The Canberrans: Sasa Sestic
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Sasa Sestic has helped put Canberra on the map internationally—showing the world that the best coffee can, and does, come from the nation’s capital.
Sasa won the World Barista Competition in 2015, after trying to qualify for six years before that.
The founder of ONA coffee is certainly no stranger to competition, having qualified on the Australian handball team for the 2000 Olympics and also made the World Championships.
It was through sport that teenaged Sasa and his family were able to leave their war-torn homeland in Bosnia to resettle in Australia.
Yet coffee overtook handball as his only goal and Sasa has spent the last 20 years building up the ONA empire. Not wanting to leave the workers who grow and pick his coffee in countries across South America, Africa, India and Indonesia behind, Sasa has also established Project Origin.
This is an ethical green bean sourcing company which has ploughed hundreds of thousands of dollars back into the development and support of the coffee-growing communities.
Sasa talks about how COVID put the brakes on his hugely demanding travel itinerary (some years he has spent more than 200 days overseas) and how much coffee he actually drinks each day
Also, his passion for Canberra is clear—the city allowed him to make his dreams a reality and he could not imagine living anywhere else.
In this episode of The Canberrans be prepared to be inspired by Sasa’s enthusiasm for coffee, for Canberra, and for working with a singular focus to achieve his goals.
Listen to the full podcast here.
The Canberrans is a collaboration between Newcast Studios, Lonsdale Street Studio, Salon Canberra and HerCanberra.
