Australia's best coffee of 2025 has been crowned

The search for Australia's best coffee is over.

This week, the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW (RAS) crowned Australia's best coffee of 2025 at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show.

Coffee Mentality in Brisbane has taken out the top prize of "champion coffee" with a score of 92 out of 100.

The local brand took out Champion Coffee for it's Auditory Blend, one of their nine locally produced, sustainable blends.

Jack Murat's coffee grown in Mareeba, Queensland, was awarded silver in the same category with a score of 85.67.

Over 81 hours of tasting and judging was conducted with the help of 110 expert judges, with thirty-seven champion medals awarded including best coffee.

In total, the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show awarded 312 Gold medals, 549 Silver and 434 Bronze medals.

All products entered into the Sydney Royal competitions must be made from at least 85 per cent Australian ingredients, with the aim of celebrating Australian produce and agriculture.

Coffee Mentality founder Ian Abadiano has been running his cafes for the past 13 years.

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"As far as I know in Brisbane we're the only ones who do the whole integration of coffee, so from farm all the way to drinking coffee and making them," he tells nine.com.au.

"So we do have a roastery here in Balaclava Street and then we've got four other locations."

Abadiano used to work in finance at a bank before making the move to coffee.

"My wife said, 'You work too hard. You might as well work for yourself.'"

They decided to buy a coffee van and eventually opened a cafe.

It was when they began sourcing, growing and roasting their own beans that they began building what Abadiano describes as a "small community built up with using our coffee beans".

"I really wanted to actually help other people start their own businesses," he adds.

Abadiano now operates three cafes as well as related businesses that produce the coffee used in them.

They also run their signature coffee tasting experience that showcases their farming methods, roasting techniques and the "biodynamics of coffee production".

"As far as I know we're the only ones who do the full integration. The coffee that won us the award, we actually worked with Griffith University to work with specific genotypes of coffee creating design for Australian conditions.

"We also work on the other end of the production, which is the post-harvesting, where we actually design coffees in a way that works to our liking."

Their most popular cafe seller is a flat white, followed by a latte. The starting price of their incredible beverages is $6.

"When it's summer people go for a long black and in the winter time or the colder period people go for more wholesome drink with more chocolate. People move from cappuccino to mocha."

When it comes to making good coffee, Abadiano says it's all about "the preparation and the knowledge that you have around coffee".

"Because with us, we have nine blends. You don't make it the same way. So that's the preparation, knowing the product, knowing the machineries that you have, knowing the skills ... and then of course the process.

"It's just a matter of recipe, ratio, and then how do you present that as well."

Personally, Abadiano drinks "a lot" of coffee.

"I always have my short black first up in the morning. That sets up my day. Then I have my long black, which actually gets me going.

"And then whatever the guys give me, which is very likely with milk, and we have our cupping sessions, we've got our tasting sessions. So sometimes with milk, no milk, and now we've just finished our tasting event with the Alternative Dairy Company.

"We will be working with them with our signature drinks."

Producing coffee from farm to cafe locally has helped keep prices as low as possible.

"The margins are now shorter than they were before, but the Brisbane population is not as big as Sydney and Melbourne where ideally you can have the luxury of increasing that a lot more to be on par.

"We have to be careful as well because there's not much population and you lose a lot of customers."

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Most Aussies are happy to pay a little more for a good coffee, and Coffee Mentality's customers are a loyal group.

And for Abadiano, it will always be about producing excellent coffee locally.

"That's why we have our tasting experience. We like to have to spend a little bit more time.

"We want the coffee to be a bonus."

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