Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
Though it may be humble, Tamborine Village has been exploding with exciting growth right under the nose of the greater Scenic Rim area, and our latest acquisition is up there with its most unique: our very own coffee roastery. The Village Roastery, owned by Kate Powell and her husband Pete, has only been open for 5 months but is already making a major splash with ripples being felt from a surprising distance. Kate sits down with us today to explore what makes their coffee so special to the area and share tales of the surprising visitors they’ve had in their time here. (The baby sheep really were there!)
by Kyle Hitchmough
What was your inspiration to open The Village Roastery?
I’ve had a café in the past and Pete owned a coffee roastery before we met, so it was an opportunity to bring the two passions together into one in an area that we love.
For those who might not be familiar, could you explain what you offer here?
We’re primarily a coffee roastery, but we do offer food. The idea is that we have the roastery, so we have a variety of different coffee blends available for the community to try, and then the food compliments the coffee. The other side of the business is wholesale, selling wholesale coffee to other cafes and support them in improving and growing their businesses through good coffee.
So, you actually make your own unique coffee blends?
Yes, my husband is a coffee roaster, you can see the coffee roaster inside. We roast our own beans, and he blends them and puts our blends together. We have our own brand, which is Woodland Coffee, and then The Village Roastery is the name of this specific location. It’s the flagship café.
Can you describe the variety of the blends you offer here?
We do our own blends, we also have a variety of single origins, which means that it’s just one bean from one country or one producer. We offer those in different ways to brew coffee. We do a filter single origin, we change those up once a month, an espresso single origin, which also rotates…there are a few different options for the customers to try.
Do you have a most popular blend?
Not necessarily most popular. Everybody has different tastes. Some people prefer the Lost World blend, which is the mildest of the blends, it’s smooth and milk-chocolatey— quite sweet. And some people prefer the bold, rich coffee, very strong, which is our Leach Road blend, which is named after the road that we’re on. I’m a sweet tooth, so I like the Lost World, but Pete is the coffee connoisseur, so he likes the strong Leach Road.
Where do you get your coffee beans from?
All over the world, mainly the top producing coffee countries, Columbia, Brazil, Ethiopia…
You do offer some food options as well, though, being a café. What’s on your menu?
We have grab-and-go and sit-down, our menu is designed to support both people on the go and people who want to sit and enjoy the space. Everything is homemade, sweets like cheesecakes, citrus tarts, brownies, a variety of rolls and burgers, toasties… It’s a huge variety.
What goes into the average day here for you?
It’s pretty busy! We open at 6:30, so the mornings are pretty much people on their way to work or dropping the kids at school, grab-and-go coffee and food to take with them for the day. Then as the day progresses, it’s more sit-downs, people enjoying the space and company of their friends and family. We’re just busy serving the customers! Some days Pete’s roasting, so the roaster will be going in there as well, whether he’s roasting for us in our café or for our other customers. It’s quite a busy place.
Are there any notable trends in your clientele?
Not really. We’ve got a really good local following, and we are attracting more and more passers-by, particularly on Fridays and Saturdays. We get a lot of people from out of the region stopping in now because we’re getting a reputation for good coffee.
Are you a local? What’s your opinion on the Tamborine Mountain area and community?
I grew up in the area. We love it here, that’s why we came back. It’s welcoming, we feel at home, everybody’s keen to see good things in the area and support other locals to do well.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
We love the Scenic Rim, it’s why we’re here, but we’ve also named our branding after areas in the Scenic Rim. So, the Woodlands coffee brand, is named after the pine forest that was here at Tamborine, hence the pine trees on the logo. All of our blends are named after areas in the Scenic Rim. We’ve got the Lost World, which is named after the Lost World Valley; Running Creek, named after the creek out near Rathdowney; and now we’ve named the most recent blend Leach Road, after Tamborine itself!
What do you think The Village Roastery really provides to the area?
It’s a different kind of space than they’ve ever had before, and it provides good quality fresh coffee and fresh homemade food that they won’t really get offered anywhere else.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
I love just the interaction with the community, the people and working with fresh food. I enjoy all aspects of it, really!
What’s been your most memorable moment from your time here so far?
We’re still fairly new, but I think often there’s times that stand out. It might be that somebody really good comes in and plays the guitar that’s hanging on the wall, or somebody brings their baby sheep down to hang out with the kids! Or their horses, or they’re a wildlife carer and they bring the kangaroo they’re looking after for the day. It’s what the community brings to us more so than what we’re providing. They’re the ones that create the experiences.
The Village Roastery
Shop 3/7-15 Leach Rd, Tamborine QLD 4270
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