PROLIFIC coffee roasting couple Pamela and Geoff Quennell recently decided they’d had enough of the daily grind, and decided to sell their 17-year-old business.
The freshly roasted products of ‘Coffee Que’ are no longer a feature at the Sunraysia Farmers Market, as the Quennell’s traded for the final time on Saturday.
Pamela said they feel a little bit lost that their hobby-turned-small business is coming to an end.
“A lot of emotion is involved, and it wasn’t easy to come to this decision of finishing, but Geoff is going to be 80 in January and I’m heading up that way,” Mrs Quennell said.
“We’ll see how we feel in the couple of weeks before we start looking at what we can do together as a couple.”
The home-grown business started in 2007, when the Quennell’s noticed a growing uptake in “coffee culture” and home espresso machines.
Wanting to learn the secret behind what makes a good roasted coffee bean, the couple started to conduct a few experiments.
In search of the perfect blend, they bought their own equipment, progressing from a 250 gram capacity roaster, to a five kilo, and eventually a 10 kilo roaster.
Two to three times a week they would roast beans from various countries, combining them and mixing up the quantities and roasting times through a trial and error process until they were satisfied with the result.
They eventually landed on three signature blends — Murray Gold, Rio Vista and Mallee Cafe, while they also sold single-origin blends from Costa Rica, Guatemala, India, Rwanda and Tanzania to local businesses, and market customers every second Saturday.
Along the way they had a coffee van, which they eventually sold to a man in Romsey, Victoria.
That same man is now buying the Quennell’s roasting equipment as the couple step into retirement.
“The person that was our biggest customer is actually buying the business,” Mrs Quennell said.
“He’s now got three coffee caravans, he’s built up his business very nicely.”
The new owner will be up in Mildura this week, to learn about the secrets behind the Coffee Que blends.
“They’re buying the coffee roaster and our knowledge, and they’re going to learn how to roast this week,” Mrs Quennell said.
“He’s going to learn our secret herbs and recipes, we’ll call it.”
While admitting it is unfortunate their coffee knowledge will soon exit the region, the Quennell’s aren’t leaving the small business world with a bitter taste in their mouth.
“We’re just so grateful to the farmers’ market and to all our loyal coffee customers and the friendships we made along the way,” Mrs Quennell said.
