Late March, Karla and I packed our bags and headed to Melbourne for what turned out to be one of the most energising weeks we've had since taking over the roastery.
First stop: Roast Summit Melbourne, held on the 24th and 25th of March at Aunty Pegs - Proud Mary Coffee Roasters' home in Collingwood. Now in its second year in Australia, the Summit brought together coffee roasting professionals from across the region and around the world for two days of sessions, workshops and real, unfiltered conversation about the art, science and business of coffee roasting.
What struck us most wasn't any single session - it was the mood in the room. There's something quietly powerful about being in a space full of people who do exactly what you do and who are grappling with exactly the same things. The Green Room sessions opened honestly: the current coffee market is volatile. Prices are up, supply chains are stretched, and roasters are caught in the middle -navigating record green coffee prices and longer procurement timelines on one side, and cafés facing cost-of-living pressures on the other. Nobody pretended otherwise. And that honesty felt like the whole point.
After the Summit wrapped, we stayed on for MICE - the Melbourne International Coffee Expo - which ran from the 26th to the 28th of March at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. If Roast Summit is where roasters go to think, MICE is where the whole industry comes to see, taste and connect.
One of the standout features was Trip to Origin - an immersive showcase connecting attendees with producing nations and green coffee specialists, with representatives from countries including Brazil, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Nepal, India, Colombia, Peru, and Guatemala presenting their coffees through tastings, cuppings and educational sessions. For us, walking around that floor and talking directly with producers was a reminder of how much curiosity and ingenuity is happening at origin, farmers and cooperatives experimenting with processing, adapting to climate shifts and finding new ways to protect the quality of what they grow.
The Roasters Playground was another highlight - a dynamic hub for tasting and direct connection with some of Australia's most exciting coffee companies. Being a small regional roastery at an event like this, you could easily feel like a small fish. But that's not how it felt. The collaborative spirit was real. Roasters sharing what's working, what isn't and genuinely cheering each other on.
We came back to Beechworth with full notebooks, a few new contacts worth their weight in green coffee and a renewed sense of why this industry is worth showing up for - even when the market makes it complicated.
More soon on what we're applying here at the roastery.
- Angus & Karla
