Inside Canberra's coffee scene: behind the scenes of ONA Coffee, Redbrick and Lonsdale Street Roasters

While once you may have had a cup of instant coffee and called it a day, the capital's growing roasting industry means that Canberrans have refined their tastes.

"It's pretty hard to not be able to get a good cup of coffee now," Redbrick owner Tim Manning says.

"I think the appreciation of quality coffee, the standards have risen massively because of businesses like ours are just so focused on sourcing high-quality green coffee.

"People start to drink it more regularly and the more good coffee they drink - and by good coffee I mean coffee that's produced well at origin - the more that when they go back to places that aren't using coffee of a higher grade, they notice the difference."

Of course, Redbrick is one of the many roasters that have set their sights on chasing excellence in a cup, each carving out their own space in the market.

Something that can be easily forgotten is that there is no one flavour profile for coffee. Just like wine, one cup of coffee can taste completely different from another.

And you can even see the difference in flavour preferences between cities.

ONA founder Sasa Sestic says, "Ten years ago, Canberra did not really have a speciality coffee scene.

"At the beginning, I thought that was a little bit of a disadvantage because coffee in Melbourne was already great so it was easy to be part of the Melbourne scene and be involved with them and be able to provide the great experiences as a coffee roaster. But we were very isolated so we cannot really learn from anyone.

"Now I see it as an advantage because we have developed the Canberra culture and it's a different culture that is in Canberra comparing with Sydney and Melbourne."

So what does Canberra coffee taste like?

When speaking with Redbrick, ONA Coffee and Lonsdale Street Roasters, all of them talk about balance.

Lonsdale Street Roasters aim for a balance that isn't "coffee nerdy" and is approachable.

"It's good development of the beans. Not over roasting or under roasting that's key for us," Lonsdale Street Roasters' Paul Hutt says.

"We're not that keen on all those sorts of sour notes. We're all about cocoa and chocolate. It's what we find the public wants."

ONA Coffee aims for something that isn't necessarily on the fruity or the acidic side and isn't too pungent or strong.

While Redbrick, Manning says, sees the perfect cup as being something that accompanies "all of those warm feelings that come with the balance in the cup".

"It doesn't have an overpowering linger in your mouth that you end up wanting another one," he says.

It is this balance in a cup that has contributed to the success and expansion of Canberra's roasteries.

Lonsdale Street Roasters - who now solely focus on the roasting after having sold their four cafes - have people, who once lived in the capital, still ordering their coffee from interstate.

Meanwhile, ONA has expanded their cafes to Sydney and Melbourne, and Redbrick Coffee is on track to opening it's fifth Canberra cafe in Constitution Place early next year and just last week opened its first cafe in Seoul, South Korea.

"One of our baristas was from Korea and since coronavirus, he hasn't been able to come back to Australia, so he's helped facilitate us starting to export coffee to Seoul," Manning says.

"There are plans to continue to grow that relationship and there's quite a bit in the pipeline there, which is amazing."

Canberra isn't alone in seeing a growth in coffee culture over the last decade. Australia as a whole has developed a reputation for having great coffee with cafes in the United States even promoting flat whites as the Australian coffee.

And with that growth comes the opportunity for roasters to offer speciality products.

Lonsdale Street Roasters' Alastair Evans says, "There are now a lot more green bean suppliers in our market.

"Back in the day, roasting for Canberra there were probably maybe four green bean suppliers in Australia. Now, there'd be hundreds, so you can get all these premium different single origins but there will only be a certain amount.

"We put Higher Grounds out, for example, and we've got probably about 500 tubes and then we might not get it back. So it's a limited run and then that's it. After that, you do another one."

The tubes that Evans refers to is another thing that has come about at Lonsdale Street Roasters as part of not only the evolution of coffee culture but a push for more sustainable packaging options.

The roaster's new option allows customers to return the tube to be refilled rather than getting a one-use package.

The roaster has also just moved to using soft plastic recycle bags for coffee storage within the roastery and is hoping for compostable bags to become available soon.

When it comes to their coffee they ensure they only use green beans that are properly accredited and ensure no child labour is used. They also ensure the green bean farms also use good environmental practices.

It's an approach that a lot of Canberra roasters, including ONA and Redbrick, take when it comes to sourcing their beans.

Sestic says, "We care about nature, we care about sustainability, we care about the people, our farms, and I feel that a lot of our customers at ONA have connected with that.

"It's not only because they are tasting delicious coffee that can represent the region's varietals or the country well, they also care that it's sourced ethically.

"Coffee as an industry has been underappreciated from a farmer to barista point of view and we'd love people to look at a coffee like they look at a wine and get people connected with the stories and connected with the farms."

It's this farm to cup point of view that got a lot of Canberra's roasters interested in coffee roasting, to begin with.

The aim of Redbrick's first cafe, for example, was to have people enjoying their coffee with the roaster in view.

Manning says, "I wanted to give baristas and the coffee community in Canberra that exposure to the real process behind coffee and the connection to where it's produced.

"To give insight into all of the craft that goes into the coffee. There's so much that goes into what we drink. It is such a complex commodity.

"It's so more than just beans in a bag."