Chris Baca is one of the founders of Cat and Cloud Coffee in Santa Cruz, California. Chris is also a previous winner of the USA Barista Championships and one of the original specialty coffee content creators, dating back more than ten years. Chris career journey is one of the most traceable in all of coffee. Nowadays his focus is on Cat and Cloud and one of his biggest focuses is building a nurturing company culture, which he broadly implores the rest of the industry to do. Chris and Kirk talk about the costs and disadvantages of high staff turnover and even touch on skateboarding in the early 2000's! Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
James Hoffmann is the most recognised face in all of coffee. From winning the World Barista Champioship, his detailed coffee videos and the World Atlas for Coffee, James has for a long time been the biggest name in the coffee industry. After years of asking, Kirk finally landed the interview and the conversation did not dissapoint. What makes a cafe thrive in 2025? Are cafes competing against home baristas? Should we switch the internet off? These are some of the questions we answer on the podcast. This is the biggest interview we have every done, so please don enjoy! Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Do you want to open a cafe but don't think you have the money? This story is something you want to hear. Fabian Brito together with his business partner Leon Holdsworth (Kirk's Sensei) bootstrapped opening their cafe Officer Coffee, where you will find the who's who of coffee in their spare time. In this episode of the Coffee Show, Fabian gives all the details of what it took to open Officer Coffee. From building most of the cafe themselves to becoming creative with finding furniture they finished the job with an eventual price tag of $30,000 aud ($19,500 usd), which could have been lower if they chose to source their coffee machine differently. If you have been dreaming of it, this podcast is certainly for you, Fabian's story is one that will resonate with many of you. Also, is Fabian the new Fonz? Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Simon Gautherin and Nemo Pop from Apax Labs are reshaping the way coffee is made world wide. Apax Labs make mineral concentrates to enhance the quality of coffee both pre and post extraction. Simon has long been among the leading thought leaders around the world on the importance of water for coffee for years now. Nemo is a new employee of Apax tasked with better understanding the impact of the 'Wave' machine by Wavedtech, which pulses electro magnetic waves though liquid. Together they're making new discoveries on what this machine might be able to do for the coffee industry and the results are already promising. Recently Nemo won the Australian Aeropress Championship and the Wave machine played a key role. Kirk's cafe, Project Zero Coffee has been using the Waved machine for months and it has already made a great impact. Plus, we discuss Simon's Pokemon card investments and talk about Indian food being the most slept on cuisine of all time. Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Kat Melheim is a veteran coffee roaster who has developed a large online following for her roasting content. In this podcast Kirk and Kat go through how to enter the industry as a coffee roaster and discuss some of the nuances of the profession. Plus, we talk about the 'importance pie' and give our coffee roaster Mt Rushmore's! Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Julijan Markovic is the founder of Brew Methods in Melbourne Australia and is one of Australia's most talented coffee brewers of the last few years. This podcast occurs right after we tried the Best of Panama winning Washed Geisha, Natural Geisha and Laurina. This was an incredible experience. Julijan and Kirk also talk about what makes a good coffee experience and controversially: Why you shouldn't start a coffee business! Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
How do you introduce those who need no introduction? Like this: Morgan Eckroth is the most recognisable face in the coffee industry today! With nearly 10 million followers across Youtube, Instagram and Tiktok, Morgan has touched every corner of the globe with their catchy videos and lessons on making unbelievable coffee drinks! We were excited to learn that Morgan is as big of a Star Wars fan as Kirk and has some spicy takes on which order to watch the films in. Beyond that, Morgan is a world class barista competitor and committed member of the coffee community. In this podcast Morgan also spills the beans on they make world class drinks!Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Dr Dean Miller is a sleep and circadian scientist based in Adelaide who studies sleep and works with high performance athletes advising them on sleep to optimise performance. Pete Licata is a World Barista Champion who started a new coffee company 'Caffeine Control Coffee' which offers different coffees with varying levels of caffeine, so that people can better manage their caffeine intake and improve sleep. In this podcast Kirk, Dean and Pete discuss whether coffee consumption in general is bad for your sleep. How many coffees can you have in a day and still sleep well? Should we wait when we wake up to have coffee? If you drink coffee does that mean your sleep will be bad? Is sleep one of the most important elements of health? In this episode those questions get answered and much more! Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Lucy Ward is green coffee buyer for one of Australia's biggest and most influential coffee brands, ST ALI. Kirk and Lucy are former colleagues and discuss at length an existential threat to coffee not enough people are talking about: The aging workforce at coffee origins. Recently we learned that the average age of a coffee farmer in Colombia, one of the worlds biggest coffee producing countries, is 58. With coffee farmers aging and not enough young people interested in becoming coffee farmers, we have a looming crisis that requires solutions fast. Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
