Australian network, Cafe Biz, hosts the Golden Bean competition every year, which this year took in over 1000 entries from 180 roasters.

Fish River Roasters ranked third nationwide and obtained a silver medal this year.

The fair trade organic blend, espresso blend and the Hub blend (created specifically for the Hub cafe in Bathurst) were those that grabbed the bronze medals this year.

The Hub blend won a bronze medal last year in the same milk-based category.

Owner and roaster Peter Harrison also won the business of the year award earlier this year.

“For us, roasters that have only been operating since 2006, it was massive,” he said.

Mr Harrison’s business has been well recognised by customers and supplies to a number of local businesses.

“We supply to local cafes such as Venue, the Hub, the Oxford Hotel, Absolutely Del-

icious, Legalls, Country Fruit, Cobblestone, Bishop’s Court and Charles Sturt University.”

Creating the different blends is a group operation, Mr Harrison said.

“When anyone makes a change to a roast profile we will all test the result.

“Roasting and tasting is a lot of fun.”

The Fish River Roasters consists of four team members: Peter and his wife Sonia, Jo Christie and the newest member, Aaron Mollenkamp.

“Jo Christie had a lot to do with the roasting of our winn-ing blends,” Mr Harrison

said.

The founding coffee blend, the espresso blend, was created by Mr Harrison in 1999 for the Hub, which was owned by the couple until 2005.

“The espresso blend is an evolutionary blend that has been developed from the essential flavour profile developed 10 years ago,” he said.

The Fish River Roasters supply interstate as well as the Central West.

So far the commercial customer located the farthest away is in Longreach, Queens-

land, but the business is ever expanding.

Mr Harrison has worked with coffee since travelling to Europe in the early 1990s.

“People ask me if I get sick of it, but no, I never get sick of coffee,” he said.

“The Golden Bean competition was just another opportunity to talk and drink

coffee.

“I was sitting next to a guy from a coffee roasting company based in Melbourne that had been going for 35 years and he congratulated me when I won. It was really amazing.”