Interview with Paul Geshos of Mecca Coffee

My name is Paul Geshos from Mecca coffee. We’ve been around since 2005, roasting and operating retail stores since! We have survived GFC’s, pandemics- nothing can kill us.

And why would anyone want to, haha? Can you tell me a little bit about your relationship with Brewtech?

Well, our relationship with La Marzocco goes back over 20 years. We’ve got a very close relationship with all the senior staff at La Marzocco, who I believe is still there, Lorenzo, Roberto, Guido. I mean, they're the three main protagonists that interweave through all La Marzocco stories. It was obviously part of a greater plan to focus their energies on, not only their production in innovation, but also their supply channels, and marketing and sales. At that point, I think the final piece of that puzzle was the addition of after sales care, which didn't really exist prior to Brewtech coming on board. Naturally, when Brewtech started, we were very excited. In fact, we heard about them starting in Melbourne and we were hassling Damo and Christy about when they would be coming up to Sydney. “They're coming they're coming” they’d say.

Finally they arrived, and for us, it was it was just that final piece of that puzzle of you know. Not only do we have high quality equipment and sales, but also the after sales part which is super important! To have a company like Brewtech that is born from the La Marzocco family is super important because I think a lot of that knowledge and connection can be traced right back to the factory. Brewtech are there from the very beginning. As soon as a machine comes out of the box, Brewtech are installing, bench testing, they're doing all our servicing emergencies as well. So Brewtech are very much connected to the equipment. I don't really differentiate the two that much- I almost see Brewtech as an extension of La Marzocco. Mecca has got Brewtech’s fingerprints all over it.

Can you tell me a little bit about your roastery and its proximity to the cafe?

Well, we had to find a premises that we could do it all under one roof! I think there was a period where we were roasting off site. It was in a residential area wasn't as good for the community as not everyone likes coffee roasting smells. So we had to find a premises where we could have our headquarters, roasting, storage, training, that sort of thing. So we then moved here and Alexandria, about four kilometres from the CBD. So geographically, this is the perfect spot to be distributing coffee. And our café, it's not just a coffee shop, it is more of an extension of the things that we love you know, food, wine and coffee. We've got two roasting machines, both Probats. We use a 90 kilo and a 15 kilo, both built in the 50’s. Their senior citizens, they're like, well and truly on the pension now. Something that we’ve learned through our travels, some of our best coffee experiences have seen the beans roasted from equipment that were quite vintage. So, we just sort of drew correlations around that and thought, okay, we want to work with this beautiful old hardware, but obviously, we need to make them safe and modern.

I think I read on your website that you've got a single origin from Mexico!

Yeah, that's what I'm drinking right now. That reminds me, I think the export partners that we work with, the people that are connected to those networks of farmers in far away places are doing such good things. Not only to the soil and the people who work around it, but to coffee in general. They're elevating the standards of what we get access to. I would say they are probably the biggest unsung heroes of what we do. Working with people of a similar age and of a generation that really cares about biodiversity and closed loop systems. We're moving away from monoculture coffee crops and we work hard to identify and avoid coffees that are grown in that way. It is sort of like factory farming, and it is not the future of agriculture. When we come across some of these producers that, you know, some of their farms look like gardens. There are animals, birds, wildlife and spiders. We want to see a thriving ecosystem within these places. And it's not until you really get there and see it that you really understand what that means in correlation with the quality of the coffee

Is this part of what you think makes Mecca so special?

Yeah. What I really love about Mecca is the community that exists. I think we are also a part of crossover communities as well. I think that coffee is a great connector of cultures, it's a great connector of people. It's not always just about coffee, our culture sort of extends beyond that. So there is definitely a real sense of family around what we do. That extends to La Marzocco and now Brewtech too. We are all a part of the greater coffee community as well. I don’t know whether it is unique and individual to us, but I enjoy that all the same. We really care about roasting and brewing great coffee. That's our single focus. That's really what's kept us here for this long. Hopefully we can keep doing it for as long as possible.

I hope so too! Thanks for your time today.