In the first days after his win, Craig listed all the areas that needed his attention: organising another shipment of his coffee; fine-tuning the table setting; checking the presentation equipment; arranging transportation; booking flights and hotels; securing sponsorship to assist with the significant costs associated with competing in another country, particularly with Australia being quite far away in terms of distance and travel time in relation to most other countries. Not to mention, loads of practice and presentation run-throughs anywhere he could squeeze it in.

Friday, May 11: the excitement really starts to build, as we get a bit of a sneak peek (courtesy of smartphones and Facebook) at the bags that had been specially prepared for the shipping of Craig’s coffee from El Salvador. The coffee is complete with World Barista Champion logo, as prepared by Emilio Lopez of M Cuatro Single Origins, Finca El Manzano, in honour of the role this particular coffee would play.

Tuesday, June 5: the competition coffee shipment arrives – just in time for roasting! In the lead up of course, did we mention more practice? There was loads of practice on a competition-calibrated Nuova Simonelli espresso machine, bought specially by Veneziano Coffee Roasters. Craig spent many hours pulling shot after shot and making hundreds of adjustments to his blend.

Craig roasted the coffees (he blended two different coffees from Finca El Manzano) over several days, to ensure that he took to Vienna a minimum of three different ages for each day of practice and during the competition. A total of 46 kilos of coffee was taken over to Vienna!

Then it was time to prepare for the mammoth task of packing. In addition to the coffee, the specially designed table setting, milk jugs, containers, storage vessels, back-up cups and glasses, signature drink ingredients meant this was no mean feat. All up, the entire “package” was the size of about five crates, weighing in at a whopping 130 kg (including the coffee).

At this point, it’s probably fit to mention the unwavering support of the sponsors. A massive thanks to Qantas, Da Vinci, Disavè Espresso Equipment Suppliers and of course, Pura Milk. Without them, Craig would never have got all of his equipment over to Vienna, and he is most grateful for that.

Friday, June 8: time for the next big milestone – the much anticipated flight that saw Craig fly out of Melbourne and had him arriving at destination Vienna on Saturday, June 9. Consider the eight hour time difference (behind AEST) and the jet lag that did its best to hang around (try going to bed when your body clock thinks it should be waking up, and vice versa). It meant Craig, known as a night owl (as befits his Jazz musician background) found himself up with the birds, walking the streets of Vienna.

Saturday, June 9: the Vienna School of Coffee kindly opened its doors, in the lead up to the competition, allowing competitors access to competition machines, giving the champion baristas a bit of a practice workout before they hit the world stage. They also provided around 10 different brands of local milk, so Craig and his team spent the afternoon making cappuccinos in order to select the best milk for his cappuccino course.

Sunday, June 10: the second day of practice was spent on making refinements to the blend itself. Due to a technical hitch with water pressure, there was a backlog for practice times, but the ANZAC alliance held true, with Aymon (NZ champion) and Craig sharing a machine.

The atmosphere at the school was friendly and relaxed, with many of the baristas who had met each other previously enjoying the time to catch up, taste each other’s coffee and sometimes, even offering advice!

According to Craig, it was this practice time spent sharing coffees with all the other competitors, “that was probably the most fun and actually one of the highlights of the trip”.

Monday, June 11: Craig had a day off from cupping coffee and spent the time preparing his signature drink ingredients.

Tuesday, June 12: by midnight, the table setting is all prepared, everything is polished, packed and arranged neatly ready for the next morning’s heat. Emilio (Lopez, the owner of Finca El Manzano) had arrived from El Salvador to support Craig. They share a final cupping of the coffee, to ensure it’s behaving as it should in the cup. Craig also has his final moments to psyche himself up for the big event. The pressure is really mounting.

Wednesday, June 13: luck of the draw puts Craig in the first time slot of the day, which is ideally the position that most competitors would like to avoid. A slight case of the nerves kicks in, as 8am is not his best hour of the day, but Craig has jetlag to work in his favour, and he is up and at the convention centre at 6am, preparing to go on stage.

Craig goes out there and puts on his best for Australia, managing to contain his initial nerves with a much more relaxed second half of the presentation and finishing with a second to spare. Unfortunately, he missed out on a place in the semi finals by a mere eight points!

It was an exceptional first attempt at the world title and one that Veneziano Coffee Roasters and all the industry compatriots are extremely proud of. (With the exception of Gwilym Davies, no other barista has ever competed for the first time in the World Barista Championship and won). All of this year’s finalists were seasoned competitors who had competed on the world stage on a number of occasions.

Craig, like many other Australian baristas out there, is now even more inspired to reach great heights in next year’s competition, ever since the announcement that Melbourne will host the 2013 event, and he’s already in the planning.