luka mezgec's quest for the perfect cup of coffee

derailleur interview series, tour de france special.

Luka Mezgec, BikeExchange-Jayco lead-out man extraordinaire, has an eye for precision. It’s how he gets Dylan Groenewegen where he needs to be in a sprint. Even if the finish is chaotic, even if Groenewegen is out of position, Luka is there with his supreme spatial awareness and maneuverability to save the day. We saw this yesterday in Stage 3 of the Tour de France, where Groenewegen, in Mezgec’s wheel made up an extraordinary distance in order to be in contention with brilliant results. But the Slovenian ace has another quest beyond making plays for the perfect sprint. derailleur sat down with Mezgec to talk about his other supreme passion in life: coffee.

Kate Wagner:
How did you get started with coffee?

Luka Mezgec:
Actually, it's a funny story because until I joined an Australian team back in 2016, I didn't even drink coffee. Then the first training camp we had was in South Africa. Everybody had these hand grinders and French presses and all this. And I was like, whoa, what, why do you guys like doing so much work every morning just to have a coffee? Why do you need it? Just, like, have, I don't know, a glass of water or something. (Laughs) Then I started actually drinking coffee there because one of the guys had these specialty coffees and stuff, so I kind of got into it. a few months later, because everybody had these coffee machines and stuff.

Rocket [coffee machines] was probably one of the most famous one amongst the cycling community, and I remember I was always making a joke about them, like why do you have these manual espresso machines when you can buy an automatic one where you just press a button and it comes out? So I actually bought the best automatic machine out there on the market. And a lot of guys, like I remember Daryl Impey was one of the main guys who said, mate, in few months you will buy a manual one because you'll see it's bullshit to have an automatic one. I think I stuck with the automatic for maybe two years. And then 2018, I was in Thailand for a month in December on a semi training camp before the season. In Phuket, there were a lot of really good, special, small coffees. In random places, I'd get the best coffee I ever had in my life.

So that was 2018 December. I really started to think, okay, I have to switch my automatic coffee machine. I contacted Rocket and I got my first espresso machine. It was actually the top of the line at that time, but I didn't use much of the features of the machine because in the first couple of months, I didn't even know how to make a coffee on a manual espresso machine. So my missus said at the time that I'm just doing brown water and I was like, ah, what the hell? You know, you know nothing about coffee! But I also didn't have a clue. [Laughs] So she actually bought me a [learning course.] It was a short class in espresso preparation and stuff. Then I started to read forums on different procedures to make a coffee or what's better equipment. I started with grinders and yeah, last, maybe one year and a half, I'm completely down the rabbit hole.

photo courtesy of Luka Mezgec

Kate Wagner:
What does your coffee setup look like now?

Luka Mezgec:
I just got actually couple months ago, a La Marzocco machine, it's called the Strata One. I didn't actually want to change the coffee machine because I was happy with Rocket, but the guy who's helping me with all the coffee equipment — I'm actually also an ambassador of one micro-roastery in Slovenia [Stow] — and [this guy there he's] also a distributor for La Marzocco. So he kinda pushed me like, okay, you have our coffee, so it's time to use La Marzocco. But the grinder is much more important than machine itself because to have this even consistent grind, it gives you much better coffee taste than just a coffee machine.

If you're, let's say, at the beginning of your journey, I would spend more money on grinders, less money on the coffee machine, and then slowly you'll progress also with the better coffee machine. But back to the setup: so one grinder it's called the Mahlkönig EK43 S and that's mainly for filter coffee because it has different burrs. In the grinders, the most important is the burr set. It's hard to get one grinder for doing both a filter coffee and espresso.

I bought this Mahlkönig and I said, okay, this is the one top notch grinder. Then maybe two months later, I figure out, okay, now I need also top notch grinder for espresso (laughs). So I did a little bit of research again and I found one guy called Frank Durra from Germany, I think from Frankfurt. He's actually customizing these Mahlkönig grinders, but couple years ago he started on his own grinders. And now he has the grinder called the Nautilus which is a small copy of the Mahlkönig one I have for filter coffee, and with the burrs that I got, it's perfect for espresso. Since then I don't drink cappuccinos anymore. Just espressos at home.

photo courtesy of Luka Mezgec

Kate Wagner:
How do you go from drinking coffee at a training camp to developing your own sophisticated palate?

Luka Mezgec:
Espresso is a really special way of making coffee. I mean it's such a small shot. And if you find that sweet spot it's mind blowing. It's hard to just make one shot and drink it and say, okay, that's it. Because I think the best part of this hobby is the constant search of this golden shot, you know? It's not the shot itself, but it's the way to get there. So you have to drink, I dunno, two, three shots first, and then you find that perfect one, and then you say, okay, now I found this, but then after two hours, the humidity and the air changes a bit, and you can do exactly the same thing but it's not the same shot anymore.

I also like to experiment is because, like I said, I'm working with this roaster [Stow] in Slovenia and they have so many different beans. I like to jump from one from Kenya to Guatemala, to Ethiopia, and then you start to feel really the flavor profiles. You need a lot of bad and good shots to start finding your taste, what you actually prefer as well. When I travel and I do the training camps and races and stuff, obviously we don't have an espresso machine. And some teams actually do have them, but I think it would be hard, if you are used to the best equipment, to use mediocre stuff on training camps. So that's why I started drinking filter coffee with the V60. And also there, I changed maybe four or five grinders until now. Every grinder gave me a little bit more of a taste for searching for the perfect coffee in the morning. I just like this path.

