Hawke's Bay coffee culture making leaps and bounds, says roaster

Bay Espresso owner Chris Jarvis says coffee culture in Hawke's Bay has changed for the better since he established his first cafe. Photo/Paul Taylor.

Coffee culture in Hawke's Bay has changed a lot since Chris Jarvis joined the game 14 years ago.

He started with one cafe and now has four outlets, which have grown as the quality and sheer quantity of cafes in the region has increased.

"Without a doubt when we took over Bay Espresso on Karamu Rd there were very few businesses that were making good coffees whereas now Hawke's Bay is doing a fantastic job.

"People from out of town come and, whatever their perception is, I think we do a good job of removing a perception of backwater new Zealand."

The growth of the population and people's expectations of coffee had driven this change, he said.

"If you were an average cafe serving average coffee a while back you're possibly not in business now or you've really had to adapt to making really good coffee."

Hawthorne Coffee managing director Tom Ormond said in the 12 years his establishment had been making coffee, improved quality was also the biggest change he had seen.

"It's become more and more quality-driven as time has gone on and that is by the availability of higher quality beans. Technology has also played a part with advancements in roasting technology and baristas are getting better and better."

Ormond said coffee in Hawke's Bay was on par with that found in the country's biggest city centres.

"I definitely think we compete with the big guns in the big cities. Our coffee down here is just as good, if not better, than a lot of what is going on in the rest of New Zealand."

While there wasn't a distinct coffee culture in Hawke's Bay, establishments had different twists on the products depending on how owners had been influenced, Jarvis said.

"I think everyone steals from everyone else. You take trips to Auckland and Wellington and have a look at what they're doing, pick out the bits you like and you do it yourself."

One point of difference Bay Espresso has was that it had always roasted organic and fair trade beans from Trade Aid.

"We had a choice right at the start about what we would do. For a couple of extra bucks we could use coffee that had a greater traceability so we knew where the profits were going.

"Not every system is perfect but you have a better understanding about where your money is going. It's not all going to the middle man. With fair trade coffee you're dealing directly with the co-ops."

Bay Espresso roasted 350 kilograms of beans each week, the bulk of which was used by its own cafes, sourced from across the globe by Trade Aid, he said.

Despite beans originating in countries as far as Nicaragua, Mexico and Ethiopia Jarvis wasn't sure customers saw value in coffee being organic and fair trade, adding it was difficult to charge a premium for it.

"In the early days, 14 years ago, we were one of the very few coffee roasters that just solely roasted fair trade, organic coffee in New Zealand, let alone Hawke's Bay.

"Now it's far more common and in some respects it's kind of expected with social changes that have happened over the years where we're all expected to do our bit."

While it was clear locals loved a good cup of joe, coffee would never achieve the same notoriety the likes of wine had in the region, he said.

"It's not grown here, it's grown somewhere else. You go to gimblett gravels and there's 20, 25 years of painting a picture about the quality of grapes out of the gravels.

"Every time you talk, you're talking about what it's like, limited supply and those sorts of things. At the moment that's not the case with coffee."