Barista Tips & Guides

Why Does Your Coffee Taste Watery?
Why Does Your Coffee Taste Watery?
Ever pulled a shot, taken a sip, and thought... where's the coffee? You're not alone, and it happens just as often in cafes as it does at home. The good... Read more...
The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Espresso Machines: Tier Ranked!
The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Espresso Machines: Tier Ranked!
The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Espresso Machines: Tier Ranked! So you're thinking about buying your first espresso machine. First of all welcome to what will become one of the best... Read more...
How to Store Your Coffee Properly
How to Store Your Coffee Properly
Discover how to store your coffee beans properly to keep them fresh and full of flavour. Avoid common storage mistakes and taste the difference. Read more...
Best Coffee Machines Under $1,000 in 2025
Best Coffee Machines Under $1,000 in 2025
With so many espresso machines on the market, it can be hard to know where to start. Every week, new models appear promising café-quality coffee at home. But which ones... Read more...
Top Mistakes New Home Baristas Make (and How to Fix Them)
Top Mistakes New Home Baristas Make (and How to Fix Them)
Just set up your coffee machine but not getting café-level results? Here are the biggest home barista mistakes and how to fix them for a better-tasting brew. Read more...
Is coffee good for you?
Is coffee good for you?
"Coffee is addictive! Coffee is evil! Coffee is bad for you!" These are some of the sentences we've all heard throughout our lives. They have been going around since the... Read more...
How to keep coffee fresh
How to keep coffee fresh
Why is the Airscape Coffee Canister necessary for any home barista? Coffee is one of the most sensitive and volatile products; its literally allergic to everything: Light, Oxygen, Heat, Cold,... Read more...
Clean your espresso machine
Clean your espresso machine
At the core of every single home espresso machine, no matter how complicated, is a very basic and very familiar baseline of components. These components, no matter how different they... Read more...
Ultimate guide to filter papers
Ultimate guide to filter papers
Filter, or Pour over Coffee, is regarded as one of the purest tasting coffees you can make. Held to high esteem by the coffee elite, filter coffee is the pinnacle... Read more...
Five options for used Coffee Grinds
Five options for used Coffee Grinds
Australians are known for their coffee. Unlike South America or Africa, Australia doesn't grow beans worthy of the world stage. Sure we grow some pretty good beans but realistically we... Read more...
Upcycled coffee cherries
Upcycled coffee cherries
TACKLING THE WAR ON WASTE Written by Liam Burge Coffee is one of the largest waste producers on the planet. Every year roughly 20 BILLION kgs of the waste off... Read more...
HOW CAN I TELL IF MY COFFEE IS GOOD?
HOW CAN I TELL IF MY COFFEE IS GOOD?
Currently in Australia there are: 6700 “Coffee Businesses" operating 792 Coffee Bean Distributors and just around 40 000 baristas currently employed Australia is girt by high quality, delicious coffee and... Read more...
The Ugandan Coffee Industry
The Ugandan Coffee Industry
Given the title by Winston Churchill back in the 1908, Uganda is a hidden gem of coffee production nestled in the heart of Africa. Landlocked between its neighbours South Sudan... Read more...
Five coffee tools for any home
Five coffee tools for any home
Puck prep is all over the internet these days, with just about every home batista having a tool kit of various gadgets that claim to revolutionise the coffee game. What... Read more...
Why Is Coffee Expensive? - Perspective
Why Is Coffee Expensive? - Perspective
Coffee prices ARE rising and they aren't going to stop at the predicted $7 a coffee. Most of the public's immediate reaction has been to batten down the hatches like... Read more...
Why is Coffee Expensive? - Coffee Vs Wine
Why is Coffee Expensive? - Coffee Vs Wine
This seems to be THE question so many consumers are asking amidst the current price hike the industry is seeing and an issue that so many consumers seem to not... Read more...
Can Coffee Make You Lose Weight?
Can Coffee Make You Lose Weight?
Caffeine cops a lot of flak. Some say it poisons you, others say it is an addictive substance that will only lead to hardship. The term caffeine even gets thrown... Read more...
How to start liking coffee? THE ULTIMATE GUIDE
How to start liking coffee? THE ULTIMATE GUIDE
Coffee isn't elitist. Coffee is often viewed as a pretentious and over complicated consumable reserved only for the upper echelon of society, and that couldn't be further from reality. Coffee... Read more...
