The Coffee Guide (TCG): If you weren’t a barista what would you be?
Kat: Studying at the National Art School or doing something along those lines. Or traveling. Traveling as a barista, I‘ve got friends who were here in Sydney working as baristas and now they’re in London and New York- it’s been easy for them to get jobs because the quality of coffee is better here, so they get good jobs when they take their skills overseas.

TCG: How do you have your coffee at home? How do you make it and how do you take it?
Kat: I don’t make coffee at home. I always drink coffee when I am out. I’ve just always done that. I don’t like instant and there’s a great coffee place across the road from me.

TCG: What’s the best thing about your job- the one thing that you really love aside from the coffee?
Kat: You get to talk to people all day. Take-aways are a major thing at St. Jude, so you’re chatting to people all day and you have regulars that you can build relationships with. It’s rewarding when you know your regulars and what they want.

TCG: What is your favourite music? (For work or for play).
Kat: Mazzy Star is good for both. But when playing my i-pod at work I struggle to find the perfect mix.

TCG: What’s your favourite food?
Kat: Breakfast food. Bacon and egg type things. I like it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

TCG: Tell us what your best (or first) coffee experience was.
Kat: Drinking coffee, I remember being out with my aunty and my mum. I wanted to show-off to my aunty and so I ordered a coffee. My mum was really surprised. But I just acted like I always did it.

TCG: If you’re not drinking coffee, what is your drink of choice?
Kat: Juice. Fresh juice in the morning and a cider, or glass of wine in the afternoons. Magners pear cider.

TCG: What made you become a barista?
Kat: I fell into it. I’d been working in hospitality since I was 13 and it’s just a natural progression to barista or bartender.

TCG: What food do you think is the best compliment to a really great coffee?
Kat: Banana bread.

TCG: How many coffees would you make in the average day?
Kat: No idea. Think we go through up to 12kg of coffee on a weekend.

TCG: Where do all the old baristas go?
Kat: I’m not sure. They either stay in hospitality and open a café of their own, or run as far as they can. You can get over it sometimes.

TCG: Who would make a better coffee, King Kong or Godzilla?’
Kat: King Kong. Godzilla’s arms are too short. And you need to have strong wrists to make a good coffee.

TCG: If you could pick one spot in the world to sit and have a coffee, where would it be, and what coffee would you have?
Kat: Bluebottle in Williamsburg in Brooklyn. A latte. I used to drink skim when I couldn’t taste the difference, but now I can taste the difference. So, a full cream latte.

TCG: Where is your favourite place to hang out in Sydney?
Kat: Rose Terrace on South Dowling, it’s right behind my house.

TCG: What’s your favourite time of the year?
Kat: The in-between seasons.

TCG: What are you reading right now?
Kat: I’m halfway through The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, but it was very heavy. Now I’m starting to read Future Shock by Alvin Toffler. I’m not very far in, but it’s a bit slow.

TCG: What is your favourite thing to do in Autumn?
Kat: Have friends over for dinner and not leave the house.

TCG: What is your favourite movie of all time?
Kat: I went to see Titanic in 3D. It reminded me how much I love that movie.

TCG: Do you have any pets?
Kat: My roommate has a miniature poodle called Rory. She’s a girl, even though that’s a boys name and she’s great in Autumn, she creeps into my bed and keeps me warm and I walk her.

TCG: In a good cup of coffee, how much of it is due to the barista and how much is due to the beans?
Kat: I think 50/50.

TCG: Is decaf a dirty word?
Kat: Yes. Death before decaf.

TCG: What is your favourite kind of tea?
Kat: Green tea.

The Coffee Guide: If you weren’t a barista what would you be?
Miriam: An Astronaut? Or probably still in my desk job as a designer…

TCG: How do you have your coffee at home? How do you make it and how do you take it?
Miriam: Pour-Over, black.

TCG: What’s the best thing about your job- the one thing that you really love aside from the coffee?
Miriam: The regular customers and meeting new people everyday.

TCG: What is your favourite music? (For work or for play).
Miriam: Shuffle the i-pod at work, radio or an old record at home. Chuck Berry on repeat a lot recently.

TCG: What’s your favourite food?
Miriam: Haven’t you heard? I’m from Bondi – ‘I snack on f#$@’n celery’.

TCG: Tell us what your best coffee experience was.
Miriam: At an Eritrean restaurant in London, they offered a coffee ‘ceremony’ at the end of the meal. Frankincense was burnt and coffee roasted and made in front of us. Rad!

