The Origin Story
Border Squirrel started in 2019 when two mates — one a roaster, one a designer — realised that great coffee shouldn't require a trip to Melbourne. Working out of a converted shed in Byron Bay's industrial estate, they began roasting single-origin beans for local cafes and friends who wouldn't stop asking.
The name? There's a brush-tailed possum that lives in the jacaranda tree next to the roastery. It crosses the property border every evening at exactly 5:47pm to steal macadamia nuts from the neighbour. We called it the Border Squirrel. The name stuck.
What We Believe
Coffee is simple. Good beans, roasted well, brewed fresh. We don't complicate it with seventeen flavour notes or pretend every cup is a transcendent spiritual experience. It's coffee. It should taste good and make your morning better.
That said, we're fussy about a few things:
- Direct relationships — We buy from farms we've visited. We know the people growing our coffee, and they're paid fairly.
- Small-batch roasting — Maximum 25kg per roast. Our Probat roaster handles each lot individually, profiled to the bean's character.
- Freshness — We roast to order. Your beans are never sitting on a shelf. Roast date is printed on every bag.
- Sustainability — Carbon-neutral shipping, compostable packaging, and we carbon-offset our roasting energy. Not perfect, but trying.
The Roastery
We roast in Byron Bay's Arts & Industry Estate on a 1989 Probat L25 that we rebuilt over six months. The space doubles as a tasting room on Saturday mornings — drop in if you're in town. We'll make you a coffee and talk your ear off about extraction yields whether you want us to or not.
The Team
There are seven of us. Three roast, two pack and ship, one does the books, and one makes questionable decisions about the website. We also have a warehouse cat named Doppio who contributes nothing but morale.