News

With staff knowledge and the new single origin coffees in mind, the tasting was to demonstrate some alternate brewing methods available in our retail stores and explore how different coffee can taste when extracted under different variables.

The two brew methods used were the HARIO V60 and Aeropress. The same Mexican Chiapas semi-washed Fair-trade Organic coffee was used.
It was very clear that the V60 with its paper filter brought forward the acidity in the cup, yet had little body. The Aeropress, which is a method involving steeping and extraction under pressure, dissolved a lot more fines into the cup, trading acidity for a lot more body.

Roast depth was also explored. I had roasted the same coffee to three different degrees – light, medium, dark, highlighting the characteristics of each and the most suitable brew method.

Nick- Head Barista at Ripe Moera.

Here are some photos from our first staff cupping night at Waione Street. Jason, Clinton, Paul and Nick took us through different blends, brewing methods and flavour profiles. It was a great learing experience and opened our eyes to the complexities of coffee. There’s more to a great brew than we thought! The highlight was a single origin Mexican dark roast through an aeropress. A beautiful hybrid between a filter and an espresso coffee.
Keep an eye out for 200g bags of the Mexican on sale at Moera, Waione St and Boulcott Street from next Monday.

In celebration of the NEW Zany Zeus store we have a delicious Grilled Halloumi on Flatbread with spinach, a poached egg and green harissa…so delicious!

Another treat from the autumn menu is our Irish Breakfast……free range poached eggs on soda farl, bacon, sausage, potato farl, tomato and mushroom.  All breads are lovingly handmade by our fabulous baker Alan.

See the full menu here.

Moera will be open from 8-3.30pm.

Go Bang will be open from 8-5pm

All other Ripe outlets will be closed.

A big thanks to St Theresa’s school for the great Thank you card they sent us.
We were proud to support their Salsa Carnival.  Looked like a lot of fun, check it out here.

www.st-theresas.school.nz
www.stuff.co.nz

So glad we could help out Scared Heart School in Petone with their Gala.  The school managed to raise over $13,000 which will go towards new computers for the school.

For the first time, the entire Zany Zeus cheese range will be available to purchase in store including– crème fraiche, mascarpone, cream cheese and sour cream.

Zany Zeus will be launching a new range of smoked cheese which includes smoked brinza, smoked ricotta, smoked paneer as well as smoked yoghurt.

The store, located at 149 Randwick Road in Moera, Lower Hutt, officially opened to the public on Saturday 31 March and will be open from 10-5pm, Wednesday to Sunday inclusive.

A BIG thank you to our wonderful staff for supplying their barista skills and to Mike at Zany Zeus for donating his organic milk to cover the Relay for Life event last weekend from 4pm Saturday until 9am Sunday. We raised $2800 and received a large dose of warm fuzzies in return!

Moera – open Saturday and Monday 8am – 3.30pm.

Closed Friday and Sunday.

Go Bang is open their normal weekend hours 8am – 5pm

From Maungaraki Kindergarten

We would like to thank you for your company’s generous donation of the coffee beans, cups and machinery required to make great coffees as part of our Wheel-a-thon fundraiser held on Saturday March 17th 2012 at the Maungaraki School gounds.
This fundraiser provides our Kindergarten with the pooprtunity to purchase necessary educational equipment to meet the needs of very busy children with active minds, so we thank you for helping with this.

Helene Doyle
Maungaraki Kindergarten Committee.

Here is our nice guy Paul holding his lovely locks that were shaved off last Thursday.
Always going the extra mile for a good cause, Paul decided to shave off his curls for Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand as part of their Shave for a cure event.
Check out his profile here….

With a great outdoor courtyard, a great menu…and Ripe coffee, OE is the place to be in Palmy!

They have great live music too.

Hours Mon – Sun: 7am – 4pm

Square Edge Community Arts centre, 47 The Square, Palmerston North

Check out their Facebook page here.

Run by the owners of Paradise Childcare, Funky Monkey is family friendly and cater for the little ones with lots of healthy and yummy choices.

Open Monday-Sunday from 7.30am till 4.30pm

Cnr Fergusson Drive & Wilson St Upper Hutt

Now open in the Homedale Village, serving up Ripe coffee.

Open Tuesday through Sunday until 4pm. Running a blackboard menu and they have delish breakfast and lunch menu too.

A great stop on the way to the Wainui coast.

Our nice guy Paul, from Waione St, is taking part in Shave for a cure run by Leukaemia and Blood Cancer NZ

In Paul’s own words…..

I’ve decided to do this crazy thing for an amazing cause.

I’ve joined the Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand (LBC) in their effort to get 10,000 people shaving in a mass expression of solidarity. That’s one shavee for each one of the estimated 10,000 New Zealanders living with a blood cancer or condition like leukaemia.

LBC is the national charity dedicated to supporting patients and their families living with blood cancers and related blood conditions, this support can last months or even years.

Shave for a Cure is LBC’s signature fundraising event. LBC receives no government funding.

