Ordering a coffee
It’s TeWiki o te reo Ma¯ori, and coffee lovers around the country might find themselves being served amo¯wai or ra¯te instead of their usual flat white or latte.
But that’s nothing out of the ordinary for regulars at Lower Hutt’s Espresso Rescue, which encourages customers to place their orders in te reo Ma¯ori all year round – not just one week of the year.
Owners Conrad Adams and Becca Faulkner said their te reo journey began in earnest when they were invited to serve coffee at a hı¯koi to mark the start ofMa¯ori Language Week two years ago.
They loved the experience, but felt embarrassed by how little te reo they could speak. So they got their menus translated, had them printed and laminated, and they’ve been a permanent feature on both their mobile coffee caravan and container site on Woburn Rd ever since.
‘‘We can really only speak ‘coffee language’ in te reo Ma¯ori but we give it a go, and we just encourage anybody who is coming to order coffee to have a go,’’ said Faulkner.
When Stuff visited the Espresso Rescue container on Woburn Rd, barista Kaea Kerkin (Te Aupo¯uri, Nga¯puhi) was greeting customers in te reo and asking ‘‘ he aha ma¯u?’’, or ‘‘what would you like?’’
Customers were able to reply using language guides posted at
the counter, with Kerkin, who studied Ma¯ori as an elective at university on top of her architecture degree, helping out with pronunciation.
Adams and Faulkner said the response had been overwhelmingly positive, with some customers even making special trips from Porirua so they