WHO IS ONA?
ONA are a team of people who declare they are simply in love with coffee and for several years they have been dedicated to find the perfect coffee bean. The company was started at a family home in Canberra before expanding to a roastery in Fyshwick. Now for a couple of years, the obsessive ONA team felt like they just couldn’t find a bean with the quality, accessibility and treatment of environmentally-friendly coffee. So ONA decided they needed to be there on the ground (excuse the pun!) from the bean’s beginnings in order to find, nurture, and escort the beans back to Australian shores. To ensure the beans were grown exactly to their liking, ONA started Project Origin. This was the task of seeking out and collaborating with producers that love growing good coffee and who constantly want to explore, innovate and improve its potential.
Project Origin expanded rapidly and this allowed ONA to focus on the next stage, developing the machines that gave the amazing beans the justice it deserves.

THE TEAM
“As well as innovation, we’ve realised that to have a healthy relationship with coffee you need patience!” says Sasa Sestic, director of ONA. “Good things take time and understanding. In the end, quality is of utmost importance here. Though sounding a little cliché, it’s actually true that we here at ONA are more than happy to take the harder and longer path if it guarantees better results. ONA has a team of hunters, browners, slurpers, packers, sellers, drivers, teachers, fixers and brewers who are all passionate about coffee and it makes the end product one of the best in the country and that’s not just by their own ratings.”

THE TROPHIES
After winning the Australian Barista Championship in March 2015, Sasa Sestic went on to the World Barista Championship in Seattle, USA. After making it into the round of the final six, Sestic had to make four espressos, four cappuccinos and four signature drinks. Sestic went with a coffee containing a dash of Shiraz Viognier wine which is grown in his home city of Canberra. Sestic was judged the winner and crowned World Barista Champion.
Not content with himself winning the world title, at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo in March of 2016, Sestic helped ONA head trainer Hugh Kelly compete in the Australian Specialty Coffee Association Australian Barista Championship. Kelly would beat out some of the best baristas in the land including other ONA-using competitors such as Head Barista from ONA’s The Cupping Room, Yanina Ferreyra Domecq who won fifth place and ONA Roaster and Daniel Wilson who placed sixth.
THE BOSS
Sasa Sestic, as said above, is the world champ at making coffee, but amazingly he’s also represented Australia in European Handball in our only Olympic campaign in the sport in Sydney in 2000. Handball (not to be confused with the tennis ball bouncing game most Aussies played at recess in school) is a huge deal in Europe including Serbia where Sestic was born. Although an amazing athlete, his life passion is coffee.

WHY MAZi USES ONA COFFEE BEANS
By Andrew Gunn – Lantern Club’s Food and Beverage Operations
At MAZi, we are always looking to step up to the next step in terms of quality and consistency for our customers and to be the best we can be. Our goal is always to be at the leading edge of the cafe industry. And that’s why we are known for great quality coffee and it’s made by our team of passionate, knowledgeable expert baristas – every cup, every time.
Our MAZi team are always expertly trained to focus on the quality and consistency with every coffee they make. Our team leaders constantly check the detail of coffees made at MAZi to ensure quality standards are always being met and that our team are coached and mentored by our coffee champions.
The role of our front of house team is to ensure quality standards are met each and every cup. We don’t just expect quality tasting coffee either, each coffee is beautifully presented. This is to cap off what we believe is the best coffee you’ll find anywhere in Sydney. We invite everyone to come in to try and prove us wrong!

 
© Lantern Club, Roselands