Together

Amongst many other successful projects, our team became well known through winning the 2017 World Barista Championship through a combination of hard work, focus, and a desire to have fun whilst remaining true to ourselves.

Whilst each of us has our own responsibilities and roles in other businesses, we continue to work together on consultancy and projects that excite us and push the industry through new ideas, learning, and collaboration.

Playset is the home of those projects.

hello@playset.coffee

Dale

Dale Harris is the 2017 World Barista Champion, a result achieved after many years competing at the national level in the UK, where he has worked in coffee for the past 12 years.

Starting as a barista in a chain coffee bar and progressing through training and support roles for equipment companies, Dale has spent the last 8 years with Hasbean Coffee, a specialty micro-roaster and online retailer focused on long term relationships across coffees supply chains.

In addition to his work with Hasbean, Dale has been active in a number of community working groups focused on building the global specialty coffee community: as a founding member of the Barista Guild of Europe, he’s held the position of BGE Chair (2014-2015) and Director of SCAE (2015-2016).

Now that he no longer needs time to prepare for competition, Dale spends his “free time” collaborating on short term projects through playset.coffee, baking bread, and walking his dog.

Jenn

Jenn Rugolo is an editor and product manager focused on print and digital communications in specialty coffee, a comfortable role found after years of chasing varied interests down various rabbit holes.

An ex-academic and recovering musician, Jenn holds both a Bachelors of Music Ad Hoc (Northwestern University) and a Masters of Arts in Ethnomusicology (University College Cork) as well as a Diploma in Irish Traditional Music (University College Cork). She has worked for 3FE (Director of Wholesale; Administrative Manager), World Coffee Events (Instructional Design Program Manager; Communications & Marketing Manager), and Facebook (Administrative Assistant, Engineering).

Although she is perhaps best well-known for her work as Managing Director of Tamper Tantrum alongside co-creators Colin Harmon and Stephen Leighton, Jenn is now the Editor of the Specialty Coffee Association’s quarterly magazine, 25.

Jenn spends her “free time” collaborating on short term projects through playset.coffee, preparing slightly obscure chamber music with friend Sarah Ibberson, and learning to make Sichuan food.