Episodes
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Good Coffee Month and Hot Takes with Sam Keck of Commonfolk Coffee
This week we have Sam Keck of Commonfolk Coffee on the podcast to talk about an upcoming program coming up called Good Coffee Month. Good Coffee Month is looking to raise money to help fund some equipment upgrades for coffee producers in Uganda at the Zukuka Bora washing station. Commonfolk have...
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Could CarePack Change The Game For Cafes & Wholesalers? With Lukas Martin
Lukas Martin is a young entrepreneur looking to revolutionise how hospitality venues connect with suppliers/wholesalers. Lukas has been bemused by high fees and lack of functionality from other online ordering software providers and decided to make his own. In this podcast which has a new format,...
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United States Barista Champion of 2025: Kay Cheon
This weeks podcast will be audio only because we had some issues with the camera recording this. The honest story is we were in a venue where chefs were butchering some freshly caught tuna (which looked lovely) and so the camera was out of focus and thus we couldn't use the footage. Kay Cheon is...
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What Does A Barista Do In 2050? With Chris Marbury Of Beta Coffee
Chris Maybury is a disruptor in coffee and this episode has been a long time coming. Chris and Kirk have a lot in common: They both embrace pre batched espresso, embrace automation and hold dear the very thing customers love about coffee: People! Kirk and Chris discuss what they think the barista...
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The Enemy of Specialty Coffee: Julien Moussi & Cory Slater of SCFO
Australian coffee professionals have been up in arms about a new concept called Specialty Coffee Factory Outlet (SCFO). Kirk interviewed the founders Julian Moussi and Cory Slater to get their perspective. The team who founded Inglewood Coffee are trying a new strategy in specialty, selling high...
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Dennis Do: Finance Bro to Coffee Pro
Do you want to quit the job you hate and start a new career you love? This podcast might be the encouragement you need. Dennis Do last year had never made coffee in a cafe, now he runs Project Zero Coffee and competes in the Brewers Cup! This is a great podcast detailing how Dennis was able to...
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Greg Cornes: How The Cafe Game Has Changed In 2026 And How To Survive!
Greg Cornes is a New Zealand based cafe owner and operator with multiple venues. Greg's profile has grown this year thanks to his viral videos dissecting and analysing what it takes to be successful business in 2026. In this podcast Greg discusses his strategy and playbook in a marketplace that…
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West Coast Chronicles: Andrew Sinclair, Madlab Coffee Roasters
Andrew Sinclair is without a doubt one of the best ranters in specialty coffee, and should probably have a podcast of his own. Until then, Kirk sat down with him at his roastery and discussed what its like operating a coffee shop in the US and just how hard it can be for people to make it,...
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Pre Batched Cafe in Los Angeles! With Derek Taylor
Derek Taylor is a cafe owner based in Los Angeles California. His cafe Noun, is serving coffee that has been pre batched and we recorded this mini podcast in the middle of service there! Derek is unique in his approach to business. Customers can pay with bitcoin and he has been making sure people...
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Zack Telander & Jak Michael Ryan: Australia's Favourite Sons
On the Austin stop of Kirk's USA Tour he met up with old friend Jak Michael Ryan and new friend Zack Talender. Zack Talender is a US musician who wen't omega viral in Australia for his videos about the coffee. Zack's whole thing was to try and find a 'bad coffee' and he was unable to, which found...
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Jak & Zack: Australia's favourite sons
DESCRIPTION HERE
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The Coffee Show x Keys to the Shop Crossover
This week The Coffee Show and Keys to the Shop are doing a crossover episode in Nashville Tennessee, the closest point that could meet. Kirk and Chris Deferio are both outspoken in the coffee industry. They agree on a lot of things, and disagree on some things as well. This podcast has been…
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Jak Michael Ryan: US Barista Championship, Dancing, Boxing and MERICA!!
