from an interview with Ashlee Minto. June 2017

1. How were you first introduced to the coffee industry?

 I started making coffee as part of my family’s cafe/gallery in country Tasmania Mt Field National Park, no one really understood the coffee machine and I took it upon myself to get up to speed. This eventually led to a small espresso bar owned by my family in Melbourne's inner suburbs. It was a tough gig initially, everything I had quickly learned in Tasmania seemed irrelevant to the brutal high skill, high volume required of a Melbourne Barista. I realized to competently manage the bar I was going to have to take it to the next level.

I used every connection I had, which at that point were mainly our wholesale coffee suppliers Axil Coffee Roasters in Hawthorn. Dave Makin and Jessie Hyde were complete legends, they allowed me to go down and spin jugs in their store and train with their guys. I was hooked, the scene the vibe, Melbourne’s cafe scene was pumping! I would go to my own store after a 10 hour day and practice making coffee for another few hours, often well into the night. Eventually when we sold this I moved into managing other peoples operations, but it never occurred to me to leave the industry.

 2. Why Brisbane?

 It’s been said that great coffee does not exist in a vacuum, to be discovered and appreciated by the community it needs to not only be made properly but presented well. This often includes excellent food to accompany and of course great customer service.

Brisbane has an emerging foodie culture and the marketplace up here is much more willing to try new (often unconventional) things. I’m stoked to be able to offer my own insights and to feed off the melting pot of ideas surrounding the Brisbane scene.

3. What made you want to start competing?

I initially started competing to get better; comps force you to examine extra things about your technique which you simply do not consider in a typical cafe.

I also see it as a great way of directly expressing your own innermost beliefs and sensibilities as a barista and developing your own creative coffee approach.

For example by making extraction of soluble compounds a focus in my signature drink in Victorian Regional’s in 2017 I was forced to not only go back and refresh my knowledge of coffee extraction but I needed to study and understand liquid extraction on an even deeper level because every ingredient of that drink was being extracted in its own special way. What I thought were universal truths of beverage extraction didn’t always seem to work when I was forced to put my theories to the test.

 4. What do you think is the most challenging element to competing (ie. prep, practice, presentation)?

Trying to stand out, the judges are looking for more than just a good coffee; they need a memorable coffee experience.

They need a barista who can demonstrate a high level of technical craftsmanship combined with a flair for presentation.

Of course following on from this I would say that trying to communicate your own innermost coffee ideas within 15 minutes while simultaneously making 12 drinks is incredibly hard in itself.    

5. What is your FAVORITE brewing method and why?

Espresso, hands down.

The level of variation in taste and nuances of different flavors are just colossal. No other brewing method is as hard to get right and my desire to break it down and examine its many mysteries will keep me busy for the rest of my life. Just like with the wine industry we will have only just scratched the surface even with another 300+ years of development.

6. As a café manager, what’s your best tip for someone wanting to progress in the coffee scene?

Go out and taste other peoples coffees, it seems like a no brainer but I’ve met a lot of senior managers over the years that have been unwilling to go out to cuppings and experience other roasters coffees. Buy coffee beans, don’t just settle for what your employers supply at work. Go out and try other people’s blends. Before I left Melbourne and had been just about everywhere in the city. I was ordering at least one 250g bag of coffee online to slurp at home a week, sometimes before finishing the last one I bought! Having such a wave of background knowledge of what worked and what made the coffee better previously is a powerful tool to bring to bear at 6.30 in the morning when that pesky single origin just ain’t tasting right.

 As a manager I would say try and understand that not every member of staff wants to do this forever, and that is just fine. But take it as a personal mission to get every member of staff up to speed and making serviceable coffee. Because the more investment you have made in staff the less you have to hire new people.