Aromas Coffee Roasters

The Beginning

1981

Our journey begins...

as many great ones do, with a serendipitous encounter in a land far from home. A lone explorer from Brisbane was travelling throughout Papua New Guinea and discovered that he was served locally-grown and freshly-roasted coffee wherever he went! The early cafe scene in Brisbane was being dominated by coffee imported from Europe and far past it's ideal use-by date. This inspired the Aromas' vision:

To bring this culture of fresh locally roasted beans to the coffee lovers of Brisbane.

The Dream

1982

The first Aromas Cafe...

opens on Hale Street in Brisbane. Known as Aromaholics, the early arrivers to this emerging coffee community were fueled by the cafe's in-house roaster, which filled the neighbourhood with the unmistakable aroma of freshly roasted beans.

Aromaholics...

As the number of Aromaholics continued to grow and grow, there came a need to find our coffee in a wider area than our little Hale St cafe could service.

Thus, iconic Aromas cafes were created in quick succession including locations at The Regent Theatre, Wintergarden, Dockside, Marina Mirage, Milton, Noosa, Mooloolaba and Toowoomba. Even though our only coffee roaster was located at Hale Street, at least now we now had outlets across the region.

The Places

1984

The Move

1989

Home sweet home

Inevitably though, the time came when our trusty little roaster couldn't keep up. Aromaholics were popping up all over the place, cafes were reaching out asking for our coffee and bulk orders from around the region continued to come in.

The people had spoken. We needed to enhance our scope.

We didn’t have to search for long before finding the ideal space on montague road, west end. Our new home would allow us to offer cafe supplies and barista equipment and most importantly would give us room for the new lady in our life, our 30 kg Petroncini!.She quickly became the heart of our business and enabled us to take our vision even further.

See our facilities

The Specialist

2000

New blends...

Fast forward a decade and we find the Aromas community thriving, with new Aromaholics seeking out our blends. Interestingly, the latest addition to our offering was catching on - one that would prove to become a household term in the years to follow.

Single Origin Coffee

Roasted to a lighter level than espresso blends, coffee from just one farm or region could be brewed in order to showcase bean characteristics. Single Origin Coffees highlight the finer notes found in specialty grade coffee, making for a more distinctive experience for black coffee drinkers.

The Support

2004

We started to become aware that there were many cafe owners who required a guiding hand in reaching their potential. Drawing on decades of experience and a proven method of success, the "Aromas Coffee Partnership" team was established as a supportive relationship to those working alongside us.

Tea as well

2006

Having spent time with some of our coffee partners in India, a foreign culture had become a source of inspiration once again. This time it was the world of tea that was calling to us, bringing with it the traditions, history and customs that are found in almost every corner of the globe.

Jumping in with both feet, we greatly expanded our tea range to over a hundred different varieties, making us one of Australia’s premier tea vendors.

The Big Move

2008

Out with the old, in with the new.

With sweet sorrow, once again we had outgrown our home and had to say goodbye to our amazing West End community. Our Lady (Petroncini) was simply being worked far too hard to keep up for much longer. After months of research it became clear:

...we needed The German...

But if this beast was to join us, she was going to require a whole new space. She was our 60kg, computer-controlled, gun-metal grey Probat. She was precise, untiring and wouldn’t allow any inconsistencies.

The Education

2015

Our new location...

Our new location had more requirements than just housing The German though, we needed somewhere to develop the educational and customer-focussed aspects of our work. Specifically, we built two key rooms for these purposes. One was the Espresso Bar adjoining the main warehouse and roastery designed to display our variety of products and to help people discover their reason for becoming an Aromaholic. The other was an adjacent training room to be used for in-depth education in everything Aromas, from cupping to cold brews, Darjeeling to drip filters.