Once upon a time, there was nowhere to get a really good coffee in Adelaide’s west. Now there is. The place is called Coffee Branch and there are bikes hung on the walls, but don’t let that distract you from the important bits of the store – things like the lovingly crafted beverages made just how you want them. Owner Josh opened the store mid 2010 after fourteen years in the hospitality industry and having nursed a dark, secret passion for coffee-making for quite some time.

Almost immediately after the store opened it was full of people buying coffee. Part of the appeal, says Josh, is his ability to create “the atmosphere of a bar without the alcohol”. Even at 7am this is strangely true, with great music flowing from the speakers and much mingling between strangers. Coffee Branch is a place to meet people you don’t know but want to know, and to become addicted to coffee which is made of beans from Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Columbia and PNG – blended with local milk by hearteningly interesting people with personality oozing from their pores.

The secret to Coffee Branch is honesty – if you tell Josh what you really want that’s what he’ll make. Fine, old fashioned hospitality.