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Following closely behind the wine craze is New Zealand's love of finely produced coffee, a movement that has inspired roasters across the country to compete with each other by selling the richest and freshest beans and providing energy-boosting caffeine to coffee drinkers everywhere. One of the most successful examples of this is Peoples Coffee, a fair trade company that will have you proud to be sipping fresh-brewed java when you take a medical job in New Zealand.
Since 2004, Peoples Coffee has connected with local coffee growers to help support the small farms in the surrounding region. In the beginning, the company owned just a small roastery and espresso bar in Newtown, Wellington, and enjoyed knowing each of their customers by name and their particular drink order. Now, they have multiple roasting houses and a much larger scope of cooperatives from which they buy their products, meaning that your choices of light, medium, bold and dark roasts are practically infinite.
Tadesse Meskela, the founder of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU), is also the name of Peoples' second espresso blend, as a way to honor the moral values that he has upheld within the union since 1999. Keeping the trade system face-to-face with the buyer, OCFCU and companies like Peoples Coffee have helped strengthen lasting relationships with coffee growers across Aotearoa.