Where to find filter roast coffee

I can buy a range of filter brew coffee gear at just about any local specialty coffee cafe here in Melbourne. As of yet, only a very select few actually offer a filter roast. A filter roast is coffee that has been roasted with a roast profile specifically geared towards delicious filter brew coffee, and thus tends to be a lighter roast. The trick is roasting said coffee in a way that it is not grassy or under-developed. I have always felt that filter roast is more difficult to nail than espresso roast, at least in my own amateur non-professional and quite limited experience.

Since filter roast can be tricky to find, it leads me to believe that most coffee drinkers are probably using espresso roast through their filter gear. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily bad, but a filter roast could be a little more delicious, perhaps. Espresso roast can work well in filter coffee, but (for my taste) only if it’s on the light side of ‘espresso’.

I have an e-61 espresso machine at home, and i brew filter coffee at work using chemex or aeropress. I prefer the aeropress because i find the 1-3 cup chemex has such a long narrow shape that it is difficult to get an even extraction. I use a hario hand grinder and it’s simple, clean and pretty easy to get a delicious filter brew coffee going at work. But despite the ease with which anyone can pick up a Hario v60, a chemex, an aeropress or even a Hario syphon, it’s still difficult to find filter roasted coffee.

Where I get filter roast coffee

Because of the difficulty in finding filter roast, i’ve been either using my own filter roast … (which i don’t like doing because i find filter roasts done in a real roaster such as a Probat are superior – my espresso roasts on the other hand, i can live with and they are actually pretty good when i get things right) … or, i’ve been getting filter roast from Market Lane or Proud Mary. 

Theory why filter roast is hard to find

I can understand why most cafes would shy away from adding yet another option to their roasted coffee line-up. Good cafes that only sell freshly roasted beans inevitably end up with some left-overs, and adding filter roast could mean more of this.  It’s also another batch of roasting to be done, another batch of roast cupping to be tracked, etc. It’s not as simple as just popping some filter roast into bags.

Maybe it’s a good thing that there are a select few with the focus to do filter roast – and they are doing it well.

Ministry Grounds soon to offer filter coffee

I was also delighted to read that Ministry Grounds are also now going to begin offering filter roast Australia wide through their web store. I’ve always found their espresso roasts to be around the right roast level for my own personal taste, so it will be interesting to see what they come up with on the lighter side. I’ll try to secure a sample of their filter roast to examine shortly, and see how it goes up against a typical espresso roast. 

I find that 9 times out of 10, a filter roast tastes way sweeter and has a lot more flavour clarity than the equivalent espresso roast when brewed through a filter device.

Know a cafe that sells filter roast?

If you know of a cafe who sells filter roast (I know Cup Coffee in Brisbane does a pretty awesome filter roast, for example), shout out in the comments.  I’d love to compile a list of filter roast locations!