Celina Lazarus is the co-founder, owner and director of First Crop Coffee Australia, a raw coffee importing company and Maillard Atelier, a coffee co-roasting and educational space in Melbourne. Her community involvement is at the heart of both businesses as she invests into people through business. Through First Crop Coffee she has been able to finance the building and running of schools and health centres in coffee growing regions. Celina has a hands on approach to change on an international and local level. She is a well known figure of the specialty coffee industry and is an advocate not only for women but woman in colour within the industry.

Dale Harris of the United Kingdom is the 2017 World Barista Champion having won the championship competition in Seoul, South Korea. A tremendous accomplishment as there were competitors from 58 countries taking to the stage at the WBC. Dale is currently the Director of Wholesale at the Has Bean Coffee in Staffordshire, UK.

Lem Butler, the 2106 U.S. Barista Champion. Former head of wholesale customer support at Counter Culture Coffee. Lem along with Kyle Ramage, the 2017 US Barista Champion, are the owners of Black and White Roasters, Black & White Roasters in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Peter Giuliano currently the Senior Director of Symposium for the Speciality Coffee Association of the U.S. and Europe and the co-owner of Counter Culture Coffee, a wholesale roasting and coffee education company based in Durham, North Carolina. Peter has dedicated himself to coffee education and advocacy, and the recognition of extraordinary coffee and coffee professionals worldwide.

In this second interview Dennis Raimondi delves more into the Barista league which was founded by Steven Moloney. Steven Started at Love Coffee Roasters in Lund, Sweden and he has since moved on to head up Da Matteo’s barista training program in Gothenburg, Sweden. Steven is a two-time winner of the Swedish National Barista Championship (2016, 2017) and was part of the winning team in the World Barista Cup 2016. He has developed the Barista League from an impromptu gathering of 10 baristas in a countryside roastery (2015) to an event attracting hundreds of the best coffee professionals from all over Northern Europe (2017).

David Donde is the co-founder of Truth Coffee Roasting in Cape Town, South Africa. The UK news agency, The Telegraph, named Truth Coffee the number one coffee shop in the world. David focuses relentlessly on quality and taste. By going back to the basics – on sourcing beans, roasting them, blending them, and grinding them – David searches for the essence of the humble bean. He says he’s trying to "get coffee to deliver on the promise of the aroma of freshly ground coffee." A noble pursuit, we’d say. Truth offers five blends from its vintage roaster, each created to resonate with your different coffee needs.

In this interview Dennis speaks with Gregory Alford and Steven Eggert who are co-authors of a book called “GROUNDED The Fundamentals of brewing a delicious cup of coffee”. This book contains many creative ideas on how anyone can brew a great cup of coffee right in their own kitchen.