Other than its much-appreciated caffeine hit, the true power of coffee is how it creates a community around a cup.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably a coffee addict like us here at the Perth Coffee Exchange. And although we all enjoy the ritual of making a brew in the morning, more often than not we’re enjoying our brews with family, friends and colleagues.
We’re heading out to our favourite cafes as a way to connect, but we’re also adventurous drinkers with a thirst for supporting local and sustainable coffee practices.
That’s why each month, we have feature one of our local Perth coffee roasters and this month is no exception.
Our October Coffee Roaster of the Month
Brother of Mine Coffee Roasters was founded by Jos and Ben Whettingsteel in the lovely suburb of Baldivis, Perth, opening their doors in 2017. Having spent their careers in hospitality, and with Jos becoming a new dad in 2015, the opportunity arose for the two to create a new a story of their own.
“With coffee locked front and centre…it was a natural step for us to want to take ownership of the coffee we were going to be serving.”
“We work slightly differently to most other roasters in that we don’t have a head roaster. Both Jos & Ben can roast and we set about creating profiles for some killer blends that we believe suits the demand of a busy suburban cafe/restaurant.”
Brother of Mine Coffee Roasting understands that coffee brings people together, but they also understand that causes and culture do, too:
“We are a company of positive vibes and high fives and on a mission to positively impact the growth and sustainability of people and businesses within the hospitality industry.”
Sustainability – vote with your cup! Help cafés and farmers through the pandemic
Their ethos centres on seeing that local Perthian’s love supporting local businesses and sustainable coffee practices. Positivity is the word and ensuring our Perth coffee scene has integrity and remains buoyant throughout the tumultuous year that is 2020 is more important than ever.
We’re seeing coffee companies and cafés across the country struggle with the COVID-19 lockdown, with a huge downturn in predicted growth and sales across the board. It’s important to reflect how fortunate we are in Perth at the moment to be able to continue with our regular orders.
Indeed, Australians drink around 1.91 kilograms of coffee a year (don’t worry, we know you and I both drink at least that in a month!). In 2018, the coffee market in Australia was worth a whopping $5.5 billion dollars USD!
Whether we know it or not, what we drink and where we drink it create impacts in our community and beyond. Your latte can do a hell of a lot.
In fact, Jos & Ben have sustainability at heart, “It’s primarily about making face-meltingly delicious coffee for everyone. We want our coffee to promote sustainability not just for the farmers at origin, but also sustainability for our business too so that we can build our business, provide for and develop our team and be here tomorrow. “
They’re also conscious of the amazing varieties and combinations Perthian’s like to consume their coffees.
“We focus on creating a range of blends that are accessible to the everyday coffee drinker, so most of our coffees are suited to go with milk primarily but we have some great blends for black coffee drinkers as well as a range of single origin coffees too.”
Building capacity and skills in the community
Company culture matters as much as their strong ethos and causes, too. After all, staff are part of our local community! Jos & Ben took a radical and intentional move to ensure they had the right people at the heart of the business.
“From the outset we ripped up most of the industry stereotypes & norms that we felt hadn’t worked for us in other businesses. We didn’t recruit industry professionals or follow traditional interviewing techniques, but instead held a recruitment meet & greet that was centred around personal values and building a culture of excellence. Anyone with the right approach to work could be trained in any role [like roaster or barista].”
“We think it’s awesome to get inspired, passionate & motivated people into the industry, taking on roles which would otherwise be off limits to them without previous experience…Being a part of a positive culture has inspired us to try and be better at what we do every day.”
And what about future plans? Stay tuned as Brother of Mine is looking to move the roastery to a larger space to grow their wholesale space and continue to pump awesome products to us at Perth Coffee Exchange so we can deliver it right to your door.
Can I put my order in now, please?
At the end of the day, becoming a local business is a two-way exchange of joy and community. Not only can local roasters and businesses like ours at PCE provide our friends, family and neighbours with awesome and ethical brews, but we get to make new friends and loyal customers in the long term.
Jos & Ben agree, “We love the fact that it has brought us into contact with so many awesome people who are part of our lives forever now.”
So, now that we’re all thoroughly convinced these brothers and their values are truly ours too, what coffee we actually try?
“We currently have three blends on offer, as well as a changing range of single origin coffee & decaf:
Our main blend is called ‘People Everyday’. Made up of coffee from Brazil, Colombia & Ethiopia. It is a medium roast with plenty of chocolate, caramel & vanilla flavours [like coco pops milk]. The beans from Brazil give us the cocoa and caramel notes, the Colombian adds body and vanilla fruit notes and the Ethiopian Kochere gives some floral and berry flavours that help add complexity and acidity.
‘No Sleep ‘til Brooklyn’ a slightly darker roast blend with coffee from Peru & Brazil. This coffee has notes of dark chocolate and hazelnut, and is loved by those wanting a coffee that packs a little more punch."
Perth Coffee Exchange is also supplying you with Brother of Mine's ‘Brazil’ from Colombia, with milk chocolate, hazelnut and toffee notes! Check out the shop for all of these plus 15 other roasters from Perth.
Famous last words and the next month’s announcement
Thanks to Jos & Ben for being patrons and supporters of a great coffee culture. We love their idea on their famous last words: ‘a high tide raises all ships’.
“We think we could do more as an industry to support each other and get our collective message across to explain why people should choose & support specialty coffee and not the commodity coffee industry."
"If we could collaborate together more to find ways to help raise the public's awareness of the ethics behind specialty coffee we could all win.”
We absolutely couldn’t agree more – that’s the reason why Perth Coffee Exchange was founded and we look forward to shining the spotlight on the next Roaster of the Month in November.
Make sure you’ve subscribed to our new monthly newsletter for this announcement, coffee tips & tricks, unique promos, and more!
And of course, make sure you get your hands on Brother of Mine’s brews, or let us help you try and support a variety of other amazing local Perth roasters in our Coffee Tasting Pack.
Remember – your coffee counts! Thanks for supporting local coffee roasters, one sip at a time.