Bobby's Coffee, Warradale
Bobby's Coffee
A fifty square metre shop beside the Warradale train line, a second one off Anzac Highway, and four coffees that quietly punch above the postcode.
Roaster Profile
The roastery
A fifty square metre shop by the train line
Most people open a coffee shop where the people already are. Bobby's opened one in a fifty square metre shop alongside the train line in Warradale. Or wuzzdale, the way they write it.
The way they tell it, in 2021 they set out to open a small coffee shop in the easy going suburban streets they grew up in, and in 2022 they stumbled on a simple row of shops which they now call home. The plan behind it was not complicated. Their line is “to bring no fuss specialty coffee to the locals through an unassuming row of shops in the backstreets of the burbs.”
It worked well enough that they went looking again. In 2024 they found the second site, just off Anzac Highway, which is now the Glenelg North store. Two shops, both of them in the sort of suburban strip most people drive past without looking up.
The coffee changed too. Bobby's started out buying wholesale from another Adelaide roaster. They now buy the green and roast it themselves, on shared equipment at a roasting collective in Adelaide rather than a roaster of their own. Getting from one to the other without the capital for your own machine is the harder version of that story.
“Our vision was to bring no fuss specialty coffee to the locals through an unassuming row of shops in the backstreets of the burbs.”
Fifty square metres is small. Not cosy-small, actually small. There is no room in a shop that size for a design statement, a fit-out you have to explain, or a second machine you never use. What fits is a bench, a grinder, an espresso machine and someone who knows what they are doing. The lack of glamour is not an accident, it is the whole idea. “Everyday coffee for everyday people” is their line, and it is one of the few brand taglines that survives contact with the actual shop.
Four coffees landed in the Allways rotation for Release 119. Their house espresso, a Nicaraguan filter, an El Salvadoran Pacamara and a decaf that shares a hometown with a chunk of the blend.
Approach
How they roast
Their line is “we roast each coffee to suit its profile, aiming for balance, clarity, and consistency in the cup.” Which sounds like something every roaster says, until you look at what they have actually bought.
Four coffees, all of them properly traceable. A named farm in West Guji. A named producer group in Nueva Segovia. A Cup of Excellence champion in Chalatenango. That is a lot of buying nous for a business that only started roasting its own coffee this year.
They roast it themselves now, on shared equipment at a roasting collective in Adelaide. The buying is where the taste in a coffee business shows up first, and theirs is a long way better than the shopfront lets on.
002 House Espresso
Brazil · Colombia · Ethiopia
Three origins, weighted heaviest to lightest. The Brazil is Carnaval, a Yellow Catuai from the Divisa and Sítio Campo farms in Carmo de Minas, Minas Gerais, grown between 1,000 and 1,300 metres in volcanic soil and patio dried for three days before finishing in mechanical dryers. It is the base and it tastes like it: caramel, marzipan, brownie.
The Colombia is a regional lot from Apía in Risaralda, pulled from smallholder farms across the district at roughly 1,600 to 2,000 metres. Castillo, Supremo and Caturra, sitting in the middle doing the unglamorous work of holding everything together. The Ethiopia is Guribea, from Esyas Beriso Arere's farm in Buku Sayisa village, West Guji. Thirty two hectares at 2,350 metres, red clay soil, natural process, slow dried across 150 raised beds for twelve to seventeen days. Smallest share of the blend and the loudest. That is where the top end comes from.
S06 Bridazul, Nicaragua
Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua · Caturra and Catuai · Supernatural
This is the one to pay attention to. Bridazul is a Nicaraguan producer group in Nueva Segovia working with smallholders out of their base at Finca El Árbol. Cherries get picked at 20 to 22 Brix, hand sorted, then delivered to the mill and mixed into the Bridazul lot.
Then the Supernatural process starts. Whole cherries go onto raised beds and get covered in plastic for three days, which cranks the fermentation and the flavour intensity. After that they are spread thin and dried as a traditional natural under shade for about twenty five more days, which is where the mouthfeel and the sticky sweetness come from. The beans stay inside the dried cherry pod until it is time to mill for export. That is a lot of patience for one bag of coffee, and you can taste it. Filter only. Do not put this through an espresso machine and then send us an email about it.
