The Coffee Show with Kirk Pearson

The Coffee Show with Kirk Pearson
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Jun 30, 2025 • 51min

Aston Utan: Building The Indonesian Specialty Coffee Scene

Aston Utan is one of the founders of Common Grounds in Jakarta Indonesia. Common Grounds are hugely responsible for the development of the Indonesian specialty coffee scene and Aston is their CEO. In this episode Kirk and Aston discuss how the Indonesian coffee scene has grown to be one of the most vibrant in the world. Aston and Kirk also discuss how technology will influence coffee service in the future and why customers prefer buying coffee from people rather than robots. 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.
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Jun 23, 2025 • 36min

Kai Janson - Pana-drama! What Makes Coffee From Panama So Special?

Kai Janson is a world leading coffee producer from Panama operating Janson Family Estates. Coffee from the Janson family is internationally applauded and used in competitions all over the world. In 2023 Janson Geisha was used by Boram Um to win the World Barista Championship, a first for the Janson family. In this episode Kirk and Kai discuss what it is that makes coffee from Panama so special! Kai also spills the beans on what some call 'pana-drama,' a term that describes the friendly rivalry between coffee producers in Panama who many believe produce the worlds best coffee. Securing this interview was a win for us at the Coffee Show and offers insight into some of the unspoken tales of Panamanian coffee. The highs, the lows, the beginning and the pana-drama!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.
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Jun 19, 2025 • 28min

Mikael Jasin: World Barista Champion, Cafe Owner, Coffee Exporter

Mikael Jasin is the reigning World Barista Champion, cafe owner and coffee exporter. Mikael took the world by storm winning the World Barista Championship prioritising mindfulness and recounting the challenges he had to overcome to finally win, a great metaphor for life in general. Above everything, Mikael is a proud Indonesian. Since winning the WBC he has been a powerful ambassador for his own country and greater Asia . In this podcast Mikael and Kirk discuss how competition could improve, what Indonesian coffee farmers need to grow and a vision for the coffee industry in the future. 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.
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Jun 16, 2025 • 20min

Boram Um: World Barista Champion, Coffee Producer, K-Pop Star?

Boram Um is the 2023 World Barista Champion, a coffee producer and contender for worlds most handsome barista! In this podcast Kirk and Boram discuss the challenges of preparing for a world title run, how Boram prepared and how life changed for him after the win. Boram and his family own Fazenda Um in Brazil from which he produced one of his world championship coffees. Interestingly, Boram is an advocate for the new changes to the coffee scoring system under the Coffee Value Assessment, which is contrast of a lot of coffee personalties based in consuming countries. Do coffee farmers actually see this as a good thing? 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.
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Jun 11, 2025 • 20min

Daryanto Witarsa: How Jakarta Cemented Itself As a Global Coffee City

Daryanto Witarsa is a well known coffee entrepreneur in Indonesia who now works as high ranking government official overseeing food security. Hosting the World of Coffee is now a competitive process and Yanto lobbied for years to make it happen. This year that dream was achieved with unprecedented success. The show was bustling and set a new standard. In Yanto's new role, he oversees a project of national importance working in the government of newly elected Prabowo Subianto, as a director of food security. Prabowo as he is known to Indonesians, has prioritised nutrition for Indonesians as a key pillar for their economic goals which are ambitious. 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.
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Jun 9, 2025 • 35min

Jay Kim: Why Hospitality Will Always Be The Secret Ingredient To Great Coffee!

Jay Kim is the co-founder of the UFO dripper and growing personality in the specialty coffee space. Jay's public profile has grown enormously in recent times for his inspiring social media posts and videos emphasising the importance of hospitality in coffee.In this podcast Jay and Kirk talk at length about inequality in coffee and how drinking coffee is a privilege, not a right.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.
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Jun 4, 2025 • 23min

Savina Giachgia: Why Sustainability Is More Important Than Ever In Coffee

Savina Giachgia is a runner up in the World Brewers Cup competition of 2023 and passionate advocate for sustainability in coffee. In this discussion Kirk and Savina discuss why everyone should be more concerned about sustainability and what we risk if we don't pay attention. Kirk also reflects on a recent farm visit in Indonesia and highlights why investing in farms is essential for the future of coffee production and maintaining financial viability of coffee farms. 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.
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Jun 4, 2025 • 50min

Jordy & Herru of Ombe Kofie

Jakarta's specialty coffee industry is booming! With more cafes opening than anyone can keep track of, Ombe Kofie has remained adored in a hyper competitive market. Ombe coffee serve some of the best coffee in all of Indonesia (we can confirm that). We were lucky enough to record this podcast inside one of their venues. Two of Ombe's leaders, Jordy and Herru join us to explain the origins of Ombe Coffee (founded by Jordie's father Jason). Why did they decide to open a cafe? How challenging was it? What is the coffee scene like in one of Asia's most populated cities? Jordie and Haru answer 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.
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Jun 2, 2025 • 34min

Yoshua Tanu: Jago Coffee, The New Indonesian Coffee Start Up Taking Indonesia By Storm!

Yoshua Tanu is an icon in the Indonesian Coffee Industry. A former Indonesian Barista Champion and co founder of Common Grounds Coffee, he has founded a new venture that changes the game. Jago Coffee is a mobile cafe that operates using karts. Mobile karts are very common in Indonesia for selling food and other goods. Jago Coffee have for the first time introduced mobile cafes to Jakarta using refrigerated smart bikes that take coffee to where customers are. Using both nimble bikes that can weave through Jakarta's notoriously congested roads and combining them with smart technology that can alert an operator where customers are, Jago has been able to rapidly expand and now have 1500 carts operating in Jakarta (a city of 28 million people). Jago Coffee is also very affordable, offering coffee for under $1 USD. Yoshua explains the challenges of entrepreneurship in coffee as well as his vision for Jago in the future. 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.
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May 28, 2025 • 18min

Yannis Apostolopolous: Specialty Coffee Association CEO Explains Controversial Changes To Coffee Scoring System

Recently it was announced that the system coffee quality graders (Q graders) have been using to score coffees for decades will radically change, causing fury throughout the industry. In this podcast Kirk questions the CEO of the Specialty Coffee Association on how the new system works, why it is changing and how it will be implemented.The scale of the change has been hard to comprehend for Q graders and many coffee producers. Some have said they won't recognise the new system, while others have welcomed the change as it reflects a changing coffee industry. Which pages of the new system should cuppers use? Should cuppings be managed on an app from now on? Kirk and Yannis discuss this at the World of Coffee in Jakarta. 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.

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