NZSCA

Emma McDougall is the Communications and Administration Co-ordinator of the NZSCA.

Make it count

The NZSCA has faced changing lockdowns and delayed multiple events. It speaks to association members about their struggles and strategies as they ride the COVID wave.

Every time we begin to write an article for BeanScene’s bimonthly column, the landscape changes. We’ve weathered two years of being the “Hermit Kingdom”, building resilience, and heroically keeping the pandemic at bay. The best laid plans have been ripped up time and time again. We’ve rescheduled dates for our Latte Art and Cup Tasters Championship’s four times. Many of our community events have been cancelled. Business is down, and currently in New Zealand, daily COVID-19 cases are hitting six figures.

It’s an incredibly weird, unpredictable world to be living in.

The only consistent is that tasty brew of coffee in my cup. And right now, every cup counts.

In a world where staff shortages, high overheads and working from home is encouraged, hospitality is haemorrhaging. We reached out to our members to shout about them. We positively want to spread the message on what keeps them going, their unique challenges and what they would like to see in the industry in the future. We were surprised and excited about some of the answers.

Ken Shi from from Aoraki Coffee in Hampton Downs said, “we love coffee and are passionate about it.” Ken has ambitious plans: “we will be one of the best coffee roasters in NZ one day. The quantity of coffee we have produced from the first year of roasting 30 kilograms weekly is now up to 300 kilograms weekly.” From humble beginnings, Aoraki continues to embody humility in its approach.

Foundation Coffee has a succinct approach: “we make life easy for our customers – simple but it works.” CEO Jaime Galloway says a lot of people don’t realise that it also sells and services a range of Italian domestic machines alongside its business-to-business larger automatic machines. Another thing Jaime has noticed is that that “there is not enough education about the real cost of a cup of coffee”. This is something many of our other members agree on.

Paul Harris from A Bunch Of Snobs, has noticed a huge uptake of coffee machines infiltrating local businesses, as has many in the hospitality industry.

“[People think] ‘we have a spare corner, we better put a coffee machine there’ no matter the business,” Paul says.

He enjoys working with partners who care about ethics and believes that as coffee drinkers, we can influence positive change. “Sustainability, (ethics and environmental) led to our subscription business, which is based on the desire to share the importance and impact of initiatives being enacted at origin and beyond,” he says.

Aside from serving great coffee to customers, Sam Taylor of Kõkako really believes his business is making a positive change in the industry. “We have a great likeminded team who care about their impact on the planet, are passionate about specialty coffee and bringing innovation to the category,” he says. Sam adds, “we love seeing other roasters taking steps towards more sustainable practices.”

Technology and sustainability is also a big focus at Kaffelogic. John Robson, Cofounder and director elaborates, saying his packaging has been designed with little or no plastic, as has the home roasting unit itself. Kaffelogic has been designed with the “right to repair” movement in mind, meaning the product can be easily serviced and/or repaired by the consumer.

Connor Nestor describes New Ground Coffee as a company that specialises in product development and contract manufacturing of shelf-stable ready-todrink coffee products. Innovation drives them.

“The constant development of our company and the parts that make us are our drivers. Every department has its own innovation projects and those are the fun part of what we do, from product development to operations processes to streamlining customer service,” Connor says. “[We make things] simple, achievable and enjoyable for us and our customers to benefit,” he says.

In spite of the most intense period of trading to date with multiple lockdowns, levels, lights and phases, our NZSCA members are showing the way forward. Connor sums up the ultimate goal: “We’re looking forward to the world opening up again so we can go visit our favourite roasters overseas too.”

We encourage you to support the people who are innovating, sustainable and inspiring. Driven by caffeine, we will continue to make every cup count and one day hold an elusive championship.

For more information on the New Zealand Specialty Coffee Association, or to join, visit www.nzsca.org