SEATTLE, USA – Australian Barista Sasa Sestic (in the PICTURE with Nando Ottavi, Presidente Nuova Simonelli) won the 2015 World Barista Championship. The founder of ONA Coffee took out the title at the World Barista Championships in Seattle on Sunday.
Charles Babinski of G&B Coffee in the United States (2nd place) and Ben Put of Canada’s Monogram Coffee (3rd) completed the podium (PICTURE).
They were followed by Chan Kwun Ho of China’s The Cupping Room (4th), Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood of the UK’s Colonna & Smalls (5th) and independent barista Charlotte Maval of France (6th).
Sestic becomes the second Australian to win the WBC, following Paul Bassett of Bassett Espresso, who won the title in Boston in 2003.
Sestic had been training full time for the world championships, working with a network of fellow champion baristas, including last year’s winner Hidenori Izaki of Japan, report local media.
A former handball champion (he played in the Australian national team at Sydney Olympics in 2000), Sasa lives in Canberra with his family and runs ONA Coffee.
He supplies coffee all over the ACT and is now venturing out into regional NSW, and recently into Queensland with his gourmet coffee blends. He also founded Project Origin which works with producers and coops.
