BeanScene Magazine

When he could only afford white labels and a black marker, and couldn’t be bothered coming up with any other name, Toby Smith would just write “Toby’s coffee” on the bags he was selling out of his mother’s garage.

“I didn’t want to put some Italian name, because you know, I’m Australian,” he recounts. “Later I decided to would jazz it up a little with Toby’s Estate.”

Little did he know at the time, was that 12 years later the name would become synonymous with quality coffee nation-wide, with roasteries in Sydney, and Perth, state of the art training facilities in every state, an additional signature café in Melbourne and a new one opening up in Brisbane. The name is also set to go international, as the company prepares to open cafés with roasteries in Singapore and New York this year. 

It’s a long way from his mother’s garage, where he first started roasting after a year-long stint in Brazil. He had originally headed to the South American nation on vacation from law school, but decided to extend his stay and leave any notions of a legal career behind him. In Brazil, he travelled the country, working with large coffee estates and meeting with roasting and trading companies.

He brought his knowledge back with him to Australia, and with his father started up a small roasting operation in his mother’s garage in Woolloomoolo in 1999. To gather some interest, he would hold public cuppings and tastings – essentially coffee appreciation classes – in the courtyard next to the garage. The events quickly became a hit at a time when coffee knowledge in Australia was just gaining momentum.

“They were supposed to go for three hours, but we would always go over as everyone got high on coffee,” Toby remembers. “Then coffee would turn into wine, and the night would keep going. These coffee fortnights became so booked out, that they became a regular gig.”

Although at the time he intended to return to Brazil, as his garage business started booming he finally opened a café in the area. Using his contacts in Brazil, and a network of exporters and traders, he worked to provide well-sourced quality Arabica coffee, which was harder to find in Australia at the time.

As the business took off, it became increasingly obvious Toby was never moving back to Brazil. However, as he passed along his newfound coffee knowledge and passion, he became increasingly excited about seeing that passion sparked in his homeland.

“I got back and realised there was an opportunity,” he says. “There was some bad coffee back then, so it was a good time to come along. Everyone was just getting into it, and everyone had an opinion.” 

While he never made it back to Brazil, travel, however, is not something that Toby is missing out on. Ask him how much he travels and he can only laugh and answer: “A lot”. Toby and his team travel to coffee regions all over the world to sustainably source beans direct from the farm. At the time of the interview, two of his staff were in New York, two were in Costa Rica judging the Cup of Excellence competition, two were visiting Brazil and Guatemala, while Toby was calling in from Jakarta, Indonesia.

“Everyone’s off cupping, selecting beans, gathering samples. They’re creating new relationships, cementing established ones and finding us new coffees,” he notes.

Having been in the business for over a decade, Toby’s seen some major changes come through.

“Back then, any single origins – Ethiopians, Guatemalan – they were all pretty rare,” he says. “Now it’s so much better, as consumers are more aware of coffee, they’re certainly more sophisticated.”

With this increased consumer awareness and growing industry, however, Toby’s certainly noticed the increase in competition. He notes that in many ways this has been a positive development, in creating a strong Australian coffee community.

“It’s great when you travel overseas, and you run into other Australians hunting for beans or at major coffee events,” he notes.

His continued enthusiasm in the industry comes from the growing size of the coffee community, with every fresh person he’s able to help inspire to catch that “coffee passion”.

In expanding the business, Toby notes it’s as much about increasing returns as it is finding new markets to help spread the passion. Toby’s Estate just opened a new café and roaster in Singapore, similar to the first café they opened in Woolloomooloo. They’re also preparing to open a café in New York.

The growth has come about almost organically, says Toby, via staff who left to travel the world, and became interested in coming back to the company, but setting up a café overseas.

The new cafés are not franchise models, but continue to be company owned.

“You need to keep control of the management and the people. Your biggest assets in coffee are your people, and we’re very particular about our end product,” he notes. “It’s not like a big global expansion. As a company we have friends and family who have worked in coffee all over the world, so it’s about connecting in business when the time’s right.” 

In these new cafés, Toby will look to apply the same principles that have proven so successful in their Australian stores: that is providing fresh, well-roasted coffee.

“And we have to lock it in with good service and training,” he notes.

“If someone is using our coffee, the customer has to be confident with the brand. We won’t sell to just anyone… there’s nothing worse than the farmer putting so much effort into the beans, us as a roaster putting so much effort in, and then it being ruined at the café level.”

With his own roots stemming from his early work at the farm-level, Toby has also maintained a strong sustainability platform from the beginning.

“Farmers are so connected to the environment in what they do, and they have the responsibility to protect it and so do we,” he says.

As coffee prices have increased, Toby notes that they’ve aimed from the beginning to ensure that farmers are receiving a fair price so that farmers can maintain sustainable harvests, and also ensure that they continue to receive quality product. While Toby notes he doesn’t reflect often on what he achieves, occasionally the extent of the company’s success does strike him.

“Sometimes I just can’t believe it when I look back,” he notes. “From writing my name on a white sticker to this, it feels like a big achievement.”