Alexandra Kosova
Introduces bean-to-bar cacao to the menus of coffee shops and other HoReCa projects through recommendations, consulting, training, product selection, supply organisation and support, and assistance with cacao menu development. A specialist in tasting, pairing, beverage menu introduction, cacao evaluation and chocolate flavour profiling. Judge in the preliminary round of the Chocolate of the Year Award from 2022 to 2024, and a technical judge for the Chocolate of the Year Award since 2025. Head judge of Chocolate Battle, Russia’s first cacao beverage preparation championship, since 2024. Produces CHOCAO, a retail bean-to-bar chocolate product made to be drunk… with purpose.
Konstantin Didenko
Operations Bar Manager at Lucky Group Bar Manager of Alaska Pool Club Founder and curator of the APP of SKILLS educational platform Instructor at the Roman Toroshchin Training Centre Curator of the educational programme at the GRADUSY festival One of the organizers of bar hub EXPO, the largest annual event in the bar industry Speaker at numerous professional industry events
Vladimir Lisovoy
Head judge and coordinator of the Barista of the Year Award. Head judge of Russia’s regional and national latte art championships. Head judge of the Brew Battle championship. Sensory and technical judge at regional and national Specialty Coffee Association championships. Judge for the international Cup of Excellence Alliance. Organiser and judge of Russian aroma championships. Director of Training at the Korean SCENTONE aroma institute. Ambassador for the Cafema company.
Polina Vladimirova
Head judge of the national Roaster of the Year Award, creator of training programmes at the HiBeans Practicum, Russia’s first Q Grader and the first instructor to certify the absolute majority of Russia’s current Q Graders.
Yulia Malysheva
Head judge of Tea Masters Cup Russia. Has 14 years of experience in the tea industry. Works at the Confucius Institute of the Russian State University for the Humanities as a Tea Meetings host and as the author and lecturer of the course “Chinese and Global Tea Cultures: History and Practice”. Studied at Moscow tea schools: the Tea Museum; the Tea Culture Club in the Hermitage Garden; Shamil Peyu’s school; S. E. Andreev’s tea school; and S. A. Kosheverov’s seminars. Winner of the Tea Masters Cup 2013 championship in the Tea Tasting category.