About Our Coffee

Our Coffee

The Perfect Blend

Coffee BeansWelcome to the very first Indian café in Australia! Let’s face it, no great café is complete without great coffee, and IndiMex is no exception. In fact, better than great, our coffee has fast become the very essence of distinctive; individual in every way.

How? We throw bucket loads of passion, dedication and zest into everything we do here at IndiMex and our coffee is no exception. Not content doing things by halves, we went to huge lengths to ensure the coffee we serve remains true to our funky IndiMex style. How better to do this than create our very own boutique blend. A blend so perfect for the palate that connoisseurs wouldn’t stop raving and café goers wouldn’t stop ordering, “Go one, just one more cup”, they’d say.

To do this, we needed loads of passion and, of course, the best coffee roaster we could find. So we teamed up with boutique coffee makers, Dancing Bean. A company that prides itself on delivering first-class coffee in every cup with a flavour that is hard to beat.

After months of research and perseverance we did it, we created our own IndiMex blend. We purposefully sourced unique beans from Mexico, India and Colombia in order to create a signature taste you won’t find anywhere else around the world. As a result, the IndiMex blend boasts a strong flavour full of salient characteristics that celebrate the true meaning of coffee with every sip.

The People behind the Blend

The people behind the blend

Dancing Bean

The Dancing Bean LogoDancing Bean takes pride in delivering the best in boutique roasted coffee. Director and visionary, Rob Mergard began the company over 15 years ago in an effort to follow his one true passion, coffee making.

In 1999, using 100% Arabica Beans, roasted and ground to perfection, the first Dancing Bean espresso was poured. An instant hit among local coffee lovers, the brand soon became synonymous with producing quality boutique coffee.

Before long, Dancing Bean was welcoming franchises throughout South-East Queensland. But the big change came after Dancing Bean won first runner-up in the very prestigious Golden Bean Coffee Roasting awards against 1,200 entrants Australia-wide! This was it. Dancing Bean was now officially on the map. Following this award, Dancing Bean grew insurmountably and soon they were supplying beans all over Australia.

Dancing Bean also opened their first store as part of a Master International Franchise plan that is set to cover all of the Middle East and North Africa. Well underway, the project achieved immediate success, making Dancing Bean the first boutique roaster the world has seen.

While his immense passion and unprecedented love for coffee, have got him this far, Rob couldn’t do it alone. Helping him to create the perfect cup of boutique coffee is Master Roaster Naoyuki Kitajima (Nao).

Meet the Master Roaster

Meet the Master Roaster

Naoyuki Kitajima (Nao)

Naoyuki KitajimaWhen it comes to someone with hard-core passion for coffee-making, they don’t come any more dedicated that Naoyuki Kitajima (Nao). Born in Japan, Nao’s family moved to Brazil, right in the heart of the coffee industry, when he was just one. It was there in Brazil, Nao found his love for coffee after drinking his first one at the age of seven… he says he’s been addicted ever since.

After moving back to Japan in 1995, Nao found himself increasingly becoming disappointed with the quality of coffee in Japan, at the time, so he began researching coffee and doing his own private coffee-making classes called Pour over Coffee.

Years later, Nao made the move to Australia. In 2008 Nao finished his Bachelor of Business Management and Economics degree at the University Queensland (UQ). During his 11 years in Australia, Nao always worked in the coffee industry, including working for Dancing Bean since 2011. As the Master Roaster for Dancing Bean, Nao is in charge of roasting, green bean procurement, blend design (Nao blend and Brewnette blend are his very own blends), coffee quality assurance and barista training.

When you stumble across someone who has their own coffee roaster at home you know they mean serious business! A self-proclaimed ‘coffee nerd’, in addition to his coffee roaster, Nao also has over 70 kinds of coffee beans in his collection and his very own coffee tree! Constantly researching about coffee trees beans and coffee chemistry, it is no secret that coffee is Nao’s life!

His passion and attention to detail have seen Nao win many over a dozen awards for his first-class roasting, spanning the CSR Golden Bean Roasting Competition 2011/2012 (national competition); CSR Golden Bean Roasting Competition 2012/2013; Natvia Golden Bean Roasting Competition 2013/2014; and RASV Australian International Coffee Awards 2013.

Creating The Perfect Blend

Creating the Perfect Blend

NAO’S TIPS TO CREATING THE PERFECT BLEND

How does Master Roaster of Dancing Bean, Nao, design and choose beans to create the right blend? He says it comes down to two things – bean selection and blend design.

  1. Before buying any coffee, always ask for bean samples to screen its size, density and defect count.
  2. Always do a sample roast and cupping (tasting) to analyse the flavours and character of the beans. Like wine, every bean has a different flavour depending on where it is grown, the soil condition, climate and altitude.
  3. Remember to roast all beans separately, according to their origin, because even beans from the same country have different flavours, depending which area/farm them come from.
  1. Blend design is a bit more complicated; it is like creating a new dish from scratch.
  2. Some flavours of the bean complement each other, while some mute others.
  3. Like a chef, it is essential to understand each bean/ingredient and appreciate how it interacts with other beans/ingredients.
  4. Before designing any new blend of coffee you need to work out what kind of drinking experience you want to deliver, and work from there.

The Best of Both Worlds

With the IndiMex blend, I got samples of different Mexican and Indian beans, and did the cupping and identified the flavours that would create a cup that had the best of both worlds. I decided on using the following two beans:

  1. Indian Monsoon Malabar AA
     
    Cup Characteristics
    Low acidity and full bodied with very punchy spicy notes.
     
    Process
    The name of this bean comes from its historical method of processing, whereby its exposure to the monsoon rain and winds of the Malabar Coast were used to reduce the bean’s acidity and create the full body it is so well-known for. The same processing techniques are imitated to this very day… the fruit stored in warehouses by the sea and when monsoon season arrives the warehouse is opened so the strong winds can circulate throughout the coffee which is constantly raked and turned by hand.
  1. Mexican Kassandra Special
      
    Cup Characteristics
    Mid body, mid acidity, mild and well-balanced body, it is very creamy with citrus and nutty notes and a pleasant floral aroma.
      
    Process
    The Mexican Kassandra Special bean is grown on the Finca Kassandra, a family owned farm on the slopes of Mount Mesofilos in the Huatusco region of Mexico. The coffee trees grow under shade and at an altitude of 1200 – 1500 metres above sea level (masl). The coffee is handpicked and washed and sorted at the Finca mills – and is some of Mexico’s best! Finca is also 100 per cent Rainforest Alliance certified. It also continually strives to ensure that production is sustainable, with 27 out of the 465 hectares of the farm being left as a wild habitat for native birds and plants.

The IndiMex Blend

The Mexican Kassandra Special bean gives it subtle floral and citrus notes which make it brighter and more soothing. The Indian Monsoon Malabar AA has nutty notes with a full body, which sticks to the palate and complements all the other flavours. The Columbian produces character with a crisp vanilla finish and a smooth body that brings everything together to create a beautiful taste on the palate.

Whichever way you look at it, the IndiMex is a characteristic blend of coffee that packs a punch with every sip.  Each of the beans truly complements one another in order to create the perfect cup of coffee, every time. Flavoursome, colourful, bright and fun… reminiscent of India and Mexico, the IndiMex blend takes you away for one small moment and celebrates everything we love about these two cultures.

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