5 things you didn't know about Beans Knees Coffee

Here are 5 interesting things you probably didn't know about Beans Knees Coffee to help you get to know us a little better.

1. We are a quarantine business

We are a part of a collection of businesses that were founded in the infamous pandemic lockdowns! In early 2020, our head roaster Matt Gray was in a situation of continuous quarantine due to the COVID global pandemic. To keep him busy, he had a little hobby Hottop B2K+ and started experimenting roasting different coffee beans with different roast profiles. Giving coffee to family and friends to get their feedback, eventually people starting asking where they could buy some coffee. That's when we decided to become legit and Beans Knees Coffee was born! 

2. Our labels are all inspired from native Australia

All of our coffee bag labels are inspired from native Australia:

- Our Signature Blend label design is inspired from Australian gum tree leaves.

- Our Yellow Bourbon label design is inspired from the Australian Wattle tree.

- Our El Salvador label design is inspired from the Australian bush lands.

- Our PNG Waghi label design is inspired from Australian Wild Flowers and Banksias.

- Our Tanami Blend label design is inspired from Australian Tanami Desert.

- Our Zimbabwe label design is inspired from Australian native grasses.

3. We roast our coffee just past "first-crack"

One of our values is Quality - we value quality in green beans and in the finished product/roasted beans. Our approach is to source high quality green beans and roast the coffee beans to just after "first-crack". For those who don't know much about coffee roasting, first crack is a phase in the roasting process where the coffee beans literally start to crack (and almost sounds like your cooking popcorn!).

Around the first crack mark in the roasting process is where the acidity and flavours in the coffee beans are developing to their peak. Because we source high quality green beans we don't want to roast too far past first crack because we want the keep those beautiful aspects of the green on display. Roasting too dark erodes most of the coffee flavours and results in bitterness. That's why we roast just past first crack - to slightly mellow the acidity, avoid bitterness and keep all the unique flavours there for you to enjoy in the cup!

4. Helping save the bees

We just love our cute little logo mascot which is a little bee with beans as wings. From the very beginning we wanted to give something back for everything coffee has given us so far in our journey. What better cause than the very thing contributing to keeping life on planet earth going - Bees! We donate a percentage of our profits to Save The Bees Australia.

5. We value Connection

One of our values is Connection. When we were in quarantine it was through great coffee that we still felt inspired and connected. Connection is a broad all encompassing value that includes connection with our customers and stakeholders. We believe that coffee has a unique power to connect people like no other! 

There is a story we often tell about the early days when we were sourcing our green beans. We were and still are a very small business. It wasn't going to be economical for us to source our coffee beans from a certain wholesaler because they only shipped in pallet loads (and we only needed one bag!). The wholesaler did some calling around and managed to arrange for our 30kg bag of coffee to be shared on another Perth coffee roaster's pallet.

When we went to pick up our coffee we couldn't thank the competitor enough. They had a confused look on their face as if to say "no problems, of course we don't mind helping, we are all in this together!" and they then proceeded to help us load the coffee in our car. For a small business just starting out, that moment was very special to us and is exactly what Connection is all about! We feel Connection is an embedded attribute in the coffee industry and we are just stoked to be a part of it.