Chemical engineering, conservation, carbon-conscious technology and... coffee? At Sprocket Roasters, our focus is to minimise environmental impact at the roasting stage as the bean travels from producer to cup. Sustainability isn’t just another catchphrase around here, it has been the Sprocket way since opening our doors back in 2009. We roast our ethically sourced beans using innovative roasting technology that we have designed, patented and manufactured locally ourselves. But the real wow-factor of our roaster is that it has been converted to run on alternative bioenergy products instead of fossil fuels.
Creating a roaster that is fuelled on bioenergy is a world first in the coffee roasting industry, and is something we are very proud of here at Sprocket. This advancement in roasting technology means end of life products like spent coffee grinds, along with a wide range of other organic material that usually ends up in landfill, are turned into fuel to power the roaster every time it’s fired up. Since we use an indirect heat exchanger, all this magic in converting bioenergy happens separate to the roasting chamber. Even the coffee husks, usually a waste product when roasting, are converted into fuel. Complete combustion of our biomass results in negligible smoke, odour, carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide emissions. The outcome is an alternative way of roasting that is extremely kind to the environment. [Insert tree hug and green-panther fist pump].
Forged in the industrial heart of Newcastle, Sprocket Roasters’ award-winning coffee is brought to you by a rogue collective - namely a couple of hard yakka Aussie farmers turned chemical engineers and vine-wranglers, along with a Canuck expat with a now-dusty law degree. We had a dream to build a business that combined a product we felt passionate about with a greener way of producing it – so we quit our day jobs a decade ago and have been advocating the Sprocket-way of roasting ever since! Being farmers ourselves, green bean quality and ethical production are extremely important to us. These factors guide us in sourcing sustainable beans from established and emerging growers around the world.
Our carbon conscious roasting philosophy has been recognized and highly commended at the Australian Green Globe Awards for Most Sustainable Australian Small Business, and also acknowledged at the Hunter Innovation Awards. We have also been recently commended at the Australian Bioenergy Awards, Small Scale Category, for our innovative roasting technology.
Whilst we are not the sing-it-from-the-rooftop type, our street credz on the end product stack up, too: Sprocket has won dozens of awards and medals at The Sydney Royal Easter Show, Melbourne Fine Food Awards, Australian International Coffee Awards and Golden Bean Roasting Awards.
Whether you need your coffee to warm you up after a surf, keep you awake on the dogwatch or maybe just sip in your backyard in your underwear, we’ve got a blend or single origin that’s right for you. Step out into this big, wild world with a Sprocket brew.. because our roasting process has your carbon footprints covered!