Jak Michael Ryan, originally from Australia, is the United States Barista Champion. Jak is one of the most unique personalities you will find anywhere in life. Jak is a professional dancer, dedicated boxer with ambitions for great things and just casually, the best barista in the USA. This…
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Davy Ball: Fine Dining Coffee Experiences & More
Davy Ball is the Founder of Draped in Blue and one of the Co-Founders of Now and Then, a now closed coffee bar that provided a fine dining coffee experience. In this podcast Davy and Kirk are recording in Chef Sean Brock's office in Nashville with all of his cook books, as you can see there are...
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Coffee Show x Buy The Drip Crossover
Kirk has reached the means streets of Calgary, Alberta in Canada. In Calgary one of the worlds most reputable specialty coffee roasters is there, Rosso Coffee Roasters. Rosso was started by David Crosby who is a 2x World Barista Championship coach, coaching both Mikael Jaisin and Boram Um to...
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George Howell: The Godfather Of Specialty Coffee
George Howell is the Founder of George Howell Coffee and one of the most influential forces in the coffee industry ever. Many know him as the man who created the Frappuccino, which he sold the rights of to Starbucks. Such was his influence in the 90’s he sold all of his venues to Starbucks as…
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Nemesis Coffee: One Of The Best Coffee Shops In The World!
Nemesis Coffee are based in Vancouver and have multiple venues spanning specialty coffee focused venues and bakeries. The owners Jes and Albert blew Kirk away with the coffee quality and service throughout the Vancouver leg of the 'Freedom Tour!' We sat down in their Great Northern Way store and...
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The World Of Beverages Is About To Change: Dr Doran Pennington and Dr Christopher Hendon
Dr Doran Pennington is a former student of someone the coffee industry knows well: Dr Christopher Hendon. Doran and Chris story has shades of Good Will Hunting, Doran the former student recruited his teacher to form a start up that has the change to change the beverage industry as we know it. It…
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CVA 1 Year On: Have Things Improved? WIth Craig Simon of Criteria Coffee
Last year the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) announced sweeping changes to what is known at the Coffee Value Assessment. Coffee professionals were furious that a seemingly functional system of assessing a coffees quality was being replaced by a system that was far more complex. Craig Simon is...
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Australia Chooses Its Favourite Coffee Roaster
'Breakfast Shirts' or Mark Crotti is a content creator who travels Australia as a touring musician and cafe connoisseur. Mark has compiled some data from a survey sent out to his followers. It seeks to find out: Who is Australia's favourite coffee roaster? What is Australia's favourite coffee...
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Nic Petrie: PBDS, Co Fermentation, UFC
Nic Petrie is the Head of Coffee for Born and Raised, a Melbourne based coffee roasting supplying cafes and sharpening their focus to go direct to consumer. Nic has been one of the lead agitators with pre batched coffee, something Kirk is very familiar with. Additionally, Nic has been big on...
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Why is Specialty Coffee Becoming Mainstream? With Ryan Caisley of Oatly
Ryan Caisley is an ‘Oat Dealer’ from Oatly based in Melbourne Australia. When working in London, Ryan would often serve some of the biggest name actors and sports stars, leading to him eventually featuring in a Hollywood film! Kirk and Ryan discuss famous stars like Jimmy Butler and Emma...
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Beginner and Advanced: How to Make Espresso Like a World Champion
Think of this podcast as a 100 minute lesson on how to make espresso. Whether you're a beginner at home or in the cafe, you're going to get something out of this. 2022 World Barista Champion Anthony Douglas sits down with Kirk to go through espresso making. What is the best equipment to use if...
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Is Kirk Pearson Destroying The Coffee Industry?
Kirk is getting international heat, again! Firstly, Kirk and Jack caught up during the week and sorted out their drama from last week, which ended in a really pleasant reunion. There are some looming articles to come out soon where journalists have been seeking alternative opinions on pre batched...
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Let's keep specialty coffee special
This morning, World Barista Champion Jack Simpson took to Instagram, rebuking the idea of pre-batched espresso. The post came as a complete surprise to Kirk. Jack had previously played a role in helping set up the café, yet there was no prior conversation or warning—just a post pontificating on…
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Human Tobasco: Coffee's Funniest Personality!
