Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
S4E5: Steve Moloney Is Throwing the Coffee Party the World Needed
141 Plays3 days ago
What happens when a music festival producer gets bored with coffee's stuffy competition scene? He starts a revolution.
In this episode, we sit down with Steve Moloney, the founder of The Barista League. Ten years ago, he was done with 4 AM gigs in Swedish nightclubs and dreamed of a coffee event that felt less like a silent exam and more like a vibrant house party. That dream became The Barista League—a global phenomenon that’s been called “a party disguised as a coffee competition.”
But this year, everything is changing. Steve reveals why he's tearing up the rulebook he fought to protect for a decade, shifting the focus from technical perfection to storytelling, service, and raw human connection.
Subscribe now so you don’t miss an episode!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction of Steve Maloney
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome back to the show, everyone. Today we have a truly special guest who has been changing the game in the coffee world for the last decade. If you ever thought that coffee competitions look a bit too serious, too expensive or just not that much fun, then you are going to love this conversation today. My guest is Steve Maloney, the founder of The Burris De League.
Steve's Journey and Achievements
00:00:31
Speaker
Yeah, I'm Steve. I grew up in Australia, but I've spent all my kind of coffee career in Sweden where I live. And i guess my background is originally in producing events, music festivals, different things like that. And then I got sucked into coffee when I moved to Sweden.
00:00:50
Speaker
I fell in love with it, started competing. I was the Swedish national champion in 2016 and 2017 and competed in the WBC in in Dublin and then in Seoul.
Creation of Brist League
00:01:00
Speaker
And then around that time, 2015, I created Brist League because I wanted a event that was more kind of there's something i felt like it was missing when i was working in the barista that an event for real baristas that you could afford to go to that was fun that was easy that was a bit more accessible bit more community focused and so nowadays i've been running running the company that produces bris league for about 10 years now and uh yeah we do the bris league we're doing order coffee fest and we produce the best coffee events in the world for good coffee people basically wow 10 years awesome
00:01:35
Speaker
10 years since the first Bristol, yeah. So i feels I feel like I'm i'm getting getting old. I'm definitely not a barista anymore.
Brist League's Fun Atmosphere
00:01:42
Speaker
so yeah So everyone talks about the vibe at your events. It feels like more a festival than a competition. So what is the secret sauce here?
00:01:53
Speaker
How do you create that animal atmosphere? Yeah, sure. I mean, I think we try to make the experience, guess the experience of events is very important to us. So it shouldn't feel like a high stress or stiff environment. should feel like music festival or a fun house party or something that you're walking into and you feel welcomed into. And it has nice lights, nice music, nice food, nice drinks. So it's like a good vibe to be in.
00:02:20
Speaker
And yeah, the competition itself, it used to be very much like a kind of three rounds, a bit of a wild kind of chaotic team competition that you would compete in over a
Evolving Competition Format
00:02:30
Speaker
few hours. And it's been changing and evolving and we're soon about to go into a brand new competition format. So I'd say we're in a little bit of flux, but um it's always focused on real barista skills about doing the things that... um baristas actually have control over and what they have impact on, which is you know customer service, preparation of coffee, talking about coffee, communicating, and working together because making coffee is typically or like very rarely a you know a solo project.
00:02:58
Speaker
Yeah, we know that there are some big changes coming with the new rules. But before we dive into the new details, could you tell us more about the old format? So, um as I said, like I started the Brist League in 2015. So back then when when I was working in a bar, we had lots of latte out throwdowns, not lots, but we had some. And they, for me, were super fun, really good community events. but you would be super stressed, trying to nervously pour latte out with the jitters. And then you'd get out after the first round and you'd just kind of hang around after that.
00:03:31
Speaker
And that's great, but ah it has its its pros and cons. And then you have the kind of, at that time, there was nothing else until you went to the national championships in the WBC, and they were much more like strict and high stakes and and expensive and required preparation. So the very beginning of the Barista League was, we called it a party disguised as a coffee competition.
