BY VASILEIA FANARIOTI
SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT
Photos courtesy of Olga Melik Karakozova and Maria Lukyanchenko
In 2021, during the COVID pandemic, we interviewed Olga Melik Karakozova about her work in Moscow and her long-standing career in coffee. At the time, her focus was not on competition titles but on sustaining a business across sourcing, roasting, consulting, and café operations in a highly complex environment.
Since that interview, the world has changed dramatically. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Olga relocated to Limassol, Cyprus, where she now runs WAGMI Coffee. Her move reflects both a personal reset and a broader shift within the global coffee industry, while also intersecting with the gradual development of Cyprus’ specialty coffee scene.
From Competition to a Multi-Role Coffee Career
Olga has been part of the specialty-coffee industry since its early competitive years in Europe. “I have been in the industry since the very first years of barista competitions,” she told Barista Magazine. “I’m old enough to be the one who learned with and from Tim Wendelboe, James Hoffmann, and Klaus Thomsen.”
By her own account, those years were defined by openness rather than borders. “I’m from the times when Russia wasn’t imposing a threat to Europe, and we were part of a growing coffee community,” she adds. “It was a melting pot—and that’s the culture that I’m still carrying with me.”
By 2021, competitions were no longer central to how she understood her work. “I hadn’t competed since 2012, so by 2021 I didn’t really identify as a champion barista,” Olga says. Instead, she saw herself as a coffee professional who had the privilege of having found her place in the industry through various roles over the years.
Those roles included sourcing coffee directly, operating a roastery, providing consultancy services, and representing Loring in Russian-speaking countries. “I’m still reluctant to be stuck in one place, country, or culture,” Olga says, “but I desperately strive to see and enjoy the diversity of our community.”
Moscow, COVID, and the Breaking Point
Running a coffee business in Moscow required constant adaptation. “As a coffee shop owner in Moscow, I had to constantly navigate bureaucracy and adapt to a rapidly changing reality,” Olga says. “That left me little time for actually doing coffee.”
The 2021 interview took place during the COVID era, but the years that followed brought a far deeper disruption. “Since then, COVID has passed, but Russia invaded Ukraine,” she says. “The whole world has changed, and the coffee narrative has changed.”
That shift was reflected across the industry. “We don’t talk about the low prices we pay for coffee,” Olga says, “but about wishing someone would help the coffee shops and roasteries survive.”
The war also fractured her team. “I had a great team in Moscow,” she says, naming roast master Nikita Mantulin and 2006 World Coffee in Good Spirits champion Anna Serova. “The war separated us, sending Nikita to New York City and Anna to Georgia, leaving me alone.”
Despite the loss, Olga reflects on the experience as formative. “These changes have taught me things I wouldn’t have learned if not for the war,” she says. “I feel that I’m a much better professional now, though.”
Choosing Cyprus and Entering a New Coffee Context
The move to Cyprus was driven by both personal and professional reasons. “My now-wife fell in love with Cyprus and chose it for us,” Olga says. “I’m very grateful for that.”
Equally important was the opportunity to build something new. “The main reason was that I found a truly inspiring place for the coffee shop,” she explains. “If I had found it anywhere in the world, I would have moved there.”
Cyprus, she notes, already had a deeply rooted coffee culture. “The coffee culture existed here long before my arrival,” Olga says. “Cyprus is a country with one of the highest numbers of coffee shops per capita in Europe.”
Traditional drinks remain central. “There is a strong Cyprus coffee culture, with great freddo espresso and freddo cappuccino,” she says. At the same time, specialty coffee has been developing. “There were already some specialty coffee shops and roasteries with great equipment, but no Lorings.”
That has since changed. “Since I moved here, this has changed, and there is now one Loring on the island,” Olga says. “New coffee shops have opened, and the scene is growing.”
WAGMI Coffee: Philosophy Over Branding
The name WAGMI—We Are All Gonna Make It—reflects a broader ethical approach. “WAGMI actually describes our approach to everything,” Olga says. “We are doing what we are doing not to exploit producers, baristas, guests, and the planet, but in a way that could benefit everybody.”
Coffee quality begins with origin. “It all starts with the goal to offer great, clean, bright coffees that are great examples of the terroir,” she explains. “We prioritize genetics over processing.”
Olga’s roasting philosophy is deliberate. “We don’t roast, we develop the coffee and that’s where we stop applying heat,” she says. “Any second beyond the development just adds bitterness, and we don’t want that.”
Sourcing follows a clear principle. “We believe that fair coffee pricing should be defined by the producer,” she says. “And my call as a coffee professional is to agree to it or to decline.” This approach, she notes, has helped build “very sustainable relationships with professional farmers.”
Education, Sustainability, and Looking Forward
Olga shares that her experience as a barista is central to her approach to management. “I was also a barista once and I know what a difficult job it is,” she says, citing low wages and repetitive routines. At WAGMI, she aims to make the work more engaging by redistributing tasks and investing in education. “World of coffees, farm trips, sensory exams every few months and wages above the minimum wage—this helps baristas to like the job.”
She also expresses that sustainability is foundational to her work at WAGMI. “Without sustainability and direct trade, it wouldn’t be a project where ‘all were going to make it,’” she says, referencing the shop’s name. The business prioritizes producers moving toward regenerative farming and uses compostable and recyclable packaging, with incentives for reuse.
Life in Cyprus has also reshaped Olga’s perspective. “I should have moved sooner,” she reflects. She describes a higher quality of life, functional institutions, and a sense of safety—including the ability to live openly as a gay woman without fear or self-censorship.
Looking ahead, geography presents challenges. “There is one downside of being on an island: the logistics are so expensive,” she says. “Having a roastery somewhere on the continent would help to make things a bit more affordable and improve our outreach.”
Vasileia Fanarioti (she/her) is a senior online correspondent for Barista Magazine and a freelance copywriter and editor with a primary focus on the coffee niche. She has also been a volunteer copywriter for the I’M NOT A BARISTA NPO, providing content to help educate people about baristas and their work.
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