Please sponsor me and help me support this great cause.

Check out Pauls profile here.

Many thanks for your support.

Event Date:Thursday 29/03/12

Event Location:Ripe Waione St, Petone

Thanks to all of you who grabed a coffee at the Petone Fair.  All of the profits from our coffee went to the St James Sea Scouts for their Easter Regatta in Christchurch.

We have given them our end of line take away cups too, for hot chocolates after sailing on the icy seas.

Lower Hutt Plunket would like to say thank you very much to Ripe Coffee for their help with our recent fundraising event.  We organised a What a Woman Wants show with Lisa O’Neill in August 2011, unfortunately this was at the time of the freaky snow storm and we had to send everyone home.  We then rescheduled the show for February 2012 and it was a wonderful success.  Ripe Coffee kindly helped us out at both of the shows so everyone was able toenjoy a great cup of coffee with their supper.

The concept of the Waione store is green to cup.  Connecting the customers with what we do in processing green coffee from roasting, cupping and blending through to what to brew, how to brew and getting the best out of your equipment and beans.

Waione Street is very coffee focused, the retail store stocks a range of products, from espresso machines to the simple, refined Hario V60.

The coffee industry has gone full circle with a revival in more simple brewing methods, taking coffee back to basics.  There is more demand for single origin beans and uncomplicated brewing equipment.  By choosing high quality single origin and specialty coffee these methods are producing clean, crisp flavours.   For some people this is a great new experience in coffee.

At Waione street we will be offering a selection of high quality origin and specialty coffee, brewed on site.  We will be brewing this coffee via Hario V60 drip filter for you to experience.  We also have Chemex, Syphon and Swiss Gold on request.  The experience is not only drinking the coffee, but the knowledge imparted from our barista about how easy it is to achieve a great result with these simple methods.

With a strong coffee focus, we dont anticipate Waione street stocking food, like all good things, time will tell, but so far the coffee is the at the forefront.  Come in and visit, have a chat and try some single origin brews and enjoy your regular Ripe coffee.

So far so good at Waione Street.  There has been a nice steady stream of customers coming in to see the new place, have a chat and grab a coffee.

We are open from 7am till 3.30pm, Monday – Friday.

New Brews

With any move, there is a little bit of a clear out, tidy up and room for new ideas.  At our new place in Waione St, Petone we are expanding our range of brewing equipment available for purchase.  There will be some great retro inspired pieces as well as the gorgeous Hario V60s and other non pressurised brewing equipment.

Once we are open, come in and take a look and have a chat, we are pretty excited to show off our new place and talk, for as long as you like, about coffee.

Welcome to a sneak peak of our new Waione St roastery and brew bar.

We are nearly there!  Our new Waione St Roastery and brew bar is coming along nicely.  In just a few more weeks we are hoping to be up and running.  Out the front will be a shiny new brew bar, to grab a coffee and brewing equipment.  Out the back will be our trusty Swadlo Roaster and pack and dispatch.

Stay tuned here for our progress and opening date.

We’re in the process of rolling out our exciting new logo, packaging, website and a whole heap in between! Our new cups will start rolling out in December and the new packaging early 2012. Keep an eye out!

We are moving! We’ve loved sharing the warehouse space with Valley Printing but now it’s time for us to move out on our own. We have found a great little space at 22 Waione Street for our Roasting HQ. There’s some good parking out front and room for a couple of tables outside too. Inside we are having a brew bar, and retailing beans, espresso machines and brewing equipment. Out the back is our Roastery, pack and dispatch and machine maintenance and repairs.

We have grand plans for Waione Street including cupping sessions and coffee training. We will keep you updated with what’s going on through this newsletter and on our website. We haven’t moved yet, but will let you know when we do. It’s going to be great. Jase is finishing the refurb on the Swadlo roaster, watch this space…

On Saturday 29th October, the Hutt Valley Multiple Birth Club held their annual fundraiser – a MONSTER garage and craft sale.  There were over 25 tables filled with bargains, crafts, clothing, toys, food.  A huge thank you to Ripe Coffee for supporting us, see photo of Helene our committee member pouring coffee to customers.  Monies raised will go toward supporting members, for example providing much needed electric breast pumps for mothers of newborn multiples.

The Hutt Valley Club supports families pregnant with, and with multiples. Presently, we have over 65 members throughout the Hutt Valley, Eastbourne and up to Te Marua. Support to members includes a playgroup each Friday that runs through the holidays, free equipment usage, family events, ante-natal classes aimed specifically at multiple births and management of multiple babies, as well as our newsletter to keep families up to date with news and events. The small but dedicated committee provide new parents with a meal post birth and help out with various roles to ensure the club runs smoothly.

We know your name and your coffee is ready before you’ve even ordered!!, Tall scones, Hash Browns, South Island cheese rolls, all food made in-house from fresh ingredients, long and strong coffee – 4 shots to get you going!