00:03:54
Speaker
So we had barista skills round, a sensory round, and then a mystery round. You would compete in teams and you would do different rounds at different times throughout the night so that you would compete kind of...
00:04:07
Speaker
consistently over the night you do different things in different places and uh yeah it was a bit more a bit more wild a bit more chaotic a bit more like loose and fun but um yeah it was it good times So it has been a decade.
First Brist League Event
00:04:24
Speaker
Do you remember what the very first Paris League competition was like and now you know at its 10 year mark, what would you say is the biggest change since then? We're more organized, I'd say. It looks a bit better. um the first The first one we ever did, had convinced my bosses at the time. So I worked at a place called Love Coffee in Lund, which was owned by three guys. One of them was the, he became fourth in WBC in 2009. So they had this like pedigree of competing and were champions in Sweden and doing amazing stuff. And I worked in the cafe there.
00:05:00
Speaker
And I was getting a bit bored of being a barista every day. I wanted to do something else. I wanted to produce events again. So I convinced them to let me do like a summer party. And then I kind of disguised the summer party as the Bristol league and kind of wrapped this competition together. But it was wild. It was like 60 people, only 10 teams. And we just had a big party with a DJ and lots of beers and stuff. So it was chaotic, super fun.
00:05:24
Speaker
And, um, Yeah, it was it was what I wanted the competition to be, like very people focused and fun and dynamic and no one really knew what was going on, but the baristas had an amazing time and it was like, yeah, good vibes.
00:05:42
Speaker
What was the original question? How is it like now?
Current Event Features
00:05:45
Speaker
or what So what is what is like now in 2025? um What was the last e event you had like this year?
00:05:53
Speaker
Yeah, we did one in Joburg in South Africa. Okay. And what is the next one? Next one's in Sydney in two days. Oh, in two days. So can you tell us more about the coming event in Sydney?
00:06:07
Speaker
So nowadays I'd say like we, we still have the same kind of vibes of the event. So you'll walk in, it's, it's in a music venue or in, in, um, Joburg, the last one we had this like amazing venue with this big view over the Hills in, in Joburg.
00:06:21
Speaker
Um, you walk in you have like, you know, a bar serving really nice drinks. We have a big roasters village with some of the best roasters in the country, or even the continent coming in and serving coffee, um, to the, to the attendees. We have,
00:06:34
Speaker
We've got games, we've got um kind of different things like activations, we call them. um Things to like, like we have an activation with Rentsular, which one of our partners where you can kind of try to guess between espresso that's been temperature profile and espresso that's done on like a flat temperature profile.
00:06:51
Speaker
So, coffee-centric activities and games and stuff so you can kind of float around good music good lights and then a big stage where the actual competition is happening so i'd say the the main difference between then and now is the production value has gone up and now it basically feels like ah a mini festival inside of a building that happens to be coffee-centric Coffee festival, that's cool.
Participants' Changing Attitudes
00:07:13
Speaker
Well, like a festival with coffee. Yeah. um So how many people do expect usually? ah It depends on the space. Like Mexico is probably our biggest event we can get. We have up around a thousand people who come to those events.
00:07:26
Speaker
And then like Tokyo, it was hard to find a big enough space. So that's around 300. So somewhere between 300 and a thousand people, depending on the location. Wow. Think about you started with 60 people.
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah, we've always grown growing quite a lot, but I think there's, don't know, maybe, you know, like there's there's a hunger for for event for coffee events and good ones. So, um yeah. That's really interesting way to frame it, right? Evaluating it as a cafe experience leading into that shift. So what was the main reason for moving away from an old format and making this big change?
