Ona Coffee sets up specialty coffee shop in Canberra
In a market previously dominated by the coffee giants, a shared passion for coffee has brought together a group of friends to create ONA Coffee and ride its wave of success.
Canberra coffee drinkers should thanks their lucky stars that Serbia didn’t win gold in European handball at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
The defeat for the former communist nation was a win for Australia’s capital, as it turned player Sasa Stetic’s attention away from the game and into Australia’s specialty coffee scene to establish ONA Coffee. Four years on, the boutique company is making its mark in a city formerly ruled by coffee king pins. The once small-time roaster is now supplying over 1000kg a week to approximately 70 cafés around the ACT region and breaking into the Queensland and NSW markets, while running four of their own flagship stores.
One would think that overseeing the growth of this operation would be enough work to keep Sasa busy, but his personal obsession with coffee has kept him behind the machine. This is the third year in a row that he’s dominated the ACT barista championship to represent the state at the national level. It was a welcome sight at the Australian Specialty Coffee Championship to have a competitor introduced as not just a representative, but the owner of a well-known coffee brand. It would seem that while Sasa has switched games, he can’t shake off his competitive spirit.
“Competing in coffee is very similar to sport,” he says. “No matter how much you train and practice, there are still no guarantees.”
From his initial introduction to coffee, Sasa got his start in the industry when he bought a café in the ACT suburb of Manuka. The more he worked in coffee, the more his passion grew and his desire for a better coffee bean. This drove him to start roasting on his own, and he set up shop in a small storage unit, the historic beginning that would spark ONA Coffee.
“He’s just one of those guys, every single thought he has is about coffee,” says Jack Sheeren, ONA Coffee’s marketing manager. “Even when you go for a beer with him, it’s like every conversation always turns back to coffee.”
At the time, the third wave scene hadn’t really taken hold in Canberra, explains Jack, with the specialty coffee scene more or less non-existent. As Sasa experimented with coffee, he found himself in good company. Word spread about ONA Coffee, bringing together the city’s colourful coffee fanatics.
To this day, the ONA Coffee team see themselves more as a close group of friends than co-workers. Jack credits the company’s rapid growth to this natural synergy. As the group grew and splintered, and people took off to start up their own cafés, they brought Sasa’s beans with them. Four years on, ONA Coffee can be found all over the city.
“The Canberra community has really taken us on, it’s because we’re doing something really different,” says Jack. “Along the way, we’ve just had this organic growth.”
From the first café in Manuka, you can now find ONA cafés in Belcoonen and Tuggeranong, as well as a Fyshwick location the company moved into six months ago to upgrade their roaster facilities.
Advanced barista skills are also a renewed focus for the group. The company regularly holds four levels of formal training sessions for baristas to ensure a consistent quality of the final product, and people in the community interested in improving their coffee making skills. This includes beginning, intermediate, advanced, and latte art classes.
“With clients, we want to make sure they’re really producing great coffee,” says Jack. “If we see a bad review about one of our cafés anywhere, we make sure that we get down there right away to work with them and get it right.”
To improve their own barista talent ahead of the national championships, ONA Coffee brought in industry guru Scottie Callaghan to help them brush up on their skills. After dominating the top three positions in the ACT championship, Angus Mackie and Sam Corra joined Sasa in the Gold Coast at the nationals. While Angus and Sam took part in the open competition on the first day of the nationals, as the reigning state champion Sasa went straight through to the semi-finals. As the reigning ACT Latte Art Champion and Cup Tasting Champion, Sam also competed in the semi-finals of those categories.
Before joining the ONA team, Sam had worked at a few different cafés around town. He found an easy fit among passionate coffee enthusiasts at ONA, and going into the competition felt pretty confident he could match up against his more southern peers.
“When I used to go to Melbourne, with all that they knew, I really felt behind,” says Sam. “What I’ve learned in the last eight months has doubled my knowledge.”
ONA Coffee also took part for the first time last year in the Cup of Excellence competition, bidding on lot 19 from the Nicaraguan category. To make their decision, they brought in people from the community, friends and family, to help them pick their nomination. This meant teaching people about the cupping process. By involving as many people as they could, they were hoping to spread their coffee passion.
“Our involvement in Cup of Excellence is a symbol of our dedication to producing the highest quality coffee, and improving the industry right from the farm,” says Jack. “We’re building the industry as well as ourselves. Our goal is to educate the community about how coffee can be appreciated. It’s hard to say as a company where we’re heading. For us it’s all about passion for coffee, and we pick up people along the way who want to share that passion.”
The company is also looking at building a direct supply relationship with their farms, starting with a family in the Marcala region of Honduras.
“This relationship aims to help us work closer with the farmers to instill processes and practices that tailor the green beans for our roast profiles and desired flavour characteristics,” he explains. “In return the farmers are value adding at the source and receiving a more premium price. We’ve agreed to pay an even higher price to help contribute to local schools by buying books for the local library. This relationship allows ourselves, the farmers and the communities to reap full benefits from the industry.”
It’s an impressive insight for a company that’s had such a short time in the market. Having experienced such rapid growth, it will be an interesting time to see where ONA Coffee is heading, and the influence they’ll have on the Australian specialty coffee scene.
“We’re exploring our passion for coffee, and taking people on the ride with us,” says Jack.
