KOKAKO

We Sure Like You Too...

Curved Corner Facade

Organic Coffee + Spiced Cauliflower Fritters

Open Sesame

A Coffee Safe Haven

The Handsome Open Plan Interior

High Shelf + High Heel Discussions

The Perfect Cafe Stool

View Of Roasters Depot At Rear

ALLGANICS Organic Apple + Fejoa Juice

Organic Potato Hash w Spinach,
Poached Free Range Organic Egg, Chopped Chives
Hollandaise & House Made Smoked Tomato Relish 

Scrambled Free Range Organic Eggs
w Toasted Sourdough And House-Made Salsa Verde

En Route To Upstairs

Like A Bauhaus Painting

Mugs + Peg Letterboard Pricing

Dhalias / Chrysanthemums + Flagon

Paper Bird Take Away Beans

A Bird In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush ......

 The Real Thing  x

#37 A Flea In Heaven

This Bird Has Wings

This is Kokako... the first certified organic fair trade roasters in Auckland, busy honing a fast growing reputation as New Zealand's most creative organic coffee brand a la mode. Standing apart from the generic crowd, you could describe this laid back roasters depot as the.......                     L     a     n     d            O     f            T     h     e            L     o     n     g             F     l     a     t            W     h     i     t     e .

Antipodeans are natural born instigators of coffee culture, instinctively knowing how to find downtime to visit their favourite coffee hub, while getting about their busy daily lives. Their philosophy..... to value time to think, to talk, to observe and to smell the flowers, while savouring the flavour of a freshly roasted brew. Without these life essentials they would ask What's the point ?

Even Magnus Magnusson might not have known New Zealand has more roasters per capita than anywhere in the world. So it is no surprise this relatively recent cultural obsession, and addiction to premium coffee, is now part of the social landscape of NZ history, and is already setting the benchmark to the world. 

The Kokako HQ has a prime curved corner spot on the Great North Road in Grey Lynn, a suburb of inner Auckland. Anyone who has navigated the Great Northern Run in the UK could presumably head here to run the Great North Road, the 2nd longest road in Auckland  and might be lucky enough to find a free cup of coffee at the finish line.

The interior space is beautifully conceived and full of good stuff. Good design, good food, good service, good roasting, projecting a sense of quality craftsmanship without any air of pretension. Open plan with a complete 360° view of kitchen, counter bar, cake cabinet, roastery depot, tables + benches and large industrial scale windows letting the natural light flood in. 

The native Kokako bird has distinctive cobalt blue wattles hanging from under its beak and is a hauntingly beautiful songster of the bush and only found in the North Island. Hence this brands distinctive graphics and store environ echoing these bright blue markings. 

The K brunch was perfect. The organic potato hash w spinach stealing the show and leaving a lasting impression.  Oh and the real reason to come, the award winning Rangatira coffee is great too.

This organic coffee brand has an impressive wingspan and is surely ready to embark on its maiden migration overseas. Though a great crooner, the native Kokako bird has short wings and a flight path of no more than 100 metres. However I suspect its namesake coffee brand has engineered the critical momentum to travel 12,000 miles. And then some.

These Ko-Ka-Ko folks also carefully blend their own Hot Chocolate using a Dominican Republic cocoa bean that is known to make the local north island girls swoon. Remember that tip at Christmas boys.

Staying true to my original principles if I genuinely love something  I will blog about it. 

I've started so I'll finish.

ps.  In the interests of New Zealand's Organic outriders I would like to flag up another NZ bird on a similar quest : Hummingbird Coffee

OZONE ROASTERS

London HQ Entrance

New Plymouth HQ Entrance

London Interior

New Plymouth Interior

Chilling Out In London

Chilling Out In New Plymouth

Empty Coffee Cup London

Empty Coffee Cup New Plymouth

Flagon of Water  London

Coffee Of The Month New Plymouth

Bull Dog Menu London

Tomato Juice London

Sourdough Toast, 2 Poached Eggs, Bubble + Squeak Cakes
London

Benedict Style Eggs, Bubble And Squeak Cakes w/ Bearnaise
and Portobello Mushrooms  London

Exiting Ozone New Plymouth

#36 Three Dozen

The Ozone Layer

This will be interesting. My first attempt at a pictorial blog covering two versions of the same place.  Ozone northern Hem and Ozone southern Hem. 

The Ozone team have been bringing sustainable, ethical, freshly roasted, single origin coffee to the people since 1998.  Certainly no flash-in-the pan jumping on the bandwagon tailgater.  These intrepid New Zealand Roasters held a vision from the outset to aspire to coffee excellence and achieve international recognition as a leading artisan coffee roaster. 

Ozone is also the first coffee roastery in New Zealand to have printed, biodegradable takeaway cups. For the coffee anoraks they also use German Probat roasting equipment.

The world is increasingly realising NZ roasters and baristas are continually producing some of the best coffee in the world, with coffee culture in NZ at the forefront of the industry internationally. Like all things of a specialist nature, the more a customers knowledge is expanded upon an artisan process, the greater their appreciation and loyalty.

Inevitably sustainable success in the modern day NZ economy means conquering your home turf and then taking your knowledge, momentum and specialist brand overseas to a bigger audience. To quote the founders " It's not about a New Zealand company going overseas to London it's about a parochial New Plymouth company"  

It seems to me the perfect cup of coffee is principally about the flavour and taste. But behind this taste is a passion, philosophy, education and dedicated engineering process that governs the success of those principles from the roast to the brew. A great brand is also about having a sense of purpose and a raison d'être and Ozone have clearly figured this out from the off.