00:08:05
Speaker
So... what we've been finding over the past 10 years is that like that original concept where it was just like loose and fun. And you should, like you say, like you should be able to walk out of your shift into the competition, have some beers, have fun and walk out that like something sort of changed in our baristas over the past 10 years where people were wanting to take it a bit more seriously, to use the Bristol league as a platform, to put it on their CV and on their Instagram that like, yeah, we were part of this. We won. yeah,
00:08:34
Speaker
for the first maybe a couple of years i was resisting it i'm like no i no that's not what it's about it's just it's not meant to be serious it's meant to be fun but then after after a few years i started to realize like actually there's something's happening in the industry you know covid happened this generational shift in the industry happened and people were looking for a space or i think so to get up and be a barista and use the platform to to say things to do things and do it in a different way that like isn't the other competitions
New Scoring System
00:09:04
Speaker
in the world.
00:09:04
Speaker
So, um, yeah, our focus is for next year is basically to open up the rules a bit and put more focus on things that aren't just the technical skills of a barista. So it's not just about tamping and cleaning and making a great espresso and a great filter coffee or whatever.
00:09:22
Speaker
It's obviously about that. You need to be able to do that as a barista, but it's also about the other things that make a coffee experience amazing. So it's the the service, it's the way you greet your customer, it's the you talk about coffee, it's the concept in the cafe or the concept in the service and how all those different things are tied together that for me differentiates like that was a good coffee in ah in a cafe. Yeah, absolutely. That super good. to I had something like mind blowing. Like I went to, have you been to Anthracite in South Korea?
00:09:53
Speaker
Actually, I have it. Oh, okay. I'm pretty sure. Like, it's it's like this super beautiful, like ze like a temple of coffee. And the concept is just so different to anywhere else, like any other type of of cafe. Yeah.
00:10:10
Speaker
um And those are the things that in my mind, like they stick out because it's not just the the great coffee in the cup, but it's also like connected to the whole experience you get going through it. So the new rules are kind of like, we want to allow for baristas to experiment more, innovate more and kind of tell different stories and do different types of coffee services, whether that's very hyper-personal, like sit down in my room and let me like share my coffee with you or hyper-precision German, like, you know, this is a technical precise drink with a technically precise coffee.
00:10:46
Speaker
What we've done is we've kind of broken the scorecard up into three pillars. so You have um your product, which is obviously the drinks that you make, but that only allocates all that only like contributes about 30% of the scores, 39% of the scores.
00:11:01
Speaker
so You have to make really good drinks. but then The other 60% go to concept and service. so What is the kind of concept that you're bringing to the judges? How do you communicate that concept?
00:11:12
Speaker
How well do the judges understand it? And then how is your service contribute to the concept? How does the service set up the expectations for the judges in terms of what they're expecting to drink and then how that how those drinks kind of meet those expectations? So we've kind of pushed a little bit more to how you how you would evaluate a kind of cafe or restaurant experience if you were going into it.
00:11:34
Speaker
That's a really good point. um It makes me think about the other side of the spectrum. ah I'm not a bursar, I never competed, but I think a lot of people have this kind of experience. You see the world champions on the stage, right? um But when you go to their shop, sometimes it could feel completely different.
00:11:53
Speaker
I mean, you may pay a premium price, but the service doesn't always match with your saw. So with the Bursar League's new approach, do you think it's getting closer to the reality of working a cafe?
Making Competitions Accessible
00:12:04
Speaker
Well, yeah, I hope so. i mean, one of the things that i um that I found with watching other coffee competitions, like the WBC is one of them, is that when I was training for it, you would you'd watch the competitions at the time, like Colin Harman was like a big idol or know it was James Hoffman or or whoever.
00:12:23
Speaker
And... you would watch them on screen, you think that like that was amazing and they won and you would try and connect but what they said and did on stage to their result.
00:12:35
Speaker
But actually, once you compete and you get into it, all of the points are in the actual drinks themselves and a lot of them are here in the espresso. So if you bring a really, really good coffee to the table and you make it well, you describe it well, you can win the competition that way. And what you say is contributes, but it's not There's no real points there on the score sheet that connect to that.
00:12:55
Speaker
So what we want to do with ours is basically put points there on the score sheet so that people can, like, the things that they say and do and the vibes that they create and the innovation that they cut they create contributes to their final score.
