ST Ali - Setiabudi One

In 1999 speciality coffee didn’t exist in Melbourne. And then when 2005 rolled around we were at the forefront. Brimming with potential. Bursting at the seams. We were what better tasted like. What misunderstood looked like. We were labelled pretentious but really we were just curious. Led by Salvatore Malatesta, we broke through the wall with speciality coffee and brought it to the masses. We built up a head of steam. We worked harder, stayed up later, and said yes to things that no one thought possible.

We wanted to unlock the potential and educate people on coffee, which had fast attached itself to the daily routines of every working person in every country in the world. And so when 2005 rolled around, we thrust Melbourne into the international spotlight. We weren’t just making the best coffee in the country. We were making the best coffee anywhere. Salvatore put together a team of people who were inventive, driven, dynamic, and unfazed by popular opinion, and together, we searched through South and Central America, Africa, and Asia for coffee beans that were highly rated and in demand.

We got there early. We found the rare finds. Then we built a renowned wholesale coffee business on the back of our coffee institution, St.Ali, in South Melbourne. Not only did we innovate in the way beans were sourced, packed, cupped, and shipped - we found new ways of preparing them. First, it was in doing the classics better. Then filter coffee. Then the way it is ground sourced and produced.

In 2017 the St.Ali family is proud to preserve a stable of rare and unusual talent. People prepared to break the status quo and sail into the headwind, led not by trends and fads but by the pursuit of bettering the way we grow, grind, serve, and provide.