Fiori Coffee

fiori-triptych_small

So I said I was going to spill the beans (ha… ha) on Fiori coffee, the latest addition to the gourmet coffee scene in our fair city (Perth that is), so here it is.

Kamran and Louise Nowduschani are the team behind Fiori, having moved over from Sydney a year or so ago after selling their previous roasting venture, they have quickly propelled themselves up to being one of Perth’s best local roasters in terms of quality and consistency, as far as I’m concerned at least.

Kamran is from the old school of coffee roasting, meaning he’s not comfortable letting the machinery do all the work for him. His roasting methods are a work of timing, temperature, and that elusive element that is a feel for the personality of each roast. As much as you’d like to think that roasting is a process of exact measures and maintaining absolute consistency, it’s also a case that no two roasts are exactly the same, not even two roasts of the same bean, so being able to understand how each roast is progressing and coax it towards the desired result is a great skill to have.

Fiori currently have one main blend of coffee, it’s put together with a number of different beans that all serve a different purpose. There are beans used for body, others for acidity, other for floral highlights or spicy qualities, but all coming together to create a blend that is interesting and punchy as an espresso, but still cuts through in milk nicely. It’s also Kamran’s skill as a blender and cupper that ensure this flavour profile remains consistent from year to year, regardless of availability of the beans.

Beans

The coffee is of course, all arabica, not a robusta in sight, although simply saying arabica doesn’t mean much. There are plenty of places using
cheap and average arabica beans that would most correctly be identified as “commodity” coffee. These are beans that are bought from the large markets in Brazil and other countries, and are basically bags of coffee sourced from all over the place and graded pretty low. These are the kind of beans you’ll find most often in major brand label coffee that fill supermarket shelves around the country. Fiori (and any quality roaster for that matter) where possible use estate grown, single origin beans. What this means is that each bag of coffee that arrives at the roastery comes either directly from the estate or through a distributor with a specific bean inside. So instead of the bag saying “Brazilian”, it will say something like PNG Bunum Wo Peaberry, indicating the country, region, and screening of the bean.

If that all sounded like drivel, then don’t get too caught up in it, just get the point that quality comes from knowing your beans and being able to use that knowledge to manipulate the flavour profile of your blend to highlight the best qualities of your beans. Something that you soon realise is a big deal to Kamran after speaking to him for more than a minute. He is meticulous when it comes to tasting and everytime I’ve dropped in to see him he’s been buzzing from drinking so much espresso, definitely a good sign for anyone seriously concerned with producing great coffee.

So after a rapid introduction to Perth last year, I’m looking forward to more good things from Fiori this year, Kamran has recently upgraded his funky French Samiac to a much larger Deidrich, which gives him the capacity to roast a lot more coffee to supply what I envision will be a lot of new cafes in the near future.

Fiori are currently supplying a number of cafes around the city, namely Tiger Tiger in the CBD, Boucla in Subiaco, The Blue Duck in Cottesloe, and a bunch of others I have yet to try but will no doubt get around to soon. Stop by one of those places sometime soon and give it a try, or buy some beans yourself if you’re more of a DIY kinda person.

So whilst we in the Perth coffee scene are far from being spoilt for choice, the future is definitely looking brighter with people like Kamran and Louise coming into the market, who actually care about their product and are open and honest in their approach to raising standards. Which is something I really respect.

Fiori coffee beans

Fiori Coffee
9 Douglas St, West Perth
T: (08) 9328 4988
www.fioricoffee.com

11 thoughts on “Fiori Coffee”

  1. The coffee sounds wonderful. I wonder if they’ll ever be persuaded to ship to the U.S.? Coffee is my one complete weakness. If I ever get the chance to visit Perth, I’m definitely going to have to drop by Fiori.

  2. Hey Jerry, drop them an email and try your luck, you never know :) Although reason dictates that freshly/locally roasted coffee will beat out almost anything imported, simply because of the strain that shipping puts on the beans. Still, if your need is great then it’s not a bad option.

    Thanks for stopping by.

  3. Ran into your blog today…I have an extraordinary obsession with coffee and just wanted to say these pictures are gorgeous. I visited a coffee shop in Long Beach, CA who roasted their own beans. Beautiful. Here in Peru, it is said we have some of the best coffee beans – the majority exported though. That to say, should you have the opportunity, it is worth a try.

  4. Grendel, three words… bring it on ! :) Although I’m pretty sure there is enough room in this town for the both of us. Say hi to Kamran for me, and let him know the new Mohka blend is spot on. If he hasn’t read it here already…

  5. Oh and Gretchen, thanks for stopping by, and thanks for your nice compliments. Although I don’t know a lot about Peruvian coffee, I have tried a number of different beans from there before, mainly in blends. Next time I do so I’ll be sure to pay more attention :)

  6. Sounds great. Hadn’t heard of them until you mentioned them in your post before, so thanks. Will have to try their blend sometime and we’ll be keeping an eye out for Fiori coffee around the traps.

  7. Happened to go past Peckish Cafe in Osbourne Park (on the street directly behind Ikea) today, and noticed that they were using Fiori (actually, it’s hard to miss that they’re Fiori coffee users). So we stopped and had lunch there.

    We quite liked what we tasted. The girl who pulled our espressos didn’t make them long and watery like you so often get. The shots were a reasonable length, not bitter and had some nice syrupiness (is this even a word?). The blend seemed quite nicely balanced. That was our first taste of Fiori, and we concur – good stuff!! And it also looks as though we’ve got another cafe to add to our list. YAY!

  8. Must say I haven’t come across that one guys, so thanks for letting me know, If I’m ever at Ikea and not in the mood for Swedish meatballs and lingonberry jam I’ll have to go take a look.

Leave a Reply to mattnbec Cancel reply