Not all coffee is created equal.
Independent roasters across Australia strive to achieve flavours with a taste more akin to a dessert, such as raspberry candy, baked apricot, jasmine, cinnamon, tropical fruits, tobacco, hops, and leather.
While most Australians would struggle to justify the expense, specialty coffees fetch anywhere from $40 to more than $400 a kilo.
It was these flavours that friends Mathew Hatcher and Lewis McKenzie were chasing when they decided in 2018 to start a coffee-roasting business in the small country town of Moruya in New South Wales.
They were less motivated by money and more by the flavours that come from buying rare and expensive coffee beans.
“We knew the only way we were ever going to be able to drink a $400-a-kilo coffee was to buy it for $100 a kilo,” said Mathew, who is also mayor of the Eurobodalla Shire.
“It’s a terrible business model but it’s that love of coffee we were always chasing.”
A Colombian connection
When friends introduced Mathew and Lewis to Lorena Bermudez Gomez, the daughter of a Colombian coffee grower, in late 2018 their business took a different path.
Lorena’s father, Ramiro, has been a coffee farmer in north-west Colombia since he was eight.
Now in his 70s, he’s been faced with poor coffee prices, labour shortages, and constant threats from local guerrillas.
As a result, Ramiro was never able to consider retirement.
“[He’s been getting] the same amount of money he got for a carton of coffee 20 or 25 years ago,” Lorena said.
“Everything goes up [in price], but the coffee is in the same place. That’s why we struggle to keep going with the business. It’s very difficult.”
Habib Maarbani, general manager of Canberra-based coffee importer Project Origin says there is a risk for a coffee producer if they’re forced to sell their coffee at market price.
“The market considers all coffee to be identical so a producer that gets to the end of their harvest and produces 30 bags of coffee and he only has buyers that want to buy 20 of those bags, he might get really good pricing for those 20 bags,” he said.
“But the remaining 10, that coffee may have to be sold locally in Colombia, and you’ll probably only get the commodity [market] price for it.”
‘Two gringos’ come to town
Sampling some of Ramiro’s coffee beans, Mathew tasted the potential straight away.
He and Lewis set off to start working directly with Ramiro, travelling to the farm on the other side of the world in 2019.
“He’s in a town called Manzanares in Caldes, Colombia, a very small town, small community, everyone knows everyone,” Mathew said.
“It’s a lot like Moruya, and obviously, when two gringos come to town, we stand out.
“But the family and the community there really accepted us from the start. It’s a strange feeling to go through that entire process of picking and processing and drying and then seeing it land here, picking up the bag in Sydney once it cleared customs.
“It was a really remarkable process.”
Coffee plants growing on Ramiro’s farm. Supplied: Mathew Hatcher
Ramiro with unroasted coffee beans fresh from the farm. Supplied: Mathew Hatcher
For many years, Ramiro’s truck took coffee to sell at the local co-op, often for a loss. Supplied: Mathew Hatcher
Ramiro’s truck now features in the artwork on the bags of coffee. Supplied: Mathew Hatcher
Making the grower a cup of coffee
Mathew and Lewis presented Ramiro with a cup of his finished product, professionally roasted and prepared.
“One of the highlights of my life was taking Ramiro’s coffee back to him, roasting it so he could taste it for the first time,” Mathew said.
“It’s a product that they grow, they process, and they ship away, sell it off, and it goes somewhere, and they never end up getting to see the final product or taste it.”
While Ramiro wasn’t overly impressed with the flavour as the method of brewing was so unfamiliar, seeing his name on the finished product brought him to tears.
No longer selling his coffee at the local co-op at a loss, this represented a significant pivot in his work on the farm and what his coffee could be.
“He’s definitely come around to understanding the flavours that we’re looking for and seeing the uniqueness of it,” Mathew said.
Mathew and Lewis now buy everything Ramiro grows, which has allowed the farm to turn a profit. Not only can he pay his staff more, Ramiro can now even contemplate retirement.
“My dream is to retire my mum and my dad,” Lorena said.
“They have been working for so long and they are very tired.”
While retirement may be in reach, Ramiro has developed a new love for his craft and will continue growing the business, taking a step back from the heavy work.
“I don’t see him like just slowing down much. He wants to keep doing it. He’s very happy,” Lorena said.
“Now we can actually implement some more things to get the quality of the coffee even better.”
Visiting Australia
Earlier this year, Ramiro visited Lorena in Australia and went to the roastery, where he sampled his coffee, this time on Australian soil.
He still wasn’t impressed, but, as Lorena said, it’s more than just a cup of coffee.
“If we didn’t have Mathew, I would say ages ago we would sell the coffee farm,” she said.
“We treat him [Mathew, and Lewis] like a family and even though my dad doesn’t speak English and their Spanish is very little, it’s a connection with the heart.”
Knowing the origin story
As coffee trends evolve in Australia, knowing the origin story is becoming increasingly important for the customer.
“We have this incredible customer base that we’ve grown over the last five years who really want to understand the story of the farmer and the producer,” Mathew said.
“And we’re not finished yet. We really want to connect the dots between where the coffee is grown and the coffee drinker, back to origin as well.”
Project Origin’s Habib Maarbaani said this was the case for many Australian roasteries and cafes.
“People want to know where their food comes from. They want to know the story behind their coffee. They want to know the story behind their clothing,” he said.
“People don’t want to just consume stuff blindly. They want to understand a little bit more that everyone that’s connected [to the product] is also getting decent value out of it.”
Mathew and Lewis are now working towards connecting coffee farmers neighbouring Ramiro’s farm and from the wider Manzanares region with roasters in Australia and internationally.
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