TO BLEND OR NOT TO BLEND

The common reason why coffee is blended is to ultimately bring down the cost of goods for a coffee roaster. That means only a very small percentage of high quality coffee id in the blend they say is "special and outsanding". The rest of the varietals in the blend are designed to mimic high quality green coffee, but never quite make it, such as Robusta.

Yes, blending coffee was the only way to get consistency 50 years ago as the quality of green coffee was very poor. The world has come a long way where many coffee regions are now producing outstanding quality coffee via co-ops and micro lot farms, where the farmer actually gets paid a viable price per kilogram.

At Johnny's coffee roasters, the minimum price we pay a farmer is $18 plus per kilogram. The average price a Melbourne coffee roaster pays is as little as $6 per kilogram. I absorb the higher price we pay to ensure you never get a bad coffee and our farmers never get ripped off. We encourage as many cafes as possible to follow us and roast your own coffee just like us.

It’s women and children that are exploited on a daily basis when coffee roasters squeeze and force innocent families to accept such ridiculous low coffee prices. We are very lucky to live in Australia and whilst I can’t change the world, I can do something… and refuse to be part of discrimination of any kind.