TCG: If you’re not drinking coffee, what is your drink of choice?
Miriam: Definitely a single malt. Reminds me of bonnie Scotland.

TCG: What made you become a barista?
Miriam: The need for change and the love of coffee.

TCG: Do people often try and chat you up at work? How often? Have you ever taken the offer up?
Miriam: At least 10 times a day….but I’m still waiting for Ryan Gosling to come and get his coffee.

TCG: What food do you think is the best compliment to a really great coffee?
Miriam: Fresh crusty bread and any condiment. I love condiments.

TCG: How many coffees would you make in the average day?
Miriam: A lot.

TCG: What’s the largest amount of coffees you have made in a day?
Miriam: A lot.

TCG: Does your coffee style (or how you drink it) say something about you?
Miriam: Yup, adaptable (or erratic as some may choose to see it), it changes.

TCG: Where do all the old baristas go?
Miriam: To lala land – too many coffees.

TCG: Who would make a better coffee, King Kong or Godzilla?’
Miriam: I’d like to see King Kong make a good drop for Godzilla and work out their differences.

TCG: What is the most exciting thing happening in coffee right now for you?
Miriam: The coffee revolution has started around the world. I’ll be able to get a decent coffee when I next go to London! Or even New York!

TCG: If you could make coffee for one other person of your choice, who would it be and what coffee would you make them?
Miriam: James Brown, but I think I’d definitely have to slip him a decaf though.

TCG: Where is your favourite place to hang out in Sydney?
Miriam: In the ‘Bondi Bubble’. There’s no place like home.

TCG: Do you have any pets?
Miriam: A fish, called Wanda.

The Coffee Guide (TCG): If you weren’t a barista what would you be?
Eldric: Unemployed! I would also stop getting a lot of free coffee, which would complicate the part about me no longer having a job.  Such a vicious cycle!

TCG: How do you have your coffee at home? How do you make it and how do you take it?
Eldric: I make cold drip coffee in a tower I got from Taiwan.  And I like it how I like my whiskey; neat, nothing added and nothing to hide behind.

TCG: What’s the best thing about your job- the one thing that you really love aside from the coffee?
Eldric: I love that customers will come up to you and tell you how wonderful your work is. Really, how often does that happen with most jobs?

TCG: What is your favourite music? (For work or for play).
Eldric: My favorite new artist is a young lady and fellow Canadian named Grimes. Not saying that you should check her out, but you should.

TCG: What’s your favourite food?
Eldric: I like cooking, and even more than that, I love innovating; had some amazing pancakes with coconut milk yogurt, plums, mint and honey a few weeks ago.

TCG: Tell us what your best (or first) coffee experience was.
Eldric: I’m Canadian, so my first coffee experience is hardly worth talking about. Best, however? That’s easier. The first time I had a Geisha coffee done on a pour-over, it quite frankly blew my mind.

TCG: If you’re not drinking coffee, what is your drink of choice?
Eldric: I drink a lot of tea at home. It’s very relaxing and of course amazingly healthy (just don’t put milk in your black tea!).

TCG: What made you become a barista?
Eldric: I don’t even remember! I know I was managing a clothing store and it seemed like such a great environment, and I thought it would be a very relaxing environment to work in.

TCG: Do people often try and chat you up at work? Have you ever taken the offer up?
Eldric: Oh, no, no, never happens.  As far as I’m aware at least.  I do highly recommend to people that they flirt with their baristas, because once we come down off our caffeine overdoses, we need something else to keep us going.

TCG: What food do you think is the best compliment to a really great coffee?
Eldric: Chocolate,  citrus, or berries. Or all of them. When people taste coffee, those are the predominant flavours people pick up on, and that is mostly because they are flavours they love already.

TCG: How many coffees would you make in the average day?
Eldric: It really depends on the day. Anywhere from 200-300, though I’ve worked in cafes where I’ve been far busier than that.

TCG: What’s the largest amount of coffees you have made in a day?
Eldric: I worked as a café manager in Vancouver during the Olympics, and it was so busy that I don’t even know how to compare it. Huge line-ups out the door for takeaway, all day long. It was a blast.

TCG: Does your coffee style (or how you drink it) say something about you?
Eldric: I will absolutely judge you based on what you drink, without a seconds hesitation.  Though like anything, you will often be completely surprised and someone will order something you really didn’t expect.

