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 the creations in the Look Book.

Along with the launch of the look book Kirk and Toby discuss the 'Future of Taste' report that Oatly developed which looks into upcoming trends within the coffee industry, like:

- The Global Flavor Exchange

- Conscious Indulgence

- Fibre Has Entered the Chat

- Destination Drinks

- The Future State of Matcha

This is a great podcast to understand what trends could emerge in 2026 and what the future of coffee might look like!

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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 first national title! Gabrel overcame a challenge from the legendary Angus Mackie of Ona Coffee using coffee from Finca Janson in Panama and unique microlot from Indonesia! In this episode we discuss Gab's journey where he competed against the very best in Australia's top heavy barista competition and what it took for him to overcome the mental hurdles of defeat! Jack Allisey is the Head of Coffee for the Nomad Coffee Group which is roasts more than 100 tonnes of coffee a week supplying some of Australia's biggest coffee brands. Jack is also Gab's coach for competition and has worked with Gab throughout his competition journey! Like this podcast? Leave a review and please tell two of your friends!

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 milk coffee that was made using freshly made espresso and espresso that had been made a day prior. The results were quite fascinating and might surprise you!

Is the future of coffee pre made?

Also, the guys talk about the state of coffee education, whether or not coffee is better than it was 10 years prior and what you can do to immediately improve the quality of your batch brew!

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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 competition. In recent years, natural and experimental fermentations have dominated the Australian competition scene, this year Alex coffee was the highest scoring of the whole weekend despite coming second to the legendary Simon Gautherin!

In this podcast Alex breaks down his entire competition prep, how the coffee was sourced, roasted, brewed and every other little detail.

Plus, Project Zero Coffee is opening a second store soon and the concept is something that will be an amazing success, or a spectacular failure!

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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 together run Rose Coffee Roasters, and internationally famed roastery that sells some of the highest quality and unique coffee the world has to offer.

At Host Milan, Kirk, Sierra and Matt all linked up to record a podcast and touched on the quality that competition has reached recently.

Plus, they all play an entertaining game of "he's a ten, she's a ten!"

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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!

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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.

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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!

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