First Fruits are historically known as the best of the harvest. The bible indicatES a Jewish feast where the first fruits offering needed to be given before any of the crop could be harvested. Similarly, First Fruits wants to provide the finest, and serve their community.

Partners Daniel Smith and Ben Taylor have just opened the doors to their brand new café/roaster in Ashmore on the Gold Coast. The boys say that their plan for the café is to provide a space where people can try a variety of different coffees in different ways, from around the world. They want to take their customers away from their busy day, to relax and enjoy something special.

The boys have only really just begun in the coffee industry and are absolutely loving it. “How exciting is that new single origin you get, and it tastes amazing? Or that sweet house blend that always hits the spot?”, says Daniel. “This is what we are chasing, we want every customer to leave our shop with an excitement, to know and experience more. We want to tell them where their coffee comes from, what type of coffee tree it is and the stories of the farmers that grow the coffee because they are the people who are putting the most effort in for the smallest reward”. This is specialty and this is why the guys take that label seriously, aiming to roast the coffees so that they leave minimal imprint of the roast flavour in the cup and highlight all the work that the farmers at origin have done. In time they aim to source directly from farms so they can fully support those communities.

Daniel’s journey to coffee is probably a little different to most. He served in the army for seven years before injuring his back. He was redeployed to the Dan Keighran VC Club that was attached to his battalion. It was here that he learnt more about coffee and it intrigued him. He began to consume any material he could that would teach him more about coffee. Daniel says, “I was overwhelmed by the complexities that coffee presented and I began to realise that this industry was somewhere that I could constantly push myself to learn and improve.”

Before leaving the army Daniel decided that he wanted to roast coffee and so he completed the basic roasting course at Wolff Roasters and a Small Business Management Course at TAFE. And then began his first “real” barista job in Newstead Brisbane, 3 days after discharging.

While still working full time as a barista Daniel’s burning desire for roasting led him to negotiate the use of the Probat roaster at Bean Green in Brisbane where he created First Fruits Specialty Coffee and proceeded to pedal his roasted coffee on the side.

In 2012 Ben Taylor detested coffee. “It wasn’t even possible to drink the sweetest mocha, as the only taste that came through was bitterness and smoke,” says Ben. However, by the end of the year this all changed. He was volunteering in Onagawa, a town in Ishinomaki city, in Miyagi prefecture, Japan. You may not know the town, but if you’ve seen videos of the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, then they are probably of that town. Ben was fortunate to teach at three primary schools here for a year, and the people were incredible. In fact, the principal of the largest school made Ben a coffee every single day. “When the principal makes you a coffee by hand, you drink the coffee,” says Ben. So it follows that when he next went back to Australia for a visit, he was able to surprise his family by drinking a regular cup of black coffee.

From there, Daniel took Ben on many coffee crawls, he volunteered at Daniel’s full time job learning to make coffee, and Daniel also “patiently” taught him to roast. On his return to Japan, Ben was fortunate to roast at Glitch Coffee in Tokyo and meet and learn from many experienced people in the specialty industry. “Coffee is always more complex than one expects, and I love the conversations that it brings,” says Ben.

The boys have now opened in Ashmore. It’s a place where they can showcase what they do. They serve 2 blends, 3 single origin and a decaf. They have seen the best baristas and roasters in the world and how they continually strive to improve what they are doing and they too are now chasing that perfect cup – something that will keep them captivated for years to come.

First Fruits Specialty Coffee: 149 Cotlew Street, Ashmore QLD 4214.