The Truffula Seed

A year ago, Gabe Davidson, Stan Bicknell, and Joe Molloy (long time comrades in the coffee trade’s war on environmental destruction), set up their latest espresso project, The Truffula Seed. Inspired by Dr Seuss’s environmental cautionary tale The Lorax, the ideology is simple: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.”

So, on the far end of town where the grickle grass grows, and a worker of the department of sustainability goes, the trio decided that they would be that collective somebody. Initially intended purely as an espresso bar to serve the workers of 1 Spring Street, the humble venture has unintentionally become a bustling little café in an unlikely spot. So unlikely in fact, that unless you work in the building, you probably don’t even know of its existence, but you should.

Bringing with them almost a decade of experience running coffee ventures about town under the Octane brand (Mackillop Street, county court espresso cart, The Kitchen Cafe in Kensington), and having helped in the last two years to establish local coffee purveyor Social Roasting Company, these guys really know how to give you a professionally caffeinated kick in the pants.

It’s not an easy gig trying to save the world one coffee at a time, but damn it, they’re giving it a red hot go. They loudly advocate fair trade, and physically promote care for the environment by using recycled furniture and plant based Envirocups with cornstarch lids, whilst also initiating a pro-Keep Cup policy (you get a $0.30 discount if you BYO).  The coffee is 90% organic, with grounds being given away to customers for compost, and of course, no café is worth the reclaimed timber bench that it’s perched upon if they don’t use local and close-to-organic milk, Jonesy’s. Simple cakes and vegan cookies come from tiny baker Little Bertha, and with the stand not being plumbed in, they recycle 100% of their maximum 40L of waste water each day.

With pro-sustainability being a PR must in the industry, it’s nice to see a venture that views their environmental responsibility as a mission rather than as a marketing gimmick. So, it's green stars all round for good work well done- and extra credit for not being irritatingly smug about it.