#ONA COFFEE FULL#

This time, however, the father of two is careful to find a balance between family and competition life, choosing to train early in the mornings and find the balance he says former WBC competitors Matthew Lewin and Hugh Kelly found. Seven years ago, Sasa would dedicate every waking moment to his competition routine.

I’m so happy I decided to come back and compete with reasons that are genuine and honest, and the goal to make better coffee than what it was before.” Competition is the best way to get the best out of myself. Without a timeline and goal in place, I don’t think I would have achieved the end result or depth of research I have, as fast as I have, if I did not compete. “To get back into the ring, I needed a reason to come back that was true and honest,” Sasa says. This time, Sasa has gone down the filter rabbit hole with a newfound determination to understand brewing “at a crazy level”, even turning his Canberra office into a brew bar. The last time Sasa competed in a competition stage was the 2015 World Barista Championship (WBC) where he celebrated espresso and introduced carbonic maceration (CM) processing.

#ONA COFFEE FULL#

It’s how we perceive the value of a coffee, but I wanted the opportunity to go further and explore its full potential, beyond cupping it,” Sasa says. When we judge and buy coffees at farm level, we cup filter coffee. It made me question everything I knew about it. “I couldn’t understand why, so I started to think more deeply about brewing in general. Restricted from travel and visits to origin, Sasa would challenge his 19-year-old son Aleks to ‘brew-off’ challenges, with Aleks often beating the 2015 World Barista Champion and Founder of Ona coffee and Project Origin. Like many coffee professionals during the past two years of lockdowns, Sasa Sestic brewed more coffee at home than he did at his café and roastery.