I can simply not believe we are in April 2015 now and since August last year I didnt write a blog! Somehow time just went fast without me having time to sit down and write. We have been happily busy with new costumers, a new retailer and some trips.
So, this first post after a long absence is about one fantastic trip to New Zealand that I was lucky to do last October.
New Zealand nowadays has a great coffee scene. I was truly impressed especially considering that this was not the case in 2005 when I was there for the first time.
At the end of 2013 in Australia, where I went back after 8 years, I was surprised to see how much the coffee consumption had increased and the coffee culture had developed in all those years. New Zealand was not different in that respect.
I visited the 2 main islands, North and South, the capital Wellington, the biggest city Auckland and smaller places such as Greymouth or Geraldine. I can say, without risk of mistake, that you can find a good cup of coffee in any town in NZ. The bigger the town the more options, true. Wellington, the capital, has become famous for its coffee culture. A walk around the CBD and you would notice all the small proud cafes serving either their own roasted coffee or indicating the roaster and additionally the type and origin of the coffee. I wish we can have that in the Netherlands! So many times we can taste a nice coffee in a place and we have no idea of the origin of that coffee, and neither has the owner of the place!
As in Australia, I noticed that in New Zealand they prefer acidity in their coffees. But this was a bit of a mystery to me considering that for retail the biggest coffee offer comes from “the neighbouring” countries: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, but we have seen more exotic coffees like from the Solomon Islands, for instance. These countries grow Robusta coffee or not-acidic Arabica coffee. So where and how do they manage to serve coffees with high acidity?
Apparently the bigger coffee roaster companies prepare blends from coffees of Latin America and Kenya, Ethiopia and some neighboring countries. From Latin America, they mainly choose Colombia to add acidity and body or Brazil to add body and sweetness to their coffees.
Big coffee companies can assure a constant flow of coffee from Latin America for their blends, but since there is no direct shipping routes between Latin America and New Zealand and Australia, smaller coffee companies cannot easily get their hands on Latin American coffee and therefor look for coffee in the nearby countries.
The most characteristic way of drinking coffee in New Zealand is the flat white. Strictly speaking a flat white consist of 40 ml of double shot espresso and 110 ml of lightly textured milk (the texture of the milk is slightly thinner, more silky that for a latte). In reality most of the time the espresso shot is single and you end up with a weak milky drink. To solve the problem just make sure that you always ask for a double-shot flat white. And if you see that the cups used at a coffee place are bigger than 150 ml then ask for a triple shot!
I drank my favorite flat white at a nice cozy restaurant in Nelson called Ford’s.
The nature in New Zealand is amazing, the people are truly friendly and the new coffee culture just make New Zealand a paradise!
Cheers,
Lupita