MAP IT FORWARD Middle East

Advertising Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Arkena Coffee Marketplace, connecting you to the next coffee harvest in Ethiopia through direct trade.
https://arkenacoffee.com/
https://www.instagram.com/arkenacoffee/
Email: [email protected]

Episode Description

This is Part 2 of a five-part series on Australian Grown Coffee with Rebecca Zentveld, second-generation coffee farmer at Zentveld’s Coffee Farms and President of the Australian Grown Coffee Association.

In this episode, we move from history into the present and explore what makes Australian-grown coffee distinct in the cup.

Rebecca explains how coffee in Australia is grown in a cooler subtropical climate rather than in the tropical environments that define most coffee-producing countries. In regions such as northern New South Wales and parts of Queensland, coffee grows in rich volcanic soils and ripens over an extended cycle of around eleven months, which contributes to sweetness and flavor development in the fruit.

She describes the taste profile often associated with Australian-grown coffee as naturally sweet, chocolate-forward, and berry-like, with differences emerging between regions depending on climate, soil, and local conditions. The conversation also explores how some Australian coffees share similarities with certain Kenyan and Hawaiian coffees, while still expressing a distinctly Australian terroir.

We also examine the relationship between landscape and farming practicality. Because many Australian coffee farms are located on rolling land rather than steep mountain slopes, some are able to use machinery in ways that would not be possible in many traditional coffee-growing regions. Rebecca explains why that matters economically, particularly in a high-cost producing country.

The episode also introduces the varietals that have historically been grown in Australia, including K7 and Catuai, and discusses how newer cultivar trials are helping growers understand which varieties may be best suited to future Australian production. We also touch on processing methods, with Rebecca explaining why wet processing has traditionally been used in much of Australia due to the local rainfall patterns and lack of long dry harvest windows.

This conversation provides a deeper understanding of how climate, soil, altitude-equivalent conditions, varietals, and farm infrastructure all combine to shape the flavor and farming reality of Australian-grown coffee.

In the next episode, we explore the challenges Australian coffee farmers are facing right now, including costs, climate, scale, and the pressures shaping the future of the industry.

Connect with Rebecca Zentveld and Zentveld’s Coffee Farms here:
https://www.zentvelds.com.au/
https://www.instagram.com/zentveldscoffee/
https://www.agca.au/

***************************************

About Map It Forward

The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.

Website: https://mapitforward.coffee

Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/

Contact: [email protected]

Advertising Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by The Honduran Coffee Alliance, connecting Honduran coffee producers with global buyers in a fair, sustainable, and commercially viable way.
WhatsApp: https://wa.me/50487350786
Email: [email protected]

Episode Description

This is Part 1 of a five-part series on Australian Grown Coffee with Rebecca Zentveld, second-generation coffee farmer at Zentveld’s Coffee Farms and President of the Australian Grown Coffee Association.

For many people in the global coffee industry, the idea that coffee is grown in Australia still comes as a surprise. Yet modern coffee farming in Australia has been developing for more than four decades.

In this episode, Rebecca explains how the modern Australian coffee industry began in the 1980s, when a small number of growers in northern New South Wales and far north Queensland began planting Arabica coffee commercially. She shares how her own family became part of that movement, planting coffee behind Byron Bay and helping establish one of the early farms in the region.

The conversation also reaches further back into history, examining Australia’s little-known coffee-growing past in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when coffee was grown successfully enough to win awards in Europe before the industry faded. Rebecca explains how that historical record gave early growers confidence that quality coffee could once again be grown in Australia.

We also explore what made Australia’s coffee sector different from the beginning. Many of the early growers were not generational farmers but people entering agriculture after careers in other industries. That shaped the way farms developed, how value-adding became part of the business model, and why some growers moved into roasting and direct sales rather than simply exporting green coffee.

Rebecca also reflects on how Australia’s volcanic soils, cooler subtropical climate, and longer ripening periods created the foundation for a distinctive coffee-growing environment. At the same time, high labour costs and rising land values made profitability far more challenging than in many traditional producing countries.

