Anything But Coffee (Bryan Serwatka)

And we’re back from the break with another episode to keep you full, satisfied and content with content. This week I’m sitting down with Alex Dantes-Smith who’s head of retail in Europe for Fellow Products. I’m filter coffee obsessed and am therefore a bit of a fanboy for Fellow’s kit, but I’ve known Alex for a few years now through this mad old coffee industry and am an even bigger fan of the man himself.

I ran into this meeting at Ozone near Old Street over-caffeinated and quite stressy, so expect me speaking at a million miles a minute - no change there, I guess. It was great to hear how he got into coffee and everything else that makes him tick - which I guess is kinda the point of the show right? Enjoy! 

This week I’m speaking to Adam Innes - or ‘adamscoffeeglasgow’ as his instagram handle reads.

Adam is a well-known coffee creative producing fun yet accessible videos for coffee making as well as really out-there content including his now infamous Bolognese Latte video with 4.4 million views.

For our first episode, I’m speaking with Alix Walper - a fellow MFer who’s based in the US.

She was over visiting the team in London and I kinda cornered her as I wanted to kick off this podcast with someone familiar. 

• The coffee Alix shared as her favourite was from Proud Mary and was their natural Costa Rican from Villa Sarchi
• Alix mentions the film 'Perfect Days' - which is by Wim Wenders and not Jim Jarmusch as Bryan thought...
• ...and this is Mr Soapy Soap

This week is as informal as it gets with the gorgeous Liam Chau from High Grade Coffee in Shoreditch.

High Grade is inconspicuous from the outside, but the second you step in you're greeted by their high-tech Bellwether roaster and a small yet wonderfully curated retail offering of their coffee and handmade ceramics from Chicoa. It's a real labour of love and every time I visit, I feel it instantly.

This is a particularly long episode which I probably should have cut down massively to fit in with other episodes, but Liam's humour and honesty makes for such a great listen!

More links:

• Bitter Ex video for Coffee Masters London 2024 (because I'm a narcissist)
• Dialect Coffee (because they're super cool and you should know who they are)

Ho ho holy cow - it’s the Christmas episode and the end of the first season of Anything But Coffee!!!

What started out as a bit of a joke has taken quite a bit of momentum - and to be honest I could say the same about most endeavours in my life - but this has been a really lovely project over the past few months and I’m genuinely blown away by the response to it.

To wrap up the season I’m coming in with a brand new look for the show - mayyyy have ripped off the Beeb - but also bringing a surprise guest:

Mark Alexander is a music teacher and he has nothing to do with the coffee industry - except for the fact he’s my partner. There’s a good chance you’ll have seen him at various coffee events through the UK or you may have seen me drag him into your cafe, but beyond that I thought it might be a fun little experiment to have an outside perspective come on for a Q&A.

Plus I thought it might be interesting to have him come in and interview me a little with questions I didn’t see beforehand. If anything, as I’ve brought him up a few times on this show it’s only fair he gets to have his say! This one does get a little emotional and teary, so consider yourself warned.

Anything But Coffee will go offline over the holiday period, but rest assured I’ll be back in January with some incredible guests from the UK and EU coffee industry. For now, sit back, relax and have yourself a merry little Christmas. Kisses.

This week I’m speaking to Zach Chipp of Chipp Coffee Co. in Leeds.

Zach’s one of the good guys out there and Chipp is a roastery who always succeeds in putting smiles on their customers faces.

Instagram

I’m chatting with Sam Hopper who manages Cafe Oscars in Ladywell. I’m super biased about this place as I helped open it back in 2019, but with a bespoke house espresso from Assembly and a rotation of the best roasters in the world on guest I still think folks in London sleep on this place. If you’ve not been, you need to fix that ASAP.

We sat down outside in the back garden at Oscars at the end of summer, getting hit with every form of weather available. Expect lots of geeking out on film and music - something Sam and I did on shift constantly - as well as general silliness

This is anything but a coffee episode... 

Like any good parent should, I’ll always say I love all my podcast guests equally - but I love Megan more equally than the others. No offense to anyone out there, but Megs and I have a bond made of glitter, makeup, trauma-dumping and nail polish - all of which I’m guessing are thicker than water.

Megan Corness is the Marketing Manager for Nuova Distribution UK and she’s also my drag sister by the name of Snacc Nicholson. We made our drag debut together at a 2023 London Coffee Festival and the rest is history.

So because of this, Megan and I are probably a little too familiar with one another and get a bit raw with some of the topics we cover - but hopefully by now you should come to expect this level of openness on this show. And yeah this is a coffee podcast, but today it’s allllll about the tea.

It's always a pleasure to spend time with the Qween herself - Roosa Jalonnen, reigning 2024 UK Barista Champion and the EU Sales Director for Forest Coffee who lists some of the best Colombian coffee you'll find on the market.

We were able to catch up in my hotel room during the Bristol Coffee Festival weekend.

Links:

• KAWA
• Finca Takesi from Coffee Collective
• Känkkäränkkä
• Geordie Wine Guide   

On this episode, I’m sitting down with the joyous, kind and lovely Josh Trathen. Josh and I met earlier this year as we trained in the lead-up to the London Coffee Masters finals and we just hit it off.

We’d seen a lot of each other peripherally as you do in the industry, and once we met and talked it was one of those moments where you’re like ‘How the hell haven’t we hung out before?’ Since then, Josh has actually started working with me at Minor Figures and we’re the resident coffee nerds in the on-trade team. So if you’ve not seen us running around already this year at various events and festivals, get used to this gruesome twosome!

Being totally upfront as the over-sharer that I am, Josh and I recorded earlier in the year but unfortunately we were hit with a few technical issues. Huge thank you to Josh for his patience and willingness to record again with me - albeit under very different circumstances - and shout out to the folks at Big Penny Social in Walthamstow for letting us set up and for serving some damn tasty pints!

Controversy! Scandal! Outrage! No not quite.

On this episode I sat down with the lovely Rosie Lowery who works at Oatly in the UK.

Rosie and I have known each other for a few years now, and when I originally asked her to take part in this show she was still working with the good folks La Marzocco. We’ve just both been busy as hell the last few months, but we finally made some time to sit down and chat in the gorgeous Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre.

I’m not gonna lie, I was kinda terrified they were going to ask us to stop recording and kick us out of there - but here’s another example of getting things done by outwardly projecting that you know what you’re doing. It’s a bit like wearing a hi-vis vest and getting access into any venue.

Rosie and I had such a great chat about her background and what makes her tick, but we also covered representation in the industry, her sense of style, Grayson Perry and the usual sheer silliness you should come to expect from this show.

For those of you who’ve messaged in saying you wish these episodes were a bit longer, well sit back and buckle up as this is a feast of an episode. Liner note links:

La Marzocco Barista Hero Video

Sigur Ros - Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása

Venus Pole, London

Orville Peck - Smalltown Boy (cover)

For this week’s episode, I’m sitting down with Will Woodhouse Banks - a seasoned coffee competitor and an all-around lovely person.

Will is also the host of the podcast ‘Hello Judges’ - a deeply informative forum where Will interviews many of the top coffee competitors from around the world. I’m an avid listener of the Hello Judges programme and was thrilled to be able to speak to Will.

This week - like every week - we cover a huge range of topics from SCA competitions, Pizza Hut, the UK coffee community, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Will's vintage Fender Jaguar.

Links:

• Podcasts mentioned: The Bald and the Beautiful With Trixie & Katya + Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin
• The iconic Taylors of Harrogate
• Atkinsons Coffee Roasters
• El Placer Coffee Farms
• The funky fruit bomb that is Hooch by Newground Coffee in Oxford