TCG: Where do all the old baristas go?
Eldric: They all leave to open up their own hip cafes.

TCG: Who would make a better coffee, King Kong or Godzilla?’
Eldric: King Kong. Godzilla is Japanese and most coffees there are made on a siphon, which are known for being delicate; though he’s not exactly the most delicate of monsters.

TCG: Where has your coffee making taken you? (Around Australia? Around the world)?
Eldric: So far just Canada and Australia, though I plan on travelling through Europe at some point, with nothing but a backpack that is more than partially full of coffee making tools.

TCG: What has been your favourite moment as a barista? Is there one story that only happened to you because you are a barista?
Eldric: Coffee is a great connector, and I’ve met quite a few celebrities because of it. I think my best moments are yet to come, when I’m able to travel to the bean growing regions and meet with the farmers and explore the process at it’s core.

TCG: What is the most exciting thing happening in coffee right now for you?
Eldric: I’m excited about the new wave of filtered coffee in Australia, which is something I’m used to, but that I think will take a while to catch on here.  Also having a lot of fun experimenting while coming up with a signature coffee for CoffeeHead.  I think every café should have one drink that is different to everyone else.

TCG: If you could pick one spot in the world to sit and have a coffee, where would it be and what coffee would you have?
Eldric: French press coffee in Central Park, NY for sure. A nice bold, smoky roast to compliment the early morning chill.

TCG: If you could make coffee for one other person of your choice (anyone- past or present), who would it be?
Eldric: Heath Ledger, and it would most definitely be a long black (though I would try to talk him into having an aeropress), and have a chat about what’s going on in his head.

TCG: As a barista, what’s your next big plan?
Eldric: Biggest plan, that’s actually a certainty, is after learning absolutely as much as I can here in Melbourne, returning to Vancouver in about five years time to open my own café- as you do.

TCG: Where is your favourite place to hang out in Melbourne?
Eldric: I assume this doesn’t include at work? I have an affinity for Fitzroy because I spent my first three months in Melbourne living there. Fond memories.  Adore the Black Cat, but wish their coffee was better. Otherwise, great café.

TCG: What is your guilty pleasure?
Eldric: I have a weakness for potato chips, though they don’t carry some of my favorite flavours here, so it’s been easy to keep it under control, after the initial withdrawal.

TCG: What’s your favourite time of the year?
Eldric: Late summer/early fall. I adore the fashion, scarves, hats, jackets! But it probably harkens back to the ‘back to school’ excitement you experienced at that time of the year.

TCG: What are you reading right now?
Eldric: Just finished “Surviving the Killing Fields” and before that was “A Song of Ice and Fire”.

TCG: What is your favourite thing to do in Autumn?
Eldric: Call it Fall, and have Australians look at me funny.  No, seriously.

TCG: What is your favourite movie of all time?
Eldric: Primer. Still can’t figure that one out.

TCG: Where did you grow up? And what is your fondest childhood memory?
Eldric: A couple hours away from Detroit. Oh, the joy of getting an NES for Christmas. Didn’t stop grinning until 1991

TCG: What did you do on your last day off?
Eldric: Volunteered. Jeez, I’m lame.

TCG: In a good cup of coffee, how much of it is due to the barista and how much is due to the beans?
Eldric: It’s a total symbiotic relationship.  You could take good beans and give them to someone who really just doesn’t care that much (making really good coffee is less about ‘ability’ than it is about ‘passion’) and it will be terrible.  At the same time, there are a lot of beans that I really can’t do that much with. It’s like a perfect storm; really nice roast with a barista who has the time and the knowledge to get the most out of it and voila, you just cured cancer.

TCG: Is decaf a dirty word?
Eldric: Yes. If my café had a swear jar, it would be double for using the d-word.  Although, you can get some decent tasting decaf, and I’ve done some great latte art with our decaf roast.  But it’s like non-alcoholic beer; just don’t bother. You’re much better off drinking tea.

TCG: Is specialty tea the new cappuccino?
Eldric: Considering that there are more tea drinkers in the world than coffee drinkers, I would say it’s the other way around. In Australia though? There is a long way to go before people really start appreciating tea. I know of a handful of places that do really good tea in Melbourne. It doesn’t get the same attention, though it should.

TCG: What is your favourite kind of tea?
Eldric: Genmaicha tea. Reminds me of being back in Vancouver, sitting in a restaurant on the ocean and having some amazing sushi.