Fill your cup with award-winning coffee blends

From the Maitland Mercury, March 2010

The hypnotising aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans will carry the passion of the makers of River Roast coffee through Maitland’s Heritage Mall this weekend.

Fresh from success at the 2010 Sydney Royal Fine Food Competition, James Carter and Edwardo Milan will bring their Maitland-made, award-winning coffee blends to the Maitland Taste: Food, Wine and Jazz Festival.

The makers of five blends – Paterson, Barrington, Hunter, Hawkesbury and fair trade – put the success of their product down to a secret ingredient.

“It comes down to passion,” Mr Carter, who also runs the Real Coffee shop in Lorn, said.

“I’ve been interested in coffee for 15 years, and I started in Sydney roasting with a guy who was very passionate about coffee, and he passed it on.”

Mr Carter and Mr Milan went into

partnership in 2008, and their coffee took out awards at the Sydney Fine Food Competition in their first year of entering.

They followed on from that success this year, winning gold in Class 1 Espresso with their Paterson blend, silver in Class 2 cappuccino with the Hawkesbury blend and bronze in the class 3 plunger section with the Barrington blend.

Mr Milan said the pair started off thinking they had a “pretty good” product but their quick success had surprised even them.

River Roast supplies coffee shops from Hobart to Old Bar, and west to Dubbo.