Our Head of Coffee Driel Telles de Menezes in European Coffee Trip’s Barista Stories

European Coffee Trip has published a new interview in its Barista Stories series, and this time it is about one of our own: Driel Telles de Menezes, Head of Coffee at both Sense of Coffee in Parque das Nações and Sense of Coffee & Wine in Baixa. Here is a short summary; the full interview is on European Coffee Trip.

Driel trained as a designer and worked in book production in Brazil. In 2013, in Niterói, he joined a cultural coffee shop project. When its espresso machine broke before the opening, the team went looking for a coffee event to learn about equipment, ended up at Semana Internacional do Café, and that is where Driel discovered specialty coffee.

Over the following years he opened coffee shops, worked as a barista and consultant and taught courses in Rio. He moved to Portugal in 2020, took second place in the first AeroPress Championship he entered here and spent time roasting at Buraca Roasters before joining Sense of Coffee.

Driel is responsible for everything coffee touches in both cafés: choosing the coffees, developing the menu, training the team and keeping the two bars consistent. We are a multi-roaster coffee shop, so part of his job is deciding which beans make it onto the grinders.

In the interview he explains our approach: the espresso stays at €1, in keeping with the Lisbon habit of a quick coffee at the counter, while next to it you will find filter on V60 and AeroPress and the barista set, with an espresso, a cappuccino and a batch brew side by side. New drinks such as the Pastel de Nata Latte are usually tried in Baixa first, which is also where we host cuppings and workshops.

Together with Alesia Zhvirblia, Driel started The Coffee Bloc, an open space where baristas, roasters and anyone working in coffee meet to practise, run experiments and share what they know. Each session has its own theme, from fermentation to water.

He has also joined SCA Portugal as Events Coordinator. For the national championships he wants more people to have the chance to compete, judges and volunteers to feel valued, and the audience to feel welcome even if they know little about competitions.

For Driel, specialty coffee is about care rather than luxury: a long chain of people, from the producer to the barista, putting their work into one cup. The trend he would most like to see is the industry treating baristas as professionals, with fair conditions and room to grow.

Asked which café in Europe every coffee geek should visit, he answered with a question: “Wait, they weren’t planning to visit us?”

Read the full interview on European Coffee Trip, and if you are passing by, say hello to Driel at the bar.