Every coffee brand says it started with a passion for great coffee. Ours actually did, but it started somewhere a bit more ordinary than a boardroom: on the sidelines, watching our sons play together, moaning to each other about how hard it was to find a genuinely good bag of coffee beans.
Two dads, one shared obsession
Altura began with two friends whose sons happened to be best mates. We'd known each other for years through school pickups and weekend football, and somewhere along the way we realised we shared an unreasonable amount of enthusiasm for coffee, the kind of enthusiasm that means you've got opinions about grind size and roast dates, not just a preference for a flat white over a latte.
The more we talked about it, the more we noticed the same gap. Properly speciality coffee, the kind graded 80 or above on the SCA's 100-point scale, was either hard to find, absurdly expensive, or sitting on a shelf for months before anyone bought it. We wanted something better: coffee sourced properly, roasted fresh, and priced fairly. So we decided to just build it ourselves.
Starting small, staying serious about quality
Neither of us came from the coffee industry. What we had was stubbornness, a genuine love of the product, and a refusal to cut corners on where the beans came from. Every origin we chose had to be grown above 1,500 metres, the altitude that gives coffee cherries the time they need to develop real complexity in flavour. It's part of why we called the business Altura in the first place, Spanish for altitude, and a nod to the whole reason our coffee tastes the way it does. You can read more about why that matters in what speciality coffee actually means.
From local following to something bigger
We started small, roasting in small batches and selling mostly to people nearby who were willing to give an unknown brand a chance. Word travelled faster than we expected. What began as a local following turned into something we could genuinely build on, and it's what gave us the confidence to take Altura beyond our immediate area and build this online store.
The commitment hasn't changed even as we've grown. We still roast to order rather than sitting on stock, we still work directly with growers we trust, and every one of our four roasts, Cruise, Peak, Ascent, and Drift, gets the same standard applied to it, no shortcuts.
Start your morning right
That's really what this comes down to. Two dads who wanted better coffee, and enough stubbornness to go and build it. We're genuinely grateful to everyone who's supported us so far, and we're just getting started. If you're new here, welcome, and we hope your morning cup is a bit better because of it.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Altura Roast?
Altura was founded by two friends whose sons are best mates. Both were passionate about coffee and saw a gap in the market for genuinely good, fairly priced speciality coffee, so they decided to build it themselves.
Why is it called Altura?
Altura is Spanish for altitude. Every bean we roast is grown above 1,500 metres, which is a huge part of why our coffee tastes the way it does, so the name reflects the whole philosophy behind the brand.
Is Altura Roast still a small, independent business?
Yes. We started with strong local support and have grown from there, but we still roast in small batches to order and work directly with the growers we trust, the same approach we started with.
Start your morning right.
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