Friendship Lane Coffee Roasting Strathalbyn

Bula from Fiji!

This morning my son Jack and I were privileged to have visited on the coast near Sigatoka.

From crop to cup, seeing their nursery, farm, drying racks, and roastery was a wonderful experience. More impressive than this is how they are supporting local Fijian communities. Coffee was found growing wild throughout Fiji without anyone seeming to know how it came to be there so Bula Coffee was established to utilise this resource. 70% of their harvesters are women in highland communities and Bula Coffee is giving them an income source which is empowering and supporting them to achieve wonderful things for themselves, their families and their communities. One woman used the savings from harvesting to become a teacher after dreaming of becoming one her whole life. Real benefits to real Fijians 😍.

Bula Coffee are looking at ways to develop sustainable and organic farming to expand their business, the location I visited today is essentially their experiment on how to best achieve this. Growing the coffee under banana trees is giving them the best results so far and they are experimenting with grafting to grow strong root stocks too.

You might wonder how was the coffee? Honest and earthy with a sweet tropical fruit palate that lingers. We were able to taste a French press, percolator and finally as a cold drip preparation, each style showcasing their unique coffee in different ways.

I'm so excited to have experienced this and their beautiful cafe has me wanting to go back for lunch shortly.

I filmed much of the tour on my GoPro so when I get home I hope to make a short video about our experience to share with you all.

Vinaka 🙏

Bula!

Coffee in Fiji is very good. Haven't had a bad cup yet (until I was forced to have an instant).

I will be visiting a local producer and roaster in the coming days and I can't wait to see the whole crop to cup process 😍

Which stage are you up to?

Today is the final day of the sale and your last chance to grab some of Strathalbyn's freshest coffee beans before I close until July 23rd.

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Sunday recovery and roast session.

The old bones are aching after football yesterday so plenty of stretching while roasting this morning, and a few brews too!

Stock and time is limited before the HOLIDAY2024 promotion ends!

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Well that's a wrap folks! The end of the biggest day of roasting I've ever had in order to meet the incredible support you have all shown me. The numbers don't lie! In the past 5 days I've already exceeded Junes orders by almost 60%! Thank you to all my regulars and welcome to all my new customers.

Only a few days left of the HOLIDAY2024 promotion to get 15% off your coffee bean order. Available online AND in-person.

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Fresh green beans arrived today so I am able to fulfill any new orders when I roast again tomorrow morning!

Take advantage of my sale by using the code HOLIDAY2024 to get 15% off all orders until July 9th.

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I can hardly believe the response to my promotion! Thank you all!

Over the past three days I've received more orders than ever before, so many that I've just roasted up the last of my green beans to meet the demand! Oops! I have more beans on the way so any new orders will be fulfilled as soon as I can.

Discount code HOLIDAY2024 to get 15% off all purchases.

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Discount time!

My family and I are going on a holiday later this month so in the lead up to then I'm offering a 15% discount off all purchases between now and July 9th.

Use the code HOLIDAY2024 online or mention to me when purchasing directly to receive your discount.

Our holiday also means I will not be able to fulfill orders between July 10th and July 23rd so make sure you get your orders in while the voucher is active!

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Prepping orders and cranking tunes today.

Sending out my biggest online order to a business in the city whose workers complained when their coffee machine was filled up with something other than Friendship Lane coffee 😂. I'm quite pleased to know I'm contributing to workplace satisfaction ☺️

Talk to me about how I can help meet your own office coffee needs from supply of beans to advice on machines.

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Cold hands? Warm coffee!

Beat the bitter cold with the sweet nectar that is freshly roasted coffee.

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Internal trial with the senior men today

I love being involved in my local community club ❤️

Fresh stock delivered to Strath's amazing local boutique
They are here for all your special gift needs and supporting local products, artisans and artists.

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As a self confessed nerd one of the coolest things about the new roaster is the ability to monitor the temperature within the roaster. Knowing the exact temperature of the air and beans throughout the roasting process gives me much greater consistency with each roast and gives me the information I need to adjust on the fly. In the past I relied purely on sound, scent and sight which I still use but this added information is awesome 😎

Thanks for nerding out with me. Perhaps another day I'll talk about first crack, development times and cooling rates and how they all impact flavour, but not today.

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Elixir of life

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Happy Monday!

I hope you all have an amazing week!

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Getting my roast on today.

Hit me up if you want some of it 😉

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Sustainability in the coffee industry is an important issue and one that I feel quite passionate about. I'm only a very small time roaster but I'm still working hard to do everything I can to make the industry environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.

I source my green beans from an importer who supports their growers through an initiative called Fair Crack which donates 50 cents for every kilo of coffee back to their farmers to help develop important infrastructure like shedding, irrigation and other sustainable farming methods.

When I roast my beans I use a fully electric machine rather than a gas powered burner which many other roasters use. This benefits both my business and the environment because I have a solar and battery system, so I roast only when the sun is out meaning I'm not only powering my machine for free but also carbon free!

Finally when I package my coffee I'm choosing to use home compostable bags made from sugar cane, paper and cassava which gives not only a robust bag, but also food for your worm farm. You do need to remove the zip and filter, but the rest is good to go straight into the compost or greens bin along with your coffee grinds.

I'm always looking for other ways to be a more responsible individual and business and I'm proud to know I'm doing my small part.

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The face behind the coffee.

Roasting today while wearing the new merch, I think it looks pretty sharp and nothing like a comfortable uniform for work.

I'm roasting my current house blend today, Colombian Volcan Galeras and Brazilian Yellow Bourbon (pronounced Bore-bon and not to be confused with the American Whiskey). Roasted with milk based drinks in mind but delicious as an espresso or long black too, the mouth feel is smooth, the freshness will give a wonderful crema and the natural sweetness will linger with camarels.

Hit me up or order online 👍

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When someone new tries my coffee and loves it 😍

After a very busy weekend filled with friends, family and football I'm spending time with the roaster again to catch up on orders from new and existing customers.

Thank you all for your ongoing support of my venture and for the generous feedback which helps drive me forward.

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Happy Sunday!

I hope you're not running short of coffee but if you are I'm here to help!

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Head down today to watch the men play in their first home game of the season 💪😍⚽

Next up for the Men is the local derby against FC Summit.

And it’s our first home game of the season!!

Come out and support and hang around after for a burger!🍔

Yuuuuuummmmmmmm

Sweet, fruity, lingering palate. Lovely as an espresso or Americano. Ethiopian Yirgacheffe hitting the spot 😍

Good morning espresso friends ☕😍

Roast Day tomorrow! I'll be roasting with a good friend of mine to develop the newest Friends with Benefits roast. A single origin Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Special Preparation, hand sorted and washed on the farms they are grown on, these are a fine quality bean.

Join the "Friends with Benefits" Coffee Club to follow these and other exclusive roast offers, or if you love my house roast (as I do!) you can message me to order or jump onto my website.

Have a great Monday!

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Coffee is good for you, there is no doubt about it.

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We are still welcoming new players for the 2024 season, all ages and grades!

Particularly looking for players in our Under 17 girls and Under 15 mixed teams but there is room in all grades from age 6 up!

Roast Day!

It turns out I didn't roast enough coffee yesterday so I'm back at it again this morning!

After dedicating yesterday's post to the Sunday workers, today I want to send good vibes to everyone who simply couldn't "Monday" without their morning coffee.

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