Proud Mary was founded in Melbourne in 2009 by Nolan and Shari Hirte, husband and wife, and it has sourced coffee direct from origin since the same year. Its belief is that no one should have to choose between good coffee and good food. Relationships with producers are long: the Santa Bárbara growers in Honduras since 2012, Finca Auromar in Panama since 2011. Proud Mary pays above market so that producers thrive, and this did not change when coffee prices rose from 2024.

The café in Collingwood serves all-day breakfast and lunch with table service, with tea, fresh juice, smoothies, cakes and pastries alongside the coffee. Around the corner, Aunty Peg’s is named after Nolan’s grandmother, a Scottish woman who always kept her door open and her oven on. It is the cellar door to the roastery: a bar with one-on-one barista service, a coffee showcase menu and a Deluxe pour-over menu, brew lessons, a shop for beans and brewing equipment, and tours of the working roastery. Free cuppings run every Saturday morning. The roastery and the wholesale office are at the same address.

The coffee range is sorted by feeling rather than by origin: Mild, Curious, Wild and Deluxe, the last reserved for rare lots sold in 100 g bags. Three espresso blends, Humbler, Angel Wings and Ghost Rider, sit alongside the single origins and a sugarcane decaf from Colombia. There are also cafés in Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas. The current retail range is listed below with the roaster’s own tasting notes.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Proud Mary