New Zealand is a tiny, rural island at the end of the world, and this feeds very directly into New Zealander's conceptions of themselves as local-orientated, community centered, creative do-it-yourselfers. New Zealand is far away from the infrastructure of the world, which means that there's opportunity to create in a way that just isn't as practical for people from other counties. If something goes wrong, you can't call a handy-man to fix it; New Zealanders know how to do things themselves.
On Saturday, my roomie Federica and I went to Havana Coffee Roasters for a tour and tasting and learned all about the history of coffee in Wellington. It won't surprise anyone to discover that both Havana and the greater Wellington coffee scene plug right into the local, community-orientated, and creative New Zealand story.
Havana is named for Wellington's famous Cuba Street, which is itself named for one of the first settler ships to land in Wellington. It didn't initially roast Cuban beans, but it does now! The business' founders went traveling in the early 80s, as so many New Zealanders do, and discovered the cafe scenes of the world- shockingly, coffee culture didn't really exist in Wellington at that time. (Joe, our tour guide, said there were only 3 roasters in the city at that time. Now there's about 80!)
But not to worry: the founders came home and opened Midnight Roasters on Cuba street, roasting away. Right around the same time, in part led by this, coffee and cafe culture exploded in Wellington. I would argue that Wellington is now the coffee capital of the world. It has the largest number of cafes per capita, and these aren't Starbucks I'm talking about. New Zealand is a local and do-it-yourself place, so the vast majority of the hundreds of cafes in the city are local and do-it-yourself. There's are a few chains in New Zealand- Havana is one, and there's maybe 3 or 4 more- but It's rare to see an international coffee chain here. I've only found one Starbucks, and after my Havana tour I'm not sure if I ever want to drink it again! The coffee scene in Wellington reminds me a lot of the book scene in Chicago- every business knows each other an helps each other, and I think it's really beautiful.
But! Best of all, we got to learn about how coffee is processed! Coffee trees (coffea) are native to Ethiopia. They grow naturally in the bush under large trees, so the best coffee is shade-grown. One tree doesn't yield all that much coffee, but it will give fruit for about 60 years, so that's pretty good! So: coffee beans are actually grown inside berries, which take about 9 months to ripen. Each berry will usually hold 2 beans-- rarely, they'll have one, and these beans (called peaberries) have a different flavor and are very prized. After the berries are picked, they extract the beans and dry them. Then they're graded using this contraption:
The last step is cupping! The purchaser visits the "origin" and tastes the beans. The cupper inspects the beans, and then roasts them, grinds them, and immediately infuses them in boiling water. After letting it sit for a bit, the cupper then "breaks the crust" with the back of a spoon and takes a good long sniff of the delightful aroma. Then, he or she slurps the coffee-- the bigger and noisier the slurp the better in order to get it to every part of the tongue- and tastes it. Really experienced and talented cuppers can taste really minute differences, and apparently this is also how the correct roast and blend is determined for various coffees! I imagine that this is also how quality- and price- and ensured and decided upon.
Federica and I got to do it with four different beans, and let me tell you- you can taste and smell the difference.
After Federica and I left Havana Coffee, feeling VERY awake and alert, we stopped by Parrotdog Brewery to try their beers on tap. Parrotdog is another local and creative small business- their founders started their brewery in their apartment. They're doing a Rare Bird series at the moment-- they're crafting brews specifically tailored to the personalities of various endangered New Zealand species. I missed out on their Kakapo brew (crushingly) but I thought I was in luck when I went into the Parrotdog tasting room because they had a few bottles! But alas, no, they weren't for sale. However, their beer on tap was definitely delicious so that made up for my crushing sorrow. :p
Then Federica and I had a wonderful lunch at a bar on Courtney Place. I'm trying to convince her to come find a marketing job in Chicago. Anyone know of any opportunities for a multi-lingual and talented Italian woman? Hit me up.
Havana Coffee is right up there with Wellington Chocolate Factory, Garage Project Brewery, and a hundred other local and creative Wellington start-ups in making me feel widely inspired to do something I feel passionate about when I get home. I've got a lot to consider!