After a monumental trip around the world Greg Hall found himself back in New Zealand and in need of something to sink his teeth into. Three years of recipe development later and Kohu Road Ice Cream was born, and what a success it has been. The ice Cream already has won numerous accolades and rightfully so. It is simply “the best ice cream I’ve ever had”.

We are honored that our coffee is being represented by people with a passion for their product just like our passion for ours.

www.kohuroad.co.nz

We had the great pleasure of being an exhibitor at the inaugural Melbourne International Coffee Expo. Held over 4th, 5th and 6th of May the Expo hosted a raft of coffee industry participants, all there to be involved in the first event of its kind in Australia. The whole event was dedicated to coffee, not food and hospitality, just coffee. Roasters, cafes, technical support companies, packaging, espresso machine brands and most things you can think of to do with coffee were there, including the finals of the Australian Barista Champs.

We were proud to be there representing both Chemex and Slayer over the three days. We had a blast brewing loads of Chemex and espresso on the Slayer for the attendants of the expo. We had some delicious La Esmeralda Special Geisha and Burundi Kiriyama on the Chemex side and the Abbotsford Blend on the Slayer.

Over the course of the three days we met some great people and had a ball doing it. Thank you for all those who came along. We look forward to seeing the development of this event and hope to see it on again in the future.

The second installment of the Burundi Kayanza Gatare release was a Sunday morning treat at our Douglas St brew bar. Guests were invited to come along on a Sunday, when were normally closed, to enjoy a treat on us. Upon arrival each person was presented with a tray with the mornings copy of The Sunday Star Times wrapped with a poster and pencil and delicious Little & Friday doughnut. Step two was to move along to the brew bar where the team were brewing fresh Burundi Kayanza Gatare and filling up the mugs. A good read, a treat, and an amazing cup of coffee all on the house.

A huge thanks goes out to one of our great customers Little & Friday for supplying with doughnuts and The Sunday Star times for the papers. Thank you to all who came down for the morning, we hope you enjoyed it.

You can buy the Burundi Gayanza Gatare through either our online store or one of our three retail locations; Douglas St, Customs Brew Bar or Woodward St.

We’re really excited about the new designs on all our single walled takeaway cups as well as the addition of the 210ml cup. A collection of beautiful hand drawn and painted icons adorn the cups accompanied with our logo. There’s 6 designs in both the 285ml (white) and 400ml (black) and four on the 210ml (red). With the addition of the new 210ml cup we are now able to offer a takeaway option thats more inline with a serving in a ceramic cup.

So if you pop into a Supreme cafe or one of our locations and get a takeaway coffee you might see them in the flesh.

To celebrate the arrival of the latest addition to our Rare & Interesting menu, the Burundi Kayanza Gatare, we chose to pull some people together. The first was on 10th of April at Customs Brew Bar, where syphons were being made and cold beers were drunk.

We’d like to say thank you for all that came along and we look forward to doing it again in the future.

Part 2 coming soon.

We work pretty hard to create enjoyable spaces with our locations and we’re glad other people like them too. Take a look here.

Historically Burundi has not been a coffee drinking nation. It also has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the poorest nations on earth, and has endured more than a decade of civil war (only having recently ended in 2005). Yet despite this, the country is discovering a way to rise above these circumstances by making a solid name for itself in the International coffee scene.

90% of the population rely on farming as their main source of income with coffee being by far their biggest export. Burundians have realised the great potential in coffee production, and with the freeing up of the coffee sector, Burundi has been able to build stronger ties to the international market. Producers are now more organised, having formed smaller co-operatives which work alongside washing stations – all in the effort to help drive up the quality of the coffee produced.

As well as gaining widespread attention throughout the specialty coffee community, Burundi is the second East African nation to host the coveted Cup of Excellence competition. Their first event is due to be held later this year.

In preparation for introducing a new country to the COE competition, Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE), in conjunction with the producing nation, hold a trial run called The Prestige Cup. As in is the case with Cup of Excellence, The Prestige Cup invites an international panel of cupping judges to score and rank the coffees in preparation for a global auction.

This competition not only celebrates the best coffees in Burundi, but also provides opportunity for development of professional cuppers. (USAID, Burundi Agribusiness Program (BAP), and the East Africa Fine Coffee Association (EAFCA), in collaboration with ACE, runs the Burundi cupping training program). The feedback from these professional tasters is pivotal in assisting producers’ efforts in raising the quality of their coffee as well as adding more clout to negotiating direct sales contracts with specialty coffee buyers.

Mark Dunden from Silo, a green bean importer in Melbourne, travelled to Burundi last year. Mark’s journey to Burundi was not only for the purpose of participating as a judge in the Prestige Cup, but to also take the crucial step in starting some first hand relationships with producers and exporters.

Silo secured the Kayanza Gatare, one of 22 auction lots from the winning coffees of the Prestige Cup, and we are very excited to be able to bring it to New Zealand to share. It’s the first time a coffee from Burundi has featured here at Coffee Supreme. We look forward to seeing the continual development in the Burundi coffee market, as we’re sure many more great things are still to come from this nation.

The Burundi Kayanza Gatare will be available through all our retail locations, Customs and Woodward St in Wellington and Douglas St in Auckland, as well as through our online store from the 16th of May.

The prize includes 4x 33 Cups of Coffee tasting journals from Portland, OR and 250grams of our new coffee, the Carlos Imbachi, from Colombia. Packs are worth $43 each and there are 2 to be won.

Competition Rules:
If submitting your photo via Twitter use the hastag #CoffeeSupreme. The winning photos will be chosen based on how well the photo captures the enthusiasm of the group. In this instance a group is 3 or more people. Winners will be contacted via the same method they used to enter the competition. Prizes will be sent via courier (at Supreme’s expense) to the winner’s nominated address. New Zealand addresses only. Prizes are as is. Prize drawn at 3pm 20/3/2012.

*We will be sharing all photos online, so please make sure everyone in the photo is comfortable having their picture taken for this competition.

Coffee producer Carlos Imbachi has become well known within the specialty coffee world for his exceptional quality coffee. So much so that his coffee was voted the SCAA’s Coffee of the Year in both 2009 and 2010. Carlos’s Finca Buena Vista is a 9 hectare farm located in the municipality of San Agustin, south of the department of Huila. It is planted with Caturra and yellow and red Bourbon trees at an elevation of 1,810 masl.

Carlos Imbachi personally manages the farm, making sure that the pickers only pick the ripest cherries and then he does the de-pulping and fermentation of his coffee in his own micro-mill. After 16 hours he washes the parchment and sun dries it on “roof patios” (Casa Heldas in Spanish). Mr. Imbachi delivers his coffee to Virmax’s warehouse in Pitalito where the coffee is cupped and stored separately to maintain its traceability.

Virmax is the leading specialty coffee exporter in Colombia and work closely with their produces to lift quality. Being a smaller company and only buying small lots of coffee they are able to achieve a higher quality level and complete transparency and traceability of each coffee. Their team provide producers continuous feedback and education to help them improve quality and gain greater returns.

We are truly excited to introduce such an outstanding coffee to our menu, even if it only for a short period, as we have a very limited amount of the Carlos Imbachi available.

The Carlos Imbachi will be available to buy through our retails locations Customs, Douglas St, Woodward St, and Online from 20th March.

We are really excited to be involved with project called Creative Mornings, which is “a monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types. Each event is free of charge, and includes a 20 minute talk, plus coffee!”

Once a month our Auckland team will be serving coffee to the creative and forward thinking minds of the future. If this sounds like something you would be interested in attending you can find out more through their website or follow them on Twitter.