What it takes to be the world's best barista
When Anthony Douglas, a 31-year-old barista trainer from Axil Roasters, won the 2022 World Barista Champion title last month he became only the third Australian (and the first Melburnian) to do so.
It may have been his debut appearance on the international stage, but it took him seven years to get there, placing fourth, third, and runner-up (an agonising three times) in the national feeder event, the Australian Barista Championship.
"I just felt overwhelmed with emotion," he says of the moment he was announced world champ. "I did cry a little bit, which I don't normally do. The atmosphere of the crowd, and everyone sort of cheering me on – it felt amazing."
The event is the Olympics of competitive coffee, a strange, high-stakes game in which 50 competitors from across the globe do battle by presenting four espressos, four milk-based coffees and four signature coffee drinks to a panel of certified world judges in under 15 minutes.
Rules for the event – held in September at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre as part of the 2022 Melbourne International Coffee Expo – run to more than 40 pages; baristas spend months and even years training, backed by teams of up to a dozen people; and campaigns can cost as much as $100,000.
So how did Douglas do it? He was born and raised in Noble Park, the eldest of four children whose parents worked in IT and kindergarten teaching. He dropped out of high school before finishing year 11. After a two-year Bakers Delight apprenticeship, he moved to Sydney and served coffee for the first time aged 18 from behind the deli counter of a Spanish restaurant.
"I'd make four or five coffees a day. I just really loved the process … that was the initial attraction. I just liked going through the motions."
At 19, Douglas returned to Melbourne to be closer to family and friends, and applied for barista jobs. He first came across Axil Roasters in 2015 when a barista at his cafe served him an Axil espresso.
"I was just mind-blown because I had never had a coffee experience like that before. It really helped open my eyes to what coffee could be."
Soon after, he applied for work at Axil's Hawthorn flagship store and boss Dave Makin hired him on the spot.
Without knowing it, Douglas had landed in the unofficial institute for competitive coffee.
"I'm a very competitive person by nature," says Makin, a racing car enthusiast and 2008 World Barista Championship runner-up in Copenhagen who encourages staff to compete in regional coffee competitions each year.
Douglas gradually honed his craft, and six months out of this year's event he began preparing a serious campaign with coach Jack Simpson and coffee roaster Matt Crowley. The team tasted 100 coffees before settling on El Diviso, an Anaerobic Natural Sidra from a farm in Huila, Columbia.
Meanwhile, Douglas perfected techniques including "cryodesiccation", a process that concentrates milk flavours by 900 per cent, rehearsed his presentation script and settled on backing music (including a Muse cover of Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf).
Douglas believes 80 per cent of his success came from simply making the best-quality coffee he could and describing it well. That said, there was also his conviction he was always going to win.
"I just couldn't fathom anyone else working as hard as myself and the team had worked. I say that with zero arrogance whatsoever. I just thought we put everything into it this year and I couldn't imagine another result."