A day at Morgans Handcrafted coffee roasters

Earlier this week, I had the lovely opportunity to spend the day out at Morgans handcrafted coffee roasters. I was fortunate enough to have a play about on different brewing equipment, tasted a whole variety of coffee and even got to watch the roasting process itself. Heres the storey of my day.....

Morgans Handcrafted Coffee is a family operation at heart. Established in 2004 by owner Dean Morgan it has become a name associated with award winning coffee blends and dedication to the highest quality raw product, being the beans themselves.

With so many excellent roasting operators in and around the Sydney area, deciding on which one was best for my coffee shop was a tough one. I ultimately chose Morgans as I felt the passion for what they do is still very much alive. I see this in their staff and in the excited way they showed me the different coffees and how to get the best from them. I also really appreciate the small roasteries, the smaller places have to differentiate themselves on taste, service and most important quality where as the big boys are large enough to be competitive through price. Cheaper is not always better in this instance.

Morgans sources single origin coffee beans from sustainable plantations and cooperatives from over 40 different countires. Roasting each batch to identify unique flavour profiles from the region they are from.

'It is all about superior quality from the ground up' - Dean Morgan.

The beans on the right have come all the way from Ethiopia. This is what they look like pre-roast.


On the left is the beautiful portuguese beast of a machine that does the brunt of the roasting work at Morgan's. In the photo is Josh checking on how the beans are progressing. The whole roasting process itself is much more delicate than I had first imagined. Josh always kept a high level of concentration, continually looking for visual, aromatic and audio changes in the beans. By this I mean looking for how dark they were becoming, ensuring there was no burning and listening for the tell tell pops which are an indication that the beans have cracked and are seriously hot!

Morgans are not about pumping out the kilos, careful time and consideration is taken with each batch. Each blend and single origin is roasted differently to bring out the unique flavours on offer. You'll usually find that single origin coffees are roasted slightly lighter than blends to bring out a more fruity, round bodied flavour. Whereas the blends are pushed slightly darker to give you that rich caramal flavour.

After the hot roasted beans come out of the oven, they go straight into this cooling tray which is kinda like a giant tumble dryer but with no heat and no clothes but it does spin. After they are cooled they are packed immediately for ultimate freshness and flavour.

After discovering the intrigues of roasting it was off to spend some time with Aaron, Morgans very own award winning barista. Aaron took me through some barista training to further perfect my skills. There's always more to learn, be it new brewing techniques or a bit of coffee science.

Today we went through the inner workings of the coffee machine itself. We also had a look at various grinders and the differences they will make to your grind and ultimately your coffee. It was a great opportunity to taste the different varierties of coffee on offer, and it looks like the award winnning, 100% organic 'Pony' Blend will be a staple offering at Palomino Espresso. Pony - Palomino, I guess it was fate. We're also working hard to make sure we can deliver you a couple of different single origins to try each week.

Last on the days agenda was the extremely exciting unveiling of the antique espresso machine Astoria Regina or Queen of Coffee or just Queenie. It is a 1950s lever espresso machine saved by Morgan's owner, Dean from an antique store and has been completely restored to its former glory. You'll be able to taste a black coffee made by Queenie when Palomino Espresso opens next month. We are so excited about this machine it deserves its own post so more to come at a later date.

Hope you enjoyed these snapshots of my trip to Morgans. If you would like to enjoy a coffee from the roasters themselves then the cafe and warehouse is based at Emu Plains. Take a look at the website for more details, link up the top.

A big thanks to everyone out at Morgans for all your support!