative milks created both opportunities and challenges for me.
It gave me more creative freedom to design milk beverages that truly complement the coffee in flavour and texture. But at the same time, having more options made it more challenging to choose what actually fits best with the coffee and my overall concept.

In 2024, I explored this by using a custom blend of four different milks, including both alternative and cow’s milk, to enhance specific flavours and create a rounded mouthfeel.
This year, I took the opposite approach and used only lactose-free cow’s milk to focus on clarity and simplicity.

Apart from the flavour, for me, the key is always choosing a milk that best supports the concept, the story, and the experience I want to create.”

THE PREPARATION

To get to the World Coffee Championships, you first need to win a few local competitions. Some countries have regional and national competitions, whilst some only have national competitions. What was your journey like working your way up to becoming the champion of Turkey?

“In New Zealand, regional competitions stopped for a while after 2012. Back then, I placed 7th and just missed out on the finals. Then in 2024, regionals came back, which was really exciting. I decided to enter, as I had never won a regional before, and it felt like something I wanted to achieve.

That competition led me to nationals, where I placed 3rd that year.
For me, regionals were incredibly important, especially in the earlier stages of competing. They give me the space to practice, build experience, and develop confidence. At the finals level, it can be anyone’s game — and sometimes, confidence is what makes the difference.”

What gave you the idea around your routine? What was the motivation behind the message that you shared on stage?

“The idea for my routine came through a lot of reflection with my coach, David Huang. It almost felt like a counselling process, where I really had to look deeper into my own story.
The routine was created during a very personal transition, just before I moved back to Japan. I wanted to share a part of my childhood that many of my coffee friends in New Zealand had never seen before to understand how barista Hanna was born.

The motivation behind my message was to help people understand who I am more fully, and to show that my journey is still evolving, which I wanted the spectators to also reflect on themselves.”

What did you enjoy most about preparation and what did you dislike about it?

“What I enjoyed most was the opportunity to share a very personal story, and to create a routine style I had never done before. That part felt exciting and meaningful.

What I found most challenging was the preparation itself. It required more practice hours than usual, and I was also unwell throughout most of the competition period. Pushing myself to the limit, both mentally and physically, wasn’t that enjoyable under that condition — even though I knew it was exactly what I needed!”

Was there anything in particular that you struggled with in preparation for competition?

“Oh yes! One of the biggest struggles was managing my coffee supply. I had two competitions just 16 days apart using the same coffee, and I suddenly realised I didn’t have enough. I tried to order more, but it wasn’t going to arrive in time, which was really stressful.

Thankfully, my roaster, Sean Ellis, stepped in and supported me by roasting small batches on a Kaffelogic roaster. It wasn’t an easy situation, but with his help, I was able to make it work and compete in both competitions.”

What was the inspiration around your signature beverage?

“For my signature beverage, the inspiration started with the concept.

The key ideas were “filtering out,” “clarity,” and reconnecting with something that was once neglected. From there, I developed the method to express those ideas — using filter papers, clarification techniques, and even recycling used coffee pucks.”

LOOKING BACK AND TOWARDS THE FUTURE

Looking back at WBC this past year and your experience through it, what has been the biggest takeaway from it all?

“My biggest takeaway was realising how deeply I had to dig into myself.
It went far beyond my initial expectations — not only understanding my own story, but also being intentional about how I wanted the judges to feel through my routine.”

What has been the biggest challenge that you have had to overcome?

“My biggest challenge was overcoming my fear of going on stage and not knowing what to say next.

For many years, that was my biggest fear. But through training with my coach, David, I had to change my approach. I started using scripts placed on my equipment and tables, so I could rely on them if I lost my words during my performance.
It wasn’t easy, but it allowed me to perform with more confidence and move past that fear.”

Are we going to see you on stage again next year?

“Since I’ve already moved back to Japan, probably not on the New Zealand competition stage.

But my last competition in New Zealand has taken me to the world stage, representing the country — so yes, I’ll be back on stage this October.

After that… we’ll see how this new chapter in Japan unfolds. 😉”