00:13:09
Speaker
I'd say that's the kind of the big difference like, the... the way were we're opening up the score sheet for more innovation and more kind of, um yeah, creativity for baristas to do different things. ah That really connects to my perspective as an outsider of the coffee industry. Well, I'm not barista. Well, I brew coffee home. um Sometimes it sucks. Oh, usually it sucks. But there are a lot of people like me, right? People who love coffee and they're trying the best improve the game.
00:13:36
Speaker
Then there are people who don't know about the coffee competition exists. And they may see people, coffee people, cupping and thinking, what the heck are these people doing, right? It's just so noisy.
00:13:47
Speaker
So for people who like me, City Purse Leaks has this cool, happy vibe on one side and on the other side, there are the very expensive, high stakes WPC series on the other side. So are this just two extremes?
00:14:05
Speaker
ah No, just think they're different things. One um what one of the things I think we do with with coffee competitions in the industry is that they...
00:14:16
Speaker
they they speak kind of only inside the circle, you know? um Like if you're in inside the competition circuit, then you're watching the competitions, you get it, and the people on stage are kind of really only talking to you.
00:14:30
Speaker
And I think it's a big missed opportunity because you know, as you said, you have all these like millions and millions of people in the world who love coffee and they're looking for coffee, you know, inspiration in in information, all that kind of stuff. And obviously like people like social media influences and coffee people are you know, finding those, that audience. But then those, those people don't translate to competitions in the way that they have for like a master's share for a, you know, tattoo masters or a glass blowing competition. So like coffee hasn't found a way to make their competitions interesting.
00:15:05
Speaker
and accessible to consumers or to to people who want to come into the world. And I think that part of that is kind of because there's no way to understand whether someone's doing well or doing badly when you watch out our current coffee competitions.
00:15:19
Speaker
Like they make coffee. Okay. You cannot taste it. Looks great. You can't taste it. And then the judges are just blank as well. so it's like you have no idea what's happening. Yeah, it's just it's just a black liquid in a cup. So you might be cheering for like Team Sweden or you might be cheering for this person or or that person, but you have no idea whether they're doing well or not. You can only judge them by what they're saying. And then sometimes that aligns with how well doing and sometimes it doesn't. So um we've been spending a lot of time thinking like, well, how do we make it a bit more obvious?
00:15:52
Speaker
as to what is actually happening up there like and we're taking some cues from from like you know cooking competitions and reality tv of how do you make something that you really have to taste it to to be there to understand but there are ways to to bring the audience in and make them understand and make them feel a bit more part of the competition Yeah.
00:16:12
Speaker
So, build it on the idea of making a more understandable. What do you think the Bursar League is are ah or what what could it be for that bigger audience?
00:16:23
Speaker
I think, well, I think one thing is um to understand the rules, I think is the simplest thing. Like the the simplest games are the ones that most people can get behind, you know? um So it's about trying to understand like what what is it that we're judging them on.
00:16:40
Speaker
And then finding a way to have like a kind of audience surrogate or some sort of explainer so that they understand whether the people are doing well or not. So if you think about like artistic gymnastics or ice figure skating or something, you have the judges with scorecards immediately kind of showing, hey, did you do well or did you not? Try to give the audience a bit more context of like, hey, there you're about to do this particular thing with this, I don't know particular technique or equipment or whatever. Yeah.
00:17:09
Speaker
that's interesting because of this. And then you watch the competitors do it, which contextualizes a little bit more. And then you hear the judges be able to give feedback and um kind of, ah yeah, give feedback on on how that went immediately so that you as the audience understands a bit more about what's what's happening.
00:17:26
Speaker
Perfect. Thank you. So look at the big picture. After organizing Birds League for 10 years already, what is your ultimate goal? And what do you see this event for
Vision for Brist League
00:17:39
Speaker
the next 10? Oh, don't know about 10 years, but where you want to We want to create create a platform for the most passionate, ambitious baristas to find a space to say the most interesting things that are going to change the industry. Because I am not a barista anymore. I don't know what the kind of future of coffee experiences will be in cafes or in coffee, like...
