31 Coffee culture

Coffee culture

Coffee puritans know just how they like it. But as methods of extraction have broadened in recent years, caffeine fixed Britt Coker ponders, should our minds broaden too?

TESS JAINE

There’s no disputing it - we lot love our coffee. Here, it’s never more than a short walk between café choices no matter which street you’re standing on, and even on a hot day in summer you’ll find coffee cart queues at our region’s fairs and festivals. We can boast about the roast too with many loyal followers of bean baggers like Pomeroys, Sublime, Kush and Zumo, Raglan Roast, Rabbit Island, Celcius and Crossbow. For a population of our size, that’s a lot of coffee sack cushions and lampshade covers. And when you show this kind of devotion to the bean, it’s inevitable that niches form as a way of standing out from the crowd.

Zippy’s Vanguard Street coffee and lunch bar is only four months old and is a small place, about the size of a compact office. Which is exactly what it was before it was a coffee bar. It has your run-of-the-mill street access (customers like that kind of thing), but inside, there’s a door through to the neighbouring bicycle shop that Zippy helped set up with his friend, Nigel. “Let’s turn the office into a plant-based lunch bar”, he said, so they did. Now, if you ever desire a bike and a vegan coffee at the same time, this place will feel like a convergence in an alternate universe. Zippy has been a vegan for 18 months and has put his coffee milks where his mouth is. He stocks five different plantbased milks – oat, soy, almond, macadamia and coconut, and doesn’t charge more than what you’d pay for a normal coffee elsewhere, nor any price difference for a large or small serving. This is a business model that goes against the flow, but then, so does a coffee shop that doesn’t stock cow’s milk. But word is getting out amongst the plant-based milk fans and vegan cycling peloton - and even traditionalists are coming back for seconds. Zippy at his Vanguard Street coffee and lunch bar.

Zippy recalls day two of business when a tradie walks in. “He said he wanted a full cream mocha and I said we don’t do cow’s milk here. He looked a bit disgruntled, but I made him a mocha with oats milk, chocolate sprinkles and vegan marshmallows and he walked out the door with a bit of a grunt. I thought, well I’ll never see him again. A few days later he walked in and said, “gidday mate, give me the usual!” Now he’s a regular, visiting twice a week for his chocolatesprinkled usual. Besides being a vegan or liking Earth, is there any good reason to drink a plant-based beverage? Ex-barbecue chef, Zippy reckons animal fats greatly affect the flavour of many food dishes and the same holds true of coffee.

“When you’re blending any product together [with animal fat] you’re manipulating the flavour of the hero ingredient. What we’re trying to do here is to hero the coffee but create an amazing flavour experience that’s balanced and consistent.” Zippy measures every shot he extracts to keep the consistency. He says a lot of baristas do it, aware that tweaks need to be made in the process as the day warms up. This watchful eye on the extraction helps ensure the customer’s coffee tastes the same on this day as it did the last. There used to be a quirky Hardy Street café/restaurant called Zippys once, but this isn’t it. Nor is it connected. But there’s an offbeat nature they share and though tracking down frothed macadamia milk is not akin to discovering the source of the Nile, if that’s your kind of exploring you’ll find Zippy’s a rewarding expedition end.

Meanwhile, across town, one of Nelson’s most successful coffee roasters, Sublime, has opened a bar where the brew is not beer, but filtered coffee. Well known for their roasted beans (75 outlets in Nelson Tasman) and Haven Road espresso bar, Emma and Dan Hennah have set up a brew bar that honours the filtered coffee.

In the 16 years since the couple began roasting coffee, they’ve seen the rise and fall and rise again of coffee preferences. Dominating the 80s and 90s office kitchens were instant and filter coffees. Then we got a whiff of a cappuccino sprinkled with chocolate dust and never looked back. A little bit of European sophistication infused our souls as we sat al fresco with the sun on our faces, breathing in car fumes and smiling benevolently at our companions’ frothy milk moustaches. Finally, we were really living. Then, not so long ago, caffeine innovators proved once again the cyclical nature of trends and the fickleness of the human spirit as they cast a thoughtful glance behind them and declared filter coffee deserved a second chance. Naturally, this begs the question from any flat white-supping investigative reporter, “good Lord, but why?” There are several reasons, says Emma. “Rituals are coming back into coffee making. Espresso is made fast and consumed quickly whereas a filter coffee can take a while to make and you build up a bit of a ritual sitting around. People are eeking as much as possible out of their coffee moment.” “A great espresso coffee is usually a blend, whereas filter coffee draws less acidity so you can accentuate more of the delicate flavours of a coffee. It’s a really popular method to use for single origin coffee which is a trend people are really starting to look at…It’s a very clean way to drink your coffee.” At Sublime’s New Street Roastery & Brew Bar they offer a tasting board featuring three different origins, or filtering methods. Folks who wander in for an espresso won’t find one, but Emma says they encourage visitors to give filter a go and get plenty of repeat customers through the experience. Ritualistic and more flavoursome, Emma says there is one more reason people switch to filter over froth. The cost. Sublime sell a lot of filter coffee machines to homeowners because, compared to espresso machines, filter is less of a financial outlay for the aficionado who wants to make a decent cup of Joe without leaving the house. Staying at home is another trend we’re seeing a lot of these days.

Get it while it’s hot! Said no nitro coffee brewer, ever. That’s because nitro coffee is made by steeping a single original coffee grind for 12-24 hours in water, before infusing with nitrogen to preserve its flavour. While anyone can steep plunger coffee in cold water overnight, as well as maintaining the beverage quality for longer, nitrogen is purported to improve the flavour and texture of the brew and bring out the sweetness. Slade Andrew has been cold brewing nitro coffee for a couple of years and his coffee car has a regular spot at the Isel Twilight Market. Service is quick because he doesn’t have to make a hot coffee but he reckons efficiency works against him and makes people suspicious. An orderly queue is comforting. Plus, he’s still got a lot of explaining to do. He finds people equate a cold brew to a hot coffee that’s gone cold, or an iced coffee but without the ice. If they are as brave as they are curious, Slade reports the conversion rate as high. “I’d say about 99 out of 100 love it as soon as they try it. I get the odd customer who says ‘it’s not for me’ but the majority think it’s great and come back for another one.” Slade stores then pours his nitrogen infused coffee from a 19 litre keg and serves the drink in a glass (“I’ve only lost one”). The result resembles a Guinness stout, complete with the thick head (crema). An affogato option comes with a scoop of Appleby Ice Cream which starts at the bottom of the glass but scoffs at gravity as it floats to the top. There is less acidity and more sweetness in a cold brewed coffee so Slade finds that an espresso drinker who likes a hot coffee with milk and sugar will try his cold black coffee and enjoy it. He reckons coffee drinkers in the 40-50 age bracket are the most reluctant to trial a cold brew, whereas 20-somethings haven’t yet built lounge shrines made from recycled coffee bags in deference to the espresso gods. And then there are those folks a little closer to meeting their maker who are also keeping their options open. “My oldest customer had a walker. She was easily in her 80s or 90s and after trying it she said it was the best coffee she had ever had in her life.”

Now that’s a bittersweet tragedy no coffee lover should ever experience. So, whichever way appeals, why not get out and try it made a different way? Just in case you too find the best coffee you have ever tasted, and hopefully, well before it’s your last.