Jack Simpson has become the fourth Australian to lift the World Barista Championship with his 2025 victory in Milan, but there’s more to his win than meets the eye.
There aren’t many occasions when an industry stops to witness history, but the coffee world was afforded that opportunity within the hallowed halls of the Fiera Milano earlier this year.
An entire community stood still and watched as Jack Simpson rallied to have another crack at the World Barista Championship (WBC) after falling at the final hurdle in the two years before.
After a third-place finish behind Brazil’s Boram Um and Italy’s Daniele Ricci in 2023, and then a runner-up finish to Indonesia’s Mikael Jasin in 2024, Jack himself had openly discussed his doubts about competing again in 2025 – but he found himself back on stage to, this time, experience the ultimate success.
His 2025 competition journey started with a third consecutive Australian Barista Championship win back in June, where he once again competed against five of Australia’s top baristas.
Then, he was back on the world stage in Milan, competing against an immensely talented field of national champions and former WBC finalists including the likes of China’s Simon SunLei and Canada’s Ben Put, who rounded out the podium.
When Jack was announced as the winner, the outpouring of emotion was palpable. Mikael, in his first act as former World Barista Champion, was on hand to present the trophy to his successor after narrowly defeating him by one solitary point in 2024.
He says Jack’s desire to keep competing after those heartbreaking losses has proven an inspiration among the coffee competition community.
“Jack is a really nice person, that’s why people really love that he won,” says Mikael.
“The story of resilience also really inspires people. He has this tenacity to go back year after year and always make the final. He’s a great competitor and a great coffee professional.”
Jack spoke to BeanScene amongst the chaos of the immediate aftermath of his victory. He praised the efforts and support of the wider Axil Coffee Roasters team in helping him achieve his dream.
“I’ve been thinking about it for years and years, but one your name gets called it’s almost like a relief,” he says.
“We’ve had the same team for a number of years now. With the guys – Dave (Axil Founder Dave Makin) and Matt (Axil Head Roaster Matt Crowley) and my partner Gabby, we’re a very strong group that challenges each other a lot. I think that’s been the key to success.
“Having done three competitions in a row, I’m really happy I won with this performance.”
Jamison Savage was one of two suppliers of beans – along with Jonathan Gasca – to Jack for the 2025 World Barista Championship. His farm, Finca Deborah, has a rich history in the competition having supplied all three podium finishers with beans in 2024, including Mikael with its ELIPSE beans.
Overall, Fincah Deborah has supplied beans for three WBC wins, and has been active in the competition space for more than 16 years.
“When I first decided to compete this year I was visiting Jamison and I was visiting Jonathan,” says Jack.
“To do this with them behind me, this is a win for them as much as it is for me.”
The newly crowned champion used a natural Panamanian coffee from Jamison at Finca Deborah and a natural Colombian coffee from Jonathan of Finca Zarza.
He travelled to Finca Deborah earlier this year, where he and Jamison toured the coffee plantation and masterminded a plan to help Jack conquer the world of coffee.
Jamison says Jack’s desire to push coffee origin to the forefront of his routine is an immensely rewarding aspect of the win.
“Aside from his talent, Jack’s gracious spirit was one of the reasons I was intent on working with him,” says Jamison. “His deep respect for our craft at origin and appreciation for those surrounding him are magnetic and genuine.
“That, for a producer, is a winning element in a competitor. Watching Jack and Jonathan together in Milan was magical – their longstanding relationship is testimony to this, and on the world stage that means so much to the Savage Coffee team.
“When a challenger displays character like Jack’s, people naturally gravitate towards it. It’s a frequency, a higher vibration that we all seek as humans. He is focused, attentive, and passionate, and this bleeds through every thought and decision he makes.
“He’s a winner, and these character traits shine through in him.”
The competition
Jack started his 2025 WBC campaign in a similar fashion to 2024 – by recording the highest score of the first round.
Of the 51 baristas taking part in the opening stage of the competition, just 16 progressed to the second round. Jack finished with a score of 671.5, a full 22 points clear of second-ranked Simon SunLei, with Philippines’ Michael Harris registering the third highest score of the round with 631 points.
In the semi-final only South America was unrepresented as a continent, showcasing the truly global nature of the WBC.
Scoring across the board dropped in the second round, with Jack registering the third highest total. Simon topped the charts with a score of 604.5, while Malaysia’s Jason Loo finished on 593.5. Jack then followed with 583 points along with representatives from Japan (Hiroki Ito), Denmark (Christopher Sahyoun Hoff), and Canada (Ben Put) to make up the group of six competitors who would contest the final.
Mikael praised the standard of the 2025 competition and believes as time goes on, it will only be more competitive year after year.
“I always think the competitors of today are better than the competitors of yesterday, but the competitors of tomorrow will be better than the competitors of today.
“Every year the level continually increases. Next year, the WBC will be better in a lot of ways too, and the year after will be better again.”
Eventually, after a full four days of competition in the middle of the packed Host Milano tradeshow, Jack was crowned champion. He finished with a score of 643 points in the final – well clear of Simon in second (628) and Ben in third (592.5).
