LTL Like the women who play a key part in the coffee ceremonies Tinsae Elsdon grew up with in Ethiopia, women play a role in this coffee ritual in terms of gathering the native ingredients that infuse the brew.
SW Yeah, it has that flow on effect where we’re directly supporting local business and has that further flow on effect of supporting remote and regional Aboriginal communities and women and the young girls who are out harvesting and growing these products.
LTL So, let's talk about how coffee went from something that was used to repel the smell of bad meat to a mainstream drink in this country.
PvR So, coffee gets its real boost in Australia during and immediately after World War II. Post war you get two groups of migrants who are quite significant. Italian migrants, particularly Southern Italian migrants, who are coming to work on the Snowy Hydro Project in the building industry. And then you do of course get the middle European refugees, you know, who have been escaping Hitler.
LTL To find out more about the Australian coffee scene, where it's been and where it's headed, let's hear from one of the oldest coffee roasters in Australia, which has paired up with Indigenous entrepreneurs to run DHUWA Coffee.
SA Gurumba bigi, I'm Shawn Andrews, co-founder at DHUWA. My Indigenous business partner in my businesses is a guy named Adam Williams. He's a Wiradjuri man.
Peter Patisteas I’m Peter Patisteas. I am part of DHUWA team. I look after more the operational side, which is roasting coffee. My uncle and my dad started a business called Oasis Coffee in the seventies. Coffee really wasn't anything on the radar. There was some Middle Eastern coffee that was being done and really pulverised or very fine product. And there was a super Italian side, which was an espresso. So, they started a little business called Oasis Coffee. And they went about doing that change in the Australian hospitality scene, where people used to, you know, laugh at putting an espresso machine on your counter and things like that. Like it was just an absurdity. They were fortunate enough in the mid '80s to acquire what is now Griffiths Bros. And it was a business that has long roots from 1879, roasting coffee, importing green teas. I started working with my dad during the holidays. I took over the business and then I recruited the other bro, which is my brother-in-law, Chris Togias.
[My] Strongest memory as a kid working with my dad was by about 1:30pm, 2:00pm, I used to just run outta steam. You know, dad would start at 6:30am and by 2:00pm I was done, you know, so you're probably eight or nine. So, the beans come in pallets. So, there's 60 kilo bags lined up with one another and they peel up and they used to just stack them. And I would climb up the side of it – so, three pallets high – and hide and go to sleep on those bean bags. And then, you know, my dad would start yelling and I would avoid all correspondence. That's my strongest sense. The other thing that with that is smell the green beans they emit, the hessian bags, the jute bags, the beans themselves, they emit a certain dust and aroma and it's just unforgiving. And I still smell it today. I think of that memory and the smell comes back directly and it's like, wow. So yes, avoiding work was my fondest memory.
![Coffee maker, metal, [Australia], c 1880](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/wkgts1b4/production/b8931085778c239d859bbb5e3e5d83f4fb54ae5e-2000x1335.jpg?w=1920&h=1280&q=82&fit=fillmax&crop=entropy&auto=format)