00:18:00
Speaker
Yeah, it brewing or whatever. But our baristas, our competitors do. So we want to give them a space, give them access to people, give them access to equipment. They don't have to be super rich to be able to compete. And then just say, okay, show us. Show us what the future of coffee should look like. Show us what the future of coffee communication or coffee experiences should look like. So, I'm hoping that if we have this discussion in a year, we'll be able look back at some of the people who have competed and watch their videos and be like, that that changed something. That changed the way that I think about customer service, the way I think about explaining coffee drinks to consumers or sustainability in coffeeugh in in cafes or in coffee or, i don't know, the social issues in the industry. So, it's about creating space for people to like say something and and challenge the industry and push us forward.
00:18:46
Speaker
Well, it's amazing to see that vision. Now, you're a visionary, but you're not alone here. So how big is the team that brings all of this to life? im Yeah, I mean, I guess.
00:18:58
Speaker
yeah ah i'm I'm just the one that causes problems nowadays. so we're a team of 11 people. um if We have some in, I have an office in Sweden and two in Mexico and some others floating around Europe.
00:19:10
Speaker
And um they do they do all the hard work. I just get in here and create new problems and ah make it make make life difficult for everybody by coming up with crazy ideas. That's fantastic. So ah it's a small team, right? um So how does the Barista League function actually? And you have several events all over the world each year that seems incredibly complex. So could you walk us through it? For example, how do we even begin preparing for an event and how long does it take the whole process?
Event Preparation
00:19:40
Speaker
Absolutely. So we we start about a year and a half, two years before the the competition happens by starting look at where do we want to have the competition in each region?
00:19:49
Speaker
For us, it's really important that if we if we say we're a global event, we need to be somewhat accessible for people in the world. So Africa is a good example where You know, we can't can't say we're a global competition and then ignore a whole continent, ignore a whole, especially a coffee producing continent. So we want to have these events kind of in different places around the world and give an opportunity for them to be a part of it.
00:20:12
Speaker
So we start looking at, well, what cities are, you know, interest interesting coffee cities, which cities want to have an event like the Barista League, doing outreach, finding people there to help us, finding venues. um And that all happens, yeah, about a year and a half, almost two years, one year before the event.
00:20:28
Speaker
And then from there, we just slowly start building out our kind of network of people in that in that space. So that's rosers, that's ambassadors, baristas, competitors, judges, selection committee, all that kind of thing.
00:20:41
Speaker
And then if we fast forward to about three, four months before, we open up for team applications. They submit a video and a written application. Basically, like, you don't have to pay, but what do you want to do and say as a team?
00:20:54
Speaker
And then we give all that information to an international selection committee that basically looks through that. They're totally independent and they judge the the submissions based on a criteria that everybody has. Then once we have our teams, they do some preparation, ah they get some information, some stuff to prepare, and then they show up to the competition the day before.
00:21:14
Speaker
We've built out the stage, the space, the the music, the lights and everything, and they get an opportunity to train using everything they're using in the competition. So by the end of that day, they've had time to dial in their coffees, rehearse their their talks or their presentations, make sure everything's you know super good, ready to go, ah taste all their drinks.
00:21:35
Speaker
And then, yeah, comp competition's the next day. And then obviously, I made ah a very short sentence of a lot of work that goes in to make sure that we have the machines there, the power, the water, the the people, the marketing, the posters, the flyers, all that kind of stuff. But we have a really, really great team that ah have turned the Bristol League into an absolute machine so that they're able to pick it up and put it into different places in the world and make it, in in my opinion, like one of the yeah one of the coolest, one of the best coffee events in in the world.
00:22:05
Speaker
Wow, man, that sounds very, very challenging. I mean, you just listed so many things. or Starting preparations two years in advance, that's just incredible.
Steve's Book on Organizing Events
00:22:16
Speaker
I'm sure that your event inspires a lot of people. um I'm just wondering if someone loves the Burst League vibe, but they somehow live in the place where you couldn't ah you haven't reached yet.
