Toby Smith, founder and director of Toby’s Estate, has spent more than a decade in search of the world’s best coffee and has decided to spill the beans on all of his amazing travels. What started as a lifelong dream to visit Ethiopia, the home of coffee, led Toby Smith and photographer Garrett Robinson to trace the history, personalities and character of the world’s greatest bean – thus Coffee Trails was born. After some 20 years dreaming up this epic journey, Smith and Robinson packed 11 countries into their itinerary and took off on their once in a lifetime journey.
Coffee Trails details Smith’s personal philosophies on different coffee plantations, the harvesting and processing techniques each country employs and how it impacts the end product that lands on Australian shores. Filled with personal anecdotes, Smith’s commentary of his travels includes a brush with Jamaican customs officials and a trip to a notoriously dangerous Ethiopian market.
Coffee Trails has been Smith’s labour of love over the past two years, and the end product is a wonderfully personal account of a man fulfilling his lifelong dream and following his passion across the world. Coffee Trails is available online at www.tobysestate.com.au/index.php/toby-smith-book-coffee-trails.html for $39.95, which includes a free 250 g bag of coffee beans!
