From Launceston To Cairns: The latest in Australian Grown Coffee

How long has it been since you packed a bag, caught a flight, and went to see old friends?

If you asked us that question last week, we would have smiled and told you it had been exactly three years.

Back in June, right as the depths of the Tasmanian winter were truly settling into Launceston, Sergio from Jack Murat walked through the doors of our roastery for a surprise visit.

We chatted for an hour and he threw out a casual invite to head up north to the farm—and honestly, that was all the excuse we needed to escape the freezing Tassie cold.

The flights were booked, plans were made, and before we knew it, we were trading the winter layers for the rich, red volcanic soil of the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland.

3 years ago we wrote about the incredible potential of homegrown, Australian-specialty coffee after an eye opening visit to the high grown coffee region of Atherton. It was an exciting milestone for us at the roastery. Fast forward to today, and that first visit has evolved into deeply rooted partnerships.

If you’ve fallen in love with our limited-edition releases like the Turbo Chook Blend, you’ve already tasted the fruits of those relationships.

Driving into the Jack Murat Estate in Mareeba, the first thing that we noticed is the scale of the place. More blocks have been planted and the growth of the existing bushes is significant. Nestled 600 metres above sea level, the microclimate here is magical for Arabica coffee plants.

We parked out the back of the farmhouse and walked into the shed. We walked past classic fords hidden under dusty tarps and a proud old Massey Fergusson Tractor. The smell of hay and old leather filled the air. It feels like any old farm shed. We walk to the back of the shed and in the light is a 12kg Has Garante roasting away and out pops Sergio from a side room.

Catching up with Sergio felt less like a formal business meeting and more like a long-overdue family reunion. We walked the paddocks together, inspecting the latest growth and looking at how the trees have matured. Harvest was all but complete but we tasted the few red cherries left hanging on the bushes. We were shown the scale of investment in better processing equipment and storage facilities. There were plenty of people scampering around a covered drying bed which was set aside for micro-lot experimental processing.

Truth be told, this trip wasn't about hunting down hyper-exclusive micro-lots or designing the next cool specialty label to put on our retail shelves. Standing in the dirt with Sergio, the conversation was all about the real challenges and successes of the Australian coffee industry, a very honest dialogue. We talked openly and transparently about the actual realities of the specialty coffee world the rising overheads, the logistical bottlenecks, and the genuine frustrations that come with farming and roasting in the current economic climate. It was a refreshing dose of real talk. It meant a whole lot more to connect on a human level over shared industry struggles than to just cup crazy, experimental fermentations and trade industry buzz words.

By the end of the day we could barely feel our toes we had consumed so much coffee and we slept all of about 3 hours that night.

Next up, we wound our way up through the stunning Tablelands to visit our mate Lucy at Crater Mountain Coffee. Lucy's farm sits as the highest coffee farm in Australia at 1050m. Oh Boy is it beautiful. It has a true microclimate. That day, Cairns was a top of 27 deg and Lucys farm hovered around 18 deg.

The farm is hilly, up and down, tough country to farm, however the ground is rich and the climate just right. There are pockets of tropical rainforest on the farm and if you are lucky(we were not, again) you will see a tree kangaroo or a cassowary wandering through.

If Jack Murat is leading the industry in modern estate precision, Crater Mountain is a beautiful testament to meticulous craft, patience, and manual labor required to produce small batch coffee.

Standing on the farm with Lucy, you get a reality check that farming is hard and coffee farming is even harder.

We jumped in the buggy and had a close up look at the on-coming harvest. The lower coffee farms had already completed their harvest and yet crater mountain would not pick a single cherry for another month or two. Crazy to think of the climate difference in only 50km travelled!

 Lucy explained how some blocks looked good, green and healthy with heavy laden branches of red and yellow catuai. other blocks did not look as healthy. They looked tired, stripped and spindly. Lucy explained that last year after harvest a freak hail storm came through and thrashed the bushes and they had not yet fully recovered. A stark reminder of how unpredictable farming can be.

But the highlight was simply sitting down for a proper catch-up. Not over a fancy coffee but a humble batch brew. Lucy gave us the unfiltered truth about what it takes to manage a coffee harvest against unpredictable weather patterns, labor shortages, and shifting agricultural landscapes.

When you buy green coffee over an email thread, it is easy to forget the sheer weight of what happens on the farm. Having those raw, unscripted conversations with the farmer that deals with the day to day struggles is a humbling experience.

We are incredibly fortunate to live in one of the few countries in the world that can both grow world-class coffee and sustain a booming specialty coffee culture. However, Australian-grown specialty coffee represents a tiny fraction of what the world produces, making these beans an absolute hidden gem and the reality is we need to grow more coffee.

Our main mission for this trip wasn't just to catch up on farm gossip. We went up north to actively strengthen our purchasing relationships. By working directly with Sergio and Lucy, we are ensuring sustainable, transparent supply chains that cut our reliance on global shipping networks. Most importantly, it means we can buy and bring back larger, more consistent volumes of local coffee directly to you.

When you buy a bag of our Australian-source blends or single origins, you aren't just buying roasted beans from Invermay. You are directly supporting the farmers in the Tablelands, their teams, and a pioneering domestic agricultural industry.

We have some more back end logistics and official documents to work out but we will have some incredibly exciting, clean, sweet lots heading down south to Tasmania in the near future.

Keep a close eye on our socials and your inbox if you are a coffee circle subscriber over the next couple of weeks. Our roasting team is already dialling in the profiles, and we cannot wait to share the new harvest with you.

For the love of Coffee,

The Ritual Team