Small Batch Roasting Co. began with Andrew Kelly’s backyard experiments with a heat gun and a colander. He went on to open Auction Rooms in North Melbourne in 2008, a café and roastery where everything was on display, and Small Batch has roasted since 2009. As the roasting grew it moved to a dedicated roastery down the road, which now has a cellar door serving espresso, milk and filter coffee with pastries, lunch and groceries. Some of the pastries use Small Batch’s own chocolate, made from cacao grown by a single producer, Emilce Castro.

Small Batch works in a small group of countries and aims for coffee that is exceptional, has a positive social impact and supports sustainable agriculture. It buys all its Colombian coffee directly from smallholders, in parchment, among them members of the Los Guacharos association around Bruselas, in Huila, and pays them in pesos straight into their accounts. Coffees are roasted separately for espresso and for filter, from single producers in Colombia and Guatemala to the Candyman espresso blend and the Golden Ticket filter blend, made for almost a decade.

Small Batch also supplies cafés around Melbourne and across Australia, with wholesale at the roastery by appointment.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Small Batch Roasting Co.