Nody and Valeria: A Coffee Story

"There was once a Baukalo (big, wild cat) in town. Living in the yam field. When the sun goes down and it gets dark at night, the Baukalo comes out of the field. It goes to the houses where children are crying”.

This is the Addu version of the folk tale that was told years ago to stop children from crying at night. It was also sung as a lullaby. Well, the big cat still lives in Addu. This is the story of how Nazish Ahmed and Valeria Ogneva domesticated the Baukalo.

Nazish was sitting in a chair outside the cafe that the couple had ‘accidentally’ opened. he was waiting for us, but the cafe is open to everyone on the Feydhoo Link Road. The walls of the cafe are the same cream colour as milk coffee. On top of the cream, the cafe's name 'Nody's Coffee' is written in black coffee colour in bold English letters. A large cat is illustrated on the glass window of the place. Not a realistic cat, a cute drawing, symbolic for the big cat that prowls the yam field in the children's story. As soon as I got off the bike, he invited me to sit down and started telling me about his Baukalo.

Nazish mainly just grinds and makes coffees with two Baukalo’s. Coffee beans from around the world are crushed to produce various coffee blends. This is his job and career as well. He first met his partner, Russian-born Valeria Ogneva, over coffee. This is the story of this couple, and how they turned their passion for coffee into a business together. How they discovered what everyone meant when they asked for a ‘hard coffee’. This is also the story of how two cats became brands*.

Nazish's coffee journey began in late 2011 when he went to work at a resort. Coincidentally, Nazish became employed at the resort during a rebranding period. At the time, the management was talking about roasting its own coffee after the rebranding.

“I had a very boring job,” Nazish described his time at the resort.

Going to the resort and not having much work to do as a barman, Nazish decided to do something different.

"I wanted to make the coffees different in some way. So I started putting the names of all the guests (on the coffees) when they ordered," Nazish said.

During his time at the resort, Nazish worked as a barman for five years. He scored on Valeria, who was at the resort conducting a training, through one of his delicious coffees.

"One day while I was at the bar, Valeria came for a coffee. That's how we met," Nazish said.

Valeria is also a coffee enthusiast. Valeria ordered a latte that day. Nazish served her the cup of coffee with a heart design on the foam and Valeria's name written inside it. The story of this couple begins with that cup of coffee.

Drawing names on coffee became an art, and instead of writing just names, Nazish started making intricate art on the coffee foam. For exactly 30 days, he did it every day, without missing a single day. Nazish then took a vacation to further hone his coffee grinding skills and headed to South Africa. There was no turning back now.

The couple flew from one end of the world to the other to learn about coffee. They went to Germany, South Korea, Russia and Malaysia to learn all about coffee roasting. Both have now completed WSET Grade 1 and Grade 2.

"In WSET, we have to smell 100 or 140 different scents. They will give us a variety of smells. We have to close our eyes and write down what it is. To pass, we have to score above 98," Nazish said.

Nazish moved his life to his native Feydhoo, and this is where he realised the difficulties in finding a good cup of coffee. Meanwhile there were friends inviting them for coffees left and right.

"But when we go somewhere, it's all complaints. There is this missing or that weird taste. So we brought ourselves a small roaster that we can roast at home so that we can drink our own quality coffee," Nazish said.

Then the pressure began to mount upon the house. At one point, it became obvious that a smaller roaster would not do, he said. So he made an order for a larger machine, just as he was entering the court to marry Valeria.

"About 30 minutes before we went into the courtroom, I messaged a roasting machine manufacturer saying we needed a customised machine. Two days after the wedding, we paid for it," Nazish said.

With the big machine, there is plenty of coffee roasted. They invited the public to try their own blends. Gradually, the demand for it grew, and the idea of opening a coffee shop arose.

With a strong plan and a distinctive brand, the couple presents a totally unique and delicious blend of coffee. Previously, coffee roasting was just a hobby. Coffee art was part of that hobby. Now it has expanded into a coffee roasting lab and an outlet for everyone to enjoy the best-quality coffee.

