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When Giuseppe Cianchi landed a roasting role at Melbourne’s Grinders Coffee Roasters in 2000, he had zero experience in the industry. Returning to the country he grew up in after working in banking in Italy, it was his European heritage that persuaded Founder Giancarlo Gusti to give him the job and teach him his trade.
Twenty-five years later, Giuseppe is still the keeper of the flames at Grinders Coffee as the long-standing roastery’s Master Roaster and Procurement Manager. The industry has changed drastically since his early days in the business, but being part of a company with such a rich history means many of the traditions of the trade remain unchanged.
“When I started in my role at Grinders, we had six blends. I’m very proud that two of those blends are still part of our collection today and remain popular,” Giuseppe tells BeanScene. “Naturally, Australian tastes and preferences have evolved over the past 25 years. Our range has grown and shifted too, but there are still a lot of people who enjoy the more traditional flavours we continue to offer.”
Looking back to the turn of the millennium, Giuseppe says specialty coffee culture hadn’t yet taken off in Australia. Roasters such as Grinders were very much embedded in their communities, serving cups of coffee and selling beans to locals from its Lygon Street store.
“The coffee culture at the time was driven by the local Italians, who would visit our shop to buy beans to brew at home. We would have big baskets of roasted single origin beans and the customers would make up their own blends over the counter, asking for a bit of this coffee and a bit of that depending on their preferred tastes. It was exactly how the coffee shops functioned back in Italy,” he says.
“At the time, we also had drivers who would sell coffee beans out of the back of their vans. We did have wholesale clients, but selling direct to consumers was the biggest part of our business.”
As coffee culture started to disperse from the localised communities to embrace the whole of the country, Grinders expanded to create a range of coffees to appeal to every kind of coffee drinker in Australia. A growing coffee market saw technology advance and the traditional role of the roaster evolve.
“When I started out, we used manual roasters – the sort that have been used for decades. They were great because if you made a mistake, you’d learn from it and work out what you’d done wrong. If the batch was not right, you’d have to redo it, so you got a lot of practice,” says Giuseppe.
As well as learning from Giancarlo and former Grinders roaster Giulio Superina, he was sent to Seattle to undertake a roasting course with the Specialty Coffee Association of America. For the first four years, Giuseppe roasted on the company’s 25-kilogram and 60-kilogram roasters at its two roasting facilities in Melbourne. But, in 2004, the manual 60 kg roaster was replaced with a fully automatic 120-kilogram Brambati model at the new Grinders roasting facility in Fairfield.
“I had to relearn everything I knew about roasting. Giancarlo would call me into his office and say ‘you spend all your time at that machine, they said all you’d have to do is press a button’. I had to explain it wasn’t that simple and there was a lot for me to learn from the Brambati technicians,” he says.
Giuseppe’s challenge wasn’t only getting his head around the new processes but also explaining the switch to his industry peers. For a roaster of its size, Grinders was one of the first in Melbourne to introduce automatic roasting technology. “A lot of my peers asked what we were
doing and how we were doing it. I had to explain the advantages of the automatic systems, such as being able to develop the best roasting profiles for the different origins and replicate them for consistency,” he says.
“At first, they were hesitant, but over time and once they had tried it out themselves they eventually switched over to the technology.”
This kind of knowledge sharing between industry peers is something Giuseppe believes is a contributor to Australia’s thriving coffee culture.
“One of the successes of the industry has been the culture inside it. Colleagues become good friends over the years,” he says.
“At Grinders, we’ve been very lucky to be a part of the Australian café culture as it has become established. The team at Grinders are absolutely amazing. There’s a huge amount of passion in everything we do – from innovating to create new blends and seeking ways to drive the coffee culture forward to partnering with relevant organisations to introduce sustainable practices in coffee. From crop to cup, Grinders is about delivering a better coffee experience for everyone.”
Perfecting his craft over the past 25 years, the Master Roaster has experienced the sector’s highs and lows. He says there’s a lot of joy to be found in the role for those interested in a career in roasting.
“One of my favourite elements is seeing a product from start to finish. You select the raw coffee, roast, blend, taste, and then eventually sell it, which is a great feeling,” he says.
“I’ve also been very privileged to be able to visit some of the producers that grow our beans. Witnessing how the coffee farmers’ livelihoods rely on people buying their crops pushes me to always do the best I can.”
Grinders has sourced from many of its growing partners for decades, forging long lasting and mutually beneficial relationships with farmers across the coffee belt. Over the years, Giuseppe and team have been able to see first-hand the difference the roaster’s partnerships have made at origin. “We buy a lot of coffee from the same farmers and it’s amazing to see the improvements. We prioritise certified coffees such as Rainforest Alliance, as certifications not only improve the quality of the coffee but also the livelihoods of the farmers and their families.”
For those curious about pursuing a career in coffee roasting, Giuseppe suggests starting small. “If you want to learn, start out by playing around with roasting profiles on a small roaster. See how you go and once you start producing some good stuff, try scaling it up on a bigger roaster,” he says.
“There’s great satisfaction to be found in this role. Like anything, there are challenges, but it’s hugely rewarding when you see the difference your coffee is making to people’s lives at origin or seeing someone enjoying the fruits of your labours here in Australia.” The key to the role is balancing creativity with consistency. Something he says can be a difficult balance to strike for new people coming into the industry.
“You need to be inventive and innovative to create new flavour profiles, but for the company to be profitable, you also need to provide consistency for clients,” he says. “People often forget that coffee is a crop and will change naturally due to rainfall, sunlight, temperature, and other factors. One of the biggest challenges is retaining that consistency when the core product naturally fluctuates.”
Giuseppe admits one of the more challenging aspects of the role of a Master Roaster is navigating industry-wide issues. Most recently, he highlights the volatile coffee market. “At the end of 2024 we experienced the highest green coffee prices for more than 50 years, which is obviously extremely challenging. Balancing fair pay for farmers and a fair price for consumers has always been difficult, and this issue is making it even harder,” he says. “At Grinders, we buy our coffee up to 12 months ahead of time to ensure continuity of supply from our preferred farmers.”
Within the industry, recently there has been a lot of conversation about the cost of a cup of coffee in Australia. While many leaders are calling for price increases across the board, Giuseppe is cautious about a one-size-fits-all approach. “We need to be thoughtful that we keep the coffee price fair across the whole supply chain. It’s a complicated situation that needs to reviewed on a café-by-café basis,” he says.
Despite these challenges, Giuseppe says he’s very positive about the future of Australia’s coffee industry. “I think what we’re doing here in Australia is amazing. We have a huge variety of coffees, milks, and signature drinks that a lot of other countries don’t,” he says. “As for the future of Grinders, we have some very exciting things coming up. Beyond innovation with new blends, by the end of 2025 the primary packaging across our entire coffee range will be recyclable, which will be a great achievement for our sustainability goals.” “My aspiration for the company is to continue to put the same passion into our coffees. As long as you have the passion, the best product will follow.”
