Just outside of Mareeba in the Atherton Tablelands, is a coffee and papaya farm. The family run plantation covers 470 acres, producing about 40 tonnes of green coffee and over two million of red papaya every year. We came to buy papaya but what we didn’t realise is that they also have a stunning restaurant with views over the fields (although not the papaya or coffee fields unfortunately). The sandwhiches were quite good and the service excellent. They also have two giant swings on the terrace that you can enjoy the view from.
Once you have finished eating, they have a large theater where they play a series of documentaries about the property in a loop. The first few are about coffee and the rest papaya. These were very interesting although it was almost impossible to hear what they were saying because the theater is right next to the coffee production area which, at least when we were there, was very loud. There, you can watch them roast the beans and you can also taste all of their different coffees. Rich, our resident coffee lover, noted that they are all heavily roasted but good.
The hot chocolate isn’t good and I’d recommend staying far away from it. We ended up brainstorming all of the different hot chocolates they could be offering here. The most obvious would mixing their coffee with chocolate in a mocha or other kind of coffee/chocolate mixed drink. They could have also played with their papaya. Maybe a papaya marshmallow? Papaya hot chocolate? Or serve the hot chocolate with a slice of candied or fresh papaya? So few places really think about how they can create a unique proposal for visitors. This was such an opportunity missed.
We were also disappointed that you don’t actually get to see any coffee or papaya trees anywhere around the cafe. There is one lone coffee plant near the toilets that everyone goes to take photos of. But overall, it was a nice stop and I’d recommend a visit if you are in the area.
