Inka Coffee North Cairns: Fair Trade organic coffee from Peru

This Cairns coffee lounge is brewing a taste of the Andes with organic Peruvian beans shipped straight from the family farm to the Far North.

WAGNER Torres knows his beans.

The Peruvian born coffee aficionado has brought his family’s highland-grown coffee more than 14,000km across the Pacific to roasted and brewed onsite at new North Cairns coffee lounge, fittingly called Inka.

Inka is the retail arm of Inka Coffee Wholesalers, from where Mr Wagner and partner Carla Dawson have been supplying Far Northern hospitality businesses for the past 18 months.

The coffee lounge is a chance to give commuters and local workers a chance to taste the fresh roasted beans by the cup.

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The single origin beans are carefully stacked in 70kg sacks in an insulated, temperature and humidity controlled store room.

“You won’t find a lot of single origin roasts up here,” Ms Dawson said.

The beans have been sourced from Mr Wagner’s family – who have been growing coffee in the Andes “for generations.”
He is proud and protective of the Fair Trade beans, which are grown in bird friendly farms.

“I won’t blend them, my family would kill me,” Mr Wagner said.

“Coffee farmers don’t get paid very much in Peru; we pay double the price to the farmers down there.”

“It costs more to bring the beans from Brisbane to Cairns than it does from Peru to Brisbane, which is sad,” Mr Wagner said.

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Inka have started making inroads in the Cairns coffee scene; the couple’s new lounge is intended to firmly stamp the Inka blend onto to Far Northern palates.

“It is a very competitive market, but we are starting to get there,” Mr Wagner said.

Like many new ventures, COVID slowed Inka’s expansion but the couple instead donated money back to Peru to help fund aid packages to slums in the port city of Chimbote.

Inka sells green beans and three varieties of roasted beans; Salsa medium roast, ideal for short blacks, Amor medium/dark roast, a richer and chocolatey roast that can carry a cappuccino and Rumba dark roast, also sorted to milk based brews but with a heftier kick for that afternoon slump.

“You can store these in a cool dry place, they are fresh and keep for six months,” Mr Wagner said.

Inka can be found at the Holloways Beach Seaside Markets, held on the second Sunday of the month, and the coffee ;ounce is open Monday to Friday, 6.30am to 1pm, at Shop 5, 450 Sheridan Street.

Originally published as Inka Coffee North Cairns: Fair Trade organic coffee from Peru