When you live and work with inspiration you can turn even the most insignificant detail into art. And the secret is treating things with love, watching the world with wide-open eyes and following your own path in life, though it can sometimes turn rough and winding.

Petya Stoycheva first fell in love with a dream and then looked for ways to make it happen. And, now, for already six months she has been waking up the senses with the refreshing scent of coffee. Her stylish café called Dea Coffee in the lovely city of Plovdiv has attracted an increasing number of visitors with the bright colors of its painted chairs, a blackboard with offers in handwriting and brick effects in the wall. All this creates an atmosphere of a doll's house, the perfect place to sip a refreshing cup of coffee on your way to office life. Every time customers return for more, there is a surprise for them.

“My dream was to open a small café - nice and snug, not crowded, and a good place to have a chat with visitors', Petya Stoycheva says. “So the motto of the café is: 'We do not have customers; we've got guests.' It is a ritual with us to welcome and see off every guest. This is a way to make acquaintances and the contact is really good.”

The young lady has aided the materialization of her dream by learning barista skills. She has completed two specialized courses. One of them is recognized across Europe. However, the heart of the matter is the so-called latte art - or coffee design which has inspired her to discover a world of rich taste, intense aromas and plenty of passion. In fact her inspiration has been German barista Dritan Alsela whose art of a designer with a jug of milk in his hand is known worldwide. What is more, Petya even made a visit to Germany to fine-tune her latte art skills - by learning from the famous master himself.

“There are several techniques of drawing on coffee. To make a good drawing one needs some nice milk foam without bubbles. This is in fact one of the techniques - using a jug of milk and milk foam. For the other technique the artist needs a special ballpoint for latte art. Toppings are used as well - everything is up to the imagination of the designer. Drawings are sometimes devised in advance, and on other occasions they are created on the spot - for a guest of the café. We are often addressed by people who ask us to make inscriptions or drawings for birthdays or other family occasions. For whatever we have created though we have had no negative reaction so far.”

The name of the café Dea Coffee includes a word for goddess and it is trying to offer the best of quality. By the way, the risk of spoiling coffee is high. A sign of spoiled coffee is the dominance of bitter taste, Petya Stoycheva explains.

Looking at her one can hardly imagine that this slender lady has until recently been keen on karting. She is holder of the Bulgaria Cup and is a champion of the Republic of Macedonia. She has even had a try in football. Today though, her passion is coffee and her café, Dea Coffee.

Besides offering coffee prepared in many different ways - espresso, filtration, Turkish coffee pot, French press, she fascinates customers with homemade pastries and interesting cocktails, with coffee, of course. Hardly, however, many of us can boast of having tried sandwiches with coffee. Now anybody can do so at Dea Coffee, where with the help of Darin Stoykov, a finalist in a culinary TV show, guests can have some bread from flour made by a stone mill with ham, fresh salad, fresh pink tomato and mayonnaise ... with coffee. And all this prepared with the right ingredients in the recipe for success of Petya Stoycheva - love and passion for coffee and a friendly attitude to people.

English Daniela Konstantinova