What’s your go-to coffee order and what do you think this reveals about your personality
I love a filter coffee and will usually spend my week drinking batchbrew at the roastery and making v60s on the weekend mornings. So when I am out and about, I like to see what other cafes or roasters have to offer, which means that I have a bit of variety in my order. Still love an espresso, flat white or even a decaf, but I will go for a filter if it’s on offer. I guess it depends on the day or where I am too. I'm not sure what this says about my personality, I’d like to think it means that I like routine with the occasional curve ball to keep it interesting.What role does coffee play in your life and why does it matter to you?
Coffee plays a fairly consistent role in my everyday life as it does for so many other people. Right now in my life, I’m enjoying the opportunity to explore places through local roasteries or cafes and as a result of that I’m finding smaller suburbs of places that I wouldn’t necessarily travel to. I think before I worked in coffee, I saw it as an everyday reset, a chance to just start fresh.
Which is your favourite Common roast and why?I really like what Common does in terms of making coffee accessible to everyone. Each coffee will highlight something that will fit in to everyone's personal taste so it’s very easy for me to turn around and say all of them. However, for me, I’m really enjoying sweet right now. Fantastic coffee from Costa Rica with a honey process that highlights a stone fruit sweetness with a bit of a sticky desert like aftertaste to compliment it. If you aren’t fussed about all that side of things though, it’s a fantastic start to your day coming into Autumn!
How does coffee fit into your idea of connection?Coffee can connect us in so many ways. I personally really like the idea that it connects us all the way back to the farm where the coffee cherries are grown, meaning that our morning coffees are sometimes months in the making. That unspoken connection that you have everyday with the people who grow our coffee, allow us to have our moments with the people around us which I think is really quite special.
Can you share a memorable moment when you connected with someone over a cup of coffee?Before I started to work in coffee, I was travelling around the South Island of New Zealand where I met the owner of a small roastery who had recently changed careers to go into coffee. His passion and love for coffee really resonated with me and made me decide to pursue a career in coffee. A bit surreal to see where it’s taken me in a few years but I do sometimes question what life would have been without that conversation.
