It all began with a curious little goat…
Legend has it that during the ninth century, an Ethiopian goat herder noticed that his goats became more playful and energetic after eating berries from the surrounding fields. After a sleepless night with a herd of restless goats, the herder himself tried the berries. He found them to be hard to chew and bitter to taste. The herder then roasted and boiled the berries and found that a fragrant brown liquid, with awakening powers, was produced.
In the coming years, Arab traders took these delicious and stimulating beans abroad and by the sixteenth century coffeehouses were established across Europe, gaining popularity with the locals as coffee quickly became the lifeblood of many cities. Today, coffee has become a way of life for many cultures and is not limited to coffee shops but rather, consumed in everyday households.
Our team are no strangers to the vibrant coffee culture that exists here in Melbourne. As proud residents of its outer suburbs we ask you to join us on our coffee journey as we humbly offer up our beans to the thriving market, making our coffee accessible to you in your own home.
At Little Goat Coffee, we carefully select and use specialty grade Arabica coffee beans to capture the spirit and history of the coffee bean—as well as our own personal love for it. These beans are then lovingly hand roasted by our team in a gentle way, changing their physical and chemical nature, to enhance the aroma and distinctive flavours of our blends and premium single origin beans. We source our beans from trusted farmers and traders from across the globe. We aim to provide you with the best ingredients to make a beautiful cup of coffee and after that, the rest is up to you.
HOW DO WE LIKE OUR COFFEE?
We are a crew of dedicated coffee professionals. With years of industry experience under our belts, we feel confident in our ability to produce a range of coffee products that suit a variety of palates. We love how this industry allows us to share our acquired knowledge, working alongside communities; engaging with the public and listening to their needs as well as liaising with industry professionals, farmers and baristas, all with a common purpose: to create a beautiful cup of coffee.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
We celebrate the forty-two hands that it takes to create a beautiful cup of coffee.
OUR COFFEE PARTNERS
Direct trade is an important part of our philosophy here at Little Goat Coffee. We place an emphasis on knowing and appreciating the forty-two hands that it takes to make a beautiful cup of our coffee. This means developing a closer connection with our producers. Our relationships are built on mutual respect and a desire to benefit each hand that the coffee passes through; from the growers, to the merchants, to our roasters, to our baristas and finally to you.
We appreciate the journey that is encapsulated in each bag of our coffee; where it began as a seed that was planted, to the bean that was harvested, washed, dried, hulled, sorted, weighed, bagged and shipped, ready to be roasted by our team. But of course, the journey does not end there.
We consider it our duty to share our knowledge with our community of baristas and consumers, to maintain the love and care for product that our beans deserve. Whether it be engaging with our customers at our cafés or online with our brew guides, or training baristas associated with our wholesale accounts, we seek to do our product (and the forty-two hands that have brought it to you) justice.
A LITTLE ABOUT ONE OF OUR BEANS
COLOMBIA SAN RAFAEL
The Cauca Region sits south west of Colombia and is home to over 90,000 coffee growing families. The San Rafael farm sits forty-five minutes out of Popayan and has been owned and run by Carlos (pictured below) and his family since 2002.
The San Rafael farm sits on ninety-five hectares, with each hectare containing 6,000 Castillo trees that are pruned to a precise 1.5 metres in height. The coffee is hand-picked in the morning and processed that day. The coffee is then pulped, sent to fermentation tanks where it ferments in its own mucilage, washed and sent to drying tables. Following this, Carlos sends the dry coffee to be hulled, separated, sorted, weighed and bagged. Finally, samples are taken from each bag, roasted and graded.
The Colombian Coffee Federation ensures fair work conditions; quality and sustainability practices are followed on all coffee farms in the Cauca region.
Carlos and his brother also control the export of their coffee proving to be dedicated and passionate coffee producers—which you can really taste in each cup.