Melbourne barista Jesse Hyde has been crowned the 2009 Danes Grand Barista Champion at the Manly Yacht Club.

Hyde, who has a café in Melbourne with his brother Shannon called The Dancing Goat, defeated competitors from as far away as Thailand and Hong Kong with an impressive display of espresso-making expertise.

“It was worth staying behind on weekends and at night to practice,” said Hyde.

As part of his victory prize, he took home a ticket to Milan, Italy – it will be his first-ever sojourn to the birthplace of espresso courtesy of Orchestrale.

Hyde also took home a top-of-the-line Orchestrale Etnica, an elegant, Italian-built masterpiece espresso machine that has just been released in Australia, valued at $8,700.

It was an especially sweet victory for Hyde, who came second in the competition last year. This year, his polished presentation using a single origin Ethiopian coffee was enough to set him above the rest of the field who had just 12 minutes to make four espressos, four milk coffees and four latte art coffees.

Second place in the competition went to Alexandra Stathis of Morgan’s Kitchen, Moorebank, NSW with Luke Elkhuizen of Kokoh in Wahroonga came third.

The Danes Grand Barista Championships is an international competition which has been established for eight years to acknowledge and celebrate the skills involved in making quality coffee.