S07 Santa Rosa P141, El Salvador
Chalatenango, El Salvador · Pacamara · Honey
Santa Rosa is a farm in Chalatenango that started life as a pine forest. It was cleared and replanted for Pacamara, a variety with a reputation for perfume and resin, and it is run by Jorge Raul Rivera Jr, a Cup of Excellence champion.
Lot P141 is honey processed. Ripest cherries picked and sorted, floated in water tanks to pull out the underripes, then partially de-pulped and fermented in tanks for twenty hours, then thirty days drying on raised beds in full shade until it hits moisture. Honey process on a Pacamara through an espresso machine is a slightly unusual thing to do. It is also very good, and it will not taste like your normal single origin espresso. Expect something denser and more perfumed than you are used to. If you take milk it still works, it just has more to say without it.
D01 Apia, Colombia
Apía, Risaralda, Colombia · Sugarcane EA process
Same town as the Colombian sitting in the house blend. Apía, in Risaralda, grown by small scale farmers on mineral rich volcanic soils near the Tatamá and Los Nevados national parks, between 1,700 and 1,900 metres.
Bobby's have taken a coffee they already trust and had the caffeine removed from it, which is a more sensible approach to decaf than most. The decaffeination is the sugarcane process, also known as ethyl acetate, where the solvent comes from fermented sugarcane and strips the caffeine while leaving the natural sugars and organic compounds largely intact. That is the difference between a decaf that tastes like coffee and a decaf that tastes like a memory of coffee. It holds up black and it holds up in milk.
Bobby's Coffee, Warradale and Glenelg North
Two shops in Adelaide's south west. Shop 4, 43a Addison Road in Warradale, fifty square metres alongside the train line, home since 2022. Shop 3, 45 Sandison Terrace in Glenelg North, just off Anzac Highway, found in 2024. They roast their own coffee on shared equipment at an Adelaide roasting collective. Everyday coffee for everyday people, and four properly traceable coffees behind that sentence.
Questions people actually ask
Where is Bobby's Coffee roasted?
In Adelaide. They roast their own coffee on shared equipment at a roasting collective, rather than running a roaster of their own.
Where are the Bobby's Coffee shops?
Two of them. Warradale is Shop 4, 43a Addison Road, a fifty square metre shop alongside the train line, home since 2022. Glenelg North is Shop 3, 45 Sandison Terrace, just off Anzac Highway, found in 2024.
What coffees are in this Bobby's release?
Four. The 002 House Espresso blend of Brazil, Colombia and Ethiopia. S06 Bridazul from Nueva Segovia in Nicaragua, a Supernatural process filter coffee. S07 Santa Rosa P141, a honey processed Pacamara from Chalatenango in El Salvador, for single origin espresso. And D01 Apia, a Colombian sugarcane process decaf.
Is the Bobby's decaf worth drinking?
Yes. It is a Colombian from Apía decaffeinated with the sugarcane process, which uses ethyl acetate derived from fermented sugarcane and leaves the sugars and organic compounds largely intact. Candied citrus, milk chocolate and caramel. It works black and it works in milk.
Does Bobby's Coffee have its own subscription?
They do. House espresso, single origin or decaf, whole bean or ground, in 350g or 1kg bags, delivered weekly, fortnightly or every four weeks. Delivery is included and there is no lock-in.
Can I get Bobby's Coffee delivered?
Yes. It comes through the Allways subscription, roasted to order and shipped free Australia-wide. Tell us how you brew and we grind it to suit, or leave it whole bean. They also run their own subscription direct.
Why order Bobby's Coffee through Allways instead of going direct?
If Bobby's is the only coffee you ever want to drink, go direct. Buy from them, go and sit in Warradale, keep a local roaster busy. We would rather you did that than settle. Allways is for the other case. One subscription, a different independent South Australian roaster in each delivery, ground to how you brew and roasted to order. Bobby's is one of the roasters in the rotation, and the next box is somebody else.
Every roaster in the rotation, one subscription
One subscription. Every independent Adelaide roaster in the rotation. Roasted to order, free shipping Australia-wide, pause or cancel whenever you like.
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