2022 GUIDE: Best Home Espresso Machines on the Market
2022 GUIDE: Best Home Espresso Machines on the Market
So it's time to invest in an espresso machine. Perhaps you have had one in the past and it's time to upgrade, or maybe it's your first time and you... Read more...
Instant Coffee vs Ground Coffee: The Ultimate Showdown
Instant Coffee vs Ground Coffee: The Ultimate Showdown
Why do we drink instant coffee? You mention the word ‘instant’ to any coffee drinker and the response is the same, disgust, yet it is still drunk all across the... Read more...
Uncomplicating Coffee
Uncomplicating Coffee
written by Liam Burge The last two decades has seen a surge in coffee shops across the world, most noticeably across inner city suburbs in Australia. We have quickly proven... Read more...
Soulhand Electric Vacuum Coffee Container
Soulhand Electric Vacuum Coffee Container
Airtight containers are not very new to the coffee industry with other vacuum canisters coming on to the market around 2018. However, I haven’t ever seen anything like this Electric... Read more...
Is the Comandante hand coffee grinder worth the high price point?
Is the Comandante hand coffee grinder worth the high price point?
Does the Comandante justify its ~$500 price tag? Hobbies can get expensive. But that's the fun of hobbies; you can go down a rabbit hole and pimp out your car,... Read more...
Why The Price of Coffee NEEDS To Rise
Why The Price of Coffee NEEDS To Rise
In a world of rising costs, we as consumers are forced to think about the hard questions. Such as whether the products that I buy fit into Necessity or Luxury.... Read more...
THE GOLDEN RATIO of COFFEE
THE GOLDEN RATIO of COFFEE
Water is essential for all life on earth, however we rely on a balance of water to sustain life. Too little and we dry up, too much and we flood.... Read more...
What is Acidity in Coffee? And is it good?
What is Acidity in Coffee? And is it good?
Coffee is often marketed as an acidic beverage, but it actually has a pH of about five, making it less acidic than beverages such as beer, orange juice, and even... Read more...
Photo of coffee cups in cafe
5 Things people often overlook in coffee
The world of coffee is an increasingly complex and confusing world. But there are a few things which should go without saying, but somehow get overlooked. Here are a few... Read more...
Rosetta latte art coffee design
How to Pour A Rosetta Latte Art (Also known as a Fern Leaf)
So, you’ve mastered the Latte Art Heart (or you’re bored of trying it over and over again) and you want to move on to something a bit more challenging? Let’s... Read more...
Coffee Profile: Mexican Grupo Terruno Nayarita 100% Organic
Coffee Profile: Mexican Grupo Terruno Nayarita 100% Organic
Since the country’s introduction to coffee in the 1700s, Mexico has become a force to be reckoned with when it comes to environmentally friendly coffee. It’s leading farming methods have... Read more...
The Mexican Coffee Industry
The Mexican Coffee Industry
The History of Mexico’s Coffee Industry Mexicos coffee industry began in the 1700s when Spanish colonists introduced the first coffee plants in Veracruz. Despite crops being successful, the attention soon... Read more...
Home Brewing Methods: The Nanopresso
Home Brewing Methods: The Nanopresso
Read Time: 2 minutes The Nanopresso, a fairly recent coffee invention that allows you to make high quality espresso wherever you are, has taken off in popularity. Keep on reading... Read more...
Why is Panama Geisha Coffee Worth Every Cent?
Why is Panama Geisha Coffee Worth Every Cent?
READ TIME: 1-1.5 minutes You may have come across this coffee called “Panama Geisha” once or twice, and been blown away at just how expensive it is. But what you... Read more...
Home Brewing Methods: Filter/Drip
Home Brewing Methods: Filter/Drip
Read Time: 2 minutes Filter/drip coffee brewing has been insanely popular for over a century now, and for some very good reasons. The coffee brewed from this method tastes incredible,... Read more...
The Burundi Coffee Industry
The Burundi Coffee Industry
READ TIME: 3 MINUTES Burundi is a beautiful East African country sandwiched between Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After many ups and downs in the coffee... Read more...
