Denise and Owen Whitney (pictured), owners of Mountain Top Coffee, travelled to Sydney with manager and roaster Bernard Rooney on Saturday 21st September to receive a champion trophy for the Nimbin Blend line of roasted coffee at the Sydney Royal Fine Foods Festival.
This is the second champion trophy they have received, the earlier being the Microlot in 2021.
“We are especially pleased to see that the Nimbin Blend got up, as it’s not only the newest Mountain Top Coffee Estate lot, but also a growing favourite among locals and fans further afield,” Denise said.
“It gained 91.3 points in the plunger category. Scores in the 90s are hard to come by. The professional judging of coffee is a rigorous and sometimes unforgiving process. We are happy to say that this result is a validation of the consistently good quality of our product.”
Mountain Top Coffee first grabbed world attention back in 2005 when Tim Wendleboe won the World Barista Championship using their sweet and smooth bean in a signature ‘Tiramasu’ espresso creation.
World attention was again received when the Standart quarterly magazine March 2024 edition featured Mountain Top Coffee Estate in a 31-page article on Australian grown coffee.
Denise explained the reasons for the quality of the product: “Coffee matures slowly at this low latitude and is likened to coffee grown at higher altitudes nearer the equator where harvest is annual. Coffee under these conditions tends to have simpler acids develop, such as fructose, whilst the more complex ‘harder’ acids such as caffeine – or those that produce spicy effects – are a bit less present.
“North Queensland coffee growers can get two harvests per year for this reason, whilst we get just one harvest in Spring. In a sense then we get double the flavour owing to this effect. This is aided by the nature of the Kenyan Arabica variety which is grown exclusively at Mountain Top Coffee Estate and which is renowned for its fruity, chocolate notes.”
The farm was first established in 1998 and the Whitney’s purchased it in 2020. The land neighbours their own family farm and belonged originally to Owen’s great uncle.
Currently, Owen, Aaron Gilmour and farm manager Peter Webb are preparing to plant 2500 trees of new semi dwarf varietals as a trial.
Congratulations to the Mountain Top Coffee team for putting Nimbin on the map yet again.
This article appeared in The Nimbin GoodTimes, October 2024.
