Story by DEMELZA JONES

As a waitress in Edinburgh, I was asked to make a round of coffees for a table in a restaurant. Can’t be that hard, I thought.

So I did what I thought I should, pressed the buttons and flicked the switches, and it felt more like flying an aeroplane than making a coffee – needless to say, they were pretty average cuppas.
I remember being enamoured with a boy who could make different milk types for different coffees – how on Earth does he do it? He’s not doing anything different from me, I thought. That’s probably the exact minute my journey began, and I didn’t even know it.

I got married in 2012 and honeymooned in Hawaii, where I somehow convinced my new husband to visit the coffee plantations in Kona and sit through seemingly endless and in-depth presentations on all aspects of farm processing. I visited trade shows like MICE and worked in Leagues Club cafés, little roadside cafés and everything in between, before I finally landed a management role in a super high volume specialty coffee job at my local university.

It was madness. Highly skilled, beautifully poured – madness. I had never seen anything like this before. Thousands of coffees each prepared with such care and precision and with lightning speed every day – I thought, if I could make it here, I could do ANYTHING in this industry. The baristas had a reputation; everybody wanted to be their friend and try to talk coffee with them – they were like campus stars.

However, I was the new girl – trying my hardest to level up and learn as quickly as I could to try and match the skill sets of the existing staff. I didn’t need to be the cool guy; I needed to learn everything I could about coffee as quickly as I could.

Those baristas slowly left one by one to join their friends in other successful local coffee ventures, and soon enough I realised that people were talking to me over the coffee machine like they would talk to the old crew – asking about roasting and preparation specs of the beans or the single O we were using, and I knew (most of) the answers.

Now I have a totally new crew on board across two outlets, some with experience and some who started with none. I have trained them and nurtured them into the brilliant baristas they are today – and I am as proud as punch of what they have achieved.

I make it a point to never exude that air of exclusivity or sometimes unwelcoming vibe that you can get from some baristas/coffee folk. Coffee is a beautiful industry and the more people know about it, the better. I love to help new baristas fine tune their techniques and answer any technical questions to aid them on their coffee journey.

After volunteering at the inaugural World’s Richest Barista Competition, I was inspired to start a comp of my own. So in 2015 I formed and facilitated the University of Wollongong’s Barista Comp and Latte Art Smack-down. This helped bring the campus coffee community together and have a forum to skill up, meet other baristas and coffee professionals and to bring some healthy competition to the campus. Baristas from my outlets have taken home the gold each year, which makes me so proud and honoured to be the mentor of so many talented young folk – and tells me I must be doing something right. I can’t wait to see the friendships that are formed and the talent that graces the stage next year.

After starting as a causal barista only a few years ago, now I manage and mentor a group of around 30 staff across two outlets, work at high profile coffee industry events and trade shows, host my very own annual barista comp and train groups of people in all aspects of specialty coffee.  Even though I am nowhere near my end goal of opening my own Barista School, I know I am well on the way. Everyone needs to start somewhere.

I still learn things every day, and that’s part of why I love working with coffee – it’s a blessing to be in this industry, and I don’t want to miss a single bean of it.

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