When Mikael presented Jack with the trophy, the two shared a warm embrace in front of a packed crowd.
The 2024 champion says he experienced a range of emotions due to holding personal relationships with many of the top six, but it was special to share in such a moment with his competitor and friend.
“Obviously, I have a lot of friends who were in the top six, so there were very mixed feelings – especially with Ben (Put) being up there as well since he is such an inspiration,” Mikael says.
“I was crying on the side waiting to give Jack the trophy. After last year Jack and I became good friends, we went on a few trips together to Tokyo and Brazil, and I met him in Melbourne as well.
“When Jack won, because of our personal history and standing next to each other in Busan, where I was proud I won but could see how crushed he was, I was really happy I could pass him the trophy.”
Using the Finca Deborah beans, Jack registered a run of perfect scores in the espresso course – the second ever perfect score in its class and the first since Berg Wu in 2016 who, incidentally, was also using a Geisha from Deborah.
With the routines of high-level barista competitions utilising and incredible blend of science and creativity to craft the perfect cup, Jamison has revealed how the coffee Jack used from Finca Deborah, named AETHER, was created.
“AETHER is an argon gas natural macerated, washed finished Geisha. I refer to this process as a hybrid as both natural and washed techniques are used to create this intensely fruit forward yet clean cup,” Jamison says.
“It builds upon my years working with nitrogen and carbon dioxide, and we’ve unlocked something special with this novel process.”
It was the first time Jamison had used argon in the coffee washing process, and the beans were created especially for the competition.
Jack says the tasting notes were very citrusy, with notes of naval orange, stone fruits, peaches, apricots, jasmine, and bergamot, and he switched from the Nirvana beans, which he used in his Australian Barista Championship win, “at the last minute”.
Mikael praised the routines of not only Jack, but the entire group of competitors, and believes 2025 marked a shift in how routines are presented on the world stage.
“Rather than trying to do more and more, Jack actually stripped his routine back and was really vulnerable on stage, and that makes him very, very relatable to people, and it’s the right message for the time we have now,” says Mikael.
“Obviously he knows how to make really good coffee, but by changing his approach and being vulnerable and relatable, he could deliver that coffee better, and I think that’s how he won this year.
“If you look at the top six this year – and even outside of them – that style of presentation seems to be on the rise, and it was the right kind of presentation to win.”
Opportunity knocks
It only takes a glance through the list of former World Barista Champions to know it represents a who’s who of the coffee world.
From an Australian perspective, there’s already industry legends like Paul Bassett (2003) who has since featured in the 2004 television series Living Coffee, started his own roastery – Bassett Espresso – and grown his brand of Paul Bassett coffeehouses in Japan and South Korea to more than 100 stores.
Sasa Sestic (2015) has grown Ona Coffee almost exponentially, to the point where it has locations in Australia, the Middle East, and Asia, while operating sister company Project Origin trades green beans.
Then, Anthony Douglas (2022) – Melbourne’s first champion who, like Jack, was representing Axil Coffee Roasters – co-founded Homebody Union Coffee, and has previously been a brand ambassador for the likes of La Marzocco and been heavily involved in coffee research and development.
It’s an achievement that has hit the mainstream Australian media too, with major news outlets, radio shows, and talk shows all covering Jack’s success in Milan.
Mikael experienced something of a media storm when he became Indonesia’s first ever World Barista Champion in 2024. He says success in the competition highlights the strength of the barista craft as a career, rather than its perception a part-time job or side hustle.
“When you have a world champion in coffee from your country, it’s amazing to see the impact it has on the industry,” says Mikael.
“It is a great representation to the mainstream public that there is a whole different world to the barista profession. It allows them to see it’s not just something people do while they’re studying and waiting to get a ‘real job’. “
For the next year or so, Jack will be the reigning World Barista Champion. World of Coffee Panama has already been confirmed as hosting the next edition of the competition and, as of yet, it remains to be seen who will be taking to the stage for Australia.
But for now, at least, Jack sits clear of not only all other baristas in Australia, but all other baristas in the world. It’s an achievement that, by his own admission, has been a decade in the making.
Mikael has just finished the “crazy” 12 months where, by the end of the year, he expects to have been on 100 flights to more than 20 countries.
Jack is set to embark on his own journey as world champion, and Mikael believes the new champion is set to experience a year full of opportunities all around the world.
“It’s up to Jack what he wants to do with the title, but most competitors want to make something out of it. With the win comes a lot of spotlight and an incredible platform. He’ll talk to a lot of people, he’ll talk to a lot of camera lenses and make lots of videos of making coffee for thousands of people,” says Mikael.
“Speaking from experience it’s crazy and overwhelming and tiring, but that’s what all of us work hard for.
“My advice is to enjoy the circus and enjoy the craziness, then when he passes on the trophy he can sit back and see what he wants to do next. It’s going to be crazy, it’s going to be amazing, but he’s worked so hard for this and he deserves all the attention he’s getting.”
This article appears in the December 2025 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
