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Sydney · Australia

Mecca Coffee

Since 2005 · Paul Geshos

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Overview

Mecca Coffee was founded in 2005 by former-musician-turned-cafe-owner Paul Geshos, who opened a compact espresso bar on King Street under the Grace Hotel in the Sydney CBD after being inspired by the early specialty scenes in Portland and Scandinavia. Geshos shipped an old German roaster to Sydney before he had a venue for it, and it took a year after the King Street opening to find space — a process that taught him to source green coffee directly from El Salvador and Colombian farmers, well before direct trade was the Australian norm.

Known for

  • Direct-trade pioneer in Australian specialty coffee — first buying trips to El Salvador and Colombia in the late 2000s
  • Producers Series filter and pour-over program rotating daily on single-producer lots
  • Alexandria warehouse roastery and cafe designed by Sydney architect Cameron Krone, expanded into a public-facing cafe in 2015
  • King Street Sydney CBD original cafe still operating under the Grace Hotel
  • Long-running La Marzocco partnership going back over twenty years

Why it matters

Mecca, alongside Single O and Reuben Hills, is one of the three Sydney names typically credited with founding Australian third-wave specialty coffee. Geshos's choice to go to origin in the late 2000s, when the Australian supply chain ran almost entirely through Italian-style importers, helped establish direct trade as a mainstream practice for Australian roasters.

Production

destoning
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head roaster
Dan May
color sorting
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roaster machine
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filter equipment
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cupping frequency
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roastery location
Alexandria, Sydney (warehouse roastery and HQ since 2011)
espresso equipment
La Marzocco (long-running brand partnership)
annual volume tonnes
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Café

67 Bourke Road, Alexandria NSW 2015 (roastery cafe); 646 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000 (King Street CBD, original 2005 venue)

Sources

More roasters