Innovation on show at Melbourne International Coffee Expo

Melbourne has once again played host to the Southern Hemisphere’s premier coffee industry event – the Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) ran from 26-28 March bringing together café owners, roasters, baristas and suppliers from across Australia and internationally.

Innovation was the order of the day, with 157 exhibitors on hand to showcase the latest in coffee beans, new equipment and technology and more, complemented with conference programs including a café owners educational series and the Global Coffee Report leaders symposium. Returning for 2026 was the Roasters Playground introduced at last year’s expo, giving attendees the opportunity to sample coffees from 34 different roasters.

New-to-Australia roasting technology

New for this year was MICE at Night, an extension of the day’s programming for one evening in recognition of the fact that some industry professionals may find it difficult to attend during standard café trading hours. Another highlight was Trip to Origin, which saw representatives from countries including Brazil, Indonesia, PNG, Uganda, Nepal, India, Colombia, Peru and Guatemala presenting their coffees.

“We find that around 40 per cent of cafes are now interested in roasting their own beans”

Standout exhibits included those focused on new-to-Australia coffee roasting technology, such as the 100% convection coffee roaster from Czech company Typhoon Roasters – an innovative alternative to classic drum roasting. Costing around $80,000 to install, it takes three phase power and a relatively low 23 amp average draw.

“We find that around 40 per cent of cafes are now interested in roasting their own beans – some will buy in pre-roasted for their standard coffee offering but will prefer to roast their own signature blend or specialty blends on the premises,” says Mark Pearce of Australian distributor Cubbyhouse Coffee. “The unit takes up about three by three metres and has two flues, one for exhaust emissions which are minimal, and the other to suck in air for the cooling tray.

“The benefits are speed, consistency and especially flavour – the coffee roasts very clean because it’s floating on a bed of hot air, rather than in contact with a drum, which can cause tipping and scorching of the coffee. The process allows the coffee to hold a lot more acidity – which means it needs longer to age from when you roast it to when you use it, than a traditional drum roast; we say nearly double the time.

“So within seven days you would use your drum roasted coffee in your café, but with this process your coffee will last for 14 days. And it will actually hold up for about two months, whereas with drum roasted coffee it’s about three weeks. That’s a big difference for café owners – and for those wholesaling to cafes, if the café says ‘I want this expensive $100 a kilo coffee but I only want one kilo, and I’m not going to go through that for four or five weeks’, this roasting process done on premises will give the café the flavour profile consistency for that long.”

Keeping your beans cost under control

 A smaller footprint roaster on display was the Orbiter OB-1 Pro 1.2kg smart roaster, which is proving popular with both roasters and cafes looking to roast their own single origin beans or house blend.

“With the price of coffee beans going up, a lot of cafes are looking at alternative ways of controlling that cost,” says Frank Andrews of Barista Hub. “If they can source their own green beans at a cheaper price than they can find them roasted and then do the labour themselves – and using an automated system like this doesn’t require that much labour – then it helps bring the cost down.

“And it also gives them a point of difference – it’s a unique selling proposition for their customers. You walk into a café and you see a little roaster there, and your perception is going to be ‘they roast their own coffee’ so you know it’s fresh. And if the café next door doesn’t have one, which one are you more likely to go into?”

Frank Andrews showcases automated Milk steaming system

Integrated automated milk steaming

A further technological advance is the integration of an automated milk steaming system within the espresso equipment itself – as in the prototype unit pictured here, which Barista Hub is planning to launch on the Australian market towards the end of this quarter.

“This heats and textures your milk automatically to whatever you program,” Frank explains, “so you don’t have to stand there and steam your milk – speeding up your service and ensuring greater consistency. It also frees you up to interact more with your customers, which helps you make that personal connection they’re looking for.”  

Also on display were standalone automated milk frother units from Barissima, manufactured in Austria using European components specifically for commercial cafes. Engineered with dual heaters which heat milk only as required, they have been designed to be eco-friendly with limited standby energy loss.

