April 01, 2025
Ever wonder what wood-roasted coffee tastes like? Well soon you’ll know! April is all about sipping on deliciously rich and complex wood roasted coffee by our good friends over in Sydney – The Wood Roaster.
Nestled in the inner west of Sydney, you’re truly spoiled for choice when it comes to cafés, restaurants, breweries and distilleries. Among the tasty hospo haunts sits The Wood Roaster’s warehouse space where you can grab a takeaway coffee, bag of beans or watch the roasting process in action.
Why have they chosen to roast coffee this unique way? Wood-roasting caramelises the beans and brings out the natural sugars. This deeply enhances the flavours, with no smoke to influence the taste. The wood-roasting process gives very delicate and complex flavours within the beans; the tropical fruits, berries, citrus and florals are more heavily pronounced. The sweet notes of sugar, honey, maple syrup, cocoa, toffee, caramel and so on, are much deeper and stronger. Further, the nutty, earthy and spicy notes are richer and stronger. Basically, wood-roasting delivers exceptional results.
We highly suggest a trip to their roastery in Sydney’s suburb of Marrickville to watch the wood-roasting process in person. But, in the meantime, enjoy drinking this month’s coffee by the The Wood Roaster gang!
The Interview
We spoke with Kim Loupis from The Wood Roaster about how the business got started, their recent achievements and all the exciting things they’re getting up to this year.
Tell us about you. What’s your coffee background?
The Wood Roaster started as a small café in Sydney, originally known as Il Espresso. Founder Kim saw a growing demand for something different – customers were tired of coffee that all tasted the same, just sold in different packaging. They were also looking for a cleaner, more natural roasting process beyond gas-powered roasting.
In 2009, driven by a passion for innovation and a respect for tradition, Kim began roasting with sustainably sourced wood for his own café. He set himself the challenge of mastering the art of wood-roasting, spending years researching, experimenting, and refining his methods. This dedication led to the development of a custom-built roaster fuelled by wood.
By 2011, The Wood Roaster expanded into wholesale and contract roasting, supplying cafés, restaurants, and specialty coffee lovers with uniquely wood-roasted coffee. Today, we continue to perfect our craft, honouring a controlled roasting process that enhances flavour, reduces bitterness, and delivers an unparalleled coffee experience.
How did the brand get started? Talk us through the process and challenges.
Kim wanted to bring his vision to market and help consumers understand the unique science and flavour benefits of wood-roasting. In 2012, he rebranded to The Wood Roaster, setting out to challenge industry norms and showcase the depth of flavour that can only be achieved through precision wood-roasting.
At The Wood Roaster, we’ve perfected this craft by using an air roasting approach in a custom-built, fully temperature-controlled roaster, fuelled by sustainably sourced wood. This state-of-the-art system is enhanced with data logging technology, actively regulating the roasting process to ensure consistency and precision. By harnessing dry heat, our method draws out the natural, inherent flavours of the high-quality beans we source – without any smoke influencing the taste.
The result? A cleaner, sweeter, and more full-bodied coffee. Unlike traditional roasting methods, our process eliminates smoky overtones, allowing pure flavours to shine. Our soft roasting technique, powered by premium Australian Ironbark hardwood, enhances the coffee’s natural sweetness, bringing out notes of sugar, honey, cocoa, toffee, and caramel. Plus, it produces a lower-acidity coffee that highlights the depth, body, and complexity that coffee lovers crave.
From day one, our mission has been clear – deliver an unparalleled coffee experience through innovation, precision, and a commitment to quality.
What do you consider your most notable coffee achievements? Specifically, how has coffee shaped you and brought along some unique and awesome experiences?
Recently we participated in the 2024 Gold Bean Australasia and we’re thrilled to receive an award for every entry including eight silver medals across the Milk, Espresso and Filter categories. This accomplishment earned us our invitation to the World Series, competing against the best of Australia, the Americas and East Asia. We are especially proud of winning silver in the Filter category, marking our biggest achievement to date.
Coffee shapes many individual lives, and from those unique experiences a community is formed. Ultimately, bringing people together is the most rewarding experience we could hope for.
Tell us about what’s in store for the rest of the year? Any exciting or upcoming projects to note?
We’re eagerly anticipating our upcoming Easter blend, which promises that delightful coconut, Bounty chocolate vibe! Additionally, we’ll be roasting a special release for filter coffee lovers – a dedicated filter version of our current Summer Crush blend. This particular roast earned a silver medal at the Golden Bean World Series 2025, achieving the highest score for an Australian roaster in the Filter category. We have some extraordinary coffees lined up for our next two releases, so be sure to stay tuned!
The Coffee
OLIVIA
ESPRESSO COFFEE BLEND
Olivia was a silver medal winner in the Espresso category at the 2022 Melbourne Royal Australian International Coffee Awards! A massive achievement for the gang over at The Wood Roaster. This exceptional blend began as a result of a special customer request for a unique tasting blend for milk and alternative milk coffees that still featured the complex floral notes, high acidity and full body flavours that The Wood Roaster are known for. This resulted in their quest to create the 100% exclusive speciality arabica blend, Olivia, which was named after their Founder, Kim's, first daughter. Olivia is a multi-dimensional flavour overload with rich notes of English toffee, blackcurrant and dark chocolate. Olivia is The Wood Roaster’s most popular premium blend, using an extraordinary mix of African and Central American beans, this blend showcases some of the world's most unique coffee profiles.
Coffee Origin:
Central America, Central Asia and Central Africa
Tasting Notes:
Toffee, blackcurrant and dark chocolate.
Espresso Recipe:
Dose: 19g
Yield: 35g
Time: 25-28 seconds
Ratio: 1:1.8
ETHIOPIA RACHIA
FILTER COFFEE
This Yirgacheffe filter coffee has a lovely syrupy mouthfeel with an orange jamminess that coats your palate. Highlights of lemon zest bring a bright acidity that cuts through the tart, sweet notes of the orange jam to present a really well rounded and balanced cup. Delish!
This lot is sourced from more than 350 farmers living in the Yirgacheffe, Idido Village in Ethiopia. Farmers deliver ripe cherries to the Gizat washing station where they are sorted into grades, fermented for 36-72 hours, washed and dried for 8-15 days to a moisture content of 11.5%. They are then further processed by colour, density, screen size and milled… ready for export. Enjoy!
Coffee Origin:
Ethiopia
Tasting Notes:
Syrupy mouthfeel with zesty lemon and orange jam.
Filter Recipe (V60):
Temp: 95c
Dose: 16g
Water: 250ml
Time: 2.30-3 mins
Ratio: 1:14
