Coffee Lab

Episodes

1. 6

   Joe Donoghue & Benjamin Dawe: Code, Culture & Coffee at The 3000s - From Game Developers to Creative Brand Builders

   How does a computer game studio end up making coffee? On the surface, The Three Thousands and Griffiths Bros might look like an unexpected collaboration. One is a Melbourne creative studio building computer games. The other is a coffee company with deep roots in roasting, hospitality and coffee...

   Jul 14, 2026

   45m
2. 5

   Ross Scacco: Inside the culture of office coffee.

   S2E6 - Is office coffee in 2026 actually better than café coffee? If you’ve walked into a modern corporate office lately,you’ll know it’s no longer International Roast and a dusty kettle in the corner. Today’s workplace coffee is automated, data-driven,hospitality-level — and in some cases,...

   Apr 26, 2026

   49m
3. 4

   Sam Taylor: Specialty coffee. Great customers. One shared journey.

   S2E5 - Sam Taylor is a bit of an industry legend in Australia. He’s journeyed from making his first coffees in a steakhouse to competing in and judging the biggest coffee competitions in the world. Today he heads up the coffee division at Soul Origin. With more than 150 locations Australia wide,...

   Dec 12, 2025

   49m
4. 3

   Melissa Caia: From Melbourne cafes to judging on the world stage

   Mel Caia started working in her family’s café at a young age - probably too young, by her own admission. But young Mel Caia loved it. After a decade or so she took a break from the industry and started work as a coffee and gelato trainer at William Angliss Institute where she still teaches today....

   Dec 4, 2024

   49m
5. 2

   Jack Eydlish: Generations of flavour

   S2E3 - Jack Eydlish initially trained as a pharmacist and has somehow ended up Joint General Manager of Maltra Foods, a proudly Australian-owned food and beverage contract manufacturing business. Maltra started in the mid 90s when Jack’s dad fortuitously partnered in a business providing drinking...

   Dec 4, 2024

   44m
6. 1

   Andrew Baldry: Tips on flexible franchising

   S2E2 - Just to the northwest of Noosa in Queensland, lies the small town of Gympie, population a bit over 50 thousand. It’s a far cry from the big, bustling, coffee metropolis that is Melbourne, population 5 million, some 2000km to the south. But that’s the journey today’s guest made, and the...

   Aug 2, 2024

   35m
7. Steve Plarre: How to keep a 120 year old business modern

   S2E1 - When your dad’s a baker, his crazy hours mean you don’t get to see much of him as a kid. Which is why as soon as they could, Steve and Mike Plarre joined their dad at the bakery. A couple of 7 or 8 year olds covered in flour, doing anything they could to get involved. Fast forward a few...

   Aug 2, 2024

   44m
8. Nick Ferrara: Why happiness should be the only measure of success

   S1E6 - Nick Ferrara was born in Naples, Italy and studied engineering in Rome, before launching into a career in news publishing. He also worked with his mum in a not-for-profit aimed at dissuading young people from a life of organized crime, and at some point also started a wind farm with his...

   Apr 28, 2023

   39m
9. Peter Patisteas: Driving innovation and social change - through coffee

   S1E5 - Peter Patisteas has seen Melbourne’s coffee culture unfold and mature from a front row seat. He grew up learning the art of coffee roasting – at the time, a very manual process – from his father and uncle, in the Griffiths Brothers roastery. After a foray into investment banking in London…

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   Feb 21, 2023

   33m
10. Alberto Schiavon: Reinvention of a classic and looking to the future

    S1E4 - Alberto Schiavon was in Melbourne for the World Barista Championships, where for the first time, competitors did their thing using Barista Attitude machines. The machines themselves are backed by the half-century pedigree of Astoria CMA, but they’re servicing a new customer – a barista, or...

    Feb 21, 2023

    29m
11. Kamal Bengougam: How to disrupt a market with innovation

    S1E3 - Kamal Bengougam is a risk taker, but it’s risk for the sake of a good story, as much as it is for the payoff. He’s had a varied career including publishing, engineering, biotech, and he’s mashed all those together to land at the cutting edge of super-automated coffee at Eversys. Now,...

    Feb 21, 2023

    37m
12. Chris Togias: Tips for moving from corporate to building a family business

    S1E2 - As time passes, generational shifts occur – in families, in their businesses, the products they’ve created, and the communities they serve. Riding the waves of these generational shifts is challenging, particularly in migrant communities that still feel so connected to their homelands, but...

    Feb 19, 2023

    38m
13. Barry Moore: How La Marzocco continues to innovate & why social enterprise matters

    S1E1 - From the espresso bars of Rome to the laneway cafes of Melbourne, La Marzocco is a globally recognized – and loved – brand. But long before he became their Managing Director here in Australia, Barry Moore was a devoted customer, placing hundreds of La Marzocco coffee machines in the...

    Feb 19, 2023

    37m