Coffee Alchemy is the head office, roastery and café of Hazel de los Reyes and Clare in Marrickville. Its start was a childhood among a grandmother’s fruit trees, liberica coffee included, recalled years later through an espresso machine, a grinder, a modified popcorn machine and an insatiable desire to make better coffee. A small commercial roaster followed, then a tiny café in a quiet suburb, and the few handfuls of beans became a hill of green.

Hazel won the New South Wales Barista Championship several times, the Australian Barista Championship in 2005 and the inaugural Australian Cup Tasting Championship in 2007, and represented Australia at the World Barista and World Cup Tasters championships. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Cafe Guide named Coffee Alchemy Best Coffee from 2011 to 2014. Coffee Alchemy pays producers the price they set, above the commodity price, and prefers long relationships to handout schemes. It acknowledges the Cadigal people as the traditional custodians of the land on which it roasts.

The Marrickville room is where the company started. The roasters go full throttle behind a front counter lined with hoppers of freshly roasted blends and single estates, and beans are ground to order. Drinks and beans can be ordered ahead through Hey You. The range runs from the house blend, Goodness Galileo, and a set of named blends labelled light to extra bold, to a mountain-water decaf, a rotating single estate of the month, named single estates and freeze-dried instant versions of three coffees. Gumption in the Strand Arcade is the sister café; Micro in Barangaroo closed in 2021. The current retail range is listed below with the roaster’s own tasting notes.

Coffee on the shelf