Three-time Australian Barista Champion Jack Simpson is taking his talents to the world stage once again, but this time he’s shining a light on one of the industry’s most underappreciated areas.
To succeed in the highest levels of competition requires a flawless blend of art, science, and expertise, with significant dashes of talent and creativity thrown in for good measure.
There are few baristas who have achieved this balance as well as Jack Simpson who, this October, will once again represent Australia at the World Barista Championship. This time the competition takes place in Milan, where he will be hoping to go one step better than his second-place finish in Busan in 2024.
As he gears up to once again take on some of the best baristas in the world, Jack says he’s taken a different approach to previous years. He is hoping to shift the industry’s focus away from the baristas and towards the producers who make these types of competitions possible.
“This year I feel like I really have a purpose and a message that I have been wanting to send, first on the national stage and now on the world stage,” Jack tells BeanScene.
“Baristas are the coffee celebrities, they’re the ones in the magazines and on Instagram, but producers deserve more of a platform. I don’t think I have given that enough of a platform over the past couple of years, but in reality, the producers are doing an incredible amount of hard work that then allows us to do our best work.
“Their product is their livelihood and it’s formed through generations, so it’s super important to share their stories. As baristas we have a responsibility to get that across to our customers and whoever wants to listen.”
In this year’s Australian Barista Championship, the Axil Coffee Roasters Head of Innovation defeated runner-up Gabriel Tan of Veneziano Coffee Roasters for the third year in a row, with Plus Two Coffee’s Tony Xie placing third.
Jack used a natural Panamanian coffee from Jamison Savage at Finca Deborah – Nirvana and a natural Colombian coffee from Jonathan Gasca of Finca Zarza for the espresso and milk courses.
For his signature drink, he used another coffee from Jonathan alongside honey vinegar, with cascara and passionfruit husks to highlight the value of waste products.
Jack says the journey producers like Jonathan have taken for their coffee to be used in such a high level of competition highlights why baristas should strive to further showcase origin and production.
“Jonathan is a fourth-generation coffee farmer. He’s only recently started producing specialty coffee, but he’s doing some really amazing things,” he says. “I think the spotlight should be taken away from me as a competitor and instead shone on producers like Jonathan. Without them, we wouldn’t have an industry.
“Whatever we’re doing on stage will be listened to and seen by a lot of people, so I’m conscious that I want to send a positive message.
“We’re going through a tough time as an industry at the moment and what these producers are able to achieve is just amazing. It’s up to us to make sure the industry is not taking it for granted.”
In Jack’s journey of finding which coffees are most suitable for him to use in competition, he has typically embarked on something of a tasting tour that has seen him sample beans from across the globe, but this time he changed his approach.
“In the past two years the process involved me trying as many coffees as I could and going to as many cuppings as possible to get my hands on all these different samples. I think I tried close to 200 coffees,” says Jack.
“That really solidified that I knew I was choosing the best coffees to represent, but this year I knew I only really wanted to use two producers – Jamison and Jonathan – because I had built these strong connections with them and their families.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go through that process of finding new coffees, but more that I have a connection with them in addition to them being top-level producers, and I really wanted to showcase their products.”
That marriage of art, skill, science, and creativity to create Jack’s personal brand of inimitable barista magic was evident in the milk course, where he combined Jonathan’s Colombian coffee with dairy milk – but with a twist.
Using The Alternative Dairy Co.’s oat milk in conjunction with Riverina Fresh dairy milk, Jack created a beverage he labelled as hard to describe, but “like a liquid fruitcake.”
“We’re very blessed in Australia to have amazing milks like The Alternative Dairy Co. that we can just grab off the shelf and use straight away,” he says. “But in barista competitions you’re always trying to find the edge,” he says.
“This time, I used a process called cryodesiccation. I put the oat milk in a freeze dryer to chill to about -30 degrees Celsius until it was completely frozen in a thin sheet. Then we applied vacuum pressure into a chamber and applied a gentle heat of around 50 degrees.
“When you’re applying heat to a frozen product under vacuum pressure it doesn’t turn into a liquid, it goes straight to gas. What’s escaping is literally just water, so it’s leaving behind all the solids.”
It was these solids created from The Alternative Dairy Co. oat milk that helped Jack find the edge he was seeking.
“This process takes around four or five days, but it leaves you with a powder. It’s 100 per cent oat milk, but all the liquid has been taken out,” Jack says.
“I reintroduced the powder back into a milk, and it basically supercharges it. It’s really creamy, incredibly textural, super sweet, and it amplifies everything.
“When I serve it with some of the best coffees in the world, it almost becomes like a dessert. It’s hard to describe, but you can think of it almost like a liquid fruitcake.”
Jack is incredibly familiar with The Alternative Dairy Co.’s products, having used them across Axil Coffee Roasters’ venues and during his more than 14 years in hospitality.
He says the quality of the product and alignment of their values makes it a no-brainer option to help him shine on the world stage.
“I’ve been using The Alternative Dairy Co. in the café for several years now and I’m very thankful they support me in barista competitions. To have a partner that’s making such an amazing product is a bit of a secret weapon,” says Jack.
“Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to go to their facility just north of Sydney and see how they produce their milks. They put so much effort and research into crafting the best alternatives on the market.
“I spend hours perfecting a cup for a barista competition, and the same can be said for The Alternative Dairy Co. with their milks. Seeing those similarities in our approaches is why I choose their milk for work, as well as the national and world stages.”
For more information, visit altdairyco.com
This article appears in the October 2025 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