00:22:28
Speaker
So they want to organize a small local event inspired by you, by Burst League. What would be your number one team for them? Okay. i'm I'm not saying this to be like self-promoting, but I actually wrote book in 2019 because people kept asking, like, I want to do bristly. Can you come here? And I said, like, I can't, like at that stage, there were two people in the company. I was like, I just physically can't do that many events. So here is a book with everything I know about running coffee events.
00:22:56
Speaker
Here go. So you can buy that book or download the book. It's on on our website. It's not very expensive. And it will tell you how to run a great local coffee event from sponsorship to organization to motivation, all that kind of stuff, because I want more better coffee events in the world. And everything I know is in that book. So...
00:23:16
Speaker
Wow, that that is so awesome. um I think a lot of people are really into organizing small events. It's very fun, right? We know that there are many competitions out there, but not always the kind that baristas or a home baristas are truly excited about. So that's really cool. It has been 10 years and' still doing it and you're doing it great.
00:23:38
Speaker
So let's take a quick step outside of coffee. So who you are when you are not Steve from the Barista League and who is Steve in real life? um Yeah, I don't know.
00:23:51
Speaker
Tough question. um No, I mean, yeah, as as I said, like I grew up playing music and loving music. I wanted like, yeah, go on tour and run music festivals and stuff. So I kind of got into sound production and event production and i did some of that sort of stuff in Australia and in Sweden.
00:24:06
Speaker
And um I don't know, at some stage, I think I was i was working in ah in like a club or like a music club in in Sweden at like 4 a.m. doing a terrible... uh, kind of rap, like band thing. I was just super tired and I was like, ah, I'm done with this. and that's when I kind of committed to doing coffee and competing and doing all that stuff. But then after a few years I was like, I i like that. I like that the pulse of events are like the kind of the buildup and the, um, the pressure of having to like the events going to happen.
00:24:37
Speaker
whether you like it or not. So you just have to do as much as you can to be prepared for it to be the best that it can be. um And I like that kind of pulse where it gets kind calm in the beginning and it ramps up and then you have like the intense event day or if it's weak and then it brings it back down. And I really like that. So yeah, I love music. I love doing that stuff. I have a ah little baby that you probably heard ah making some noise in the beginning of the podcast and eating good food, cooking good food. That's what I do with my life.
00:25:06
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. it sounds like you're a man who really appreciate quality in all parts of your life. don't know. Thank you. So we talk about the past and the present of the league looking for what other countries can we expect to see in the next year um or in 2026 if you could share that with us.
Upcoming Global Events
00:25:26
Speaker
Sure, well we launched our season on the 24th so I'm not sure when this goes out but I will tell you anyway, whether it goes out before or after. um We're going to start season in Prague in Europe.
00:25:38
Speaker
ah So that'll be our European event in the end of March. Then we go to Mexico City, which is one of our favorite places to do events. Incredible coffee scene in Mexico City. ah Great events. ah Then we're going to go back to Tokyo in June, which was really, really cool.
00:25:55
Speaker
Cool space called Adrift, amazing community, really cool event. um After that, we go to Atlanta in the USA. We've done a couple of really great events there in the South before people really turn out, have a great time.
00:26:10
Speaker
And then after that, we go to Johannesburg again and then actually finish the year in my hometown of Brisbane, Australia, which is the kind of like really up and coming thriving coffee scene that people have kind of i've been sitting on a little bit, um but really excited to finish the year my hometown after 10 years of doing coffee events. that'll be fun.
00:26:31
Speaker
Wow, so many places across these many countries. With a schedule like that, ah are you personally going to be at every single event yourself?
00:26:41
Speaker
No, not anymore. But we have a great team, so I'll probably do a couple of them and then the rest of the team will and be it be at the different events. so go to some really amazing places. It's incredible to, like I'm here in Sydney at the moment for our event. I went to some, some amazing cafes today and then to have done that same thing in Joburg or in Asia or in, um, in Mexico, it's, it's incredible to get to see what's happening in the world of coffee. So it's, um, yeah, it's pretty amazing. And something that keeps me, keeps me motivated and inspired to, know, produce coffee events and,
00:27:16
Speaker
Yeah, find the space for Bristol to show some of that cool innovation and stuff that you see in cafes around the world and put it out there for everybody. Incredible. It's amazing to see how much your role is around coffee.
