Sweet treats for the times

Café Cinema barista Shujing Piao with a couple of compliant gingerbread men. Picture / Peter de Graaf

Northland hasn't reported a new case of the Covid-19 virus for some weeks, but you just can't be too careful. That's why even gingerbread men aren't being allowed out without PPE.

The sweet treats, complete with icing sugar face masks, have been given away to customers ordering coffee at Kerikeri's Cafe Cinema since it reopened for phone and online orders at the end of level 4.

The cafe also gives away coronavirus biscuits - gingerbread biscuits in the spiky shape of a coronavirus.

Owner Matts Wickbom said the biscuits and masked gingerbread men, or pepparkakor in Swedish, were made to a traditional Scandinavian recipe.

"People love little gestures, and it cheers them up. If they think the coronavirus biscuits are funny, hopefully they will come back," he said.

Business had been slow since the cafe re-opened because there weren't many people around, but he was opening until 1pm and again in the late afternoon for takeaway pick-ups.

"But things are what they are. We just have to adjust and make the best of it that we can. Returning to what used to be normal could be a very long way away," he said.