How To Correctly Store Coffee Beans
How To Correctly Store Coffee Beans
Read Time: 2 Minutes, 19 Seconds. It’s a common myth that the fridge is the best place to store your coffee beans, but it isn’t the best place at all.... Read more...
Coffee Profile: Brazil Fazenda Rio Verde
Coffee Profile: Brazil Fazenda Rio Verde
Read Time: 1 minute, 48 seconds Brazil is a coffee production powerhouse, producing a third of the entire world’s coffee supply. Their popularity is a testament to the consistent, high-quality... Read more...
Home Brewing Methods: Aeropress
Home Brewing Methods: Aeropress
READ TIME: 3-4 minutes The Aeropress, introduced in 2005, is a unique form of coffee brewing that allows for quick brewing of high-quality black coffee. Currently at version 8, the... Read more...
Brazil's Coffee Industry
Brazil's Coffee Industry
Read time: 3 minutes, 50 seconds The lively and vibrant Brazil is the world’s leading exporter and producer of coffee, producing over one-third of the entire world’s coffee supply, a... Read more...
5 Facts About Coffee That You Probably Didn't Know
5 Facts About Coffee That You Probably Didn't Know
READ TIME: 4-5 MINUTES Even though we’re currently in the third wave of coffee, there’s still so much unknown about coffee. Did you know that a coffee bean isn’t actually... Read more...
Home Brewing Methods: Plunger/French Press
Home Brewing Methods: Plunger/French Press
READ TIME: 1.5 MINUTES The coffee plunger, as it’s known in Australia, or French Press across other Western countries is a type of manual coffee brewing method. Patented in 1852... Read more...
How Do I Make Good Coffee While I'm Camping?
How Do I Make Good Coffee While I'm Camping?
READ TIME: 1.5-2 minutes Often times, people tend to sacrifice coffee quality – or even coffee altogether – when they go on a camping trip. But that doesn’t have to... Read more...
What is channelling and why is it bad in coffee title blog image
What is "Channelling" and why is it bad in coffee?
Read Time: 2 minutes, 49 seconds Channelling in coffee occurs during the extraction process when water finds a gap in the coffee puck. This means that the water that would... Read more...
How To Tamp Properly Step By Step Guide
How To Tamp Properly: Step by Step Guide!
Read time: 1 minute 30 seconds Guess what!? You can tamp properly with pretty much anything whether its teaspoon or an expensive professional tamper as long as the other steps... Read more...
What Affects Coffee Flavour Part 2: Altitude
What Affects Coffee Flavour Part 2: Altitude
Coffee is grown at a variety of different altitudes across the world, which can affect the flavour, quality and complexity of a coffee. Generally speaking, coffee grown at a higher... Read more...
Home Brewing Methods: Home Espresso Machines
Home Brewing Methods: Home Espresso Machines
READ TIME: 2.5 MINUTES There are a multitude of at-home coffee brewing methods that are used across the world, with home espresso machines arguably being the most popular in the... Read more...
The Indonesian Coffee Industry
The Indonesian Coffee Industry
Read time: 3-4 minutes Indonesia‘s geographical location provides them with the optimum climate for growing and producing coffee. Currently sitting at the third largest coffee producer in the world, Indonesia’s... Read more...
why does my coffee taste burnt title image
Why Does My Coffee Taste Burnt?
Nobody wakes up in the morning and decides that they want a burnt tasting coffee, but it can happen, even if you have a super fantastic machine. So how to... Read more...
Coffee Profile: Sumatra Wahana Estate Rasuna Grade 1
Coffee Profile: Sumatra Wahana Estate Rasuna Grade 1
Read Time: 2 minutes Sumatra is a large island in Western Indonesia consisting of eight provinces and has earned the title of one of Indonesia’s largest coffee producers. Sumatra is... Read more...
What is Espresso Coffee?
What is Espresso Coffee?
Read Time: 1-2 minutes Everything you Need to Know About Espresso Espresso is probably the most commonly drunk type of coffee within Australia, yet a lot of misunderstanding surrounds it.... Read more...
The Kenyan Coffee Industry
The Kenyan Coffee Industry
Read Time: 2-3 minutes Kenya is a global leader in specialty coffee exports. The combination of a magnificent landscape, climate and technique are the key reasons why Kenya has such... Read more...