It took almost drowning in a surfing accident for Christian Lovatt to bite the bullet and follow his dreams.
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Coffee has been a part of the Kiama man's life for the best part of 10 years.
Mr Lovatt owns Bean Roasted Espresso Bar in Shellharbour Village and Calderwood.
But it was his lucky escape in January this year, and the changing COVID-19 landscape, which finally convinced him to take the plunge and open his open barista school.
"I'd been thinking about opening a barista school for probably two or three years," Mr Lovatt said.
"The COVID thing kind of gave me that extra nudge along with my surfing accident in January. I had a bit of a moment there where I was thinking 'what is it that I really enjoy?'
"Part of what I really enjoy is training people so I thought a barista school makes a lot of sense, given that we've got the coffee shop and I enjoy training people and selling the beans for home use.
"We've been selling heaps of coffee for home. Our retail sales for home have more than doubled as more and more people, most working from home, choose also to make their own coffee at home also.
"I always enjoyed training new staff, so we've trained heaps of new staff on how to make specialty coffee as well."
Mr Lovatt started creating his own videos for social media, giving his customers tips on how to make better coffee at home.
"We had a lot of interest from those videos and it got me thinking about ways I could keep the businesses going while still supporting our close-knit community of customers," he said.
"Something I really wanted to focus on was teaching people how to make better coffee at home.
"Bean Roasted barista basics takes the guesswork out of making the perfect brew and provides the technical skills to successfully operate an espresso machine.
"We focus on shot dosing/extraction, milk texturing and pouring; three elements that guarantee a consistent cup of quality coffee every time."
To celebrate the ninth birthday of his flagship store, Mr Lovatt is giving back to his coffee community with a $1000 barista basics giveaway.
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