Posts by Christopher Dempsey
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to webweaver,
Bidding on orginial poster artwork from Midnight Espresso? Priceless!! Well done for winning that bid... I well remember the original artwork going up...
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Islander,
A swap would be grand Islander - my email address is pretty findable on the net.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Michael Stevens,
Ahhh, yes, Just Deserts...
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
I think Starbucks enables the construction of a hierarchy; proper coffee houses like Revel on K'rd, Peoples in Wellington etc, if these are unavailable where you are, then Starbucks, then Gloria Jeans and BBs, finally the small lunch places that you find serving expresso and the like.
Secondly I erred last night in not specifying what coffee I was talking about. There has been a range of coffee talked about in this thread; 1) brew at home coffee, 2) home made espresso 3) espresso coffee found at small independents like Revel, People's, Bambina in Ponsonby etc 4) Starbucks espresso coffee and by extension Glory Jeans etc, 5) espresso coffee found at lunchbars in provincial towns/localities 6) smaller chains like Robert Harris / BB's, espresso coffee 7) drip / brewed coffee found at Starbucks, lunchbars, Robert Harris etc.
I prefer brew at home coffee, and if unavailable then Starbucks drip coffee. If either are not available, then I get grumpy or alternatively go to the supermarket to get beans if I can.
Talk of the number of different places in Auckland in the mid to late 80s (DKD for example, and Java Jive in Three Lamps) would make for interesting cultural history, so I'm hoping someone is currently researching this era for publication!
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Kate Lang,
Hey thanks recordari & RoO - I was suffering awful font display just like a old fashioned typewriter on my home desktop (though not on my work computer - a Mac), so hitting that disabled button fixed it! Thankyou.
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I've enjoyed reading all these coffee related posts (and the one about honey - Islander - swap some of yours for our Parnell multiflora?).
I can date my coffee 'snobbery' to the opening of Midnight Espresso on Cuba. A long black and cake was a regular treat. Midnight Espresso was one expression of a coffee culture developing here; I used to get my long blacks in Rotorua at a tourist place. Figures.
Then I moved to Vancouver, and worked for the second ever 'international' Starbucks Store - Robson St, for 3 years. That was a very interesting experience, including smuggling knives and jeans back across the border when we were taken on the complusory Starbucks Roasting Plant tour (the Cdn $ was at parity then so stuff was cheap in the US and smuggling stuff back home was common). But SB Robson St was very busy. Very. Line ups out the door.McGuyver used to have a triple grande latte, and he would line up with the others.
I think SB in North America is a particular cultural experience suited to North America. It's a North American thing. You'll get a reasonable double tall latte in most SB's no matter where. Not brilliant or anything like that - but then again, SB's never claimed to have brilliant coffees. Reliable, and consistent yes. But it's a different product to stuff you find at small independent stores you'll find sprinkled across most major metropolitan centres and small liberal cities in North America, many of which sprung up post-SB's. Like Bulldog coffee near Church St in Toronto.
More importanly, they educated hundreds of thousands about making coffee at home. We were trained to teach our customers how to make the 'perfect' cup at home - plunger mostly. We sold beans that were single origin, and blends. We ground the beans for whatever machine the customer had. I got a pound a week free, which was great. I learnt about coffee from different places around the world e.g. Indonesia versus Kenya. I distinctly remember a delicious Mexican coffee that wonderfully poured from my plunger one winter morning. I learnt what quality beans were like.
Then I moved back here in 96, and goodness, good coffee was a little thin on the ground - apart from isolated iconic places like DKD. So when SB opened in Parnell, I worked for them for two years part-time, mostly because I couldn't find any beans anywhere that was worthy of being taken home and brewed up.
The funny thing is, when Starbucks opened in New Zealand, they didn’t serve flat whites. They’d do you a “low-foam latte”, but there was nothing officially called a flat white on its menu board.
They eventually added it, probably because it’s what every bloody New Zealander would have been asking for (apart from old people, who are stuck on cappuccinos).
This is true. It was called a short double latte. But so many asked for Flat Whites and Long Blacks (Americanos) that the NZ operation changed its board. Don't underestimate this; SB's was very resistant to changing anything, so for them to bend to local customs was significant.
I think SBs had a postive impact on the coffee scene - in the sense of spurring innovation and competition. While they welcomed it (a la North America - growing the pie means more profit) - I think in retrospect they underestimated our particular coffee culture.
I would also point out that subsequent to SB's opening up here, the quality of coffee beans available to be taken home and brewed up increased markedly. I suspect the influence of SBs in this in some way. Every morning I offer small thanks to them for broadening up the take-home bean market for me to make my morning brew...
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Last week I stumbled across the Surf Lifesaving NZ trailer which was parked up in Aotea Square- you go in one end and read about the very interesting surf lifesaving history. But at the other end was a tent, and a very good ummm, model which explained how rips worked, and what kinds there are, and how they are formed.
The aerial photo they used to display a number of rips in one spot was a West Coast beach - Piha I think. I could spot three different kinds of rips along the same beach.
Fortunately I've only ever been caught once, and that was after I learnt to go with the flow of the rip, then swim diagonally across it towards the shore. Wound up a couple of hundred metres up the beach, but safe.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Paul Williams,
Who still has their certificate with the wavy stylised 'dolphin' swimmer that you got each time you hit a milestone e.g. swim 50 meters non-stop?
I saw mine about ten years ago somewhere, now most likely recycled.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Ana Simkiss,
Ana - wearing my other elected rep hat - the old Auckland City Council pools are operated by private operators - the main one being a company called CLM (Centre Leisure Management). The YMCA also operates some pools as well - they ran the Tepid Baths until it closed for renovation.
While the companies ran the pools, admission prices were still controlled by Council. They were set according to the annual budget presented by the pool operator, but prices didn't always go up automatically year after year.
This system operates in the Auckland City Council area - other areas had their own systems of which I don't know anything about.
As to what system will be used across the region - well, that the job of officers to investigate. They will take some time to investigate, given the current workload, but look for something around the last half of the year. It's safe to say that they will most likely recommend the use of private operators, with admission prices controlled by Council.
Doffing said hat.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to recordari,
Wearing private hat: yes, a contentious turn of phrase, but I detect a whiff of this in the rhetoric of Granny’s editorial this morning.
It's all about allocation of resources. Orsman pointed this out in his article yesterday: some $9m went to mainly white suburbs in re-sanding their beaches - that's $9m of rates, Auckland City Council rates that is, and the last Auckland City Council spent how much on building a Glen Innes Youth centre? Doffing said hat.