Andrew’s coffee career started immediately after asking a Lavazza drinking sicilian man if he could marry his daughter, move to Nimbin and grow coffee! Some might call this a “Moment of Madness” to establishing a coffee farm (Mountain Top Coffee) in the mountains (NZ hills) behind a small hippy town called Nimbin in the NSW north coast of Australia. However through hard-work, perseverance, some innovation and a sprinkle of luck, Mountain Top Coffee developed a niche brand for specialty micro-lot green coffees before direct trade & the micro-lot revolution was conceived.
Mountain Top Coffees swiftly became sought after globally and Andrew personally became involved with the early machinations of the specialty coffee movements both globally & within Australia. As a result of long-held relationships, a producers understanding of quality and some good fortune Andrew established MTC group as an Australian specialty coffee importing company in 2008.The immediate success provided the launching pad to expand quickly and globally with offices or agencies now in NZ, Korea, HK, China and exporter agency partnerships in PNG & Indonesia.
Andrew has forged a unique understanding of coffee markets from both the roaster and producer perspective, combined with a more recent dose of both exporter and trader experience he sees coffee from a different perspective than most! He’s a strange breed in the modern world of specialty coffee, where he’s more at ease with producers than he is with baristas but he’s always learning, often skeptical, sometimes cynical and occasionally seeking new opportunities.
Friday 7 November, Wellington – SYMPOSIUM>
6pm, Thursday 6 November – SYMPOSIUM DINNER>