"We were driving this way one day (in front of where the cafe is now) and someone called and said he was coming to our house for coffee. Then the thought occurred to me that everyone was coming directly to the production room for coffee. Friends and strangers, both. According to health and safety hazards, I cannot allow people into the production area”, Nazish said.

"So I asked right away if there was a place I could rent. He showed me this place directly, and we opened the cafe within 12 days. We already had the machinery and everything we needed to start”.

Valeria did all the research; the tastes of the local clientele, and the times they preferred to drink coffee, and so on. Nazish describes the cafe as incidental because of the speed with which it all happened. It was never something he and Valeria had planned before.

Baukalo is, in short, a unique blend that Nazish developed after much hard and tedious work to find out what people actually meant when they most commonly asked for a 'hard coffee'.

"Everyone comes and says, 'Give me a hard coffee’. What hard coffee is this? What does it mean?” Nazish described his curiosity in wishing to discover the exact blend that locals meant when they asked for this hard-coffee all the time.

Nazish and Valeria spent a year making different blends using different coffee beans.

"We came up with very tasty blends. But the people didn’t like it much. So we had to discover what the people meant when they asked for the ‘hard-coffee’. Is it an extremely pungent blend or did it mean high caffeine content for immediate alertness?"

The so-called hard coffee was discovered by mixing three single origins. The Baukalo blend, a blend of coffee beans from Brazil, Colombia and Honduras, turned out to be popular with the locals.

Then the next question is, why did they name the blend Baukalo, meaning the folk cat? Nazish wanted to have a name that would be easily remembered, and close to Maldivian hearts. He was going around not knowing what to call it and it was his pet cat that inspired him in the end.

“We spent about two months undecided on what to call this blend,” says Nazish.

"One day while I was in deep thought, our cat came and bumped into my leg. Reflexively I told the cat ‘Go away, Baukalo’. At that moment I thought, hey, thats what I should call the product: Baukalo!”

"We have a white cat and a black cat. So, we made two blends (to match). Baukalo Black is a strong coffee. White is a light coffee."

When he announced that the coffee would be called Baukalo, Valeria went into research again. A brief summary of the stories appears on the back of the sealed packets of the Baukalo blend.

Nazish took me into the cafe, telling me all about Baukalo. The interior is soothing. A board on one wall briefly tells the story of the place. There was also a photo of Nazish with his wife and of their two cats.

The service is also different. Instead of asking the customer what they want, the server or barista asks ‘How are you’. The rest is left to the barista, who will prepare a drink that matches the customer’s mood at that time. A hot cappuccino is known as a 'Hunuccino' while a cold one is called a ‘Finiccino’ at Nody’s. Or maybe 'Something Coconut' or it could be a cold coffee brewed in Nazish’s coffee lab. There are other interesting drinks for non-coffee drinkers as well.

Luckily, Nazish was my barista that day. According to my mood, Nazish served me a Baukalo black. Cold, because it was a hot day. I really am not a coffee enthusiast and don’t really drink specialty coffees at all, so he brought me coffee and gave me a scientific lesson about coffee. I listened carefully, whilst dunking a cookie into my coffee and sipping it slowly.

Everything in this business is shared by the couple. Valeria specialises in marketing, public relations and finance. Nazish is involved in coffee recipes and coffee roasting. Although he owns the cafe, this is what he actually likes to do.

"This cafe wasn't in the plan either. I just want to be in the lab to roast coffee. Everything here is done by my wife and me. She’s 'the one'”.

Valeria now lives thousands of kilometres away from her homeland, but she also sees Nazish's hometown of Feydhoo as her home. The couple is very happy today to bring what they have learned and experienced from different parts of the world to Addu and the people of Maldives.

The coffee story stretched on, until it was dark. It was time for the folk Baukalo to start prowling. I hurried to get home as well. Nazish went and sat down, where he was when I first met him. The cafe's lights turned on for the night and the big Baukalo on the side window looked even better. There sat the Baukalo with its eyes narrowed, looking at everyone who passes by. Baukalo is no longer a folk tale in Addu. It has been brought to life as Nazish and Valeria's original coffee brand, one that is uniquely Maldivian.