James Coburn is the man behind one of the most hilarious coffee content creations currently going. You might know him as Human Tobasco, and after nearly a decade living and working in New York, he's taking a brief stint living and working back home in Melbourne Australia. James is as hilarious in...
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Flat White Or F*ck Off! The Worlds Most Controversial Coffee Shop!
Can you imagine going to a coffee shop and getting told to fuck off by the server? Well, that now exists thanks to a whimsical bunch of lads in the United Kingdom. Tom Noble, Will Sudlow and Charlie Hurst are the three founders of Flat White or Fuck Off, a pop up that came about thanks to British...
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Football To Coffee: Life After Professional Football For Zac Smith
Zac Smith is a former Aussie Rules player who played for both the Gold Coast Suns and Geelong Cats. In the final years of his football career, Zac began to fall in love with coffee, and once he retired decided that he wanted to do this for a living after football. Zac now owns Tallboy Coffee in...
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Pre Batched Espresso: Destroying Coffee Or Hope For The Industry? With Hany Ezzat
Project Zero 2.0 has opened which has captured attention globally. There are really only two camps of people on this, those who are open to new ideas and innovation, and those that think the definition of espresso was written in the Magna Carta era. Joining Kirk is Hany Ezzat, the man responsible...
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Lucia Solis: Beginners Guide To Coffee Processing
Lucia Solis is a fermentation and coffee processing specialist who is now based in Guatemala. Lucia is also hosts an award winning coffee podcast called 'Making Coffee with Lucia Scolis' which recently won Sprudge Podcast of the year. Lucia's first line of work was as a wine maker. After studying...
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Christopher Feran: Post Harvest and Green Bean Specialist
Christopher Feran is coffees is the author of coffees most detailed and forensic blog. Chris has many years of experience working as a post harvest and green bean consultant, helping roasters of many different sizes with their sourcing and blend formulation. Chris also has a brand called Aviary...
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Smallbatch Founder Andrew Kelly: Why Ethical Sourcing Matters
Though he would never own up to it, Andrew Kelly is one of the Four Horseman of Melbourne's specialty coffee industry. Andrew is the Founder of Small Batch Coffee, a seminal Melbourne roastery and Sharesource, which sources coffee that ensures farmers financial sustainability and aims for better...
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How To Roast Coffee With Scott Rao
Scott Rao is the most recognised coffee roasting expert in the world. Through his consulting work he has helped countless coffee roasters to improve their roasting and day to day operations. The who's who of coffee all look up to him. Kirk and Scott cater to roasters that are at the beginner,...
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Why Are Pokemon Cards Surging In Value Right Now?
WARNING! This podcast has nothing to do with coffee. Pokemon is the most successful game/movie/merchandising franchise in the world by a long way, and in recent times that has gone to a whole new level. In the podcast we are joined by Jonathan D'allessando of Card Bot AU, a company that sells…
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Are We Making It Too Expensive To Compete In Coffee Competitions?
The World Coffee Championships recently unveiled their new sponsors, with Ceado now being the grinder sponsor for the barista category and Option O for brewers cup. Coffee competitions have always been costly, but this year they're going to a new level and the frequency at which the sponsors…
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Venezuela Crisis Could Be Catastrophic For Coffee!
On the weekend US President Donald Trump and his administration captured Nicholas Maduro of Venezuela and his wife, sparking international outcry and condemnation. While the world is still learning more details there is much conjecture on what comes next. One thing is for sure, if the region were...
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Furure Of Taste: Toby Weedon Of Oatly
In our recent tour of Europe, we touched down in Berlin to attend the launch of Oatly's 'Look Book' they formulated to help cafes and home enthusiasts to make better drinks that are better for the planet! Kirk sat down with Toby Weedon who is the Barista Development Director at Oatly who oversaw...
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The Prince That Was Promised: Gabrel Tan is Australia's Newest Barista Champion!
