About the coffee

This is our first Mystery Coffee coming from the Oceania. This means that now we have coffees from four different continents in our Mystery Coffee League history. We are also adding Oceania as one of the continent options to MCL submission form.

This is not a competition level coffee. This round was mainly about experiencing something really unique and very new. I've never seen anyone in Europe selling Australian specialty coffee, definitely not from good roaster. The only place in Europe which had some Crater Mountain coffee was Rosslyn cafe in London which sourced some bags from ONA last year. I think MCL participants are one of the very first people in Europe to try Australian grown specialty coffee which is pretty cool. MCL is all about unique, rare and interesting coffees. Not only about the competition grade beans.

About Crater Mountain

We're proud to offer the highest quality, most unique Australian-grown coffee on the market today. From our family to yours, we put lots of love and careful attention into each stage of the coffee process.

Our coffee seedlings are grown on the farm from our own seeds and lovingly nurtured in the greenhouse for 12 months before sun hardening and planting in the paddock. We use low till farming practices to minimise the disturbance to our precious basalt soils and mulch every tree with interrow grass cuttings and pruning waste. Water and nutrients are continuously monitored to ensure the balance between tree growth and superior cherry development. After 3 years, our trees reward us with their first flowers and 10 months later we harvest.

The hard work and science ratchet up at harvest time! Over a 6 week period only the most prime cherries are picked. They are carefully washed and processed. Some are pulped and left on raised beds to slowly dry in the sun while others are immersed in water and allowed to ferment over days, adding lively intensity to the cup. Each batch is recorded for its weight, picking location, sugar levels and processing technique. This micro-processing ensures that when you buy Crater Mountain Coffee's, you really are experiencing coffee like no other.

About processing

Anaerobic natural ferment with some added yeast.

Yeast ferment (Controlled ferment). To produce more intense and repeatable flavours, yeasts can be added to the fermentation tank. We have done many experiments with yeasts over the 2020 harvest season. Typically, wine and champagne yeasts have been tried as well as some speciality coffee yeasts, now coming onto the market. The results have been beautiful floral coffees that particularly lend themselves to V60 pour overs and filter coffee.