The two head quarters of Ozone roasters are 11,511 miles apart. Intuitively they compliment one another, both for their commonalities as their points of difference. One offers grey sky in summer and the other blazing blue sky in winter. Weather aside, their calling card 'cup of coffee' is great tasting and fit for purpose, as any artisan roaster specialising in Third Wave Coffee should be. With the addition of an inventive and talented chef and full menu in London it makes Ozone London a place not to miss on the breakfast-brunch-lunch circuit.

info@ozonecoffee.co.uk

info@ozonecoffee.co.nz

Ozone London Map

Ozone New Plymouth Map

NZ Coffee in London: Flat White, Milk Bar, Caravan, Allpress, Ozone, Sacred Cafe + Kiosks, Bullet, Modern Pantry, Providores, Kopapa

NZ/Aus Coffee in London: Kaffeine, Lantana

NZ Roasters in Auckland/Wellington: Kokako, Mojo, Ozone, Atomic, Havana, Cafe Laffare, Coffee Supreme, Coffee Lab

NZ Roasters in Tokyo: Allpress, Mojo

NZ's first dedicated siphon coffee bar: Lamason in Wellington.

NZ Roaster of the Year: Coffee Lab 

NZ Barista of The Year: Gravity Coffee's Aymon McQuade

NZ Latte Art Championship Winner: Gerry Zhang

NZ Baristas are the pioneers of the 'flat white' - sorry for swearing, even starbucks are now doing a flat white.

Link to: NZ Coffee Festival

Link to: Handy Database List of NZ Cafes and Roasters

Link to: Harvesting Coffee Beans

* It is also possible to harvest beans from coffee plants grown in NZ, more specifically both robustus and arabica varieties are being cultivated and grown commercially. 

** In humans caffeine acts as a central nervous system stimulant, temporarily warding off drowsiness and restoring alertness. Hence its addictive tendencies and popularity.

CAFE GOVETT BREWSTER

Two Breakfasts, Two Flat Whites. 

Len Lye Strikes A Pose

Fresh Changeable Cabinet Of Seasonal Produce

Eggs Benedict With Toasted Ciabatta, 
Crispy Potato Rosti + Hollandaise With 
Bacon ~ Smoked salmon ~ Spinach + mushroom 

Sweet corn, Red Chilli And Coriander Fritter
With Bacon, Poached Egg, Baby Spinach And Tomato Relish

Cheese + Bacon Scones Strike A Pose

Take Out Flat White by CGB from Ozone Roastery

The Corner Graphic

Govett Brewster Cafe + Art Gallery 

Love Len Lye Pin Badges

#35 Jump and Jive

Kinetic Coffee

If for the last decade you have been sleepwalking in your PJ's, you might have missed the cutting edge coffee being discreetly served by New Zealand roasters. Having just returned from a trip to Aotearoa, it seems the perfect time to blog a few of my favourite food places in the southern hemisphere who serve freshly roasted coffee and to highlight those cafes smitten by wanderlust, who have already migrated across the oceans to set up shop in the northern plateau.

Coffee is kind of massive in NZ in a laid back unpretentious way. They even have their own  NZ Speciality Coffee Association.

So whats the big bean addiction ? Mainly an ingrained desire for great tasting fresh roasted coffee. Served with fab tasting quirky combinations of seasonal food produce to indulge your senses and amidst the sort of relaxing, quality assured, lived-in-habitat where you feel so at home, you want to move in statim. 

This first blog focuses on the popular Cafe Govett Brewster already an institution in New Plymouth, the starry night city snug under the dazzling Mount Taranaki, located on the west coast bubble of the North Island. 

CGB is located adjacent to the Govett Brewster Art Gallery, the home of the permanent Len Lye gallery and guardian of the Len Lye Foundation and Archive. This artist is considered a genius to those that know and if you don't know, you will discover his work occupies its own unique space in the art world and is unforgettable.

The cafe offers wide open sky spaces with a sun drenched aspect, being only a short dash from the award winning coastal walkway. The coffee is roasted across the road at Ozone headquarters who I will be giving their own airspace in a future blog. Their Kinetic coffee creates its own unique force of motion.

The menu at CGB is inspired for breakfast, brunch or lunch and with a side of 'target word' from the Taranaki Herald, the morning blends seamlessly into midday. All the staff are lovely here. If I was a traveller I would have scribed a cross on the kerbside to signify my recommendation..... or perhaps it should be a koru.

The deepest southern hemisphere has the advantage of being mixed cultural, with an array of influences and ingredients continually progressing the cuisine. Coupled with a New Zealander's genetic inclination to innovate, experiment and tread new ground, the cafes serve food which occupies the enviable space of being so far away from the generic homogenisation of the western world, they are able to maintain their own barometer of influence as a secret gem.

This innovative leaning is demonstrated by CGB's star plate of Sweet corn, Red Chilli and Coriander Fritter, with Bacon, Poached Egg, Baby Spinach and Tomato Relish. Words can not describe how perfect that tasted at 11am, so I wont try to elaborate.

We followed our regular morning visits to Cafe GB with trips to see Julian Ward's photography at Puke Ariki, the T'Art gallery and a swim at the aquatic centre with indoor and open air pools facing the wild rolling sea.  A rad experience to start your day.


Cafe Govett Brewster Like No Other.