Five standout baristas show there's so much more to making good coffee than grinding, brewing and pouring.
Baristas are not like normal people. They're geeky, focused, borderline obsessives. They live in a strange world of control valves, steam wands and portafilters; of grammage, roast dates and pressure profiling. They write in code: ''XC'', which means a strong cappuccino, and ''SFW!!!'', a skim milk flat white, extra hot.
Determined to find out what makes them tick, I put together a list of five dedicated baristas in Sydney, Newcastle and Canberra. First up is Daniel Karaconji, 30, at Marrickville's Coffee Alchemy, winner of Best Coffee in the inaugural The Sydney Morning Herald Good Cafe Guide.
The softly spoken head barista's introduction to coffee came when helping a friend with a coffee shop in North Sydney while doing a business degree.
Daniel Karaconji from Coffee Alchemy. Daniel Karaconji.
''I just fell in love with the world of coffee - the smell, the people,'' he says. For Karaconji, it's total immersion or nothing.
''The more involved you are, the better,'' he says. ''I try to give people what I think is beautiful coffee, to be fair to all the people who grow the beans, harvest it, transport it, roast it and blend it. There are a lot of people you can let down by making a bad coffee.''
From Newcastle, James Orpe reports the city built on black coal is now going mad about black coffee.
Dominic Majdandzic, Dominic Majdandzic. Photo: Simon Alekna
''Newcastle is really changing fast, developing some great places for serious coffee,'' he says.
In what appears to be an increasing industry norm, Orpe, 32, started in hospitality as a casual. ''I was working in a pub when I was 18 and had to learn how to make coffee because nobody else would.''
Crediting mentors such as Maitland roaster and barista James Carter for infusing him with the passion, he soon started his own coffee company, Rare Roast.
James Orpe, from Coffee On Crown. James Orpe. Photo: Jonathan Carroll
One year ago, he opened his first cafe, Coffee on Crown, with fellow barista Justin Oliver.
''I enjoy making coffee more than I enjoy drinking it,'' he laughs. ''And it's better than doing mechanical engineering.''

Nor is he immune to the obsessional streak all baristas seem to share. ''At the moment, I'm trying to find the perfect glass in which to serve a caffe latte. Until I find it, I'm not serving caffe latte - just flat white in a cup and saucer. It's driving me crazy.''
Sasa Sestic from Ona Coffee House. Sasa Sestic.
At White Horse Coffee in Sutherland, local resident Dominic Majdandzic, 32, is so intent on making good coffee he refuses to put in a phone line. ''You can't answer the telephone and make coffee,'' he says simply.
I want to know why so many of our top baristas are all around the same age.
''We're the Olympic generation,'' he suggests. ''So many of us left school just prior to the 2000 Olympics, when there was a big hospitality push and everyone was doing training courses.''
To him, there's no cap to the barista's knowledge base or skills set. ''You have to remember people and their orders,'' he says. ''You have to be able to work solo under pressure with great elegance and speed. You also have to be able to compete, to jump on stage at a barista championship and wow a panel of your peers.''
Sasa Sestic, 32, of Ona Coffee in Canberra is, coincidentally, just back from competing in the Danes Grand Barista Championship in Thailand, where he won the Australasian section. He is naturally competitive. ''I came to the Sydney 2000 Olympics as a Serbian athlete (European handball),'' he says. ''Then I stayed and got a job in a cafe to improve my terrible English.''
For him, great coffee is all about consistency. ''The coffee is different every day, the weather is different, the milk is different and the customer is different,'' he says.
''So my job is to get to the same standard of excellence every time.''
As well, he says, it's all about the beans. ''We buy as directly as we can, in small micro-lots, so we can build real relationships with our farmers.''
In Surry Hills, Japanese-born Shoji Sasa, 32, is hovering over what appears to be a chemical laboratory at Single Origin Roasters' new next-door neighbour, Sideshow. He arrived from Tokyo in 2000 ''not for the coffee but to learn English''. He washed dishes for three years before getting the opportunity to make coffee.
He is considered one of the finest baristas in the country. ''I'm always learning, always thinking about how to make a better coffee,'' he says.
''It might mean a slight change to the grind, or the dosing level, or the volume of milk in the jug. You have to concentrate very hard to get every single coffee you make to 100 per cent of its potential.''
Sideshow, he says, is designed to showcase individual qualities of single-origin beans in a range of brewing methods.
''I love that people are starting to appreciate the coffee itself and the purity of its flavours,'' he says. ''That makes me happy.''

WHERE TO FIND THEM

Coffee Alchemy 24 Addison Road (corner Cook Road), Marrickville, 9516 1997.
Coffee on Crown 3 Crown Street, Newcastle, 4023 3118.
White Horse Coffee Shop 2, 137 Flora Street, Sutherland.
Ona Coffee House 1/68 Wollongong Street, Fyshwick, Canberra, 6162 3320.
Single Origin Roasters 60 Reservoir Street, Surry Hills, 9211 0665.