Sandro Roth never expected coffee to change his life. He was an industrial designer, leading a design team, holding the kind of position many people spend years working toward. From the outside, it looked ideal. But inside, he felt a quiet heaviness — a feeling that the life he had built didn’t match the life he truly wanted.
When the world suddenly slowed down in 2020, that silence forced him to confront something he had been avoiding: What actually matters? He and his wife sat down together to search for their IKIGAI (a reason for being) — the things that truly remain when everything unnecessary is stripped away.
Sandro Roth
“After crossing everything out, two words remained: coffee and cocktails.”
That clarity didn’t lead to an immediate career switch, but to something small and powerful: a daily act of discipline. They joined the “100 Day Project.” Every day, Sandro created a new coffee cocktail and posted it online. Every day, his wife illustrated plants and bones for her project “Bones x Botanicals.” What started as a creative ritual during a strange, uncertain time unexpectedly built momentum and connection.
“What began as a creative experiment grew into a journey of discipline, creativity, and self-discovery.”
One day, a message came that shifted everything. The reigning Swiss Coffee in Good Spirits Champion wrote to him: “I’ll probably see you at the championships.” Sandro had no idea those competitions even existed. He wasn’t a barista. He wasn’t a bartender. He was simply a designer mixing drinks at home, trying to find meaning in a year full of uncertainty. But curiosity can be louder than fear. He trained, learned, made mistakes, and kept showing up — even though imposter syndrome followed him everywhere.
At one point, he decided he needed real-world grounding, not just creativity at home. So he spent time working in a local coffee shop run by another industrial designer. It wasn’t glamorous, and it wasn’t a career move. It was humility. It was learning the rhythm of service, the pressure of a busy shift, and the way coffee connects with people beyond competitions.
“That shop connected my design background with hands-on coffee experience… and even today, I still take shifts there whenever I can.”
This is where Sandro’s story becomes bigger than coffee. He realized something most people avoid their whole lives: comfort is a trap. And so is leaning on talent.
“Talent can be just as dangerous as comfort… People lean on what they’re naturally good at and stop pushing. What really matters is discipline and persistence.”
Stepping into the competition world as an outsider — without barista training, without café years behind him — was intimidating. He describes himself as someone who always preferred working behind the scenes, someone who thrived when locked in a room with a problem to solve. But competitions placed him under lights, on stage, in front of strangers. Facing that fear became one of the most important parts of his journey, shaping everything that came after.
Copenhagen became the turning point — not because of the trophy, but because of the moment his name was called among the finalists.
“That was my true goal — to make the finals as an outsider. When they called my name, the pressure melted away. Everything after that was a gift.”
Walking onto the stage for the finals, he no longer felt the weight of proving himself. He presented freely, joyfully, aligned with who he actually was — a designer applying design thinking to coffee cocktails. But even now, he doesn’t talk about it as winning. He talks about it as proof that stepping into the unknown can lead you to a version of yourself you never knew existed.
Sandro Roth, Swiss SCA SCF 2023 – Group photo & Prize giving – J. Groep
After competing, Sandro made a deliberate decision: he stepped back. He believes competition stages shouldn’t belong to the same people forever. “If you get a shot on the world stage, use it wisely. But if you don’t succeed, step aside and let the next person try.” Today, he teaches, supports, and shares instead of collecting more trophies. He still creates coffee cocktails, but what excites him most now is shifting people’s perception of what a coffee drink can be — even the simplest ones without alcohol. Meanwhile, he didn’t abandon design. He fused it with coffee. Together with his wife, he built their own design studio, where their coffee projects and creative work live under the same roof.
For Sandro, success has never been about winning. It’s about freedom — the freedom to do what he loves in a way that feels authentic.
“The journey itself is the reward — the discipline, the risks, the creativity, the people you meet.”
His greatest challenge has been balancing coffee and design, two worlds that once felt separate but have now merged completely. The workload is heavy, the boundaries blur, but it’s the life he chose — a life built on passion instead of comfort.
Sandro doesn’t measure his achievement by titles. He measures it by whether he can give people courage.
“Comfort is a trap because it keeps you from chasing what you really want. Talent is a trap because it makes you think you don’t need to work hard. What really matters is discipline and persistence. Some people told me that the harder I worked, the luckier I got — and I think there’s truth in that.”
For him, inspiring others to step outside their safe space is the real victory. Every time someone tells him his story gave them courage, he feels closer to that goal.
At I’M NOT A BARISTA, we look for human stories — stories that remind us that coffee is a place where anyone can reinvent themselves. Sandro isn’t inspiring because he won anything. He is inspiring because he chose courage, every day, until courage reshaped his life. He reminds us that you don’t need to be “somebody” to start. You don’t need permission. You don’t need the perfect background. You just need to take one small step — again and again — until your life begins to shift. And when it does, titles, opportunities, recognition… they become byproducts, not goals.