Kate Wagner:
How many cups of coffee a day do you drink?

Luka Mezgec:
Well, depends. Normally when I'm racing and traveling, which is like 220 days a year I make myself just one V 60 filter coffee with 25 grams of beans. So that's almost 350 milliliters of coffee. That's quite strong. But when I'm at home with my espresso machines maybe I take two or three double espressos, so six espressos. But when I have some friends coming over, they bring some different beans and stuff, and then we have to dial in the grind and find the sweet spot. Then it's easily up to ten espresso shots a day.

Photo courtesy of Luka Mezgec

Kate Wagner:
What kind of beans are your favorite kind of beans? From what region?

Luka Mezgec:
It's mainly light roasted I'm getting, because you can pull out more of a taste and more body and everything with light roasted beans. [I was thinking of buying] this little roasting device, but I know once I'm there, it's another rabbit hole, which I, at this time, don't wanna go down because the time is limited and I'm quite a perfectionist. So I until I'm not a bike racer, I don't want to do the roasting part as well.

Kate Wagner:
I've been living in Ljubljana for a month now. Where's the best place to get a cup of coffee there?

Luka Mezgec:
You have to go to Stow Cafe.¹ The one with all the experts and the academy and stuff is in the in the City Museum. I'm an ambassador for that one because they have the coffee from the roaster I'm working with. The Stow roastery is actually in Kamnik, which is 20km away. And then there's one called Čokl. When you go through the tunnel below the castle, it's just at the entrance of the tunnel. These two are actually probably the best ones.

Kate Wagner:
What do you think the connection is between cycling and coffee? Because, you know, the coffee ride, it's an institution.

Luka Mezgec:
I don't know exactly. I was listening to a podcast with Andrew Meo, the founder of Rocket. He said that this whole coffee connection with cycling started back in probably 2000. I know it used to be Faema who sponsored one of the cycling teams. Later on, Rocket, they were a small company and they had the good marketing idea to collaborate with Rapha, for example. So, you know, when you are collaborating with one of the biggest cycling brands and the most cool, because like, coffee rides and stuff, it's not for geeks. It's for cool people. (Laughs) So I guess the coffee came, especially Rocket came through this channel.

Probably cyclists were drinking coffee because of caffeine in the past. And then maybe progressively they started to build a culture. One of the first guys who also started with specialty coffee in the pro peloton was Christian Meier who owned in Girona a few cafes with La Fabrica being the most famous. He also put this coffee culture among cyclists on a much higher level. Then the guys, you know, the big champions, when they won something, they used to buy watches and stuff for their teammates. A few years ago they started to buy some Rocket machines or espresso machines for presents.

photo courtesy of Luka Mezgec

Kate Wagner:
How do you make the perfect cup of filter coffee? Because I'm not really an espresso person since I don't have an espresso machine.

Luka Mezgec:
It starts with a grind first. You need a good grinder. Now I'm actually running the Kinu Classic. It's probably one of the best ones with conical burrs. With this one, once it's dialed in, even if it's not on perfect grind size, it's still decent coffee. Then you need a kettle with the temperature adjusting display. So normally I do around 91 or 92 degrees. I pre-wet the filter, heat up the cup. I remove the excess water. Then I put the coffee in. You also need a scale obviously. So I put in five grams of coffee.

Then I do a blooming phase, which is normally water, double weight of the coffee. So for 25 grams of coffee, you put in 50 grams of water. You wait, but it depends on the coffee. Normally I'm like between 27 seconds and 32 at least with the coffees I roll here now from Stow Cafe. And then after that time, I pour another one on about 210 grams, total weight. I wait a little bit, maybe 10, 15 seconds just to see that the water surface went down a bit. I add up slowly up to, so normally I do a 1 to 15 ratio or 1 to 16, again, depends on the type.

And then when it dries down, normally I, always with a stopwatch, have a marker. Now it's dry down time around three minutes. And if it's bitter or a little bit over extracted, then I just make a little bit bigger grind size. So I adjust the grind. But yeah, after two coffees, normally the grind size is correct. I remove the coffees I have here after 2 minutes, 30 seconds, and then I just bypass the water up to where it has to be. So normally I finish with 325 milliliters of water on 25 grams of coffee in two minutes and a half. I realize this is very complicated.

Kate Wagner:
I know we have readers who are really, really into coffee, so it's appreciated. The ritual of all this preparation and measuring and all this, does that appeal to you? To start the day that way?

Luka Mezgec:
Yeah. I mean, sometimes during this time of the day, I'm like bursting to do another coffee, just to see the coffee get wet. It's just so relaxing. And so satisfying. This is the word: satisfying.

1. Editor’s Note: Stow Cafe really is the best place to get a coffee in Ljubljana — Luka isn’t just being a good brand ambassador here. The cup of filter coffee I had there was probably the best coffee I’ve ever had, full stop and it truly is amazing to watch the baristas there make a simple shot of espresso. Stow Coffee is also becoming more and more popular around the city. Another fun place to get a cup is in the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum (SEM) which is where everyone cool goes to get coffee including yours truly, politicians, artists, musicians, and Slavoj Žižek. Also it’s open until 1 AM.