00:27:28
Speaker
It makes me think, could you imagine one day there was just no more coffee?
Sustainability in Coffee Industry
00:27:35
Speaker
Yeah, i really hope not. I mean, I know we're kind of facing this very yeah interesting or interesting, very challenging period coming up. And I think that's why we need to create spaces for people to talk about it, push people and talk about, well, we need to change. We need to change the way we yeah purchase coffee, store coffee, stop wasting coffee, create some sort of sustainable industry, not only for coffee producers and coffee purchasing and coffee roasting, but then also on the, on the barista side, how do we create sustainable, you know, careers and companies for people to thrive in and not just be this kind of throwaway industry where people cycle in and out as they study and then disappear and go get a real job afterwards. So yeah, I hope we still have coffee in the future. I think we will, but um we're going to have to change some stuff that we're doing, I think. When you say we have to change some stuff, what do you mean by that?
00:28:31
Speaker
So what what are you seeing, you know, at your point of view? And after a decade in coffee industry, what could be the rest of us don't notice at all? I don't know. I mean, I see what I see, like the stuff that's happening in in my little little angle, and I guess talk to a lot of very, very knowledgeable people. So i don't i don't know if I should speak to what we should do in the world. But um I think if I just take one little thing, I think there's there's a lot of unnecessary weight, do you know, if coffee is...
00:29:02
Speaker
such a precious thing and it's becoming harder to grow and harder to make it sustainable and the prices are going up and all that kind of stuff. But yet we are still like burning through coffee, like it's disposable, you know, uh, purging too much coffee before shots. And,
00:29:17
Speaker
um yeah, just, just being a bit wasteful with it. So maybe that's just one little thing that we can actually do at home or in our cafes is think a little bit about like how much, how much coffee am I actually, you know, how much coffee am i wasting here and how much coffee is actually going to its end use of someone sitting there and enjoying the cup, not being thrown out of a thermos because we brewed too much or, you know, purged too much coffee because my dial-in wasn't good or whatever it is.
00:29:46
Speaker
Do think there's an easiest solution, for example, just double or triple the price? ah I mean, a little bit, maybe. where I live in Sweden and we're talking people are talking a lot about the, you know, coffee's getting so expensive, getting so expensive. And ah kind of say to them, you know, well, I mean, we waste a lot of coffee in Sweden. We brew these huge batches and then drink half of it and then gets cold and we throw it out. So if the price goes up, maybe it will motivate. But I think it's also about our habits as well. Like even at home, like, do you really need to brew this much? How much how much coffee do I need right now? Should I brew a smaller batch? It's oh, no, no, like I know my 30 grams, half a liter.
00:30:25
Speaker
And I only need one cup, but it's just easy and it's ah on repeat. So maybe there's some things that we can do personally to kind of be a bit more conscious, a bit more like deliberate in the way we produce coffee and what we waste what we don't and what we do with those like beans that are left over in the bag and those types of things. don't know.
00:30:43
Speaker
All right. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on that. Well, Steve, this has been an absolute pleasure. and Thank you so much for taking the time to share a story behind the Birds League, the new rules and your vision for the future. I've learned lot and I'm sure our audience did too. You too. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
00:31:01
Speaker
For everyone listening, you can follow the Burris League's journey and see their latest events, check their schedule. And if you have it, or just go to the Burris League.com to learn more about it. And that's it for this episode. If enjoyed this conversation, please follow and subscribe to the show. Till next time, keep brewing good coffee and have great conversations. Thanks for listening.
00:31:23
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to this I'm Not A Barista episode. Subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram at IamNotABarista for more empowering vibes and true coffee stories that connect you with coffee lovers around the world.