coffeeprince Grower and roaster of specialty Australian Coffee from the hills above Byron Bay using sustainable practices and organic techniques to produce high grade arabica coffee beans for gourmet food loving coffee lovers everywhere COE SCAA AASCA AST

coffeeprince australia

ABN+ 68 326 522 044

plantation+ Lot 7 Pacific Hwy, Knockrow, NSW 2479

mail+ 28 Bruxner crs, Goonellabah, NSW 2480

phone+ 04177 46 770

email+ info@coffeeprince.com

Pretty simple really

The Australian beans in coffeeprince coffee are grown at Knockrow, just above Byron Bay. The rich volcanic soils provide the opportunity to use sustainable practices, no chemical fertilsers or sprays, just the rain from the sky and a bit of TLC. The trees pretty much look after themselves when they are this big.

We roast in a fluid bed roaster, designed by Ian Bersten of Belaroma fame, he wrote the book on coffee. We roast on the farm every week, unless we go camping, then we usually shut up shop for a few days. Don't panic if the online shop is shut, we usually don't go away for more than a week. You can always give Cameron a bell, send him an SMS or tweet him on twitter, he’s never too far away.

The plantation is about 80 metres above sea level, there are 15 000 trees in the ground though the yield from these is varied because of the pruning and cultivation regime currently used. Rows of trees are ‘taken out of service’ to give them the chance to recover and generate new growth. There are two creeks on the property, the best for fishing is Emigrant creek.

With the abundant rainfall of the Rainbow Region the creeks flow year round experts say there are good size Bass in the creek, usually spotted under the shady banks early in the morning. There are manly eels and carp but it's a great spot to sit and listen or take the tractor tubes and crash down the water fall.

The Australian beans in coffeeprince coffee is derived from the CSIRO varietal K7 which, according to Jos Webber, President of the ASTCA is believed to have been selected by R.H. Walker from the 'French Mission' trees on his Legetet Estate at Muhoroni in Kenya.

Mechanical harvesting

The labor saving ‘Korvan’ picks most of the cherry. It is a huge mechanical Harvester that has rigid tines in columns that run the height of the coffee tree. The machine straddles the row of trees and is driven around the plantation at nearly 8 Km/h. The hand picking done is just for the love of it. Hand picked coffees from the coffeeprince plantation never make it to the shop, they are usually consumed in house. If you’d like to give picking a go, contact Cameron, he is keen to see people explore the harvesting and processing of the cherry, if you have a bit of time you can see your cherry pulped and sundried.

Processing the cherry

There are two processing methods employed: Wet Pulped and Dry Processed.

Wet pulping, as the name suggests uses a pulper at Jos' place to remove the soft ripe cherry from the bean, the beans are then demucilaged(removing the slimy stuff), the result is called parchment.

Dry processed cherry is laid out to dry in the sun then hulled at Corinnes place in a massive machine that strips the dried cherry and parchment off in one go.

Green Bean Sales

We offer our green bean for sale. Samples are available through the online shop. Bulk orders are negotiated as required.

Roasted Coffee Sales

Our farm roasted coffee is available from our online shop. We ship across Australia weekly. Subscription packs area great gift: allowing you to send a recurring gift throughout the year. Cafe/Restaurant and office bulk orders are negotiated as required.

Rainbow Region

The region we grow our beans in is part of a massive caldera that extends from Murrwillumbah to Lismore. This extinct volcano has it's solid 'plug' in Mt Warning.

Cameron Prince began roasting in 2006 using a "Coretto". This home made improvised breadmaker and heat gun combo ignited a passion for the chemistry of the roasting process and set him on a course of discovery.

Cameron was rewarded with a Silver medal for his Australian Espresso in 2007 in the Golden Bean National Roasting competition, during the same event he achieve a bronze medal for his Milk Based Blend. "National Roasting competitions are a great way to have your profiles and process independently assessed" says Cameron.

Cameron has competed in the 2010 National Cupping Championships on the Gold Coast. Cuppers are required to asses 24 coffees; differentiating the "odd one out" in groups of three. Although missing a spot in the final, the process of attending heats in Sydney and then the open heats on the Gold Coast saw his cupping skills improve. Overall time for the National Championships is not the only consideration for the judges. Accuracy is paramount. The fastest cupper is not always the victor, a slower time may reveal superior cup differentiation.

Cameron is a member of the ASTCA (Australian Subtropical Coffee Association), the peak body for coffee growers in the region, he is an active, passionate member, keen to foster relationships and take advantage of the generations of knowledge on hand at ASTCA meetings.

"This year looks to be a small crop" drawls Cameron over a beer after a long day on the plantation. Too much early rain has knocked a lot of the flowers of the trees. The coffeeprince team in Knockrow is keen to get in to the harvest and bag some green. Cameron plans to colour sort the crop this year, a first for this plantation. "In the past we had a lot of help during the harvest, Ron(Grant) and Craig(from Hogarth Range) dropped everything on their farms and pitched in without a word which was amazing. With the help of Jos(Webber) I was able to pulp the whole crop in the afternoon as the cherries were still coming off the trees. This year I will be right on top of it, we'll float of the rubbish as soon as Ron(Woods) dumps each load, transferring the sinkers to the pulper, this should save a lot of stuffing around with the elevators(removing sticks and leaves). The Naturals can be spread out to dry straight away while the primes go off to get pulped."

Cameron talks enthusiastically, with exaggerated expression when he gets going about the process of harvesting and processing. To him, the nuances in harvesting and processing have effects that are multiplied down the logistical chain; "One small change in process impacts the cup in a HUGE way: Over/under ferment in the picked cherry before pulping, too much/too little muscilage on the washed parchment, to little/ too much agitation during the drying phase when the cherries and washed parchment are laid out to dry to 12% water content....." Cameron's list goes on, and on, and on, and on.....