Two Familiar Faces on the New SCA Portugal Chapter Committee

The Specialty Coffee Association has just announced the new Chapter Committee for Portugal — and we opened the email to find two people we love on the list.

Driel Menezes, head barista at Sense of Coffee, has been elected Events Coordinator. He'll be helping to organise Portugal's national coffee championships under World Coffee Events rules: pulling together volunteers, finding sponsors, making sure the judges are where they need to be when the finals come around. It's the kind of work that quietly holds a whole competition season together — and honestly, it's just what Driel already does every day behind our bar at Oriente and Rossio. He sets the standard, and he brings everyone along with him.

Alesia Zhvirblia joins the committee as Judges Coordinator, looking after the education, calibration and review of Portugal's competition judges. Alesia was there at the very beginning of Sense of Coffee — she helped us open our first café and trained our first team of baristas, the people who set the tone we still hold ourselves to today. Watching her step up to calibrate an entire national judging pool feels exactly right.

Portugal's specialty coffee scene has grown up a lot in the last few years, and Lisbon is right at the heart of it. We've been building our own small part of it since day one: two cafés in the city — Sense of Coffee by Parque das Nações and Sense of Coffee & Wine in Rossio — where we brew filter on V60 and AeroPress alongside espresso, and train every barista who steps behind our bar. Last year that work was recognised with a place in the European Coffee Trip Awards 2025 Top 10 Specialty Cafés in Portugal. So it means a lot to us that our head barista is now helping build the competitions this scene is measured by — and that the person who trained our first team is helping set the standard those judges are held to.

Congratulations, Driel and Alesia. And to Elizaveta, Paulo and Patrícia too — we're cheering for all of you. Come by for a coffee any time; the next round is on us.