The upcoming World Barista Championship will be the hardest ever to win! There are three returning baristas that are all former podium winners that have won their respective national competitions multiple times. So who will win the World Barista Championship in Milan? Grab a coffee and listen in for Kirk's take! Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Rachel Peterson is one of the family members that own Hacienda La Esmeralda in Panama, which has a claim to being the most recognisable coffee farm in the entire world. Recently as the Best of Panama auction they didn't just break the record, the totally annihilated it, winning every category and setting a new world record of $30,000 USD per kg. This is the first podcast Rachel who represents Esmeralda has done since the infamous auction, which will go down forever in the coffee history books. Record prices like this haven't always been the story of Esmeralda. Kirk and Rachel discuss the early years, how they operated at a loss and how they built the brand of Esmeralda and Panama coffee collectively. Kirk asks Rachel all about the competition, what the days following were like and together they addressed the industries reaction, most of which was positive, though there was some criticism. This was one of the most logistically challenging podcasts we have done, so please enjoy! Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Todays guests Bruno, Jennifer and Emiline of the Australian Specialty Coffee Association discuss with Kirk their new change in approach to competition in Australia and how effective it was. The organisation themselves identified that their own competitions had become 'elitist' and wanted to do something to change that and make competitions more accessible, to develop community! This is something that should be viewed from around the world so we can ensure money and status are not a barrier to entry for coffee competitions. Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Yesterdays auction shattered every record possible and was predicted almost to the dollar by Kirk. This is our reaction to what went down at the Best of Panama Auction!
This week the Best Of Panama Auction will take place and it is the most anticipated auction ever. Since the competition took place, the industry has been abuzz about Hacienda La Esmeralda winning all three categories. Their Washed Geisha entry scored an unprecedented 98 points, which may be the best coffee on record!Many are speculating that this coffee will exceed $20,000 USD per kilogram, and Kirk sees a possibility that it could reach as high as $30,000. Kirk explains all in this short podcast! Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Lance Hedrick is a respected coffee content creator with a massive Youtube and Instagram following. Lance is known for his long form breakdowns of equipment, brewing methods and many other advanced subjects in the coffee industry. In this podcast Lance and Kirk discuss Lance' introduction to the coffee industry, how he made bank winning latte art smackdowns, golf and health.Perhaps the most interesting topic discussed though is whether home baristas now make better coffee than most cafes! Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Sam Keck is a co-founder of Commonfolk Coffee in Australia and helped build Zukukubora, a social enterprise in Uganda that's purpose is to empower coffee farming communities to making farming sustainable and regenerative. David Flood until recently was a little known brewer from St David's Dairy in Melbourne. He competed in his first Brewers Cup competition using coffee from Zukukubora and wiped the floor with all of competitors on the day, with a performance that had people in tears. People are now describing what David accomplished as bringing 'a knife to a gun fight.' Most brewers cup competitions are won using high end coffee from Panama or Colombia, and David flipped that narrative on its head using coffee from Uganda. In this podcast you will learn that David's words are powerful, meaningful and impactful. David emphasis coffee as a 'tool for social innovation' and he explains in perfect words why our purchasing choices can mean so much to so many! Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Kirk answers listeners questions sent in. What is the best cafe in the world? Who is in his Pokemon party at the moment? How to watch the UFC when you have a family? Tips to opening a cafe? Kirk answers all in this podcast. Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Mason Salisbury is the founder of Luminous Coffee operating out of Las Vegas Nevada. In this podcast Mason outlines the uncertainty of trade policy in the US right now and how it is impact US coffee roasteries. Mason above all, is a quality focused coffee roaster with an enormous amount of experience operating on almost type of coffee roaster. We discuss his recent transition to roasting on a Typhoon roaster, a completely electric and convection based roaster. Plus, does drinking only washed coffee mean you're lame? Find out our answer!Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Jack Simpson has won the Australian Barista Championship for the past three years. At the world level he has placed 3rd and 2nd in consecutive years and this year he looks to do one better in what might be his final campaign. Jack has evolved over the years, and this year Kirk thinks he is looking better than ever. Kirk and Jack discuss competition at length and Kirk also tells a story about Strawberry Matcha you might not believe! Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.
Are you thinking of opening a cafe or wanting improve your current one? Then this podcast is an excellent resource for you. Kirk is joined by Rhys Woods of Ona Coffee and together they distill some 10 great points on what you should consider before opening a cafe, some of the tips will save you a lot of pain! Rhys Woods works as an Account Manager for Ona Coffee, who are a successful and quality focused coffee wholesaler in Australia, while Kirk Pearson is a cafe owner himself. Together their information formed these ten 'commandments' that you should consider. Plus, Rhys and Kirk discuss the recent Best of Panama results, some competition news and UFC! Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share to some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.