January 02, 2025
New year, new set of roasters to feature! We’re kicking-off 2025 with the legends over at Brunswick based Wide Open Road.
Wide Open Road has been roasting and supplying delicious coffee from their Brunswick HQ and cafe since 2009. On top of their Melbourne homebase, they also have a cosy cafe up in Byron Bay and partnerships with a number of amazing venues around Australia showcasing their coffees.
In addition to running their flagship roastery and two cafes, the Wide Open Road gang are constantly pushing out unique and tasty coffee roasts - using high quality and sustainably sourced beans supplied by a long list of rockstar coffee producers from around the world. This month they’re featuring an incredible filter roast with beans from their amazing Colombian supplier, Jorge Elias Rojas, who's doing amazing work on his estate in the mountains of Colombia.
Wide Open Road also has some exciting projects in the works for 2025. Keep an eye on this group of coffee roasting mavericks. They’re constantly pushing the boundaries in the industry while simultaneously staying true to their go-to blends for the everyday home brewer. We’re stoked to be featuring them again this year!
The Interview
We caught up with Wide Open Road’s very own Jayden Goodwin to chat all about how the business was started, what the future of the coffee industry looks like and all the exciting plans they have planned for 2025.
What’s Wide Open Road’s origin story?
Starting Wide Open Road was partly out of necessity, which is hard to believe with so many roasteries in Melbourne these days. This was at a time when there were barely a handful of boutique roasters around – back in 2009. We had already been running our first cafe, A Minor Place, for a few years, and we knew we wanted to roast for ourselves. We decided on a particular coffee profile that we wanted to work with, so we decided to take the plunge and start roasting ourselves.
One day, Jono (the owner) was walking along Barkly Street, because we all lived in Brunswick, and noticed that the local NQR (Not Quite Right) supermarket was up for lease. It seemed like the perfect place to bring together all the things we love: coffee, creativity, and community. With two levels of over 1,000 sqm, we figured we could do a lot. It was a steep learning curve and took months of trial and error to perfect our first coffee blend. We kicked things off with Bathysphere, which we still offer today, and it continued to evolve from there.
We're proud to say we were roasting in Brunswick at the very beginning of the specialty coffee wave!
Where did the name come from?
When we were coming up with a name for the roastery and cafe it had to be a song title. Our first cafe, “A Minor Place” had brought us so much luck and joy it became a superstition to name all things after songs we loved.
Wide Open Road is more than a song title, it’s a mood, a state of mind, it conjures a narrative and story of how we want to travel through the world.
What are you looking forward to in the coffee industry at the moment? Any cool trends we should keep our eye on?
The rise of the at home baristas has been something that has been very cool to see over the past few years and the popularity of brewing specialty coffee at home continues to grow as coffee prices skyrocket.
While it's a tricky time to navigate for cafes and roasteries, the at home barista is an exciting development as the customers have more control over the coffee they decide to brew, meaning some up and coming roasters or smaller more boutique roasters have the opportunity to showcase their coffees more and more.
Tell us about what’s in store for the rest of the year? Any exciting or upcoming projects to note?
2025 is going to be a big year for us! We underwent a rebrand in mid 2024 and we have been working hard to transition everything across into this new style. We are very happy with how we are positioned for the year ahead. A big focus for us this year is going to be on improving our customer experience both in person and online.
The Coffee
SHADY LANE
ESPRESSO COFFEE
Wide Open Road has done a lot of work developing and improving their go-to blend, Shady Lane, over the past 18 months – adding in the Jambo variety this time around really took it to the next level. Usually they recommend you pair Shady Lady with milk, but now it’s transformed into an absolutely stunning all round espresso blend. Delicious in your flat white and just as amazing as an espresso or a long black.
Coffee Origin:
Brazil, Colombia and Kenya
Tasting Notes:
Dark chocolate, cherry and vanilla.
Espresso Recipe:
Dose: 21g
Yield: 44g
Brew Time: 28-32 seconds
Ratio: 1:2
LA ROCA
FILTER COFFEE
Jorge Elias Rojas is the Colombian coffee mastermind behind La Roca estate nestled in the breathtaking mountains of Gaitania, Tolima. Jorge’s love affair with coffee runs deep – from learning the ropes from his parents to now crafting some of the finest specialty brews around. At La Roca, it’s not just about growing coffee; it’s about pushing boundaries and exploring new flavours. For Jorge, it’s not just about growing coffee; it’s about pushing boundaries and exploring new flavours. With his latest creation, “La Roca”, Jorge invites you to experience coffee bliss like never before.
Coffee Origin:
Colombia
Tasting Notes:
Vanilla ice cream, strawberries and milk chocolate.
Filter Recipe (V60):
Dose: 12.5g
Bloom: 50g 30 seconds
Water: 225g
Brew Time: 2 mins
Brew Ratio: 1:15