Havoc coffee

Sheryl Abbott was up a ladder painting her shed black 12 years ago, when she said to her partner, “what we need is a coffee roaster.” The random idea turned into a business. A German coffee roaster arrived 3 months later, and the Black Barn became the home of Havoc Coffee. Sheryl sources Fairtrade beans from Brazil, Columbia, Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea. The beans are roasted at her lifestyle block on the outskirts of Whanganui and personally delivered to local cafés and individual customers. At the River Traders Market on Saturdays, the coffee queues are long and the best seller is River Rush, a strong and grunty Brazilian coffee. Sheryl only drinks one cup of coffee a day herself and says the public is becoming more educated about coffee. “I tell people to go to a local roaster and buy little and often. It’s like bread, best straight from the oven.”

73 Westmere Station Road. 027 441 2640, havoccoffee.co.nz