Alfresco Coffee Roasters

For almost five years, we’ve always grabbed a coffee and beans from Alfresco whenever we’ve been in Moruya. At other times, I’ve ordered beans for delivery, and their coffee has consistently been our favourite at home. Unfortunately, that changed this year. We purchased a bag of beans from the café, and when we finally opened and brewed it, the coffee tasted like cardboard. On checking the bag, I noticed there was no batch date or barcode, which I found very disappointing.

Yes, I did open the bag 17 weeks after purchase, but that has never been an issue before. This made me wonder if the beans on the shelf were already old when we bought them.

I contacted Alfresco via Facebook Messenger, but their response was far from customer-friendly. Instead of listening, they dismissed my concerns and blamed me for storing the beans incorrectly. For the record, they were kept at the bottom of a cool pantry on a slate floor — hardly poor storage conditions. I was told the beans should be consumed within 4–8 weeks of roasting. Fair enough, but how is a customer supposed to know when they were roasted if there’s no roast date on the packaging?

It’s a real shame. This is a small business that relies heavily on locals and tourists, and while their café coffee is good, they’ve clearly dropped the ball on selling beans. Sadly, they’ve lost my business. I may still grab a coffee when passing through, but for beans at home, I’ll now go with White Horse Coffee — who not only roast excellent beans but also batch date and barcode their product properly.

Bad luck, Alfresco.