NAKED Bean owner Patrick McSweeney's passion for good coffee started in an unlikely spot - on a mining site in the north west of WA.
In 1982, Patrick moved to Australia from Ireland and as a trained engineer he started working up north on the mines where he stayed for five years.
While on his days off in Perth, Patrick would buy the best coffee he could find and bring a supply with him back up north so he could enjoy a good coffee and get through those long shifts.
"At first, I was mocked endlessly by the other workers about my coffee snobbery," Patrick said.
"I guess it wasn't viewed as particularly manly to get right into coffee but soon enough after I began giving the properly brewed coffee to my mates to try, they started wondering when I was going back to Perth to get some more and asking me casually whether I was making any of 'that' coffee for the night shift.
"I guess at the time, especially right up north, the idea of proper coffee was relatively new so I started thinking and it all just kind of grew from there."
Years later, after following his love of coffee through a trial and error process which included learning the art of coffee making and coffee roasting from a friend, Patrick's first foray into the coffee industry was the now renowned "Coffee to Go" brand of which he was the original owner and creator.
His idea of custom fitting a van and turning into a portable 'barista' was a huge success and for several years he made a living travelling to all the country and agricultural shows and all major regional events.
After a time, a desire to be less on the road and to spend more time with wife Mary and his children led Patrick to selling his Coffee to Go business and look into a more stable and lifestyle friendly business which revolved around his passion.
That is where the move to the Great Southern came in, marking the start of a journey that would lead to the Naked Bean.
The well-known premium coffee brand has gone from strength to strength since opening its doors 10 years ago and Patrick says the key is to have complete dedication to producing the very best quality coffee possible day in and day out.
"If you want to achieve success in the hospitality industry you can't just be lukewarm about it you need to absolutely love it and be passionate about it," he said.
"The way I started I wasn't driven by money.
" I just loved coffee and I think if you have the self-motivation to be a perfectionist when it comes to your passion you will succeed because people see that enthusiasm coming through in your product.
"I always knew that I wanted to get into the coffee/hospitality game in the country rather than the city.
"There are more than 50 brands of coffee in Perth alone and to be able to compete on a business level with that requires a lot of selling and pushing your product to various outlets which I just had no desire to do.
"In a country environment I was able to build a reputation for absolute premium coffee and also build a rapport with our customers and I think this is a vital facet to any hospitality business.
"I think you lose that capacity to some degree with a bigger city clientele because people are in such a rush and there isn't a lot of customer loyalty because there are just so many places you can go."
Patrick doesn't profess to be an expert when it comes to business but one attribute he does say he has is the ability to pick a good location.
"I never had any big plans in terms of business it was more something which just developed into what it is today," he said.
"However I have always had a nose for choosing a location and I felt that Albany was a big enough centre while still maintaining a country feel but with the capacity to grow."
After gaining further experience in the hospitality industry through his second business venture, McSweeneys Gourmet Café in Denmark, Patrick then started the Naked Bean in Peels Place, Albany, and after several years there, moved premises to the more spacious light industrial area of Sanford Road where he could incorporate his roasting machinery in the warehouse adjoining a cosy, cafe style shop front.
Now, the brand is renowned across the State with the enterprise including wholesale, shopfront and internet sales.
Patrick has made it his business to source his coffee beans from only the very best plantations in the world and finding something that little bit different.
"I use brokers in Sydney and Melbourne to source beans from all over the world including South America, Africa and Papua New Guinea," he said.
"The volatility of the coffee market means that we need to secure our contracts around every three months in order to ensure we obtain the best beans we can buy.
"All our coffee is estate grown or AA grade which means that the quality is extremely high.
"The beans we source are all Arabica grown at high altitude which makes the bean naturally lower in caffeine as opposed to low altitude grown beans which are naturally higher in caffeine."
Patrick believes his success has come from the attention he has paid to the particular origins and environmental treatment of the beans which in turn reflects the quality and is filtered through to the very coffee which his customers drink.
"The thing about having such high standards is that you have to continue to have those high standards at all times," he said.
"You cannot slip back any time because with coffee, once you have a bad experience you tend to not go back."
With this in mind, unlike many coffee establishments, Patrick buys his beans green and roasts them on the premises.
This is an art he says learnt more by trial and error than by methodical process.
"It's one of those things which really needs to be perfect otherwise it can really effect the taste," he said.
"It is also expensive so if you burn it it's costly," he said.
"Something that not a lot of people do is calibrate their machines regularly to ensure it is getting the best extract possible.
"My staff and I check this every morning to make sure it is correct."
Another drawcard to the Naked Bean premises is the commercial kitchen where Mary makes all of the cafe's cakes and slices.
A trained chef, Mary's cakes and slices go beyond the usual cafe fare and one would hazard a guess that the combo of some of the best cakes in town washed down with one of the best coffees in town is truly a winning combo.
The Naked Bean has now begun trading online and Patrick said a lot of their internet buyers were people based in the more remote country areas who enjoy good coffee and can't necessarily get regular access to it.
"Our country customers are very loyal and it is great that we are able to supply them with coffee when they can't always get in to buy it from the store," he said.
"The online thing is a small but slowly growing part of the business.
"I'm not too fussed if it's not too big because I think with internet business you lose that personal contact with your customers."
With the roasting, online sales and shopfront sales, the amount of coffee that the Naked Bean goes through is about 3000kg a month and based on the consistent and steady stream of customers that come through the door all day this number is sure to increase.