merito.co.nz

Hi All,

We are going to be focusing most our blogging back to the Merito website so please feel free to visit our posts here.

Thank you.

Coffee General

Check out Coffee General

 

Established in the early days of 2012, Coffee General looked to bring together some of the finest coffee New Zealand could offer. We wanted to remove some of the boundaries, bringing the coffee from across the country to one place, and open up your world to exquisite coffees.

 

In addition to the coffees available we also offer non-pressurised brewing equipment to allow room for the coffee to shine, highlighting some of the subtleties and complexities often masked in the espresso process.

 

Whether you like your coffee darker or lighter, sweeter or stronger, we hope to have something for you.

 

http://www.coffeegeneral.co.nz

 

Our Brew Blog Site

Our Brew is a site where a collection of New Zealand’s leading baristas and coffee aficionados review, and comment, on cafes, roasteries and New Zealand coffee culture.

Their aim is to support local cafes that are really doing well for themselves, and the industry, by producing great coffee in a pleasant setting. Also, to provide you with a greater knowledge of the coffee industry and the local events that take place.

Current contributors include:

Hans Pronk (Owner/Barista, ME Coffee Boutique/Merito Espresso Roastery)

Everyone is welcome to enjoy the site and free to leave remarks, especially on any cafe’s reviewed or that others think should be looked at.

A Coffee Weekend

Auckland Museum plays host to this years coffee festival as part of the Kai to Pie exhibition. this Sunday (19th Sept). With local roasters and cafes presenting varying brewing methods and nationwide entrants into the coffee awards, this should be a great event. Rumor has it that Scottie Callaghan, Australian Barista Champion and 3rd in the World Barista championships, will be joining in on the weekend action.

Presentations will include Syphon demonstrations from Barista Empire, PourOver from Espresso Workshop and Affogatos by Kokako, among others. There will also be a mosaic of 3000 coffee’s created, screenings of coffee films and panel discussions.

Get along on Sunday from 10am – 4pm to check out the action.

-H

ME Coffee Boutique

Yes, ME Coffee Boutique is now open and proudly serving Merito Espresso.

Located on the corner of Albert and Wyndam Streets at 2/72 Albert, Auckland Central. Serving great coffee and light snacks too. Come by and check ME out.

See you soon,

-H

WBC 2009

Well Done GWILYM DAVIES from the UK for taking out the coveted World Barista Champion title for 2009. What a spectacular performance, and enormously brave – allowing the judges to select their own signature beverage from a selection of 4 from 16 ingredients. This result also sees the third consecutive win for Square Miles coffee, 2007 Tokyo was James Hoffman, 2008 Copenhagen was Stephen Morrissey and now in 2009 Gwilym used two single origins roasted by Square Mile – STELLAR EFFORT!

Courtesy of worldbaristachampionship.org/2009

A huge appreciation also goes t0 the other 5 finalists;

2nd place Sammy Piccolo Canada

3rd place  Michael Phillips United States of America

4th place Colin Harmon Ireland

5th place Lee Jong Hoon Korea

6th place Attila Molnar Hungary

Also, it must be said that Carl Sara of New Zealand did such an amazing job with his performance, Mark Prince of coffeegeek had a few strong words regarding this disappointing outcome, it was a sad moment to not see Carl make the finals – well done though mate!

Amongst all the competing itself, it is incredible to see the calibre raised year on year by the competitors. Whether it be new extraction methods or bean variations, it is always exciting to watch, and learn from, these competitions. In addition, the stream of new surprises from manufacturers, such as Marco with the Uber Boiler and Slayer with their new machine, all help develop the understanding of coffee and enlighten us with new aspects to coffee – enough to keep me excited for now.

-H

NZ Barista Championship Finals

Today saw a great number of coffee lovers come together to perform, taste and appreciate great coffee. Hosted in the classy C4 roastery in Christchurch with a great atmosphere all day long.

The day started at 10am for the competitors with their briefing from Emma – after a quick reminder of the does and dont’s, it was then straight into practice time.

The event was initiated with the opening welcome from the NZCRA president, Chris Dillon. After a few sponsor mentions and the introduction of the judges, it was time for the calibration performance from Lawry Trewavas of Espresso 2 Go.

The competitors then competed in the following order

Robert Hulse – Planet Espresso

Frank Hsu – Mojo Coffee

Hideyuki Kono – Vivace Espresso

Carl Sara – Muffin Break

David Huang – Espresso Workshop

Nik Bruce-Smith – Muffin Break

Nick Clark – Mojo Coffee

Richard Legg – Sage Cafe

Judges:

Convener: Chris White-Altura Coffee 

Head Judge: Emma Markland Webster-Atomic Coffee Roasters

Tech 1: David Burton-Burton’s
Tech 2: Andrew Feldon-Streetwise Coffee

Sensory 1: Scott Pepler-Cerebos Gregg’s
Sensory 2: Jessica Godfrey-Caffe L’affare
Sensory 3: Brydon Price-Atomic Coffee Roasters
Sensory 4: Justin Metcalf-Somewhere in Aussie….

After a long day the finalists were announced at 5:30pm. Each and every one of the competitors did an amazing job, they are to all be commended highly – it is not an easy thing to get up in front of 7 Judges and a roastery full of people – well done.

Congratulations:

3rd David Huang – Espresso Workshop

2nd Hide Kono – Vivace Espresso

1st Carl Sara – Muffin Break

 

The full set of photos (approx 450) is available on CD for $25 – email me hans (at) meritoespresso.co.nz