Meet Our 2025 Roaster Royale Champion: Ratio Coffee

As the 2025 edition of MILKLAB Roaster Royale wrapped up at MICE 2025, one roaster reigned supreme, showing creativity and mastery over the roasting process.

Ratio Coffee impressed the judges and crowd alike with their expertly crafted blend. We caught up with Hung-Chi from Ratio to hear about his journey to victory and get insights into what it means for a small roaster to achieve this success against some of Australia’s very best.

Roaster Royale: Behind the scenes

Quick recap: The 2025 Roaster Royale champion is Hung-Chi from Ratio Coffee. Angus from Deanes Beans took second, and Ryan from Two Before Ten placed third. As part of his prize, Hung-Chi won $10,000 and return flights to Brazil, courtesy of InterAmerican Coffee!

For the Ratio Coffee team, the Roaster Royale meant a chance to experiment with exciting new flavour profiles. Hung-Chi decided it was important to define a theme inspired by the competition’s unique brief: to create a blend that pairs perfectly with MILKLAB Oat.

This competition provided us with a valuable opportunity to learn, innovate and push boundaries in coffee roasting, particularly in blending coffee to achieve perfect harmony with MILKLAB Oat.

“We began by defining a theme to guide our flavour profile, then conducted extensive trials to ensure our blend would complement rather than overpower MILKLAB Oat. We did many rounds of testing. We were iterating and making fine adjustments, before finally landing on our theme: Tropical Smoothie.”

Crafting the winning blend

Ratio’s winning blend featured:

• Uganda (40%) – for tropical fruit aroma and rich fruitiness
• Kenya (30%) – for brightness and balanced acidity
• Colombia & Brazil (15% each) – for silky mouthfeel and robust body

Roasted to a medium-light profile, the blend was refined to showcase fruit complexity while managing acidity. Through careful testing, Hung-Chi discovered the optimal approach was to ensure the blend showed natural sweetness and nuttiness when paired with creamy MILKLAB Oat.

“We tested each origin with MILKLAB Oat and adjusted the ratios to create a profile that harmonised with the fruit, almond and chocolate notes in the milk.”

That winning feeling

MILKLAB’s Roaster Royale presents a significant shift from traditional judging formats by focusing on plant-based milk pairing over coffee-and-water cupping. This pushed Ratio to devote time to really get to know MILKLAB Oat to achieve the perfect balance.

“We knew it was critical to fully understand the flavour and texture of MILKLAB Oat and adjust our roasting approach accordingly.”

Winning MILKLAB Roaster Royale was not only our biggest achievement as roasters, it’s also been a humbling recognition of my 20-year career in coffee and marks the start of a new chapter for Ratio Coffee.

Hung-Chi first learned roasting in Taiwan before an extended hiatus and eventually returning to roasting in Australia, where he launched Ratio Coffee.

“Standing out in the Roaster Royale and introducing my roasting skills to a wider audience is a special milestone for my professional growth. It’s given us valuable insights and helped us define our vision for our future.”

About Ratio Coffee

Founded in 2022, Ratio Coffee arrived on the Sydney coffee scene with something different. Their Slow Bar concept invites customers to see every step of the brewing process and encourages meaningful interactions with baristas.

“The Slow Bar ethos helps us break from tradition and it makes us stand out in Australia’s bustling specialty coffee scene. It also helps us build trust with our customers because our process is transparent. Ultimately, it’s about sharing what makes coffee special.”

“We plan to use part of the prize money to develop unique coffee beverages — our way of giving back to our loyal community. Our signature specialty drink is the decadent ‘Dirty Ratio’ which blurs the lines between dessert and coffee, so expect our next creation to be something equally creative and delicious.”

Winning Roaster Royale has validated our mission to always strike a balance between what our customers love and what industry professionals seek when judging a cup. It’s a huge moment for us.

A fresh perspective

Competitions like the MILKLAB Roaster Royale are helping reshape how the industry views roasting by placing a spotlight on the talented people behind the blends. At MILKLAB, we think it’s important to inspire innovation, particularly with plant-based pairings as they continue to grow in popularity, and that’s what the Roaster Royale is all about.

“This is our team’s proudest achievement to date, and as a small roaster, it motivates us to continue innovating and delivering more captivating flavour experiences to coffee lovers.”

Final thoughts

“I want to thank our customers, our team and the organisers of Roaster Royale — MILKLAB, InterAmerican Australia, and White Horse Coffee, who provided us with a platform to showcase our craft. This win is for everyone who’s supported us since day one.”

Congratulations again to Ratio Coffee for their victory at the 2025 Roaster Royale! Visit Ratio in Crows Nest, Sydney to experience award-winning coffee served in their signature Slow Bar style, and follow their Instagram to check out all their latest creations.

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