When Coffee is Your Life

I enjoyed these coffee graphics at Twigs Cafe in Trentham, Victoria (Australia) recently. They come courtesy of Grinders Giancarlo Coffee - a company established in Lygon Street, Melbourne in 1962, by two Italian coffee roasters, Giancarlo Giusti and Rino Benassi. They now operate out of a modern factory in Fairfield, Melbourne. Their beans are served in top cafes throughout Australia and they also back up their bean business with the supply of coffee-making equipment. www.grinderscoffee.com.au

Billboard of the Week

Christchurch October 2009. Ajr

I brought traffic to a stop when I paused too long at the traffic lights near Jade Stadium to get this billboard photograph. People are SO impatient these days. It was only a few seconds. Maybe they needed coffee?

U is for Underground

A Favourite Coffee Spot

Underground

(but not really)

Chrischurch

2009 Ajr

Morning Activity @ Strictly Coffee Dunedin www.strictlycoffee.co.nz A Dunedin Favourite And One of Mine Too

Coffee for the People

Wellington. April 2009. Ajr

One of my best little discoveries in Wellington this trip, was People's Coffee - specifically their dinky little cafe just off Cuba Street. Quite apart from the excellent, very friendly service and the interesting people coming and going, their 'lampshade' is definitely worth checking out - it's made of car bumpers all scrunched up and suspended from the ceiling. www.peoplescoffee.co.nz

Coffee Transforming Lives

Image supplied by Trade Aid

This is Adunya. He is nine years old and he attends his local primary school at Negele Gorbitu in the Yirgacheffe region of Southern Ethiopia. He is able to do so thanks to Fair Trade coffee and New Zealand’s Trade Aid organisation. In 2008 Trade Aid imported around nine shipping containers of coffee from the Oromia Coffee Farmers’ Co-operative Union – the organisation that Adunya’s coffee-farming parents sell their coffee to. The social premiums from those purchases alone will be enough to fund the construction of a new five-classroom school, which will provide more than 600 pupils like Adunya with an education. Without Fair Trade and buyers like Trade Aid, Adunya’s school would not exist. Fair Trade purchases also fund medical centres, drinking water and better roading in rural Ethiopia. www.fairtrade.net www.tradeaid.org.nz

The Collectors - 9

Coffee bag collection. Feb 2009. Ajr

Here's a different perspective on collecting - someone (in the coffee industry) who collects coffee bean bags. This collection started when the owner visited Seattle on a coffee trip and it grew even more when she visited Hawaii. Now the wall is 'coloured' bags from all over.

Cafe Hotspot

Blax, Christchurch, Feb. 2009. Ajr

It may not look it in this photograph but this little slither of a cafe - Blax Espresso Bar on Christchurch's Montreal Street - is one of the busiest and best you'll find in the city. It's the regular haunt of an army of regulars, who roll in every day knowing that barrista/owner, Darrell Piper is going to give them exactly what they ask for - sometimes in fact, they don't even need to ask; he just delivers! www.blaxdeli.co.nz

Coffee Lovers Rejoice!

Trade Aid, Christchurch. Feb 2009. Ajr

If the Trade Aid warehouse in Christchurch is anything to go by, we won’t be running out of precious coffee beans any time soon. This is just one wall of roof-high stacks of Fair Trade coffee beans imported from nine origins – Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Columbia, Peru, Ethiopia, Sumatra, East Timor and Papua New Guinea. It was reassuring indeed to stand among them all and to know that a favourite vice will be catered to for some time yet. Trade Aid in fact, imports three-quarters of New Zealand’s Fair Trade coffee beans – more than 686 tonnes annually (that’s 40 container loads) – and they supply more than 60 roasters nationwide. It’s all part of the Trade Aid philosophy of supporting coffee farmers to improve their livelihoods - to give them access to funds that in turn bring about basic improvements to their lifestyles. Every time Trade Aid buys five sacks of coffee in Ethiopia for instance, another child gets a shot at school they would not otherwise have. www.tradeaid.org.nz www.fairtrade.net

Coffee At Source

Photo courtesy of CENFROCAFE

And for those of you who have never seen coffee in its raw state – these Peruvian coffee farmers are members of the CENFROCAFE co-operative – one of the Trade Aid sources of Fair Trade beans. www.tradeaid.org.nz www.fairtrade.net

And Speaking of Coffee.........

