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At this year’s London Coffee Festival, Origin’s Director of Coffee, Freda Yuan was joined by retired British sprinter Jodie Williams to host a coffee tasting experience that explored focus, presence and sensory awareness. Afterwards, we caught up with both Freda and Jodie to discuss what it means to achieve excellence, and the relationship between competition, mindfulness and mastery.
Freda Yuan:
There are a few ways I could answer this question. From a coffee preparation perspective, tiny adjustments can have a huge impact on flavour. If you over-steam milk beyond 65°C, for example, you begin to break down its natural sweetness. The coffee can taste drier, more bitter and less enjoyable. Likewise, a small change in espresso extraction can completely alter how the coffee cuts through milk and how balanced the final cup feels.
But where my mind immediately goes is to the relationship side of coffee. Small decisions can have a significant impact on producers and their livelihoods. Coffee prices fluctuate constantly, and there are always commercial considerations to balance, but for me it's important that we continue supporting producers who share our values and who rely on those relationships.
A good example is producers dealing with challenges like the potato defect in Rwanda. Some buyers might reject those coffees entirely, but many producers don't have access to the resources or support needed to solve those issues overnight. Choosing to continue working with them can make a meaningful difference to their long-term sustainability and income.
Jodie Williams:
As a sprinter, everything is measured in milliseconds. It could be the difference between winning and losing the Olympic Games. Because of this, the smallest adjustments can make the biggest differences. A tiny technical adjustment, be it your foot placement or the rhythm that you swing your arms can have a great effect on your overall performance. This is actually one of the things I loved most about sprinting. I'm a details girl, so I found this really satisfying.
Freda Yuan:
Coffee evolves constantly. Processing methods change, technology changes and every harvest teach you something new. I try to approach coffee with the mindset that I know nothing. That curiosity keeps me learning. For me, mastery isn’t arriving at a destination. It’s maintaining a willingness to keep learning.
Jodie Williams:
I’m someone who constantly wants to keep learning, so I sometimes struggle with the idea that anything is ever truly mastered. For me, mastery comes when the skill feels second nature, like reaching a flow state.
Freda Yuan:
For me, mindfulness is about awareness. It's about paying attention to what's happening around you and within you. I started meditating in 2019, but I didn't realise how much it would help my sensory development.
It wasn't until later while writing my book, that I began to understand the connection between mindfulness and tasting. Mindfulness helped me develop a system for paying attention. It taught me how to be present. That presence improves tasting, but it also influences everything else I do. It affects how I communicate, how I lead people, how I think about sustainability and sourcing, and how I make decisions. Before, I might have simply followed industry trends. Now I spend more time asking why. Why are we doing this? Does it align with our values? Is it creating meaningful impact? That shift has had a huge influence on my work.
Jodie Williams:
Mindfulness has played a really important role in my life, both within performance and outside of it. Over time I realised I needed grounding rituals. Small moments that pulled me back into the present rather than living constantly in my head or rushing onto the next thing.
For me, hiking and being outdoors became a huge part of that. Movement has always been important, but slowing down enough to actually notice things became equally valuable. The sound of your footsteps, changes in weather, the texture of a path under your feet. Honing in on small details is mindfulness for me.
We live in a world where everything moves incredibly quickly and slowing down has become crucial for me.
Freda Yuan:
Before meeting Jodie, I'd sent her my book because I thought she'd relate to some of the themes. When we spoke, we found ourselves discussing many of the same challenges around competition, performance and self-belief.
With competition comes expectation. Expectations from other people, expectations you place on yourself and the feeling that you have something to prove.
What surprised me was how similar our internal experiences were, despite coming from completely different worlds. Over time, I discovered that my purpose had shifted beyond competition. Rather than pursuing titles, I became more motivated by creating meaningful impact through sourcing, sustainability and supporting producers.
Jodie Williams:
Freda feels like a kindred spirit. We spoke about the pressure of competition, how it can become all-consuming, and how chasing excellence can sometimes overshadow the joy that brought you there in the first place.
Despite working in completely different industries, we both found ourselves making similar decisions: stepping away from competition and slowing down to reconnect with what matters most.
Freda Yuan:
People often assume that if you're successful, confidence naturally follows. In reality, high performers can be their own biggest critics. Eventually I realised something important: that success wasn’t about collecting more trophies. Competition helped me build a platform, but over time my priorities shifted towards creating meaningful impact through coffee. I wanted to focus on sourcing, sustainability and creating positive outcomes for producers.
What people often misunderstand is that high performance isn't always about winning. Sometimes it's about recognising when your priorities have changed. Today, success means creating positive impact through coffee, and continuing to be curious.
Jodie Williams:
People often underestimate how much of high performance is about mindset. People see outcomes, they see medals, achievements or expertise. They do not always see the consistency behind it.
In elite sport, mindset shapes everything. Two athletes can have similar physical capabilities but very different outcomes because of what is happening mentally. I think speciality coffee is similar: technical knowledge is important but patience and curiosity and the willingness to keep learning and refining is just as important.
High performance is often less about perfection and more about attention. As a sprinter, I learned that excellence is rarely one huge moment. It is usually hundreds of tiny decisions made consistently over a long period. I think that applies to far more than people realise.
Freda Yuan:
Initially, it was sensory experience. I was living in Melbourne on a working holiday visa and fell in love with café culture. I loved the sense of community and connection that existed within coffee shops. It reminded me of working in a Mediterranean restaurant in Taipei, where customers became friends and there was a strong sense of belonging.
But what truly pulled me into coffee was taste. Over time, my palate developed to a point where I could perceive sweetness and complexity in a way I hadn’t before. Tasting coffee taught me presence, it helped me connect with my senses and understand myself better. It became a pathway to greater awareness.
Today, what keeps me in coffee has evolved. It's less about flavour alone and more about people, relationships and community. Coffee is the vessel that connects all of those things together.
Jodie Williams
I've always loved the ritual of coffee. Before I knew how to make a good cup, going to a coffee shop was part of my daily routine. When I was travelling for competitions or away for training, finding a local coffee shop gave me a sense of familiarity wherever I was in the world. Once I learnt to make my own coffee, I gained an even deeper appreciation for the slowness it brought into my life. It became my anchor for the day and a moment of peace and solitude.