# Taste of NZ - Tasting 10/Sep/08



## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

I attended an event at Squaremile, alluded to in Chris's podcast and met up with approx 40 fellow coffee lovers, a mix of cafe owners, roasters, barista's and coffee nuts from around the globe.

There was an eclectic mix of people who descended on the new Squaremile Roastery for this event.

On trial were 4 coffee's roasted in NZ and sent across for evaluation.

The format was simple.

1 World Class Barista behind the machine making all shots (nearly 200 in total) 1 Whiteboard

40 enthusiastic coffee fanatics with millions of opinions about each coffee

As each shot of coffee was extracted it was devoured, discussed and recorded (if you chose to) for discussion at the end.

We didn't know which coffee was being served but this was revealed at the end, after a show of hands as to who though each coffee was their favourite.

The roasting and tasting notes from the roaster were read out to see how they compared to our evaluation.

This was a fun event and some great networking taking place throughout and after the tastings.

I met a dozen people whom I would dearly love to stay in touch with and will be visiting their cafes soon.

Events like this show how much passion there is for a good coffee and that there is a core group of people looking to expand their knowledge and make a difference.

Special thanks to James and Annette for hosting everybody and to making the evening very enjoyable.

My wife attended and although she is still getting to grips with espresso (she is more of a capp or flat-white girl) she got stuck in and had a great time.


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## chrisweaver_barista (Jun 14, 2008)

Sounds like a great event, wish i could've been there but it really wouldn't have been possible. Maybe for the Taste of the West Coast, (if thats right) in the future.

It's really great to see events based around espresso as well, a lot of events in england are based around cupping, not espresso, however in the US, they have 'spro downs and the like, which is a great idea to showcase the quality of the barista.

Chris


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## acousticcoffee (Aug 9, 2008)

Also attended Glen! We maybe need pics on here as I may have recognised you and some others had I seen your face before! Alternatively I suppose I could start being more conversational... lots of Kiwi's present!

I arrived late and missed the first 2 shots, generally thought of as best, but I tasted 3 and 4 and found them interesting, if a little bright for my taste.

Had a good chat with Gwilym and others and fell for the Synesso (If only I had a shop to put one in!) Thanks to Square Mile for encouraging education and bringing people together and I look forward to the westcoast experience


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## acousticcoffee (Aug 9, 2008)

is westcoast experience a great name for a covers band or what?...


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Dale, I remember speaking to you (or at least being briefly introduced to you)

I was (am) short, goatee, wearing the black New Zealand top (it would have been rude not to), my wife was there, and we were camped out by the roaster most of the night.

I was chatting to Brian, the photograher for a while during the 3rd and 4th shots.


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## SeamusMcFlurry (Jul 9, 2008)

I did see this event advertised, but too late, alas. I still need to get some Square Mile coffee ordered up. All I ever hear is good things!

But on an events-based note, I think that this is the type of thing we need to be doing in the UK; more events! I know Dane and I are setting up two seperate groups to tackle the total lack of coffee based events in the north, Third Wave Coffee UK for the consumer (run by me), and Barista Northeast for the barista (run by Dane, with me helping out). We're wanting to sort out jams, latte art throw downs, stupid but fun comps, then cuppings, barista nights, and 101 sessions for the consumers. Hopefully it'll make some kind of an impact.


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