This episode sets the foundation for the series by explaining where Australian coffee farming came from, why it remains relatively small, and why it matters in the wider global conversation about coffee origins, value creation, and farming viability.

In the next episode, we look at where Australian coffee is today, focusing on terroir, climate, varietals, and the distinct flavor profile of Australian-grown coffee.

Connect with Rebecca Zentveld and Zentveld’s Coffee Farms here:
https://www.zentvelds.com.au/
https://www.instagram.com/zentveldscoffee/
https://www.agca.au/

***************************************

About Map It Forward

The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.

Website: https://mapitforward.coffee

Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/

Contact: [email protected]

Advertising Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Map It Forward Podcast Advertising. In 2026, fewer businesses can justify expensive trade shows. Advertising on a Map It Forward podcast connects you directly with a global audience of coffee business owners and professionals across the value chain. We offer flexible pricing structures and accept payment in US dollars or select cryptocurrencies. Email [email protected] to learn more.

Episode Description

This is Part 5 of a five-part series with Carol Salloum, cofounder of 3Tomatoes and Almond Bar in Sydney, Australia. In Surviving 2025 and 2026 as a Café Owner, we have explored volatility, pricing pressure, loyalty, systems, and leadership.

In this final episode, we examine the secret sauce behind long-term café success. Carol shares how strong systems create consistency, why operational cadence matters, and how genuine hospitality cannot be faked. We discuss the cultural roots of Syrian hospitality, the importance of presence and example-setting as an owner, and why small invisible details shape the customer experience.

The conversation explores the difference between mechanical service and heart-driven hospitality, and why businesses built on values and generosity outlast trend-driven venues.

Connect with Carol Salloum and 3Tomatoes here:
https://www.instagram.com/3tomatoesau/
https://www.3tomatoescafe.com/

***************************************

About Map It Forward

The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.

Website: https://mapitforward.coffee

Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/

Contact: [email protected]

Advertising Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Arkena Coffee Marketplace, connecting you to the next coffee harvest in Ethiopia through direct trade.
https://arkenacoffee.com/
https://www.instagram.com/arkenacoffee/
Email: [email protected]

Episode Description

This is Part 4 of a five-part series with Carol Salloum, cofounder of 3Tomatoes and Almond Bar in Sydney, Australia. In Surviving 2025 and 2026 as a Café Owner, we examine how hospitality businesses endure volatility and uncertainty.

In this episode, we focus on what business owners must prioritise moving into 2026. Carol reflects on surviving the GFC, Sydney’s lockout laws, and COVID, and explains why the ability to pivot is fundamental to longevity.

We explore why raising prices endlessly is not sustainable, why retaining customer volume and loyalty can matter more than chasing higher margins, and why owner presence is critical. Carol shares how leading by example, building strong systems, and maintaining genuine connection with customers creates resilience in times of crisis.

The conversation also challenges hype-driven business models and highlights why values-driven hospitality remains the most durable strategy in volatile environments.

Connect with Carol Salloum and 3Tomatoes here:
https://www.instagram.com/3tomatoesau/
https://www.3tomatoescafe.com/

***************************************

About Map It Forward

The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.

Website: https://mapitforward.coffee

Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/

Contact: [email protected]

Advertising Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by The Honduran Coffee Alliance, connecting Honduran coffee producers with global buyers in a fair, sustainable, and commercially viable way.
WhatsApp: https://wa.me/50487350786
Email: [email protected]

Episode Description

This is Part 3 of a five-part series with Carol Salloum, cofounder of 3Tomatoes and Almond Bar in Sydney, Australia. In Surviving 2025 and 2026 as a Café Owner, we explore how continued volatility is reshaping hospitality.

In this episode, Carol shares what makes her nervous heading into 2026. The risk is not just rising costs. It is café owners who do not understand their numbers, who price based on competition rather than their own financial structure, and who rely on hype instead of loyalty.

