Chances are that if you live on the Gold Coast, you’re a tribal person. You love your brand of coffee almost as much as you love your footy team.
But how well do you know the story behind your ‘cup of Joe’? What do you know about where it’s produced and the people who farmed those beans? Are you drinking a mediocre cup of coffee or a great cup of coffee?
There’s one man who is intent in filling in those knowledge gaps and challenging what we think we know about coffee with a few hardcore facts about the realities of coffee farming and how much work it takes to make that quintessential cup.
Jayson Mathiou was born and raised on the Gold Coast. Educated at Marymount College, he went on to study physiotherapy, progressing in his career to treating elite athletes, including the Colombian Olympians.
For several years, he travelled the world, visiting over 75 countries. But it wasn’t until he spent time back in Colombia visiting coffee farmers that Jayson’s passion flared as he understood the sacrifice that it took to produce great coffee. He realised how much work went into one great cup of coffee and was determined to return home to tell the story.
But first, let’s add some context. Coffee is a huge industry in Australia, worth close to $20 billion annually. Most of it is commercial coffee, sold through wholesalers and supermarkets, which is entirely necessary. But .5% of the industry is specialty coffee, and this is the sector that Jayson is passionate about; the point where meaning is made.
Speaking at the newly opened Willy’s Beans popup in Fu Manchu Oriental, Chevron Island, Jayson says: “There always needs to be commercial coffee, but we need to educate consumers about the difference between commercial and specialty coffee. Everything has to have meaning, otherwise it’s simply transactional,” he adds.
Jayson’s love for speciality Colombian coffee and the farmers who grow it fuelled his passion to bring us the finest cup of coffee we can drink. The hardworking Colombian coffee farmers inspired him to start Willy’s Beans in Burleigh Heads, where he grew up.
Talking coffee like sommeliers talk wine, Jayson wants to educate us about the difference between a ‘house red’ and a fine cabernet (in this case, single origin specialty coffee). He’s also talking ‘terroir’ and sustainable farming methods, opening avenues to improve the quality of specialty coffee while educating consumers to help them make better choices.
“We need to understand what happens on a farm level to understand the differences in our coffee cup,” he adds. “We take care to select farmers with the best sustainable practices to work with and invest in. For example, one of the farms has 40% of the farm preserved for conservation, harvesting beans from only about 25% of the land to maintain minerals in the soil and to regenerate it for the future. Then, at harvest, the farmer only picks out the best beans from his crop, perhaps a 1 in 30 ratio.”
“By choosing beans from a farm like this, we get coffee that tastes more like how the farmer intended it. The Australian market is geared towards drinking coffee with milk, so mostly we are drinking blends, but Colombian coffee is great in its own right,” Jayson adds.
Jayson has named his company after the famous Willys Jeep, an iconic vehicle used by Colombian farmers. The Willys Jeep embodies the qualities of reliability, strength and longevity that Jayson emulates in his company.
You can see the jeep parked in the Willy’s Beans warehouse, a tasting room experience that immerses the consumer in the life of a Colombian coffee farmer, showcasing what coffee is.
“We deliver a unique and delicious coffee experience at our Coffee Warehouse in Burleigh Heads that highlights the hard work and expertise of coffee farmers,” Jayson tells me, overlooked by a giant mural painted by international artist Jose Daniel Correa dedicated to Colombian coffee and culture. Even the cups we’re drinking from have been made from the same soil and clay as the farm Willy’s beans are from, handcrafted by ceramic artist Sofia Buitrago.
“I want to push past the boundaries to inspire us to want better coffee,” Jayson says. “The push needs to come from this end. Most farmers are too small to have a voice. They need us to advocate for them through our choices.”
For Jayson, this means developing the market on one end of the journey, while paying for coffee at the start of the harvest on the other, even though he must wait four months to receive it.
“Coffee builds relationships,” he says. And trust (obviously). All for a cup of coffee.
So, next time you raise that cup of coffee to your lips, give some thought to quality and provenance. Is it great coffee? And where did it come from? If you’re drinking Willy’s Beans Coffee then you will know. And when you know, you know!
Willys Beans Coffee, 1/4 Ramly Drive, Burleigh Heads, QLD 4220 Open: Mon – Fri: 6:30 AM – 12:30 PM