PLANTATION · WET MILL · ROASTERY
This is not a sourcing story. It is a farming story.
Every Jaques bag begins on the family plantation in Mareeba, Far North Queensland. The trees, wet factory, roastery and dispatch operation share one working estate—and one standard to answer to.
THE WORKING ESTATE
Coffee with an address.
Approximately 85,000 productive Arabica trees surround the processing plant, roastery and packing operation. This is where origin stops being an abstract promise and becomes a place you can point to.
- CURRENT PLANTING
- ≈85,000
- Productive Arabica coffee trees.
- MAREEBA CLIMATE
- ≈300
- Sunny days in a typical year.
- ON-SITE ARRAY
- 470+
- Solar panels installed on the estate.
- TRACEABILITY
- From Here
- Grow, process, roast, pack and dispatch.
Mareeba sits in a high-sunshine landscape with a pronounced dry season. The family uses that seasonal rhythm and timed irrigation to encourage a concentrated flowering. More even flowering supports more even ripening—an advantage when the harvest moves through by machine.
The work is deliberately connected. Cherries come out of the field and into the estate’s wet factory, then progress through drying, preparation and roasting without losing sight of where they began.
A family still doing the work.
Nat and Linda Jaques arrived in Far North Queensland in 1979 with agricultural experience from East Africa. Their sons Jason and Robert grew up helping rebuild the plantation. Today the family story spans four generations, but the proposition remains direct: grow the coffee here and stand behind what leaves the gate.
A YEAR ON THE FARM
Mareeba runs on a different clock.
The estate’s calendar is agricultural: dry season, flowering, fruit development and harvest. The coffee in your cup begins with that patient cycle.
-
DRY WINTER
The trees wait.
During the dry period, water is carefully managed. That controlled stress helps prepare the trees for a more concentrated response when moisture returns.
SEASONAL RHYTHM
-
FLOWERING
The estate turns white.
After irrigation or rain, thousands of jasmine-scented blossoms can open across the plantation. Their appearance is spectacular and brief.
3—5 DAYS
-
WET SUMMER
The crop takes shape.
Green cherries develop through the warmer, wetter months. Field teams manage the crop and the next cycle of new fruiting wood at the same time.
8—9 MONTHS
-
HARVEST
Ripeness meets the machine.
A concentrated crop allows Coffee Shuttle One to work through the rows efficiently. Harvested cherry then moves directly into processing on the estate.
FIELD → WET FACTORY