We discuss Australia’s saturated café market, why opening a café based on perceived profitability is dangerous, and how pricing must begin with cost structure and demographic awareness. Carol explains the importance of knowing your customer, understanding psychology, and building genuine connection.

The conversation also explores connection as the new form of luxury and why hospitality businesses that cannot create meaningful human experiences will struggle as volatility continues.

Connect with Carol Salloum and 3Tomatoes here:
https://www.instagram.com/3tomatoesau/
https://www.3tomatoescafe.com/

***************************************

About Map It Forward

The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.

Website: https://mapitforward.coffee

Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/

Contact: [email protected]

Advertising Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by the Map It Forward Patreon Monthly Discussion Group. Join our Roasted Coffee tier on Patreon for early ad-free access to podcast episodes, our weekly industry insights blog, and access to exclusive monthly live discussion groups with coffee professionals from around the world. Head to https://patreon.com/mapitforward to join the community.

Episode Description

This is Part 2 of a five-part series with Carol Salloum, cofounder of 3Tomatoes and Almond Bar in Sydney, Australia. In Surviving 2025 and 2026 as a Café Owner, we examine how ongoing volatility is impacting hospitality businesses from the inside.

In this episode, we focus on the customer. As living costs rise, spending habits are shifting. Customers may still be coming, but they are ordering differently. One coffee instead of two. Simpler menu items instead of premium dishes. Cafés are absorbing silent margin pressure while trying to remain supportive community spaces.

We explore the disconnect between what customers expect cafés to charge and the actual cost structure behind coffee, food, wages, rent, insurance, and utilities. Carol shares why hospitality is often perceived as charity, why small add-ons create hidden costs, and how emotional labor has become part of the café business model.

The conversation also unpacks hype culture in hospitality, from acai bowls to viral drinks, and why trend-driven traffic does not create long-term loyalty.

Connect with Carol Salloum and 3Tomatoes here:
https://www.instagram.com/3tomatoesau/
https://www.3tomatoescafe.com/

***************************************

About Map It Forward

The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.

Website: https://mapitforward.coffee

Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/

Contact: [email protected]

Advertising Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Arcadia Green Coffee, Colombian coffee exporters taking fresh green coffee from Colombia to the world — farm to roastery, direct.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arcadiagreencoffee/
WhatsApp: https://wa.me/353877871523

Episode Description

This is Part 1 of a five-part series with Carol Salloum, cofounder of 3Tomatoes and Almond Bar in Sydney, Australia. In Surviving 2025 and 2026 as a Café Owner, we explore what navigating one of the most volatile years in hospitality actually looked like inside a functioning, community-driven café business.

Carol shares how 2025 unfolded beyond rising coffee prices. Electricity, gas, ingredients, wages, staffing challenges, and emotional pressure from customers all compounded at once. We discuss how café owners were forced to make difficult pricing decisions, how pop-up dinners were used to stabilize revenue, and why simply raising menu prices rarely covers the full increase in operating costs.

We also explore how the Australian coffee industry is shifting, why profitability is becoming harder even for experienced operators, and how Gen Z staffing dynamics require more emotional leadership and energy from business owners than ever before.

This episode sets the foundation for the series by grounding the conversation in lived experience rather than theory. If you are a café owner, hospitality operator, or industry professional trying to understand what survival actually required in 2025, this conversation will resonate.

Connect with Carol Salloum and 3Tomatoes here:
https://www.instagram.com/3tomatoesau/
https://www.3tomatoescafe.com/

***************************************

About Map It Forward

The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.

Website: https://mapitforward.coffee

Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/

Contact: [email protected]

Advertising Sponsor
Join the Map It Forward Patreon Monthly Live Discussion Group and network with other like-minded coffee professionals and business owners from around the world and across the value chain https://patreon.com/mapitforward

Episode Description

This is the final episode of our five-part series with Ana Donneys from Cafe Primitivo.

We examine the short-term, medium-term, and long-term outlook for smallholder producers if volatility continues. Ana explains that while the C market price is falling, farm-level costs, climate instability, and currency fluctuations remain.

