Elementary Coffee - Introducing our very first Adelaide roaster!

First off, tell us about you two! What’s your coffee background?

Brad: Having worked in the specialty coffee industry for the past 18 years my
background in coffee is much too long to keep our readers attention! But, here are some of my career highlights: South Australian Barista Champion, Victorian Cup Tasters Champion, runner-up Australian Cup Taster, Brewers Cup Head Judge, National Sensory Barista Judge, Q-Grade Certified and have been on sourcing trips to Brazil, Indonesia, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Carly: My background is in general management, manager and barista. I am the former GM of multi-site hospitality companies, based in Melbourne, with extensive knowledge of operating cafes profitably.

How did Elementary Coffee get started? Talk us through the process and challenges.

Brad: Carly and I met in Melbourne when we worked in a café together. We both
had the dream of owning our own cafe and more specifically a café and roastery.
I’m originally from Adelaide so we both thought starting something small back in
Adelaide would be a great start! We wanted to bring a Melbourne-style cafe experience to Adelaide, but this concept ended up being quite challenging. Firstly, we didn’t have a huge budget for interior design. Also, the style of coffee people were used to in Adelaide was much darker than what we wanted our roast style to be. Although, I’m happy we stuck to our guns because over the years we believe we have been leaders in changing minds to a lighter style roast!

Where did the name ‘Elementary’ come from?

At the time there was a lot of misinformation swirling around the coffee industry. We felt that it would be damaging to the industry as a whole if coffee shops moved further from what their customers liked and more towards “what is best for the coffee”. Our aim was to get back to basics and roast straightforward, uncomplicated and exceptional coffee - hence the name Elementary. Simple things can often be infinitely complex!

How do you source your coffee beans and what do you look for in the beans you use?

We mainly use importers that are based here in Adelaide. Namely, South Land Merchants for our Brazilian coffee and Harvest Town for our Colombian coffee. Our ethos on sourcing is that we want to eventually shake hands with each and every one of our coffee producers. This means each year we use the same producers so we can continue having a solid relationship with them. This is important so we can build trust which allows the producer to re-invest in their farm and produce even better coffee because they know we’ll be back for more and pay a fair price for their coffee each year.

How would you describe your coffee to someone who’s never tasted it before?

Straightforward, uncomplicated, infinitely complex! This is our catch phrase but I would say our coffee across the range is truly super approachable. Our milk blends are made so that our customers want another one straight after the first cup. Our single origins are clean, sweet and balanced. We don’t often chase wild funky processed coffee. We prefer coffee of intrigue but not to be assaulted with processing.