Coficom hosts ‘Meet the producers’ event with guests from Brazil, Mexico

Our local company is building the coffee community in Australia.

Every year Australia hosts the Melbourne International Coffee Exhibition with growers and producers attending from all over the world. For Coficom, Volcafe’s local company, it is a great opportunity to invite guest speakers to meet and talk to our roaster partners. This year, Jose Pereira and Hélio De Almeida Leite from Brazil’s Monte Alegre Estate and Daniel Robles from Descamex in Mexico were kind enough to be our guests.

With a guest list of 70 roasters and partners, we moved the event from our Cupping Lab to the warehouse for the first time. Finding a large enough screen was solved by projecting onto the side of a delivery truck, unusual but it worked perfectly. Although the forecast was low temperatures and rain, we had the warmest day of the month!

Guests began arriving in the early evening, with Monte Alegre first to present. Jose and Hélio took us on a visual farm tour, explaining the history of the estate and their approach to processing, quality and innovation.

Coficom's customers gathered for an evening of coffee conversation in Sydney.

Andrew Mackay, founder of Coficom (right), with Jose from Monte Alegre Estate.

One of Coficom's customers and Hélio from Monte Alegre, a Brazilian coffee supplier.

During a break, guests were served freshly made pizzas from a mobile wood-fired oven and a choice of wine, beer or soft drinks.

Our second presenter, Daniel from Mexico’s largest decaffeination company, explained the intricacies of the decaffeination process and answered a number of questions on the extraordinary rise of decaf consumption during COVID.

The evening ended with a unique and delicious Australian sweet called Rocky Road being served. Imagine marshmallow infused with coffee (from Monte Alegre, naturally!) and coated with gourmet chocolate. This was made by an amazing customer of ours, not only a roaster but a chocolatier as well.

We had brilliant feedback from guests who were in no rush to leave, staying to chat and catch up with the Coficom crew and presenters. The arrival of a massive thunderstorm brought the evening to a final close and back to a chilly autumn night.