The Coffee Show with Kirk Pearson

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.