Whanganui coffee culture: Outlets join forces in Summer of Dis-loyalty campaign

Aiming to bring coffee, art and the community together are (from left) Hospitality New Zealand's Adam Parker, Origins Cafe owner David Morgan and The Village Snob owner Paul Harris. Photo / Bevan Conley

In 1967 San Francisco had the Summer of Love; in 2019 Whanganui will have the Summer of Dis-loyalty.

The Summer of Love brought people together as part of the hippy movement and the Summer of Dis-loyalty is also about collaboration, exploration and love. Love of coffee, love of art and love of Whanganui, that is.

Sue Dudman talks to Summer of Dis-loyalty co-ordinator Paul Harris of The Village Snob, David Morgan of Origins Cafe, and Hospitality New Zealand regional manager Adam Parker to find out why they want people to get disloyal.

Whanganui is experiencing coffee's "third wave" and a group of local coffee lovers want people to learn more about it and what Whanganui has to offer.

That's why they've got involved in the Summer of Dis-loyalty, a different take on a loyalty card where card holders are rewarded for being disloyal.

Starting on Sunday, December 1, five Whanganui coffee outlets will distribute the cards which require holders to buy a coffee at each cafe before receiving their "reward" (a free coffee at their choice of the participating cafes).

Why would business owners be keen on sending their customers elsewhere?

"We want to bring the community together and get people moving around the city to visit small, progressive coffee businesses and see a touch of street art, like the Whanganui Walls," Harris said.

The Summer of Dis-loyalty group hopes participants will take in some of Whanganui's street art as they move around the city. Photo / Bevan Conley

"We want to get people enjoying some of the beauty Whanganui has and to be able to market that to visitors. Come and check out what Whanganui has to offer in different corners of the city and get a feel for the vibe the city has.

"There are coffee businesses with an individual vibe. We are very habitual [about buying coffee] so this will mix it up and add a bit of spice to it."

Cafe owners often helped each other out and were seen working in other establishments, Harris said.

"Small business is a hard game to play and hospitality is a hard game to play so we help our mates out. Whanganui is a village. You get to know people and it's the same as seeing someone struggling to change a car tyre on the side of the road - you stop and help out."

Parker said the campaign is an opportunity to make people more aware of the hospitality scene in Whanganui.

Traditionally Whanganui had "a bit of a bad rap" in hospitality and in recent months it had been "slightly on the down-low", Parker said.

There was no real Whanganui hospitality speciality "so why not make that coffee", he said.

Harris said Whanganui was well-known for its arts scene but the hospitality scene was "a little bit suppressed in outsiders' eyes".

However, Whanganui was now seeing the "third wave" of coffee outlets, he said.

The first was coffee shops that used to serve "horrible" filter coffee while the second was started in Whanganui by the legendary Caffeine Fixx which lifted the quality of coffee available. The third wave is about specialty coffee.

"With the third wave, there is a focus on bringing the quality up a bit further industry-wide and a focus on single origin coffee - so you can be tasting coffee that could be from one farm in Colombia and you know about the farmer.

"It's basically craft coffee, like you have craft beer and wine and the craft gin scene."

Sustainability was increasingly important and UYO (Use Your Own Aotearoa Cafe Guide) is supporting the Summer of Dis-loyalty campaign.

"The community as a whole is quite big on moving towards sustainability - and coffee tastes better out of real cups," Harris said.

The cafes involved in the campaign sell a variety of reusable cups but also provide recyclable or compostable takeaway cups, Morgan said.

"At my business we try to reuse the takeaway cups as much as possible if people leave them behind and we plant them with seedlings," he said.

Harris said it was decided to start off small with just five outlets in the initial campaign, with a view to learning from it and increasing numbers in the future.

"Diversity is a big factor as you won't be getting the same coffee. We all use different coffees and though two of the cafes use the same roastery, they have different blends."

Morgan said the hope was to educate people enough to lift the quality of coffee they would buy.

"It's almost like a scavenger hunt but with coffee," he said.

The Summer of Dis-loyalty cards will be distributed by the participating cafes over the next three months, though there's no expiry date for using them. Participants are The Village Snob, Origins Cafe, Article, SourBros and The Citadel.

It was hoped social media would help the businesses by visitors following the cafes when they went home and help encourage them to come back, Harris said. People were invited to post photos on the Summer of Dis-loyalty's Facebook and Instagram when they visited the cafes.