Australian Coffee

On the North Coast of New South Wales coffee began to be grown successfully for commercial use in the late 19th century. Those first coffees were well received in Europe and won medals in London in the late 1800’s. However, by early last century, Australia’s high labour costs led to the decline of the local coffee industry which could not compete on price with Brazil, Africa, Central America and Indonesia - countries which still dominate the world coffee trade.

The Australian coffee industry was re-established in the early 1980’s with the advent of machine harvesting. This enabled growers to reduce harvesting costs to 1/10th of hand harvesting and therefore be more competitive with imported coffees.

Only Arabica coffee, which is preferred for the roast bean and ground coffee market, is grown in Australia. As coffee is essentially a tropical rainforest plant it requires, amongst other things, frost-free conditions and high rainfall to thrive. This limits the areas suitable for coffee production in Australia largely to pockets on the tropical and sub-tropical eastern seaboard.

Australia is fortunate to be largely free of the pests and coffee diseases which afflict many other countries. This has allowed the local industry to develop its "clean green" image.

Coffee Processing

In the Northern New South Wales, the coffee plant flowers in late spring/early summer, covering the branches with small white flowers that resemble jasmine in both appearance and scent. The coffee cherry begins to ripen to a deep red colour between July to October. There are several harvests during this period with only the red cherry being kept after the green and over ripe/black cherry have been separated out. Each cherry contains two coffee beans which are obtained by pulping the cherry in a processing machine. The mucilage or "slimey" covering on the bean is then removed either by fermentation in large vats or mechanically under pressure in the processor. The coffee is then laid out to dry in the sun on beds or placed in a large mechanical dryer.

Sun drying of the processed coffee parchment is the original and the preferred method of drying as the UV Rays eliminate any residual e-coli and other bacteria. This system is also kinder to the bean as it is a natural process and not artificially force-dried.

Once dry, the beans are stored in bags until they are required for roasting or export. They are then hulled to remove the paper like parchment they are encased in and are graded for size and quality. The end product is called green bean and this is how coffee is traded around the world.

See next page for helpful hints for a perfect coffee ...