LIVE!! MUSICIANS FROM 10am SUNDAYS, see our web site for details www.abodecafe.co.nz

Do you sell any specialist products? GF, Vegetarian, gift vouchers, Gift baskets made to order, High Teas (booking essential), five varieties of Ripe coffee beans ground to order to take home, house-smoked salmon,

Lunch recommendation: Definitely the Hash Stack with bacon or salmon, or just the house-smoked salmon on its own!

Kid friendly? Definitely. We have purpose built play-house with DVD player.

Abode’s offer - Mention this profile and receive 10% discount on whole purchase (limited to one discount per bill)

E coffee card for your smart phone – buy 8 get one free.

Collect our superdockets at any Lower Hutt supermarket and get 25% off your total bill on Sundays (one docket per purchase)

You may have noticed we sell fair trade coffee, but our bags don’t have the ‘fairtrade’ label … is it really fairly traded?

While labels can be helpful there are other options emerging as people strive to make a difference to global trading.

The meaning of ‘fair trade’ varies from person to person, because the term has many interpretations. It all gets a bit confusing when ‘Fairtrade’ is a brand and fair trade is movement. ‘Fairtrade’ as a brand is trademarked and controlled by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO).

The FLO is an ethical business that has done and continues to do great things promoting awareness of fairly traded products. As with any brand it is limited to and controlled by how the FLO choose to define it.

In the world of ethical trade, there are lots of other models helping to improve the lives of farmers, their communities and the sustainability of the coffee industry.

Ripe choose to support Trade Aid’s Next Generation Coffee Fund (NGCF). The NGCF works as a revolving loan fund, this money is paid out to coffee co-operatives, which pass it on to their farmer members in the form of soft loans, as bridging finance expressly to be used for crop renovation work. As farmers plant new trees and increase their harvests, they can in time, begin to pay pack their loans to their co-operative which in turn makes financing available to other farmers seeking to replant sections of their farm.

Through supporting the NGCF we can clearly follow the money we give and see the impact it has on the coffee farmers and their communities. By saving money on a label, we have more to give to the NGCF. For us it’s a win win.

Next time you buy coffee, ask the barista if the beans they use are fairly traded. In such a diverse world, there is always more than just one solution. That’s the beauty of coffee, the diversity. From bean to cup, coffee goes through so many hands and at Ripe we want to support the hands that grow our coffee, to produce a great product, so that when it ends up in the hands of our customers, they can taste the difference and know they are making a difference too.

Isabella Chapman-Reynolds from Raphael House Class 6 at the fundraiser for their ski trip.

Ripe likes to support community projects, if you have a fundraiser coming up and would like Ripe coffee’s help, just email us and we will see what we can do. accounts@ripecoffee.co.nz

Ripe’s Fair and Ethical blend is now being used in all Ripe cafes.  We’ve been doing alot of work cupping samples and have put together something fantastic.

Clinton has been working through a fair few origins over the last weeks in a push to create a sustainably sourced blend that we will use at Ripe coffee.  It will also be an option for wholesale and retail customers.  The new coffee is a combination of fair trade and ethically sourced coffees from around the world.  We are using quite a few origins in this blend that we haven’t had the pleasure of using before.  The coffee will be available in retail form in the near future under the Fair and Ethical label.

‘Waste’ coffee grounds make great compost.  RIPE is offering up our coffee grounds to customers for their gardens.  Bring in a sealable container to any RIPE outlet and pick up some used coffee grinds for your compost, garden or worm farm.  Arrange the best time for pick up/drop off with your barrista.

Moera Community Garden uses our grounds to make their garden lush.

Sprinkle used grounds around plants before rain or watering for a slow release nitrogen.  Add to compost piles to increase nitrogen balance.  Dilute with water for a gentle, fast acting liquid fertlizer.  Encircle the base of a plant with a coffee and eggshell barrier to repel pests.

Text us your coffee order – through LIVE TXT and we will let you know when it will be ready.  Pop in and pick it up, no waiting around!

Just register on line at the LIVE TXT website here and you are good to go.

LiveTXT is a texting and online ordering system, which enables you to place an order with RIPE simply by using your mobile to send a TXT or selecting your order online. After your order has been placed, LiveTXT enables us to respond directly to your mobile with a confirmation TXT giving an approximate time your order will be ready.

The Next Generation Coffee Fund supports coffee farmers to create bigger harvests, better coffee and brighter futures. Ripe Coffee is proud to support this initiative which provides a long term solution for coffee farmers around the world who currently face threats to their financial viability through declining annual coffee harvests. The Fund uses grants from the New Zealand coffee community to support programmes run by fair trade co-operatives for replanting and regeneration of their coffee crops. In supporting this fund Ripe is maintaining our wonderful, high quality coffee for consumers, and enabling farmers to continue to support themselves through bigger and better harvests. The Next Generation Coffee Fund is administered by Trade Aid and more information is available at: www.tradeaid.co.nz