FUELING UP: Aurum Espresso Coffee Roastery owner Lychelle Adams jumped at the chance to be the sole coffee bean provider for Horse of the Year. Photo/Paul Taylor.
By Anneke Smith
FUELING UP: Aurum Espresso Coffee Roastery owner Lychelle Adams jumped at the chance to be the sole coffee bean provider for Horse of the Year. Photo/Paul Taylor.
As a local horse rider and business owner Lychelle Adams was only too happy to jump in the saddle when asked to be the sole coffee bean provider at the 2017 Horse of the Year.
Born and brewed in Hastings, Aurum Espresso Coffee Roastery was responsible for keeping event attendees fuelled for the action throughout the week.
"Lauren from Horse of the Year rang me and asked if she could meet with me. She said they wanted to keep someone that was local and actually had an interest in it. We've got horses so it was like "Yeah, absolutely! I'm intending on being there anyway!"
In the weeks leading up to the event Aurum Espresso spent ten days preparing enough resources and stocked just under 400 kilograms for the six days ahead.
"Knowing what we need for ourselves in a standard week, and we've got the farmers market each week as well, we just thought better to over prepare than under prepare. So we prepared just short of 400 kilograms," she said.
Owning several race horses and a hack, Mrs Adams said it was nice for her local business to have a presence at Horse of the Year; giving her a chance to see the event from another side of the fence.
Aurum Espresso beans were used for each coffee sold from the six coffee carts scattered around the Hawke's Bay Showgrounds.
Mrs Adams said coffee sales had been good in spite of the grey, rainy weather.
"So far I think they've actually gone well for everybody as far as the whole sales side goes and actually being able to provide it's gone reasonably smoothly."
"People like coffee and horsey people are actually alcohol people so they drink at night and they drink coffee all day. Energy drinks and coffee seems to be the normal."
By Friday night more than 200 kilograms had been used for the event, however Mrs Adams said it hadn't bolstered sales significantly.
"It hasn't really made a huge difference to us because we're supplying it at wholesale rates regardless and because we're a boutique grocery the margins are quite slim to be able to keep it affordable for people to purchase," she said.