Coffee Works Mareeba: Australia’s Coffee Capital Does Tastings

Mareeba’s district grows the bulk of Australia’s coffee crop, a fact that surprises most Australians, and Coffee Works is where the town celebrates it: a roastery, chocolaterie and espresso bar where the beans go from local farm to your cup within sight of where they grew. If you drink coffee, this is Mareeba’s non-negotiable stop.

What happens there

The espresso bar pours the local single origins every day of the week (early birds can even use the drive-by window from 6am, a very Mareeba institution), the chocolate kitchen hand-makes its range in view, described by the team as edible art created before your eyes, and the coffee liqueurs, crafted on site, come with free tastings for the curious. Note for returning visitors: the Coffee Works site no longer publishes a museum admission price, while the Mareeba Shire tourism site still lists one, so check before you count on it. Today’s Coffee Works is a working roastery, chocolaterie and cafe, and better for it.

What it costs, and the bit the internet gets wrong

This is where you need to be careful, because two sources disagree and only one of them is the operator. The Coffee Works website lists Mareeba under Opening Times and Admission with hours and no admission price at all. The Mareeba Shire tourism site still advertises it as Australia’s largest coffee museum and tasting experience with entry at AUD $22 for adults and $15 for children. We are not going to pretend that is settled. If you are driving to Mareeba specifically for the museum and the guided tasting, ring ahead on the day. If you are going for the roastery, the chocolate and the coffee, there is nothing to book and nothing to pay to walk in.

Opening hours, and the 6am drive-by

Coffee Works lists Mareeba as open every day from 8am to 3pm, with a drive-by service running from 6am to 9am for people who need caffeine before they need conversation. It is a very Mareeba institution and worth knowing about if you are heading out to the Tablelands early or making a dawn start for the gorge country. Do not turn up at four in the afternoon expecting a long lunch.

How long to allow

Forty minutes to an hour covers it comfortably: a coffee, a wander through the chocolate kitchen while it is being made, a look at the liqueurs, and the inevitable damage in the shop. Give it longer if you are tasting properly or buying beans to take home, which most people end up doing.

Getting there

136 Mason Street, Mareeba, about an hour from Cairns up the Kuranda Range. Coffee Works does not publish parking or accessibility details on its website, so if either matters for your visit it is a phone call rather than a website check.

Make it a coffee run, not a coffee stop

Mareeba Shire reckons more than 75 per cent of Australia’s coffee comes out of this district, which makes a single cafe stop feel like a waste of the drive. Skybury runs a working plantation with a cafe and free entry. Jaques Coffee does tours by appointment only, so that one needs organising in advance. String two of the three together and you have a genuinely good half day that has nothing to do with waterfalls, which is a relief in a region where everything else does.

If you cannot get to Mareeba

Coffee Works has shopfronts closer to town: 46 Spence Street in Cairns, Shop 5 at 32 Macrossan Street in Port Douglas, 21 Main Street in Atherton, a stall at Rusty’s Markets on Sheridan Street, and 49 Bundock Street down in Townsville. You get the coffee and the chocolate without the drive. You do not get the roastery, which is the actual point of Mareeba.

If you want a working roastery without the drive, Cairns has its own. Tattooed Sailor Coffee Roasters roasts at Bungalow, about ten minutes from the Esplanade, and one of its blends is nearly 70 per cent Mareeba-grown.

The verdict

Thirty minutes to an hour of caffeinated pleasure, longer if the tasting bench captures you, and the gift-buying opportunities solve several Christmases at once. Fold it into the dry-side loop with Granite Gorge’s wallabies and Mareeba’s heritage precinct, and you’ve built the Tablelands’ tastiest half day.

FAQs

Is Coffee Works still a museum?
The museum era has passed; it now operates as a roastery, chocolaterie and espresso bar with tastings. The coffee is the exhibit, and it’s a better show.

What are the opening hours?
Every day, morning to mid-afternoon, with a drive-by coffee window from 6am on weekdays. Check their site for current times.

Is Australian-grown coffee actually good?
Arrive sceptical, leave carrying kilos: it’s the standard trajectory. Mareeba’s beans are the bulk of the national crop for a reason.

How far is Mareeba from Cairns?
About an hour via the Kuranda Range, making Coffee Works an easy pairing with a Kuranda morning.

Find it

Header photo: Andrew Watson. Courtesy of Tourism and Events Queensland.