From Colombia to Adelaide, El Jefe is a coffee liqueur with a difference

When Julian Gonzalez was growing up in the Colombian town of Bucamaranga, his parents noticed two things.

One, he was always asking questions. And two, he was a very fussy eater.

“My mum and dad always complained that I was so picky; I would always notice if things tasted a little different.”

In school, his curious mind was an asset that led him to a career in industrial engineering, but it was decades before he would find a use for his sensitive palate.

“I didn't drink coffee in Colombia even though I'm from a coffee-producing region,” he says.

“But when I came to Australia in 2010, I saw that it's a very social thing, people would always invite me for a coffee.

So I was curious and I became a coffee drinker because it was part of the culture.”

And every time he went back to Colombia, a friend who owns a prize-winning coffee farm would give him some beans to try.

He was unimpressed by the first few batches he made, but after researching different preparation methods he began to pick up the subtle aromas mentioned in the tasting notes.

In 2019 he decided to import and sell his friends' beans, but quickly found that local roasters had little interest in changing suppliers.

“My next idea was to open a coffee shop and let customers try the coffee, because I knew that it was good,” he recalls.

“But I didn't know how to roast the coffee, so I got someone to do it for me.”

Finding the results inconsistent, he eventually decided to do it himself.

“That was when I discovered I have a medical condition called hypersensitivity,” he recalls.

“I was able to pick up a lot more notes than most people when I was cupping and smelling, and I could sense defects too.”

Realising that his fussy eating habits were actually a superpower, he bought a Roastmaster machine and began teaching himself how to roast the coffee beans.

In October 2020, Cafetal opened on the corner of King William Street and College Road in Kent Town.

Despite the challenges of trading during the pandemic, Julian rapidly built a loyal clientele and began expanding his range. 

Cafetal uses completely different roast profiles for espressos and coffees with milk, and now sells 15 different lines of beans.

They have proved so successful that some of Cafetal's regulars have swapped their daily coffee runs for weekly visits to pick up a bag of beans, a development that Julian is thrilled with.

“50% of my customers don't drink coffee here now, but that's good because the real goal of this business is to sell the beans.

Hospitality is a tough business because the margins are small, there's a lot of risk and the costs go up every single year.

But it was a very good marketing exercise, because without the cafe, people would not be able to try the coffee.”

Moving further into takeaway products, Julian also produces a cold brew and recently collaborated with Reform Distilling's Jed Coffey to create a coffee liqueur called El Jefe.

Alongside the estate-grown Colombian beans, they used a type of unrefined cane sugar called panela that has strong caramel and molasses flavours.

Once they had all the ingredients, it took a year of tinkering before they were both happy with the results.

While many other coffee liqueurs have a sugar content of 30-40%, El Jefe clocks in at 9% to allow the more subtle notes of the coffee to shine.

“This is meant for coffee lovers to drink over ice, so you can really taste the flavours,” explains Julian.

The first batch of 100 bottles has already sold out, so Julian is looking at scaling up.

He recently purchased a new 15-kilogram roaster to increase production and eventually plans to create a liqueur for all 15 bean profiles.

“That way coffee lovers can try it in every way,” he says.

They can drink a traditional coffee with breakfast, have a cold brew in the middle of the day and coffee liqueur with dinner, all using the same beans.”

Visit today

10 College Road, Kent Town
W: www.cafetalcofeeco.com
I: cafetalcoffeeco/