The Coffee Show with Kirk Pearson

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 resides in Berlin and owns Kolo Coffee, a coffee roaster that is gaining praise across europe for its quality and exceptional service at their flagship site in Berlin. In this podcast we discuss the European coffee scene, why Vlad chose coffee over being a doctor and of course AI super robot home coffee machines! Like this podcast? Leave a review and please tell two of your friends!

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 landlord which blew them away. It was that fateful decision of taking a flask of competition coffee to the pitch that helped him beat out others for a highly coveted space to open a coffee shop in a swanky part of London. Paul also talks about his hospitality philosophies and how new expensive gear is rarely on customers minds. Like this podcast? Leave a review and please tell two of your friends!

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 to experience going there. What makes it so special? This is a coffee shop tucked away in an alley of Melbourne. Next to it are some dumpsters and the best seat you can get is a milk crate, and yet people wait in line (no matter the weather) just to drink their coffee. For that level of devotion they must be doing something right! In this podcast Bowen and Pip give the A-Z of how they started, and what details the went over to get things right. How valuable is complimentary sparkling water? What do customers really care about? How do you make a negative experience a positive one? If you want to open a coffee shop, you NEED to listen to this first, there is so much value in one podcast! Like this podcast? Leave a review or even share it with some friends! Sharing helps us grow so that we can go to more places and share more stories around the world.

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 into coffee? And what are their plans in the future? WIll Noma's world leading expertise on fermentation be part of a broader collaboration in the future? Find out on this episode of the Coffee Show with Kirk Pearson! 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.

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 Brewers Cup champion of Panama! Together they make a dream team that is amazing to see, and it is fair to say that the future looks bright for Abu Coffee! Abu coffee is known for producing some of the most complex and high quality coffee in the world. In this podcast hear how Abu coffee has been producing coffee since the 1800's and what the future holds for Sofia, who is planning to study at university and use her skills to improve the farm at Abu. 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 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 used. Instrumental in his success was his entire team, perhaps most of all was Matt Crowley (Head of Coffee at Axil) who was with him every step of the way. As many know, Jack came second last year in what was the tightest result in WBC history, and he came back determined as ever to win. What goes into sourcing, roasting and preparing for a World Barista Championship run? Find out in this episode of the Coffee Show. Thanks again to Jack who is a great friend of The Coffee Show. Thanks again to our Sponsors Timemore, Oatly and Barista Group. And big shout out to Specialty Coffee Association Panama who lent us space on their booth which allowed us to record podcasts at the show. Watch Jack's winning routine here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVoHoMhzy2wLike 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.

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 discusses champion barista Jack Simpson who is using his coffee at this years World Barista Championship. Jamison also discusses what goes into starting a coffee farm and shares an update on the recovery of Morgan Estate, which was tragically damaged during Hurricane Eta in 2020, rendering it unable to produce coffee. 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.

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, World Barista Champion and coffee authority, shares his insights on how coffee shops can thrive in 2025. He discusses the rise of experimental processing, the impact of social media on cafe culture, and ways to improve coffee quality across chains like McDonald's. Hoffmann also reflects on the importance of privacy in the digital age and his personal journey in the coffee industry. With humor and wisdom, he emphasizes the need for cafes to focus on customer relationships and navigate the challenges posed by home brewers.

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.