Charlie Black Coffee Co., Pooraka
Charlie Black Coffee Co.
A family roastery in Pooraka, small batches since 2020, with about thirty years of coffee between them. Their line is "coffee in our veins", which is the sort of thing you can only really say if it is true.
Roaster ProfileInside the Charlie Black roastery at Pooraka
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The roastery
Thirty years in, five years old
Charlie Black have only been roasting since 2020, which makes them one of the newer names on the Adelaide list. The experience behind it is not new at all. The family were distributing coffee from home in the early 1990s, then spent more than thirty years working with a multinational coffee company.
So this is not somebody discovering coffee in their forties and buying a shiny drum. It is people who already know exactly how big coffee works, deciding to do the small version instead, out of a roastery in Pooraka.
"Coffee in our veins."
What they are after is fresh, quality and transparent coffee, sourced and roasted to bring out what each coffee has got. That is the whole argument for a small roaster over a bag that has been sitting in a supermarket since who knows when. They also run Roaming Charlie, their event carts, which is the bit where the coffee turns up at your thing instead of you turning up at theirs.
Charlie Black roaster and menu boards, Pooraka
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Approach
How they roast
Small batches, and no hiding where the beans came from. The four coffees in Release 120 cover every way people actually drink at home: a blend built for milk, a single origin that gets pulled two different ways, and a decaf that is not an apology.
It is the founder-led, small-batch end of the Adelaide scene, which is exactly where Allways likes to shop. An actual family who care whether you liked it, rather than a factory that will never know.
Paradise White
Ethiopia, natural, and Colombia, washed · Medium-light roast
Paradise White bag
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Charlie Black's everyday blend and the one to start with. A natural Ethiopian brings the fruit, a washed Colombian keeps it clean underneath, roasted medium-light so it stays sweet and bright.
The two halves are doing two different jobs. The Ethiopian is dried whole inside the cherry so the fruit sugars soak back into the bean, which is where the berry sweetness comes from. The Colombian is pulped and fermented clean, which gives the blend a backbone so the fruit does not turn to mush. Caramel and citrus up front, ripe berries behind. Good with milk, good on its own, the kind of espresso that actually tastes like something on a Tuesday morning.
Kenya Gathiruini AA
Komothai, Kiambu, Kenya · SL28, SL34, Batian, Ruiru 11 · Washed · 1,830 masl
Kenya Gathiruini AA bag
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A washed Kenyan from the Komothai growers in Kiambu, grown around 1,830 metres from the classic SL28 and SL34 alongside Batian and Ruiru 11. Grade AA, washed and dried the way Kenyans are meant to be.
Gathiruini is one of thirteen washing stations in the Komothai co-op, and the name is Gikuyu for "fern plant", after the ferns all over those hills. The blackcurrant and citrus thing Kenyan coffee is famous for is not a processing trick, it is the SL28 and SL34: two varieties selected at Kenya's Scott Labs back in the 1930s from a single drought-hardy tree, and still the benchmark. Pulled as espresso it is loud in the best way. Clean and a bit sharp, not for the faint-hearted.
Kenya Gathiruini AA, brewed long
Komothai, Kiambu, Kenya · SL28, SL34, Batian, Ruiru 11 · Washed · 1,830 masl
Kenya Gathiruini AA brewed as filter
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The same Kenyan, given room. Filter lets the red fruit and citrus stretch out, and the finish stays juicy all the way down. This is the pick for slow mornings, pour over and plunger.
The Komothai co-op has been going since 1956 and now pulls cherry from more than eleven thousand smallholders, most of them tending a few hundred trees each on small plots of red volcanic soil. Every bag is the work of a lot of small, careful hands.
Charlie Black Decaf
Colombia · Sugarcane process · Medium roast
Charlie Black Decaf bag
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A Colombian decaffeinated with the sugarcane process, which pulls the caffeine out while leaving the sweetness and body where they belong. That is the difference between a decaf that tastes like coffee and one that tastes like a memory of it.
The clever bit is how it is done. The caffeine is drawn out using ethyl acetate, a compound made by fermenting sugarcane molasses, which is handy given Colombia grows sugarcane just about everywhere. No high heat and no pressure, so the sugars and the body stay largely intact. Mild and easy, milk chocolate with a honey finish. For after dinner, or for anyone off the caffeine but not off good coffee.
Charlie Black Coffee Co., Pooraka
A family roastery in Pooraka, South Australia, roasting small batches since 2020 with about thirty years of coffee between them. Fresh, quality and transparent, and no hiding where the beans come from.
Questions people actually ask
Where is Charlie Black Coffee roasted?
At their family roastery in Pooraka, in Adelaide's north. They have been roasting small batches there since 2020.
What coffees does Charlie Black roast?
Four in this release. Paradise White, a medium-light espresso blend of natural Ethiopian and washed Colombian. Kenya Gathiruini AA from Komothai in Kiambu, offered as both single origin espresso and single origin filter. And a Colombian sugarcane process decaf.
What is Roaming Charlie?
Charlie Black's event carts. Their coffee turns up at your event rather than you going to the roastery.
Can I get Charlie Black 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.
Why order Charlie Black coffee through Allways instead of going direct?
If Charlie Black is the only coffee you ever want to drink, go direct. Buy from them and keep a family roastery busy, we would rather you did that than settle for something you like less. 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. Charlie Black is one of fifteen, and the next box is somebody else.
Fifteen Adelaide roasters, one subscription
One subscription. Fifteen independent Adelaide roasters. Roasted to order, free shipping Australia-wide, pause or cancel whenever you like.
