• Julijan Markovic: Esmeralda Aftermath & Why You Shouldn't Start A Business In Coffee
    Sep 8 2025

    Julijan Markovic is the founder of Brew Methods in Melbourne Australia and is one of Australia's most talented coffee brewers of the last few years.


    This podcast occurs right after we tried the Best of Panama winning Washed Geisha, Natural Geisha and Laurina. This was an incredible experience.


    Julijan and Kirk also talk about what makes a good coffee experience and controversially: Why you shouldn't start a coffee business!


    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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    52 mins
  • Morgan Drinks Coffee: Your Friendly Internet Barista!
    Aug 31 2025

    How do you introduce those who need no introduction? Like this:

    Morgan Eckroth is the most recognisable face in the coffee industry today!

    With nearly 10 million followers across Youtube, Instagram and Tiktok, Morgan has touched every corner of the globe with their catchy videos and lessons on making unbelievable coffee drinks!

    We were excited to learn that Morgan is as big of a Star Wars fan as Kirk and has some spicy takes on which order to watch the films in.

    Beyond that, Morgan is a world class barista competitor and committed member of the coffee community.

    In this podcast Morgan also spills the beans on they make world class drinks!

    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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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • Dr Dean Miller & Pete Licata: Coffee Doesn't Ruin Your Sleep!
    Aug 28 2025

    Dr Dean Miller is a sleep and circadian scientist based in Adelaide who studies sleep and works with high performance athletes advising them on sleep to optimise performance.

    Pete Licata is a World Barista Champion who started a new coffee company 'Caffeine Control Coffee' which offers different coffees with varying levels of caffeine, so that people can better manage their caffeine intake and improve sleep.

    In this podcast Kirk, Dean and Pete discuss whether coffee consumption in general is bad for your sleep.

    How many coffees can you have in a day and still sleep well?

    Should we wait when we wake up to have coffee?

    If you drink coffee does that mean your sleep will be bad?

    Is sleep one of the most important elements of health?

    In this episode those questions get answered and much more!

    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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    55 mins
  • Lucy Ward: Why Food Security Is Something The Coffee Industry Should Focus On
    Aug 26 2025

    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.

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    56 mins
  • Kirk's Take: This World Barista Championship Will Be The Most Competitive Ever
    Aug 17 2025

    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.

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    7 mins
  • Rachel Peterson: Producer Of The Worlds Greatest Coffee
    Aug 14 2025

    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.

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    1 hr and 36 mins
  • Australian Specialty Coffee Association: Dropping The Elitism In Coffee Competitions
    Aug 11 2025

    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.

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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Best of Panama Reaction: The Most Expensive Coffee Of All Time!
    Aug 7 2025

    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!

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    12 mins