Matt Swiatkiwsky loves coffee.
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Not in the sense that he has three coffees a day and doesn’t function without the caffeine hit – like so many of us – but be loves everything about the magic caffeine bean.
Mr Swiatkiwsky, who owns and runs Omar by Academy on Woodward Street, will depart our shores on Saturday for the Central American coffee hot-spot of Honduras to take part in the Best of Honduras: Late Harvest auction.
He was invited by Project Origin, which runs the auction, as part of a worldwide judging panel which will take in the smells, tastes and textures of nearly 40 coffees to give each one a score made up of every single conceivable measurement of coffee there is.
“Last year I was asked to come along and participate, I stayed behind and wanted to open Omar up, and this year I’ve accepted,” Mr Swiatkiwsky said.
“In all honesty I don’t know how I got my invite. I’ve done a bit of cupping and a bit of work with Project Origin and I think they saw it as an opportunity for someone to get over there.”
Mr Swiatkiwsky puts a lot of time and energy into sourcing his coffee from smaller growers, and is excited for the chance to connect with the roots of the coffee industry and meet growers who live and breathe coffee.
“As long as you’re buying in a way that’s going to grow our industry, the flavour and that will improve. We’re putting money back into those places so we’ve got better coffee coming out of there,” he said.
“I look for a nice, sweet, clean coffee.”
How likely are you to find one of those cups of coffee in the coffee capital of the Central West?
Not so likely, according to Mr Swiatkiwsky, who wants to see more cafes and coffee supplyiers “pushing boundaries” in the way they source their coffee, as opposed to high-end machines.
“Some of the best coffee I’ve tasted is just adding water to coffee, so it’s not about getting behind an espresso machine,” he said.
“In all honesty, everywhere else outside of Orange is really pushing boundaries and I don’t see anywhere here really pushing them, or if it’s consumers.”