Ever marvel what wood-roasted espresso tastes like? Properly quickly you’ll know! April is all about sipping on deliciously wealthy and sophisticated wooden roasted espresso by our good associates over in Sydney – The Wooden Roaster.
Nestled within the internal west of Sydney, you’re really spoiled for selection relating to cafés, eating places, breweries and distilleries. Among the many tasty hospo haunts sits The Wooden Roaster’s warehouse house the place you’ll be able to seize a takeaway espresso, bag of beans or watch the roasting course of in motion.
Why have they chosen to roast espresso this distinctive manner? Wooden-roasting caramelises the beans and brings out the pure sugars. This deeply enhances the flavours, with no smoke to affect the style. The wood-roasting course of provides very delicate and sophisticated flavours inside the beans; the tropical fruits, berries, citrus and florals are extra closely pronounced. The candy notes of sugar, honey, maple syrup, cocoa, toffee, caramel and so forth, are a lot deeper and stronger. Additional, the nutty, earthy and spicy notes are richer and stronger. Principally, wood-roasting delivers distinctive outcomes.
We extremely recommend a visit to their roastery in Sydney’s suburb of Marrickville to look at the wood-roasting course of in particular person. However, within the meantime, get pleasure from ingesting this month’s espresso by the The Wooden Roaster gang!
The Interview
We spoke with Kim Loupis from The Wooden Roaster about how the enterprise bought began, their current achievements and all of the thrilling issues they’re getting as much as this yr.
Inform us about you. What’s your espresso background?
The Wooden Roaster began as a small café in Sydney, initially often known as Il Espresso. Founder Kim noticed a rising demand for one thing totally different – clients had been uninterested in espresso that every one tasted the identical, simply bought in several packaging. They had been additionally searching for a cleaner, extra pure roasting course of past gas-powered roasting.
In 2009, pushed by a ardour for innovation and a respect for custom, Kim started roasting with sustainably sourced wooden for his personal café. He set himself the problem of mastering the artwork of wood-roasting, spending years researching, experimenting, and refining his strategies. This dedication led to the event of a custom-built roaster fuelled by wooden.
By 2011, The Wooden Roaster expanded into wholesale and contract roasting, supplying cafés, eating places, and specialty espresso lovers with uniquely wood-roasted espresso. In the present day, we proceed to excellent our craft, honouring a managed roasting course of that enhances flavour, reduces bitterness, and delivers an unparalleled espresso expertise.
How did the model get began? Speak us via the method and challenges.
Kim wished to convey his imaginative and prescient to market and assist customers perceive the distinctive science and flavour advantages of wood-roasting. In 2012, he rebranded to The Wooden Roaster, getting down to problem trade norms and showcase the depth of flavour that may solely be achieved via precision wood-roasting.
At The Wooden Roaster, we’ve perfected this craft through the use of an air roasting method in a custom-built, absolutely temperature-controlled roaster, fuelled by sustainably sourced wooden. This state-of-the-art system is enhanced with information logging know-how, actively regulating the roasting course of to make sure consistency and precision. By harnessing dry warmth, our technique attracts out the pure, inherent flavours of the high-quality beans we supply – with none smoke influencing the style.
The end result? A cleaner, sweeter, and extra full-bodied espresso. In contrast to conventional roasting strategies, our course of eliminates smoky overtones, permitting pure flavours to shine. Our delicate roasting method, powered by premium Australian Ironbark hardwood, enhances the espresso’s pure sweetness, bringing out notes of sugar, honey, cocoa, toffee, and caramel. Plus, it produces a lower-acidity espresso that highlights the depth, physique, and complexity that espresso lovers crave.
From day one, our mission has been clear – ship an unparalleled espresso expertise via innovation, precision, and a dedication to high quality.
What do you think about your most notable espresso achievements? Particularly, how has espresso formed you and introduced alongside some distinctive and superior experiences?
Just lately we participated within the 2024 Gold Bean Australasia and we’re thrilled to obtain an award for each entry together with eight silver medals throughout the Milk, Espresso and Filter classes. This accomplishment earned us our invitation to the World Collection, competing towards the perfect of Australia, the Americas and East Asia. We’re particularly pleased with successful silver within the Filter class, marking our greatest achievement thus far.
Espresso shapes many particular person lives, and from these distinctive experiences a neighborhood is shaped. In the end, bringing individuals collectively is probably the most rewarding expertise we might hope for.
Inform us about what’s in retailer for the remainder of the yr? Any thrilling or upcoming tasks to notice?
We’re eagerly anticipating our upcoming Easter mix, which guarantees that pleasant coconut, Bounty chocolate vibe! Moreover, we’ll be roasting a particular launch for filter espresso lovers – a devoted filter model of our present Summer time Crush mix. This explicit roast earned a silver medal on the Golden Bean World Collection 2025, attaining the very best rating for an Australian roaster within the Filter class. Now we have some extraordinary coffees lined up for our subsequent two releases, so remember to keep tuned!
The Espresso
OLIVIA
ESPRESSO COFFEE BLEND
Olivia was a silver medal winner within the Espresso class on the 2022 Melbourne Royal Australian Worldwide Espresso Awards! An enormous achievement for the gang over at The Wooden Roaster. This distinctive mix started on account of a particular buyer request for a singular tasting mix for milk and various milk coffees that also featured the complicated floral notes, excessive acidity and full physique flavours that The Wooden Roaster are recognized for. This resulted of their quest to create the 100% unique speciality arabica mix, Olivia, which was named after their Founder, Kim’s, first daughter. Olivia is a multi-dimensional flavour overload with wealthy notes of English toffee, blackcurrant and darkish chocolate. Olivia is The Wooden Roaster’s hottest premium mix, utilizing a rare mixture of African and Central American beans, this mix showcases among the world’s most unusual espresso profiles.
Espresso Origin:
Central America, Central Asia and Central Africa
Tasting Notes:
Toffee, blackcurrant and darkish chocolate.
Espresso Recipe:
Dose: 19g
Yield: 35g
Time: 25-28 seconds
Ratio: 1:1.8
ETHIOPIA RACHIA
FILTER COFFEE
This Yirgacheffe filter espresso has a stunning syrupy mouthfeel with an orange jamminess that coats your palate. Highlights of lemon zest convey a vibrant acidity that cuts via the tart, candy notes of the orange jam to current a very well rounded and balanced cup. Delish!
This lot is sourced from greater than 350 farmers dwelling within the Yirgacheffe, Idido Village in Ethiopia. Farmers ship ripe cherries to the Gizat washing station the place they’re sorted into grades, fermented for 36-72 hours, washed and dried for 8-15 days to a moisture content material of 11.5%. They’re then additional processed by color, density, display screen measurement and milled… prepared for export. Take pleasure in!
Espresso Origin:
Ethiopia
Tasting Notes:
Syrupy mouthfeel with zesty lemon and orange jam.
Filter Recipe (V60):
Temp: 95c
Dose: 16g
Water: 250ml
Time: 2.30-3 minutes
Ratio: 1:14