Underground Coffee, Christchurch. Jan 2009. Ajr

After my posting about Underground Coffee a few days ago (scroll down) and in particular, their cool customer-designed takeaway coffee cups, I have become aware of Sport Stacking. What is Sport Stacking? You may well ask……turns out stacking cups is actually a recognised sport. It originated in Southern California in the 1980s and then a segment on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” in the 1990s gave it the boost it needed to take off. It’s True!

You can check the website – www.speedstacks.com

'Underground' Art Meets Underground Coffee

Underground Cafe, Colombo Street, Christchurch. Jan 2009 Ajr

Underground Coffee Company, Colombo Street, Christchurch. Jan 2009. Ajr

I love street art and I love coffee, so when the two come together I’m happier than a pig in mud. Christchurch’s Underground Coffee Company - so named because the operation started in a basement – has employed the talents of well known Christchurch street artist, Dcypher, to give both its roastery and its nearby café a colourful touch of ‘the underground.’ The walls of the roastery are bright and bold and with sacks of beans and plastic bins (also painted by Dcypher) stacked high, it’s a visual treat. A few doors down the café presents a lively, colourful environment that lends itself to loitering (over coffee) – upstairs and down.

I wish more cafes were brave enough to veer away from trendy, slick interiors that don’t always make the grade.

This is a great spot with a busy hum of satisfaction about it. www.undergroundcoffee.co.nz

Cup Stacks

And Then There Are The Cups..... Underground owner, Pete Davies found himself without his usual source of takeaway cups a while back and he ended up with a big order of plain white cups that weren’t about to inspire anyone. So what did he do? He ran a design competition for his customers and their best designs transformed those plain white cups into a unique brand statement. I’m always inspired by innovative lateral thinking and this seems to brilliant concept to me. I hope he’ll run the competition again - there's potential for all sorts of exciting things to happen. www.undergroundcoffee.co.nz

Creative Coffee

Lyttelton Coffee Company, Sept.2008. Ajr

As a writer and a coffee addict I was always going to relate warmly to the funky cafe atmosphere of the Lyttelton Coffee Company, where they have displayed old typewriters on the wall. I felt right at home. They've converted one of the town's old buildings into a great central meeting place - one I highly recommend if you want to get a feel for this quirky little port town.

Coffee Beans......

Coffee Beans

Freshly Roasted

@

Coffee Culture Sumner

http://www.coffeeculture.co.nz/

Meet the People - 9

Glenn Rewi, Sumner & at Oceania Games, Melbourne, 2006 for NZ

Another in the series Meet The People – Ordinary and Extraordinary New Zealanders Doing Interesting Things – It’s ‘Cycling Central’ at Coffee Culture in Sumner, Christchurch now that corporate banker and former competitive cyclist, Craig (Ski) Kiesanowski and four times Canterbury track cycling champion, current Canterbury road cycling champion and Stage 3 winner of the prestigious 2007 Tour of Southland, Glenn Rewi (pictured) have joined forces as the Café’s new owners. Glenn, a member of the Benchmark Homes Cycling Team, Christchurch, started working for Coffee Culture at the original Sumner store back in 1997. He managed it for three years and then took over as operations manager, roasting beans at the new Durham Street store in Christchurch. Now that he’s back at Sumner as joint owner, the café’s mini-roaster is also back in business. And if you’re one of the dozens of cyclists who frequent the café, you need never worry about being stranded with a flattie (tyre that is, not flat white) because Glenn and Craig have a full tool kit, tubes and tyres and they’ll have you back on the road in no time. www.coffeeculture.co.nz