Archaeologists on Metro Tunnel discover perfectly preserved coffee beans

An incredibly rare find by archaeologists on the Metro Tunnel has debunked a common assumption and certified Melburnians’ long love affair with coffee.

Jennifer Porter and Megan Goulding with newly discovered relics of Melbourne’s coffee culture dating back to 1855. Picture: Jason Edwards

Melbourne’s love affair with coffee goes so far back it predates the light bulb, with archaeologists on the Metro Tunnel discovering perfectly preserved beans from 1855.

The find, one of the rarest of its kind, confirms that 167 years before people were ordering lattes in Collingwood and Fitzroy, Melbourne’s CBD was shipping beans from abroad and roasting them for a better flavour.

Archaeologists working on the project were digging up the historic remains of a grocery store near the site of Young and Jackson when they discovered a treasure trove of artefacts.

A fire at the store had perfectly preserved more than 500 coffee beans along with English biscuits, fruit remains and other perishables that would not ordinarily have lasted the test of time.

Archaeologists found more than 500 perfectly preserved coffee beans. Picture: Jason Edwards

The discovery confirms the historical record that coffee first became important to Melburnians as early as the gold rush, rather than the assumption that it was three or four decades later during the coffee house era.

Excavation director Meg Goulding said the items had been carbonised and preserved in a similar way to the ancient Roman city of Pompeii when it was buried under volcanic ash.

“It’s almost like the grocer locked up and left and then we get to see inside 167 years later,” she said.

“There’s nothing like this type of deposit in Australia.”

Melbourne had five different coffee roasters from the 1850s after locals shunned the bad flavours of the beans that were imported already roasted and ground.

The items had been carbonised and preserved in a similar way to the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. Picture: Supplied

“You’ve got the coffee roasters now where it’s very boutique … In fact, it’s been going on for a long, long time,” Ms Goulding said

Senior artefact manager Jennifer Porter said some of the beans appeared to come from Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, and a favourite type at the time was “Ceylon Plantation” which would have gone well with English biscuits.

Preserved biscuits were also found. Picture: Jason Edwards

“We often associate, because it was a mostly English population, that it was all tea drinking but after the gold rush coffee was the most popular breakfast drink,” she said.

“They had it either espresso style, which was often with a liqueur or sweetener that was kind of an after dinner drink.

“But for breakfast it was cafe au lait, which was a third coffee and two thirds milk.

“Certainly in the goldfields coffee was the most popular drink and apart from getting it from a grocer you could get it at little coffee stalls in the street.

“They were open all night until in the 1870s the council regulated it so that between midnight and 4am they had to shut because they were getting unruly behaviour.”

Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan said the Metro Tunnel was giving people an insight into the city’s past.

“The area surrounding the new state-of-the-art Town Hall Station will no doubt be home to Melbourne’s beloved coffee culture for generations to come,” she said.

Originally published as Archaeologists on Metro Tunnel discover perfectly preserved coffee beans