The 1,001st Cup: Talal Bitar’s Path with Cezve Coffee

In a small home in Crimea, a young boy sat quietly, watching his grandfather’s hands move with precision as he brewed coffee in a cezve. 

Every motion was deliberate—measuring the grounds, stirring gently, then lifting the cezve at just the right moment before the coffee bubbled over.

Talal Bitar, 2025 Italy Cezve Champion | photo by Talal doc.

“That’s a moment I’ll never forget,” Talal Bitar says. Back then, he didn’t realize I was absorbing something much bigger than just a brewing technique. He was learning that coffee is about connection.

HUDES | Worldwide Digital Magazine for Manual Coffee Brewers

Coffee is a universal language, capable of bringing people together regardless of background for Talal. “We may not speak the same language, but with a cup of coffee, those barriers disappear,” he says.

His interest in coffee grew over time, but the road to becoming a champion was far from instant. After stepping away from the industry for two years, he returned to work at Checchi Brunch & Specialty Coffee, where Gabriele Pezzaioli—the reigning Italian Brewing Champion at the time—also worked. A simple conversation sparked the idea of competing.

“He just said, ‘Why don’t you give it a try?’” Talal recalls. “At first, I thought, sure, just for fun. But here’s the problem—I never do anything just for fun. If I commit, I go all in.”

And so, his journey to the 2025 Italian Cezve/Ibrik Championship began. But it wasn’t just about refining his brewing technique; it was also about learning to trust himself. 

For three months, he drank five to ten cups of cezve coffee every day.

“There was a point when the coffee that once tasted incredible suddenly felt ordinary,” he admits. Just two days before the competition, he almost changed the coffee he was using. “Five years ago, I wouldn’t have hesitated—I would’ve switched it immediately. But this time, he listened to the people around him, and they helped avoid a huge mistake.

This was proof that coffee isn’t just about the people drinking it—it’s also about the people making it.

When it came to practice and discipline, he remembers a simple yet powerful piece of advice from Giorgio, the owner of the coffee shop where he works.

“He told me, ‘Make coffee in a cezve 1,000 times, and on the 1,001st attempt, you won’t have to think anymore.’” That one sentence became a guiding principle for Talal.

On competition day, as he stepped off the stage after brewing, he felt like everything had gone wrong.

photo by Talal Bitar doc.

“I genuinely thought they were going to disqualify me,” he laughs. Even when they were announcing the winner, Talal was sure he had lost.

But reality had a different plan. He stood on the podium as the Italian champion, proving that hard work and trust in the process never go to waste.

CHAMPION | photo by Talal Bitar doc.

The experience at the competition left a lasting impression on him. “The way they organized it was incredible. The atmosphere at SIGEP felt like a huge celebration of specialty coffee,” Talal says.

But beyond the competition, he sees a bigger challenge—not in brewing, but in how cezve coffee is perceived in the industry.

“Many coffee shop owners don’t really see cezve as a serious brewing method. But at my café, we sell 10 to 15 cezve servings a day—far more than we expected,” he explains. “If there’s only one café in all of Italy serving it, how can we truly develop this culture?”

The journey in coffee isn’t just about winning championships—it’s about sharing the experience. A barista’s role isn’t just to brew the best cup of coffee but also to help others discover something new.

"There’s a guest who always comes in with his son, maybe eight or nine years old. They try different coffees, and the father explains the aromas and flavors,” he shares. And the kid is learning. He’s starting to recognize the nuances. That, to him, is the mission—helping people find something new in coffee.

When asked what people might not know about him, Talal smiles and simply says, “I don’t like boring coffee.”

And perhaps, that’s what keeps him moving forward—an endless curiosity. (hudes)