She discusses the need for producers to detach their pricing from corporate commodity structures and to assert pricing based on their real cost of production. We also explore acquisition strategies, the shrinking number of hectares dedicated to coffee, and the misconception that supply will suddenly flood the market.

Finally, Ana speaks about hope. Technology, AI tools at farm level, knowledge-sharing between producers, transparency, and collaboration across the value chain are the forces that may define the next decade of coffee.

Volatility is not ending. The future depends on whether the industry chooses to respond collectively.

Guest links

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cafeprimitivo/

Website: https://www.cafeprimitivocolombia.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anadonneys/

***************************************

About Map It Forward

The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.

Website: https://mapitforward.coffee

Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/

Contact: [email protected]

Advertising Sponsor
Looking to advertise your business on a Map It Forward podcast?
Email us at [email protected] or DM us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/

Episode Description

This is Part 4 of a five-part series, The Reality of Being a Smallholder Coffee Farmer in Volatility, with Ana Donneys from Cafe Primitivo in Colombia.

In this episode, we move from diagnosis to responsibility.

After examining yield loss, currency shifts, financial market instability, and the lived experience of volatility, we now ask what it will take to move forward together as value chain partners.

Ana emphasizes that redistribution of risk will only come through real conversations across the value chain. Producers must understand the pressures faced by roasters and buyers, but buyers must also understand that smallholders are carrying climate, currency, and market risk simultaneously.

She also speaks directly to producers. This is a moment where smallholder farmers must see themselves not as “the poor part” of the supply chain, but as business owners. That means improving efficiency, understanding cost structures, adopting regenerative practices, using data, and leveraging new tools including AI to forecast production and manage risk more intelligently.

We also discuss generational transition. If the next generation of producers does not see a viable value proposition in coffee, they will leave. And if producers decide not to sell when conditions are unfair, the industry must be prepared for that reality.

This episode challenges every stakeholder. Producers must grow into their power. Roasters must understand they operate in a commodity business, not just hospitality. Consumers must be educated about what cheap coffee truly costs at origin.

Moving forward requires courage, transparency, innovation, and shared responsibility.

Guest links

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cafeprimitivo/

Website: https://www.cafeprimitivocolombia.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anadonneys/

***************************************

About Map It Forward

The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.

Website: https://mapitforward.coffee

Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/

Contact: [email protected]

Advertising Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by The Honduran Coffee Alliance, connecting Honduran coffee producers with global buyers in a fair, sustainable, and commercially viable way.
WhatsApp: https://wa.me/50487350786
Email: [email protected]

Episode Description

This is Part 3 of a five-part series, The Reality of Being a Smallholder Coffee Farmer in Volatility, with Ana Donneys from Cafe Primitivo in Colombia.

In this episode, we examine what “high prices” actually mean at farm level.

After experiencing yield reduction, rising input costs, currency devaluation, and increasing financial pressure, Ana explains that recent price levels have not translated into meaningful profitability. For many producers, these prices have barely covered cost of production.

We explore the role of currency exchange in shaping margins, including how contracts signed in US dollars interact with expenses paid in Colombian pesos. We also discuss the hidden costs of marketing, trade shows, and relationship-building — investments producers must make to sustain direct trade relationships.

The conversation widens into financial market mechanics. Coffee futures pricing is influenced not only by supply and demand fundamentals, but also by hedge fund positioning, margin calls, currency trades, and macroeconomic forces unrelated to farm production. These second-order financial effects can push prices down even when physical coffee remains scarce.

For smallholder farmers, these shifts are not abstract. They create uncertainty in planning, cash flow pressure, and concern about long-term viability.

Ana closes this episode by stating clearly: these are not high prices. They are prices that barely cover cost.

If we do not separate financial market volatility from farm-level economics, we risk misunderstanding what sustainability truly requires.

Guest links

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cafeprimitivo/

Website: https://www.cafeprimitivocolombia.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anadonneys/

***************************************

About Map It Forward

The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.

Website: https://mapitforward.coffee

Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/

Contact: [email protected]