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The scoop on the Tortoise's big move

Welcome to The Nugget, a 24k gold newsletter about Castlemaine's people and events

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The Nugget
January 24, 2025

★ MEET A LOCAL COFFEE SPECIALIST ★

Lloyd “The Tortoise” Meadows

Tortoise Espresso is on the move. Lloyd Meadows isn't comfortable calling his coffee operation a Castlemaine institution, but it is. And it's about to level up in a big way.

This is the last weekend for regular service through the coffee window on Templeton St. before Tortoise Espresso moves into a bigger shell with Table Records at 14-16 Hargraves St.

The businesses will be separate, but with lots of connections. The large retail space will have a modular divide that can be opened up for collaborative events.

Because we all love coffee and music. And bagels.

"If you want the scoop, the plan is to do bagels,” Lloyd says. “That's gonna be our food. Nice, easy lunch options."

Wheee! Love. This.

What a progression for the kid who started out selling coffee with FireBean at the Wesley Hill market at the tender age of 14.

In those early days, Lloyd didn't drink coffee. He just wanted to be able to earn a bit of cash and do latte art.

"Latte art was all I was really interested in. I was into drawing. So that was kind of my gateway, I guess, and that's what brought the passion,” Lloyd says.

“I enjoyed the job because I wanted to push myself to get better at latte art.”

This is a thing to know about Lloyd. When he becomes interested in something, he goes All In.

"Gradually I was like, oh, actually, I can drink coffee and it's alright. I kind of just forced myself and drank enough of it, like exposure therapy. I started liking it and then started really liking it."

Cue Lloyd's descent into the YouTube rabbit hole into all things coffee.

"I bought a really accurate scale and started weighing the doses. At the time, the reception was a little bit like, 'All right. All right Lloyd.' But after a while, I think it kind of made sense,” he says.

The adults in Lloyd's life could see he was on to something. A family friend was leasing office space in what is now The Hub on Barker St. It came with a kitchenette that had previously been run as a coffee window when it was a restaurant.

"He offered me the space when I was 16. Essentially the deal was that I would make coffee for him and his staff and get this spot to run as my own little café,” Lloyd says.

"I spoke to the school (Castlemaine Secondary College). I had done some VCE subjects early, so I had some gaps in my timetable and I essentially worked it so that I had all my classes in the afternoon. I ran the coffee shop from 8:00 AM until 11:00 AM and then rode to school and did Year 12 to the end of the day. They were really accommodating about it."

That was November 2019. Six months later, covid hit.

Tortoise Espresso was open on and off through lockdowns while Lloyd finished school. He did a stint in Melbourne working with some guys who were really into frozen coffee.

He found that his approach — conversations over slow, high-quality coffee — didn't go down in Melbourne the way it did in Castlemaine.

"People just wanted their big takeaway latte so they could get on their way to work. I really valued my experience in Melbourne and the people I was working with were really great for pushing me to get better and improve my skills, but I don't miss the atmosphere," Lloyd says.

Castlemaine, where you can get from A to B in less than 7 minutes, is different.

"Being able to really curate your own vibe and atmosphere, based on your ethos and business model, I think is really cool. Castlemaine is really receptive to that. You can go against the grain and the people who appreciate that will find you and keep coming back along."

Lloyd, an OG Castlemaniac who grew up here and went through the local schools, says this town has been good to him.

"I love it."

Lloyd had the proper country kid experience, growing up at a property on Forest Creek with heaps of space in the Chewton bushlands to run around and get grubby in.

Music got him through the teen years.

"CSC has a great music program, so I just learned heaps of instruments, and played in lots of bands as a kid,” Lloyd says.

“I have always had things that I've been passionate about and that can be enough extracurricular entertainment, but I know that there's a massive population of pretty uninspired youth that are probably unsupported in the town.

"Having third spaces that exist for teenagers, particularly, so that they don't end up going around stealing cars is really important."

Teenagers, coffee lovers, people with dogs, prams, little kids and people with mobility concerns will all be welcome at Tortoise Espresso's new location.

"They are all a big part of the clientele and we want to make sure we are really accessible to them. There's a courtyard space, we'll still have the footpath and there's a ramp."

Lloyd is going to hold on to the lease for the Templeton St. kitchenette and coffee window and will mull over how to use the space in future.

"It's not a proper goodbye just yet, which I think is probably helping me not feel really emotional about it,” he says.

“This is the place where we've sort of grown this business from very little into a... I don't know that it's quite an institution... but you know. It's gotten a lot bigger than I expected it to be, or I think anyone else expected it to be, from a 16-year-old doing this little hobby business outside of school hours.

"It is a bit weird to be moving away from it and doing something different."

Change is scary but we are here for it because this is how we tortoises evolve.

Let's get out and give Tortoise Espresso all the love during the last official weekend service at the Templeton St. coffee window and get set to celebrate the new space on Hargraves in early Feb.

❀ SUMMER ZEN ❀

I want to give a shout out to local visual art photographer, Wendy Maher. She shares gorgeous images that capture the light just so. This one drips with summer. Makes me want to go lie down in the grass at the Bot Gardens and stare at the sky.

♡˖ EVENTS ˖♡

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