A range of milk frothing temperatures can be selected, from cool babycinos to hot milk and cold foam without steam or dilution. The Barissima units will also texture plant milks as well as dairy (with a dual milk option available so you can switch between milk types instantly) and feature a self-regulating rinse cycle.

“The machines have a range of programmable froth textures and there’s no heating up time and no temperature loss at peak volume,” says Amelia Pulis of Victorian distributor Absolute Espresso Services. “They function differently from a traditional espresso machine in that they don’t have a boiler – instead they superheat the milk from a container and it’s a different mechanical process. It’s very cost-effective because you’re not having to heat a boiler and it also saves on labour – you don’t need to have one barista steaming – and this will also deliver consistent results every time, whereas different baristas will produce results.

“The machines have a range of programmable froth textures and there’s no heating up time”

“You can change the level of silk and froth in the programs – you can go back to old school 1980s with a mountain of foam if you want, you can have it more bubbly or you can have it very silky, whatever your customers prefer. It’s the air that creates the foam, so the air valve has parameters you set depending on how much air you want to create and you then modify your programming to suit your milk.”

Sensory kits to develop your coffee palate

Other noteworthy innovations included the Scentible Professional Kit by Barista Supplies – winner of the 2026 MICE Product Innovation Award for Coffee Accessories. “It’s designed for anybody who wants to develop their palate and have a refined sense for coffee, just as you would for wine,” explains Alec Maroush of Barista Supplies. “Our next sensory kit which we’re currently working on will be for wine, but we started with coffee because we’ve been in coffee for 30 plus years – we know it and have done a lot of judging and training, and we saw a gap in the market as until now there have only been alcohol-based aroma kits available which you use to train your sense of smell, but taste is a completely different sense. 

“The Scentible kit not only allows you to identify aromas found in specialty coffee by twisting the top and spraying a little into a vessel to smell, but you can also spray it into coffee or water – we train with it into a batch-brew coffee – and that way you can train your palate to identify different flavours. This is one of the first in the world that’s actually consumable – it’s alcohol free, you spray it into the coffee and it’s a nature-identical flavour. We won the Award for our Professional Kit – we already had a smaller Essential Kit with eight flavours and aromas, and a Defects Kit which highlights the common defects found in coffee; there’s not a lot of ways you can train on defects at the moment, so if a green bean importer imports coffee, they can train on this to identify defects in their beans like mould, and work out where the problem is in their supply chain.

“It’s a bit of a challenge for people to identify the difference between bitter and astringent, so you can actually isolate that with our kits”

“We’ve also got an Acid Kit which allows you to train on malic acid, citric acid, acetic acid and again you can mix this with the flavours and build the whole flavour structure – we’ve also separated modifiers or buffers such as bitter, astringency; it’s a bit of a challenge for people to identify the difference between bitter and astringent, so you can actually isolate that with our kits and say ‘that’s bitter, and that’s astringent’ and you can start to train on that as well. It’s all about increasing your awareness and therefore your vocab around coffee so you can accurately describe what it is that you’re actually tasting.”

Cold brew coffee in 40 minutes

A finalist in the Innovation Awards for coffee preparation equipment was the Baby Hardtank commercial cold brewer by Barista Equip Australia, which allows you to cold brew coffee in as little as 40 minutes and boasts a small 30cm x 30cm footprint which can be easily integrated into your countertop.

Darwin Frame, Barista Equip australia

“With this you can serve up to 300 portions of fresh cold brew per day,” says Darwin Frame of Barista Equip Australia, “and not just coffee – you can brew tea, herbs, spirits and even create your own cocktails and liqueurs. The unit uses mains pressure to force water through the cage containing the coffee, which is the infusion part – the rest of the process is clarification.

“Other cold brew units are gravity fed and they use paper filters to take the particles out – this uses a wire mesh cage and another filter at the bottom before the brew recirculates. I can make a batch of four litres in 40 minutes and it’s ready to drink. And you can also dispense straight into a keg, put the lid on and store it in the fridge, so you don’t have to worry about microbial growth which can be an issue with some other cold brew processes.”