Meet the barista

meet the barista Sian Anderson

BONOBO CAFÉ, CHRISTCHURCH

After starting her coffee career working throughout Central Otago, Sian Anderson fell in love with Bonobo Cafe in Sumner. The team there is passionate, and the cafe is 100 percent plant-based, something close to her heart.

Anderson grew up next door to a quirky café in Otatara, Southland where she worked as a teenager. Her coffee roots were a stovetop and a couple of old percolators.

One day, after moving to Cromwell, Anderson’s dad brought home a small commercial coffee machine. No one in the family knew how to use it, so Anderson took a three-day barista course at Cromwell Polytech and ended up studying further in Dunedin; needless to say, she stuck with it.

“The barista’s role is an exciting one. We have the privilege of being the final chapter in the journey of coffee bean to cup. The combined efforts of those behind the growing, picking, drying, shipping and roasting of the bean, the teams of people perfecting milk designed for steaming, and the genius engineers who design and maintain our coffee machines and equipment all rely on me and my experience to deliver that perfect cup into to the hands of our customers.”

While baristas are often faced away from the crowds, heads down over dockets and cups with a shot timer ticking inside their head and a runner being called, those are the moments that make Anderson’s day.

She loves the look on a chef’s face when there is a gap in service to make them their favourite drink, a customer coming to the window to tell her they loved the coffee or a kid squealing with excitement when presented with their fluffy.

Anderson loves working with Bonobo’s coffee supplier, Lyttleton Coffee Company, and is particularly fond of coffee varieties from Mexico and new productions from Panama, a place she hopes to visit one day. The medium roast notes of chocolate and vanilla from Mexico, Papua New Guinea and Colombia origins are balanced with fruit flavours and acidity from Sumatra and Kenya.

It is roasted by absolute professionals just over the hill from Bonobo Café and then delivered to them in sustainable, reusable metal buckets in an electric van.

The defining features of a great coffee, for Anderson, are perfect extraction, milk steamed to a silky microfoam, skillfully poured and

presented, highlighting the best aspects of each component. But in her experience, the best coffee is the one that matches exactly what your customer ordered.

“If you like an extra hot, ristretto decaf macadamia latte with a shot of maple syrup. Then that is the coffee I will make for you.” As a long-time plant-based milk drinker, her own go-to coffee order is a soy latte. As much as she loves oat milk, the velvety steam and beautiful pour of soy milk provides a great chance to practice latte art skills.

A trend close to Anderson’s heart and that of her employers, Deane and Annelies, would be the global adoption of plant-based milk.

“Our suppliers are working so hard to deliver a product that, put in the hands of a good barista, can be turned into that beautiful silky texture we all crave. We back our plant-based milks 100 percent. To the sceptics, we offer to pay for their coffee if they truly don’t enjoy the switch.

New Zealand is making a solid move towards Oat Milk in particular, and I love seeing people try it in their flat white for the first time. We have a lot of converted coffee drinkers.”

When not at work, Anderson can be found navigating her home jungle with partner Dez. They have over 200 houseplants, with the collection spilling over into Bonobo; customers can find some beautiful plants to sit amongst and even a few for sale.