Roasting the competition
A coffee roasting company is reaping the benefits from opening the window to their scientific approach for turning green coffee beans into flat whites.
Arrosta in Palmerston North, which won its second bronze award in the Australian International Roasting Awards this week, is tapping into the growing Kiwi coffee culture with its espresso bar, which draws inspiration from the hugely popular Melbourne coffee scene.
Self-proclaimed coffee nerds Simon and Kirsty Fowler have run the company for about 10 years and take pride in telling customers to their Victoria Ave shop the origin of each bean from sight.
But it wasn’t until late 2015 that they got into roasting, which is now a key part of their business.
They opted to make the process open to their customers, with a large window through to the roasting room.
‘‘We are really interested in sharing the coffee process with our customers. People are becoming more coffee savvy... and I think that a lot of it has to do with the amount of travel we do overseas,’’ Kirsty Fowler said.
At first, she was roasting by herself, but now they have Chris Monk and James Mckenzie helping, roasting up to four days a week.
Monk played a key role in the day-to-day running of the business and said being involved in the roasting made the job more special.
‘‘When this opportunity became available, I just grabbed it with both hands.
‘‘It has opened my eyes up to what we do in developing that little green bean into something that people appreciate. It is so rewarding.’’
They roast beans from Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Brazil and Ethiopia in batches and then mix them to create a signature flavour.
Kirsty Fowler said the time they have spent working through the process made the accolade in Australia all the more special.
‘‘That is benchmarking ourselves against the rest of the world.’’
Their home-blend coffee picked up the bronze in the milkblend category.
‘‘We know that we have such amazing milk here in New Zealand, that we roast it in a way that complements the sweetness in the milk and that it cuts through it.’’