Featured roaster – MARCH 2020 March welcomes an interstate-based roaster from the country’s north. Inducting Blackboard Coffee Roasters – into the No-BS fold! When Nick Pearce landed in the Gold Coast fresh from a barista gig in his home town Melbourne, he struggled to find a decent cup of coffee in sight. So he found himself making the trip to Brisbane multiple times a week between university classes in search of better coffee. Realising that something needed to be done to address this dire coffee situation, he approached his family for a small loan to open an espresso bar next to the univers ..read more

Featured roaster – JANUARY 2020 Hello 2020 and hello Criteria Coffee No-BS debutante and first cab off the rank to inaugurate the new decade(!) Criteria has been 20 years in the making, and a little over a year in operation. Founder Craig Simon started his coffee career as a barista to earn extra money to support his first career as a touring jazz musician no less! “I eventually moved away from the machine and into a sales role at Veneziano Coffee where I stayed for 12 years.” He’s held almost every position in coffee, including Green Bean Buyer, Roaster, Production Manager, Quality Assurance ..read more

Featured roaster – DECEMBER 2019 When good coffee is few and far between in the foothills of the Victorian Alps, it was clear that the need to introduce specialty grade coffee to the region was dire. So our December roaster Mansfield Coffee Merchant opened their cafe in 2014 to bring a bit of Melbourne to Mansfield with high quality coffee, an exciting menu and personable service in a modern setting. Their cafe was originally the General Merchant store in Mansfield, so they pay tribute to the past and highlight the character of the beautiful building of which they are now custodians. A 5kg Roa ..read more

Featured roaster – NOVEMBER 2019 Our penultimate roaster for 2019 is the up and coming Martyr Coffee Roasters. They know a thing or two about exceptional coffee as they’re the same team behind popular eatery Abacus, keeping Melbourne’s famously meticulous coffee drinkers well fed and watered. Martyr are about artisan, hand-cared, homemade coffee achieved through countless cupping, tasting, and quality checks until the ideal cup of coffee is realised. The team is led by hospitality veteran Dylan Whitmore, which puts him well-placed to understand what coffee is enjoyed by cafe frequenting folk ..read more

Featured roaster – OCTOBER 2019 We often feature coffee roasters who eventually branch out to open their own namesake cafe as a natural expansion. This month however, we’re turning the tables by showcasing coffee by Amble Cafe who have flipped and reversed this pattern. They’re a cafe who have gone that extra step to create their own bespoke coffee, from a desire to control their own flavour profiles to offer their customers a unique coffee experience, not to mention allowing them to put their coffee roasting wisdom to good use! Travelling through South America, Marco Assanti spent ample time ..read more

Featured roaster – SEPTEMBER 2019 Our September roaster Monochrome Coffee Co. is a social enterprise coffee company driven to make a social impact. In other words, they’re self-admitted coffee snobs with altruistic ambitions. Prior to founding Monochrome Coffee Co., Whitney and Matt Teluk formed Monochrome International – a not-for-profit set up to run education projects in East Africa to transform developing communities through the education and empowerment of youth. “Our vision is that young people around the world are empowered and enabled to lead bold social and environmental movements tha ..read more

Featured roaster – AUGUST 2019 This August we’re throwing our arms wide open to welcome Aucuba Coffee Roasters of South Melbourne back to the No-BS circuit to yet again wow our members with their coffee creations. Three years ago, founder Mark Knapp was driven to start up a micro roastery simply focused on selecting great coffee and roasting small batches to keep quality at its core. Whilst primarily driven by quality and flavour profiles that they love, knowing the background of their green beans is also hugely important to them – believing in the value of creating lasting relationships with ..read more

Featured roaster – JUNE 2019 Since we were last bestowed with Code Black Coffee Roasters’ incredible creations, the team have gone and got themselves a fresh new look. The current team behind Code Black are operations manager Archie Chiu – resident Q grader and multiple Australian Brewers Cup Finalist, incredibly knowledgeable head roaster Allan Yeh, senior roaster Amber Wang – an Australian Brewers Cup finalist and ninja behind the coffee machine, head trainer Sam Low – NZ Barista Champion and two times New Zealand Latteart Champion, production roaster and gun barista Freya Crickmore and head ..read more