The prophecy foretold that one day Gabrel Tan would become Australian Barista Champion, and alas! Here we are!! Gabrel Tan of Veneziano Coffee Roasters, who has finished second three times to eventual World Champions Anthony Douglas and Jack Simpson, was finally able to break through and earn his...
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Pre Made Espresso Revolution Coming? With Matt Perger and Jeremy Challender of Barista Hustle.
Matt Perger and Jeremy Challender run Barista Hustle, an online coffee education provider that make comprehensive courses for people of any skill level in coffee to better their knowledge! In this episode of The Coffee Show, Matt, Jeremy and Kirk have just concluded a blind tasting that compared...
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Washed Coffees Are Back Baby!!! With Alex Moore
Alex Moore is the runner up of the Australian Brewers Cup and staff member at Project Zero Coffee. Alex was trained by Kirk and overachieved in his first season as a competitor. What was special about Alex routine is that he was the only competitor that used a washed coffee in the whole...
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Matt Winton and Sierra Yeo: Specialty Coffees Power Couple!
Matt Winton a World Brewers Cup Champion now residing in Switzerland. Sierra Yeo is a National Brewers Cup Champion (previously representing the UK) and recently won the Swiss Brewers Cup, meaning she will compete again at the World Brewers Cup in Brussels. Matt and Sierra are happily married and...
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Nicole Battefeld and Vladyslav Demonenko: Home AI Coffee Machines and Germanys #1 Coffee Shop
Nicole Battcefeld is Germany's most awarded barista with multiple national championships to her name. These days she works as a consultant to Nunc, an AI powered home espresso machine that could potentially reshape coffee brewing at home. Vladyslav Demonenko is former Doctor from Ukraine who now...
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Pitch Of The Century: How Paul Ross Sealed The Deal To Open Special Guests Coffee in London
Paul Ross is a UK barista champion and founder of Special Guests Coffee in London. On our recent Euro tour, Kirk stopped by Special Guests Coffee and was blown away, calling it the best coffee in the UK and he isn’t alone. Paul told a really interesting story about how he made coffee for the...
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Most famous coffee bar on the planet, how did they do it? Patricia Founders Bowen Holden and Pip Heath
If you ask most coffee professionals: What is the most famous specialty coffee place in the world? Most of them will answer Patricia Coffee Brewers in Melbourne. Patricia is one of the crown jewels of the City of Melbourne. They make 1200+ coffees per day and people travel from all over the world...
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Noma, Worlds Best Restaurant, Opens A Cafe! With Carolyne Lane
As part of our recent tour or Europe, Kirk stopped by Copenhagen where he discovered that the #1 Restaurant in the world has opened a coffee bar! Kirk was the first customer and managed to secure an interview with Noma Head of Coffee Carolyne Lane inside the new space. So why have Noma ventured...
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Don Jose and Sofia Luttrell: The Father-Daughter Dream Team
Jose Luttrell (or Don Jose as Kirk likes to call him) is the Patriarch of the Luttrell Family that owns Panamanian coffee farm 'Abu Coffee.' Sofia Luttrell is his daughter who hasn't finished high school yet, but is keenly interested in the farming life and at the ripe old age of 18, is the…
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Jack Simpson Wins World Barista Championship
Jack Simpson of Australia has won the World Barista Championship. About an hour after his victory we sat down with Jack, his roaster Matt Crowley and owner of Axil Coffee Roasters Dave Makin. In this podcast we discussed what went into becoming the world barista champion and the methods Jack…
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Jamison Savage: World Barista Champion Coffee Producer
Jamison Savage is a Panamanian coffee grower who has produced coffee for multiple World Barista Champions. Jamison is unique in his approach with his processing as he regularly embraces experimental processes with his coffee fermentations. In this podcast, recorded at Host Milan, Jamison…
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Chris Baca: 9 Years of Cat and Cloud. Good Company Culture Makes Life Easier for Everyone!
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…
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James Hoffmann: How Coffee Shops Can Thrive In 2025
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...